QGIS 3: from Beginner to Advanced

Install QGIS on Windows by downloading the latest 64-bit standalone installer, accepting the license, and completing the installation; verify the app launches from the desktop or start menu.

install QGIS on macOS by downloading the latest release, accepting the license, and completing the installation while handling macOS security prompts.

Install QGIS on Ubuntu using the Ubuntu Software Center or the official QGIS download, following terminal commands and copy-paste steps. Compare latest, long-term, and development releases and verify the installation.

Customize your QGIS workspace by hiding toolbars and panels, and repositioning them. Configure language and formats in settings, and enable satellite mapping mode for the dark environment before restarting.

Explore the QGIS plug-in ecosystem, enabling core and experimental plugins, installing and disabling tools like the topology checker, and even creating your own plug-in if you have basic development knowledge.

Open and view data in QGIS by exploring vector and raster formats, managing layers, adjusting encoding, zooming and panning, and selecting features with polygon tools and bookmarks.

learn to work with coordinate reference systems in qgis 3, assign a projection to layers, and reproject to a common crs to align multiple layers.

Explore working with attributes in QGIS 3 by using the attributes table, selecting features, filtering by population and capital city status with an expression filter, and exporting a focused layer.

Learn to import CSV data into QGIS, prepare text files with proper encoding and delimiters, and perform coordinate reference system transformations, including selecting the right transformation and exporting to CSV.

Learn to style vector layers by editing symbology, colors, pattern fills, and multi-layer symbols; apply categorization and rule-based styling, then extrude polygons for 3d effects.

Create a custom vector symbol in Inkscape by drawing, cutting with cut path, and union the parts into a single object, then save as airplane svg and adjust colors.

Visualize raster temperature data by styling rasters with greyscale or color scales, compute 2010–2018 differences with the raster calculator, and threshold results to highlight increases over five degrees.

Master labeling of vector layers in QGIS 3, including points, lines, and polygons, with placement, scale-dependent visibility, and masking; tailor text formatting, color, and background.

Explore advanced labeling in QGIS 3, using data-defined coordinates and rotation with x, y fields, wrap for multiline text, and rule-based labeling for lakes over 300 square miles.

Configure a print layout in QGIS to place a map on paper, page size and orientation, adjust map extent, add grids, text, scale bar, legend, title, and export to PDF.

Visualize elevation rasters by applying hillshade shading with adjustable sun azimuth and z factor, select the elevation band, switch between gray and color styles, and enhance outputs with plugins.

Explore web services in QGIS 3 by connecting to WMS, WMTS, WCS, and WFS servers, adding layers, viewing raster and vector data, and using identify tools to inspect pixel values.

Georeference a raster by defining its location and CRS, add a Google Maps layer for reference, place ground control points, apply a transformation, and verify alignment.

Learn to build an atlas from a lakes map of Alaska by creating a print layout, adding map items and lake name labels, and exporting as pdf or image.

Learn to digitize geographic features into vector formats in QGIS 3, creating and editing a roads layer with snapping and topological editing to keep roads, buildings, and polygons accurate.

Learn to calculate area for polygons and length for lines in QGIS by switching to a metric projection, using the field calculator, and applying area, length, and basic statistics.

Learn to merge multiple rasters into one using the rest emerge tool, select all layers, set the output data type to treat values as colors, and disable automatic contrast.

Clip rasters using a vector layer for clipping, selecting input layer and extent, and setting output file. Enable an alpha band for transparency and iterate across features for batch clipping.

Learn to combine data from multiple layers in QGIS 3 by performing table joins using a common name field, adding fields, prefixes, and exporting the result.

Learn to perform a spatial join by location to copy country names into populated places, using within predicate and one-to-one join, then compute total population per country.

Learn to count points in a polygon by selecting polygon and point layers in QGIS, creating an in-memory field called 'airport count', and display results or labels per country.

Learn to perform a select by location (spatial query) with a 500-meter buffer around airports and identify airports whose buffers intersect railroads, using the QGIS processing toolbox.

Create a heat map from mass shooting location data in the USA using the processing toolbox, adjust radius and pixel size, and overlay on Google Maps with blending modes.

Use distance matrix in QGIS 3 to perform nearest neighbor analysis between populated places and volcanic eruptions, identifying the nearest eruption for each place and revealing volcano name via joins.

Learn to get raster values at points in QGIS 3, assigning elevation to each point via sample raster values or raster_value in the field calculator, then save the updated layer.

Learn to compute mean elevation per country by applying zonal statistics to a raster of elevation values, using country polygons as the zones in QGIS.

Learn how interpolation estimates pixel values from elevation points using inverse distance and triangulated irregular network, and decide which method is best for your data set.

Learn to dissolve features by a common attribute to merge countries on the same continent, selecting the continent field as the grouping attribute, resulting in merged polygons.

Learn to clip vector features in QGIS by clipping railroads to the country border using the countries layer and the selected features only option, producing clipped railroads.

Learn to batch clip multiple layers in QGIS by using the processing toolbox's execute as batch, specify input layers and overlay, and save prefixed outputs.

Learn to compute the number of vertices for each feature in a country layer using field calculator and a virtual field, then summarize totals with basic statistics in QGIS 3.

Learn to split lines at intersections in QGIS 3 using Grass tools, set a threshold for same position points, and produce cleaned layers with errors for export.

Learn to convert polygons to lines and clip a vector layer by drawing a circle on a scratch layer, with the digitizing tool, then run the clip.

Learn to select closed lines in QGIS using expressions by comparing start_point and end_point coordinates with x and y functions via the select features by expression tool.

learn to boost raster performance by building pyramids and downsampling, choosing compression (avoiding jpeg for measurement data), and exporting with external or embedded pyramids and virtual rasters.

Use the topology checker to identify and fix topological errors in vector layers—duplicates, gaps, invalid geometries, and overlaps—then correct borders, including Caspian Sea divisions along maritime boundaries.

Use the Python console in QGIS to create a custom script that accesses layers, iterates features, and sums areas, while learning variables, lists, string conversion, and not a number checks.