Color Relief Editor

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Overview

This application uses GDAL tools to create high-quality color relief maps from Digital Elevation Model (DEM) files. The app provides user-configurable settings for the colors and parameters, and directly executes GDAL utilities, providing a seamless experience for creating relief maps.

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Features

Color Editor

• Real-Time Editing: Modify settings and preview results instantly.
• Color Palette Selector: Choose colors for each elevation range with ease.
• Undo Support: Roll back unwanted changes.
• Insert rows: Insert rows with interpolation.
• Rescale: Rescale elevation values with one click.
• Import: Import standard GDAL color files.

Hillshade Editor

• Modify hillshade settings and see immediate previews.

Final Relief Image Generation

• Blending: Combines hillshade and color relief with composite multiply for smooth results.
• Optimized Processing:
  • Only rebuilds components when their configuration changes.
  • Supports multi-core processing for faster performance.
• External Tools: Links to external viewers like QGIS or GIMP for post-processing.
• Convenient Workflow: Copy the final image directly to a map folder.

Elevation File Management

• Drag-and-Drop: Easily upload elevation files via the Elevation Tab.
• Coordinate Reference System (CRS): Optionally set the CRS for your files.
• Sources: Save source URLs and license information for elevation files.

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Installation

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It is recommended you use a virtual environment for installation.

Install Dependencies

Launch Terminal

Mac / Anaconda

conda install yq gdal make

Mac / Homebrew

brew install yq gdal make

Debian / Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install yq gdal-bin

Install ColorReliefEditor

Launch Terminal

It is recommended that you set up a virtual Python environment for this (not needed for Anaconda):

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate

Install the app:

pip install ColorReliefEditor

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Usage

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1. Launch ColorReliefEditor

   • Start Terminal and type:

   ColorReliefEditor
   

2. In Project Tab - click New to create a new project

3. In Elevation Tab - download Digital Elevation files and drag and drop them here

4. In Hillshade and Color Tab - edit Hillshade and Color settings and click Preview to review

5. In Relief Tab - click Create to create a full size merge of hillshade and color relief

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License

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Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Note: This uses PyQT with its license terms

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Support

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To report an issue, please visit the issue tracker.