GIS FILE FORMATS

A 'GIS file format' is a standard of encoding geographical information into a file. They are created mainly by government mapping agencies (such as the USGS) or by GIS software developers.
Metadata often includes:

★ Elevation data, either in raster or vector form (e.g., contours)

★ Shape layers, usually expressed as line drawings, for streets, postal zone boundaries, etc.

★ Coordinate system descriptions.

★ One or more datums describing the precise shape of the Earth assumed by the coordinates.

Contents

Popular GIS file formats

Raster formats

Vector formats

Grid formats (for elevation)

Other formats

See also

Popular GIS file formats

Raster formats

★ 'ADRG' - National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA)'s ARC Digitized Raster Graphics

★ 'BIL' - Band Interleaved by Line (image format linked with satellite derived imagery)

★ 'CADRG' - National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA)'s Compressed ARC Digitised Raster Graphics (nominal compression of 55:1 over ADRG)

★ 'CIB' - National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA)'s Controlled Image Base (type of Raster Product Format)

★ 'Digital raster graphic' (DRG) - digital scan of a paper USGS topographic map

★ 'ECW' - Enhanced Compressed Wavelet (from ERMapper). A compressed wavelet format, often lossy.

★ 'ESRI grid' - binary and ASCII raster formats used by ESRI

★ 'GeoTIFF' - TIFF variant enriched with GIS relevant metadata

★ 'IMG' - ERDAS IMAGINE image file format

★ 'MrSID' - Multi-Resolution Seamless Image Database (by Lizardtech). A compressed wavelet format, often lossy.

Vector formats

★ 'Geography Markup Language' (GML) - XML based open standard (by OpenGIS) for GIS data exchange

★ 'DXF' - Contour elevation plots in AutoCAD DXF format

★ 'Shapefile' - ESRI's open, hybrid vector data format using SHP, SHX and DBF files

★ 'Simple Features' - Open Geospatial Consortium specification for vector data

★ 'MapInfo TAB format' - MapInfo's vector data format using TAB, DAT, ID and MAP files

★ 'National Transfer Format' (NTF) - National Transfer Format (mostly used by the UK Ordnance Survey)

★ 'TIGER' - Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing

★ 'Cartesian coordinate system' (XYZ) - Simple point cloud

★ 'Vector Product Format' - National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA)'s format of vectored data for large geographic databases.

★ 'GeoMedia' - Intergraph's Microsoft Access based format for spatial vector storage.

★ 'ISFC' - Intergraph's Microstation based CAD solution attaching vector elements to a relational Microsoft Access database

★ 'Personal Geodatabase' - ESRI's closed, integrated vector data storage strategy using Microsoft's Access MDB format

★ 'File Geodatabase' - ESRI's geodatabase format, stored as folders in a file system.

★ 'Coverage' - ESRI's closed, hybrid vector data storage strategy. Legacy ArcGIS Workstation / ArcInfo format with reduced support in ArcGIS Desktop lineup

Grid formats (for elevation)

★ 'USGS DEM' - The USGS' Digital Elevation Model

★ 'DTED' - National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA)'s Digital Terrain Elevation Data

★ 'GTOPO30' - Large complete Earth elevation model at 30 arc seconds

★ 'SDTS' - The USGS' successor to DEM

Other formats

★ 'Binary Terrain' - The Virtual Terrain Project's Binary Terrain format

★ 'Well-known text' (WKT) – ASCII spatial projection description (ESRI uses a
★ .prj extension)

★ 'Well-known binary' (WKB) - Binary spatial projection description

See also

★ Computer file

★ Datum

★ GDAL/OGR, a library for reading and writing many formats

★ Geographic Information System

★ Geography

★

★ Geoinformation

★ Raster graphics

★ Vector graphics