GDAL Raster Formats

Long Format Name Code Creation1 Copy2 Georeferencing Maximum file size3 Compiled by
default
Arc/Info ASCII Grid AAIGrid No Yes Yes 2GB Yes
ACE2 ACE2 No No Yes -- Yes
ADRG/ARC Digitilized Raster Graphics (.gen/.thf) ADRG Yes Yes Yes -- Yes
Arc/Info Binary Grid (.adf) AIG No No Yes -- Yes
AIRSAR Polarimetric AIRSAR No No No -- Yes
Azavea Raster Grid ARG No Yes Yes -- Yes
Magellan BLX Topo (.blx, .xlb) BLX No Yes Yes -- Yes
Bathymetry Attributed Grid (.bag) BAG Yes No Yes -- No, needs libhdf5
Microsoft Windows Device Independent Bitmap (.bmp) BMP Yes Yes Yes 4GiB Yes
BPG (Better Portable Graphics) BPG No No No --- No, needs libbpg (manual build required for now)
BSB Nautical Chart Format (.kap) BSB No No Yes -- Yes, can be disabled
VTP Binary Terrain Format (.bt) BT Yes Yes Yes -- Yes
Natural Resources Canada's Geoid BYN (.byn) BYN Yes Yes Yes -- Yes
AutoCAD DWG Raster layer CAD No No Yes -- Yes (internal libopencad provided)
CALS Type I CALS No Yes No -- Yes
CEOS (Spot for instance) CEOS No No No -- Yes
DRDC COASP SAR Processor Raster COASP No No No -- Yes
TerraSAR-X Complex SAR Data Product COSAR No No No -- Yes
Convair PolGASP data CPG No No Yes -- Yes
CTable2 Datum Grid Shift CTable2 Yes Yes Yes -- Yes
USGS LULC Composite Theme Grid CTG No No Yes -- Yes
DB2 DB2 Yes Yes Yes No limits No, needs ODBC (and any or all of PNG, JPEG, WEBP drivers)
DirectDraw Surface DDS No Yes No No, needs Crunch Lib
Derived DERIVED No No Yes -- Yes
Spot DIMAP (metadata.dim) DIMAP No No Yes -- Yes
ELAS DIPEx DIPEx No No Yes -- Yes
DODS / OPeNDAP DODS No No Yes -- No, needs libdap
First Generation USGS DOQ (.doq) DOQ1 No No Yes -- Yes
New Labelled USGS DOQ (.doq) DOQ2 No No Yes -- Yes
Military Elevation Data (.dt0, .dt1, .dt2) DTED No Yes Yes -- Yes
Arc/Info Export E00 GRID E00GRID No No Yes -- Yes
ECRG Table Of Contents (TOC.xml) ECRGTOC No No Yes -- Yes
ERDAS Compressed Wavelets (.ecw) ECW Yes Yes Yes No, needs ECW SDK
Google Earth Engine Data API Image EEDAI No No Yes -- No, needs libcurl
ESRI .hdr Labelled EHdr Yes Yes Yes No limits Yes
Erdas Imagine Raw EIR No No Yes -- Yes
NASA ELAS ELAS Yes Yes Yes -- Yes
ENVI .hdr Labelled Raster ENVI Yes Yes Yes No limits Yes
Epsilon - Wavelet compressed images EPSILON No Yes No -- No, needs EPSILON library
ERMapper (.ers) ERS Yes Yes Yes Yes
Envisat Image Product (.n1) ESAT No No No -- Yes
EOSAT FAST Format FAST No No Yes -- Yes
FIT FIT No Yes No -- Yes
FITS (.fits) FITS Yes Yes No -- No, needs libcfitsio
Fuji BAS Scanner Image FujiBAS No No No -- Yes
Generic Binary (.hdr Labelled) GENBIN No No No -- Yes
GeoPackage GPKG Yes Yes Yes No limits No, needs libsqlite3 (and any or all of PNG, JPEG, WEBP drivers)
Oracle Spatial GeoRaster GEORASTER Yes Yes Yes No limits No, needs Oracle client libraries
GSat File Format GFF No No No -- Yes
Graphics Interchange Format (.gif) GIF No Yes No 2GB Yes (internal GIF library provided)
WMO GRIB1/GRIB2 (.grb) GRIB No Yes Yes 2GB Yes, can be disabled
GMT Compatible netCDF GMT Yes Yes Yes 2GB No, needs libnetcdf
GRASS Raster Format GRASS No No Yes -- No, needs libgrass
GRASS ASCII Grid GRASSASCIIGrid No No Yes -- Yes
Golden Software ASCII Grid GSAG No Yes Yes -- Yes
Golden Software Binary Grid GSBG Yes Yes Yes 4GiB (32767x32767 of 4 bytes each + 56 byte header) Yes
Golden Software Surfer 7 Binary Grid GS7BG Yes Yes Yes 4GiB Yes
GSC Geogrid GSC No No No -- Yes
Generic Tagged Arrays (.gta) GTA No Yes Yes No, needs libgta
TIFF / BigTIFF / GeoTIFF (.tif) GTiff Yes Yes Yes 4GiB for classical TIFF / No limits for BigTIFF Yes (internal libtiff and libgeotiff provided)
NOAA .gtx vertical datum shift GTX Yes Yes Yes Yes
GXF - Grid eXchange File GXF No No Yes 4GiB Yes
Hierarchical Data Format Release 4 (HDF4) HDF4 Yes Yes Yes 2GiB No, needs libdf
Hierarchical Data Format Release 5 (HDF5) HDF5 No No Yes 2GiB No, needs libhdf5
HF2/HFZ heightfield raster HF2 No Yes Yes - Yes
Erdas Imagine (.img) HFA Yes Yes Yes No limits4 Yes
Image Display and Analysis (WinDisp) IDA Yes Yes Yes 2GB Yes
IGN-France height correction ASCII grids IGNFHeightASCIIGrid No No Yes -- Yes
ILWIS Raster Map (.mpr,.mpl) ILWIS Yes Yes Yes -- Yes
Intergraph Raster INGR Yes Yes Yes 2GiB Yes
IRIS IRIS No No Yes -- Yes
ISCE raster ISCE Yes Yes No -- Yes
USGS Astrogeology ISIS cube (Version 2) ISIS2 Yes Yes Yes -- Yes
USGS Astrogeology ISIS cube (Version 3) ISIS3 Yes Yes Yes -- Yes
JAXA PALSAR Product Reader (Level 1.1/1.5) JAXAPALSAR No No No -- Yes
Japanese DEM (.mem) JDEM No No Yes -- Yes
JPEG JFIF (.jpg) JPEG No Yes Yes 4GiB (max dimensions 65500x65500) Yes (internal libjpeg provided)
JPEG-LS JPEGLS No Yes No -- No, needs CharLS library
JPEG2000 (.jp2, .j2k) JPEG2000 No Yes Yes 2GiB No, needs libjasper
JPEG2000 (.jp2, .j2k) JP2ECW Yes Yes Yes 500MB No, needs ECW SDK
JPEG2000 (.jp2, .j2k) JP2KAK No Yes Yes No limits No, needs Kakadu library
JPEG2000 (.jp2, .j2k) JP2Lura No Yes Yes No, needs Lurawave library
JPEG2000 (.jp2, .j2k) JP2MrSID No Yes Yes No, needs MrSID SDK
JPEG2000 (.jp2, .j2k) JP2OpenJPEG No Yes Yes No, needs OpenJPEG library (v2)
JPIP (based on Kakadu) JPIPKAK No No Yes No, needs Kakadu library
KEA KEA Yes Yes Yes -- No, needs libkea and libhdf5 libraries
KMLSUPEROVERLAY KMLSUPEROVERLAY No Yes Yes Yes
KRO KRO Yes Yes No -- Yes
NOAA Polar Orbiter Level 1b Data Set (AVHRR) L1B No No Yes -- Yes
Erdas 7.x .LAN and .GIS LAN No No Yes 2GB Yes
FARSITE v.4 LCP Format LCP No Yes Yes No limits Yes
Daylon Leveller Heightfield Leveller Yes Yes Yes 2GB Yes
NADCON .los/.las Datum Grid Shift LOSLAS No No Yes Yes
MBTiles MBTiles Yes Yes Yes -- No (needs OGR SQLite driver)
OziExplorer .MAP MAP No No Yes -- Yes
In Memory Raster MEM Yes Yes Yes Yes
Vexcel MFF MFF Yes Yes Yes No limits Yes
Vexcel MFF2 MFF2 (HKV) Yes Yes Yes No limits Yes
MG4 Encoded Lidar MG4Lidar No No Yes -- No, needs LIDAR SDK
Meta Raster Format MRF Yes Yes Yes -- Yes
Multi-resolution Seamless Image Database MrSID No No Yes -- No, needs MrSID SDK
Meteosat Second Generation MSG No No Yes No, needs msg library
EUMETSAT Archive native (.nat) MSGN No No Yes Yes
NLAPS Data Format NDF No No Yes No limits Yes
NOAA NGS Geoid Height Grids NGSGEOID No No Yes Yes
NITF (.ntf, .nsf, .gn?, .hr?, .ja?, .jg?, .jn?, .lf?, .on?, .tl?, .tp?, etc.) NITF Yes Yes Yes 10GB Yes
NextGIS Web rasters NGW No No Yes -- No, needs libcurl
NetCDF netCDF Yes Yes Yes 2GB No, needs libnetcdf
NTv1 Datum Grid Shift NTv1 No No Yes Yes
NTv2 Datum Grid Shift NTv2 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Northwood/VerticalMapper Classified Grid Format .grc/.tab NWT_GRC No No Yes -- Yes
Northwood/VerticalMapper Numeric Grid Format .grd/.tab NWT_GRD No No Yes -- Yes
OZI OZF2/OZFX3 OZI No No Yes -- No
PCI .aux Labelled PAux Yes Yes No No limits Yes
PCI Geomatics Database File PCIDSK Yes Yes Yes No limits Yes
PCRaster PCRaster Yes Yes Yes Yes (internal libcsf provided)
Geospatial PDF PDF Yes Yes Yes -- Yes (but needs libpoppler, libpodofo or PDFium for read support)
NASA Planetary Data System PDS No No Yes -- Yes
NASA Planetary Data System (Version 4) PDS4 Yes Yes Yes -- Yes
Planet Labs Mosaics API PLMosaic No No Yes -- No, needs libcurl
Portable Network Graphics (.png) PNG Yes Yes No Yes (internal libpng provided)
PostGIS Raster (previously WKTRaster) PostGISRaster No No Yes -- No, needs PostgreSQL library
Netpbm (.ppm,.pgm) PNM Yes Yes No No limits Yes
PHOTOMOD raster file (.prf,.x-dem) PRF No No Yes No limits Yes
R Object Data Store R No Yes No -- Yes
Rasdaman RASDAMAN No No No No limits No (needs raslib)
Rasterlite - Rasters in SQLite DB Rasterlite No Yes Yes -- No (needs OGR SQLite driver)
Rasterlite2 - Rasters in SQLite DB SQLite No No Yes -- No (needs libsqlite3, librasterlite2, libspatialite)
DigitalGlobe Raster Data Access RDA No No Yes -- No, needs libcurl
Swedish Grid RIK (.rik) RIK No No Yes 4GB Yes (internal zlib is used if necessary)
Raster Matrix Format (*.rsw, .mtw) RMF Yes Yes Yes 4GB Yes
ROI_PAC Raster ROI_PAC Yes Yes Yes -- Yes
Raster Product Format/RPF (CADRG, CIB) RPFTOC No No Yes -- Yes
RadarSat2 XML (product.xml) RS2 No No Yes 4GB Yes
R Raster (.grd) RRASTER Yes Yes Yes - Yes
Idrisi Raster RST Yes Yes Yes No limits Yes
Sentinel 1 SAR SAFE (manifest.safe) SAFE No No Yes No limits Yes
Sentinel 2 SENTINEL2 No No Yes No limits Yes
SAGA GIS Binary format SAGA Yes Yes Yes -- Yes
SAR CEOS SAR_CEOS No No Yes -- Yes
ArcSDE Raster SDE No No Yes -- No, needs ESRI SDE
USGS SDTS DEM (*CATD.DDF) SDTS No No Yes -- Yes
SGI Image Format SGI Yes Yes Yes -- Yes
Scaled Integer Gridded DEM SIGDEM No Yes Yes -- Yes
Snow Data Assimilation System SNODAS No No Yes -- Yes
Standard Raster Product (ASRP/USRP) SRP No No Yes 2GB Yes
SRTM HGT Format SRTMHGT No Yes Yes -- Yes
Terragen Heightfield (.ter) TERRAGEN Yes Yes No -- Yes
EarthWatch/DigitalGlobe .TIL TIL No No No -- Yes
TerraSAR-X Product TSX No No No -- Yes
USGS ASCII DEM / CDED (.dem) USGSDEM No Yes Yes -- Yes
VICAR VICAR No No Yes -- Yes
GDAL Virtual (.vrt) VRT Yes Yes Yes -- Yes
OGC Web Coverage Service WCS No No Yes -- No, needs libcurl
WEBP WEBP No Yes No -- No, needs libwebp
OGC Web Map Service, and TMS, WorldWind, On Earth tiled, VirtualEarth, ArcGIS REST, IIP) WMS No No Yes -- No, needs libcurl
OGC Web Map Tile Service WMTS No No Yes -- No, needs libcurl
X11 Pixmap (.xpm) XPM No Yes No Yes
ASCII Gridded XYZ XYZ No Yes Yes -- Yes
ZMap Plus Grid ZMap No Yes Yes Yes

1Creation of a new dataset from scratch

2Copy from an existing source dataset

3Maximum file size is not only determined by the file format itself, but operating system/file system capabilities as well. Look here for details.

4ERDAS Imagine has different file format for large files, where 32-bit pointers cannot be used. Look for details here.

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