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I am a Quantum GIS beginner. I have a set of adjacent polygons in a vector layer that is overlaid on a raster layer of OS StreetView OpenData. I want to be able to select each of these polygons and separately export it as an image file (JPEG, PNG, whatever).

In the final image, I do not want any fill colour inside the polygon, but I would like the area immediately surrounding the polygon to appear filled (perhaps with diagonal lines), to clearly mark the boundary.

What is the easiest way I can achieve this with QGIS?

Thanks.

UPDATE: The mapbook plugins highlighted by Darren Cope provide a neat way for me to export the polygons in bulk, which is one major part of the solution. However, the other part of the problem still remains. I need to find a way to shade/fill the area outside each polygon.

I am wondering whether it would be possible to programatically create a polygon layer mask on-the-fly for each polygon, using something like Vector -> Difference.

Any guidance appreciated.

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If I understand your question properly, what you want to do is create a mapbook. There are two plugins for this: Atlas and EasyPrint

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Thanks, these look useful. EasyPrint doesn't look customisable enough for my purposes, but will play around with Atlas. I need to be able to shade/fill areas not inside the polygon though, do you happen to know whether that's possible? P.S. Saw your site earlier and used it for help with another QGIS task - thanks for the info. – Spinner Feb 7 '12 at 18:22
Thanks Spinner. I believe the "Shaded Cells" option in EasyPrint will let you do what you want. However, I don't have time to test it at the moment. I disagree that Atlas is more customisable than EasyPrint. In fact, I think it's the opposite! EasyPrint is a bit harder to customize though ;) – Darren Cope Feb 7 '12 at 20:37
Shaded cells is something akin to what I want, but not quite - as far as I can see, it's only available in "Mapbook by grid" mode, but I need it to work in "Mapbook by feature". I also need it to output image files rather than PDFs, which is where Atlas trumps EasyPrint. Shame, it's the right idea, but not quite what I need. Will keep looking. Thanks. – Spinner Feb 7 '12 at 22:27
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If you could get it to work, you can always convert from PDF to any other image easily using something like ImageMagick (imagemagick.org/script/index.php) – Darren Cope Feb 8 '12 at 1:25

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