In the final tutorial on exporting maps, we saw that your map could be exported into many formats: pictures, .PDF, and finally .SVG. The latter will offer you full flexibility in order to make your map prettier.
GIS applications like QGIS are not always well suited for making pretty maps. This can be done through post-processing in a different software.
To do so you need to export your map as an .SVG file. In an .SVG file, all the layers are separated and can be edited one-by-one in a software that allows to edit SVGs. You will be able to make greater visual edits in Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape (the open-source equivalent). This may include the following possibilities:
- Adding a nicer-looking title
- Add labels manually rather than automatically displaying all the ones belonging to a layer (only choosing to put the name of the largest cities)
- Manually editing your legend/key
- Adding all sorts of scale bars, compasses…
- You can read this webpage to find out what good maps should feature.
Please note that SVG files are not georeferenced.