Adding a scale bar to a map

A scale bar is one of the most important elements of a map composition, as it defines the scale of the map to determine the ground distance on the map. The QGIS composer allows you to create several different types of scale bars from a simple text scale ratio to a graphical, double bar scale bar with two measurement systems. In this recipe, we'll create a scale bar that increments in kilometers.

Getting ready

You will need to download the following zipped shapefile and extract it to your qgis_data directory in a subdirectory named ms:

https://github.com/GeospatialPython/Learn/raw/master/mississippi.zip

https://github.com/GeospatialPython/Learn/raw/master/Mississippi.zip

In addition to the shapefile, you will also need ...

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