Make A Custom Symbol for QGIS

09 Aug 2015

This is a document describing what I had to learn to create a custom point symbol to use in QGIS. This process involved some workarounds that appear to be unique to Apple OSX 10.10.

In order to accomplish this task I needed to:

Footnotes

  1. StackExchange is often the first step in me learning how to do something. 

  2. The most current OSX installer is available from Kyng Chaos. Be sure to install the packages listed under Requirements. 

  3. Download Inkscape for OSX

  4. See the InkScape forum for a discussion of the problem. I was not able to get the solutions discussed to work. I found that I could launch the executable that is hidden inside the .app bundle. If Inkscape is installed in the Applications directory, the application can be launched at the command line by typing “/Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/MacOS/Inkscape”. To simplify things for myself I added that command as an item on the X11 Applications menu. So I can start InkScape by launching the X11 app installed from XQuartz, opening the Applications menu, and choosing the InkScape item I added. 

  5. Found the basic instructions and some more details for Inkscape generated SVG files. jgrocha provided the clearest answer and the one that put it all together.