Software

GIS

QGIS (opens new window)
QGIS is a free and open-source geographic information system (GIS) collaborated be enthusiastic volunteers to create, visualize, analyse and publish geospatial data on desktop basis.

Esri (opens new window)
Esri provides the well-known GIS software ArcGIS (Pro) for the visualization, analyzaiton and maintenance of geo-data.

Hexagon (opens new window)
Hexagon provides various solutions for many tasks ranging from GIS to geo-systems.

GRASS (opens new window)
GRASS is an open-source and free GIS software for managing, analysing and processing geospatial data and imagery, including tools to visualization and spatial modeling.

WhiteboxTools (opens new window)
Developed by the University of Guelph's Geomorphometry and Hydrogeomatics Research Group (GHRG), this platform provides more than 420 tools for advanced geospatial analysis.

Map Making

Avenza (opens new window)
Avenza developes extensions for Adobe Illustrator (MAPublisher) and Photoshop (Geographic Imager) incorporating GIS functionalities with the vector and raster manipulation program.

GIS "Panorama" (opens new window)
The Russian software development company KB Panorama offers aong others GIS applications for creating digital maps, analysing and processing geospatial data and database management.

Khartis (opens new window)
A tool to simply create chloropleth maps in only 3 steps - country shapes included!

Terrain & DEM

Terrain Cartography (opens new window) offers a resourceful software selection related to terrain visualisations.

• Terrain Bender (opens new window)
• Terrain Sculptor (opens new window)
• Terrain Equalizer (opens new window)
• Scree Painter (opens new window)
• Pyramid Shader (opens new window)

DEM to 3D (QGIS Plugin) (opens new window) is a plugin to convert DEM data to a 3D printable STL file.

Design related Tasks

Adobe Creative Suite (opens new window)
Primarily being Adobe Illustrator (AI) and Adobe Photoshop (PS), Adobe InDesign can be useful for layouting such as poster. AI is the go to regarding vector data and usually used to design maps. Avenza's MAPublisher mentioned above is developed for this software. PS is rather used for raster data.

Inkscape (opens new window)
Inkscape is the open source equivalent of Adobe Illustrator and allows to work with vectors.

GIMP (opens new window)
GIMP on the other hand is the open source equivalent of Adobe Photoshop. Raster images can be manipulated with this software.

Other

• Flex Projector (opens new window) is a freeware, cross-platform application for creating custom world map projections.