User guide

Page 33

visualise | communicate | ENGAGE The InstantAtlas Desktop Publisher

g the InstantAtlas Area Profile Template User Guide

include a .prj file, the Publisher can pick up the coordinate system

information out of this file. If your shapefile does not have a .prj file

or if you are working with MapInfo MID/MIF or TAB files, you will

need to select the appropriate coordinate system from the Layer

Properties in the ‘Coord System’ tab. Alternatively you can re-

project these map layers before using them in InstantAtlas.

2. The re-projection will only work if your map file(s) are in one of the

following supported coordinate systems:

a. Un-projected coordinate systems (e.g. latitude/longitude)

b. Coordinate systems that use a Transverse Mercator projection

(e.g. British National Grid, UTM zones)

c. Global coordinate systems using a Mercator projection.

d. Lambert Conformal Conic projection

If your map layers are already in the same projection as the WMS you

should untick this property.

The image format drop-down returns a list of all available image formats

supported by the Web Map Server you are connecting too. Please note

that while a large variety of formats may be supported by the WMS server,

InstantAtlas will currently only support JPEG (.jpg), PNG (.png) and GIF

(.gif) formats, so it is important that one of these formats is chosen.

It is also possible to specify the background colour of the image you

request. Imagine choosing a layer that specifies land cover. Rather than

leaving the background (areas of no data) white by default, you may wish

to request this in blue to represent areas of water. Select the colour you

wish to use by clicking the Choose button and selecting a colour from the

available palettes (Figure 47). Once you have selected a colour, click ‘OK’

to return to the previous dialog screen.

Figure 47

Finally, there is a checkbox option to request the image with a transparent

background. This option is dependent upon the WMS server supporting

the provision of transparent background images. If not, this request will be

ignored by the server. If transparency is supported, take care to also

select an image format that supports transparency from the image format

drop down list. Formats that support transparency are .png and .gif.

Figure 48 shows a typical request. The transparent background check box

is ticked, and we have chosen an appropriate image format that will handle

this transparency if the server supports it. If transparency isn’t supported,

the image will revert to having a blue background colour.