QGIS 2.2 and its new features

The last update of our beloved QGIS 2.0.1. version Dufour was a giant leap for a grown GIS and the next step forward is in sight. Thanks to Mrs. QGIS herself (a.k.a. Anita Graser a.k.a. underdarkGIS) I came across an overview of the changelog for QGIS 2.2 on Linfiniti.com.

multithreading

We probably all have a multicore CPU available at our notebooks and workstations. So why not use them and let them do serious GIS business instead of running idle and having a cup of tea? QGIS with multithread support was apparently available on some special professional versions of QGIS but didn’t made it to the common version till now! What does it mean for your daily work: lot’s of time to do other good things like this video from LUTRA consulting shows you:

map composer

The new map composer was probably one of the most mentioned features of the current release. In 2.2 it gets even more functionality.
The new gradient fill will allow you to visualize polygons with a gradient fill. See Nyall Dawson show some great examples on his blog.
Additionally you will be able to easily flip the color ramp for features in QGIS 2.2. This seems like a basic thing but it wasn’t available till this upcoming versions. This will enhance cartographic output generation like the new cool world file export. The world file export enables you to easily export your map with a worldfile so it can be imported in any project as a georeferenced raster.

what else

• DXF support- export your data to be consumed by AutoCAD
• feature highlighting in map composer

So we can be curious whether the developers will stay within their schedule on the release date end of February and see maybe some more details on the FOSSGIS conference in Berlin in March.