# GDAL Raster Formats

Long Format Name | Code | Creation | Georeferencing | Maximum file size1 | Compiled by default
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Arc/Info ASCII Grid | AAIGrid | Yes | Yes | 2GB | Yes
ACE2 | ACE2 | No | Yes | -- | Yes
ADRG/ARC Digitilized Raster Graphics (.gen/.thf) | ADRG | Yes | Yes | -- | Yes
Arc/Info Binary Grid (.adf) | AIG | No | Yes | -- | Yes
AIRSAR Polarimetric | AIRSAR | No | No | -- | Yes
Magellan BLX Topo (.blx, .xlb) | BLX | Yes | Yes | -- | Yes
Bathymetry Attributed Grid (.bag) | BAG | No | Yes | 2GiB | No, needs libhdf5
Microsoft Windows Device Independent Bitmap (.bmp) | BMP | Yes | Yes | 4GiB | Yes
BSB Nautical Chart Format (.kap) | BSB | No | Yes | -- | Yes, can be disabled
VTP Binary Terrain Format (.bt) | BT | Yes | Yes | -- | Yes
CEOS (Spot for instance) | CEOS | No | No | -- | Yes
DRDC COASP SAR Processor Raster | COASP | No | No | -- | Yes
TerraSAR-X Complex SAR Data Product | COSAR | No | No | -- | Yes
Convair PolGASP data | CPG | No | Yes | -- | Yes
USGS LULC Composite Theme Grid | CTG | No | Yes | -- | Yes
Spot DIMAP (metadata.dim) | DIMAP | No | Yes | -- | Yes
ELAS DIPEx | DIPEx | No | Yes | -- | Yes
DODS / OPeNDAP | DODS | No | Yes | -- | No, needs libdap
First Generation USGS DOQ (.doq) | DOQ1 | No | Yes | -- | Yes
New Labelled USGS DOQ (.doq) | DOQ2 | No | Yes | -- | Yes
Military Elevation Data (.dt0, .dt1, .dt2) | DTED | Yes | Yes | -- | Yes
Arc/Info Export E00 GRID | E00GRID | No | Yes | -- | Yes
ECRG Table Of Contents (TOC.xml) | ECRGTOC | No | Yes | -- | Yes
ERDAS Compressed Wavelets (.ecw) | ECW | Yes | Yes |  | No, needs ECW SDK
ESRI .hdr Labelled | EHdr | Yes | Yes | No limits | Yes
Erdas Imagine Raw | EIR | No | Yes | -- | Yes
NASA ELAS | ELAS | Yes | Yes | -- | Yes
ENVI .hdr Labelled Raster | ENVI | Yes | Yes | No limits | Yes
Epsilon - Wavelet compressed images | EPSILON | Yes | No | -- | No, needs EPSILON library
ERMapper (.ers) | ERS | Yes | Yes |  | Yes
Envisat Image Product (.n1) | ESAT | No | No | -- | Yes
EOSAT FAST Format | FAST | No | Yes | -- | Yes
FIT | FIT | Yes | No | -- | Yes
FITS (.fits) | FITS | Yes | No | -- | No, needs libcfitsio
Fuji BAS Scanner Image | FujiBAS | No | No | -- | Yes
Generic Binary (.hdr Labelled) | GENBIN | No | No | -- | Yes
Oracle Spatial GeoRaster | GEORASTER | Yes | Yes | -- | No, needs Oracle client libraries
GSat File Format | GFF | No | No | -- | Yes
Graphics Interchange Format (.gif) | GIF | Yes | No | 2GB | Yes (internal GIF library provided)
WMO GRIB1/GRIB2 (.grb) | GRIB | No | Yes | 2GB | Yes, can be disabled
GMT Compatible netCDF | GMT | Yes | Yes | 2GB | No, needs libnetcdf
GRASS Rasters | GRASS | No | Yes | -- | No, needs libgrass
GRASS ASCII Grid | GRASSASCIIGrid | No | Yes | -- | Yes
Golden Software ASCII Grid | GSAG | Yes | No | -- | Yes
Golden Software Binary Grid | GSBG | Yes | No | 4GiB (32767x32767 of 4 bytes each + 56 byte header) | Yes
Golden Software Surfer 7 Binary Grid | GS7BG | No | No | 4GiB | Yes
GSC Geogrid | GSC | Yes | No | -- | Yes
Generic Tagged Arrays (.gta) | GTA | Yes | Yes |  | No, needs libgta
TIFF / BigTIFF / GeoTIFF (.tif) | GTiff | 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
GXF - Grid eXchange File | GXF | No | Yes | 4GiB | Yes
Hierarchical Data Format Release 4 (HDF4) | HDF4 | Yes | Yes | 2GiB | No, needs libdf
Hierarchical Data Format Release 5 (HDF5) | HDF5 | No | Yes | 2GiB | No, needs libhdf5
HF2/HFZ heightfield raster | HF2 | Yes | Yes | - | Yes
Erdas Imagine (.img) | HFA | Yes | Yes | No limits2 | Yes
Image Display and Analysis (WinDisp) | IDA | Yes | Yes | 2GB | Yes
ILWIS Raster Map (.mpr,.mpl) | ILWIS | Yes | Yes | -- | Yes
Intergraph Raster | INGR | Yes | Yes | 2GiB | Yes
USGS Astrogeology ISIS cube (Version 2) | ISIS2 | Yes | Yes | -- | Yes
USGS Astrogeology ISIS cube (Version 3) | ISIS3 | No | Yes | -- | Yes
JAXA PALSAR Product Reader (Level 1.1/1.5) | JAXAPALSAR | No | No | -- | Yes
Japanese DEM (.mem) | JDEM | No | Yes | -- | Yes
JPEG JFIF (.jpg) | JPEG | Yes | Yes | 4GiB (max dimentions 65500x65500) | Yes (internal libjpeg provided)
JPEG-LS | JPEGLS | Yes | No | -- | No, needs CharLS library
JPEG2000 (.jp2, .j2k) | JPEG2000 | Yes | Yes | 2GiB | No, needs libjasper
JPEG2000 (.jp2, .j2k) | JP2ECW | Yes | Yes | 500MB | No, needs ECW SDK
JPEG2000 (.jp2, .j2k) | JP2KAK | Yes | Yes | No limits | No, needs Kakadu library
JPEG2000 (.jp2, .j2k) | JP2MrSID | Yes | Yes |  | No, needs MrSID SDK
JPEG2000 (.jp2, .j2k) | JP2OpenJPEG | Yes | Yes |  | No, needs OpenJPEG library (v2)
JPIP (based on Kakadu) | JPIPKAK | No | Yes |  | No, needs Kakadu library
KMLSUPEROVERLAY | KMLSUPEROVERLAY | Yes | Yes |  | Yes
NOAA Polar Orbiter Level 1b Data Set (AVHRR) | L1B | No | Yes | -- | Yes
Erdas 7.x .LAN and .GIS | LAN | No | Yes | 2GB | Yes
FARSITE v.4 LCP Format | LCP | No | Yes | No limits | Yes
Daylon Leveller Heightfield | Leveller | No | Yes | 2GB | Yes
NADCON .los/.las Datum Grid Shift | LOSLAS | No | Yes |  | Yes
In Memory Raster | MEM | Yes | Yes |  | Yes
Vexcel MFF | MFF | Yes | Yes | No limits | Yes
Vexcel MFF2 | MFF2 (HKV) | Yes | Yes | No limits | Yes
MG4 Encoded Lidar | MG4Lidar | No | Yes | -- | No, needs LIDAR SDK
Multi-resolution Seamless Image Database | MrSID | No | Yes | -- | No, needs MrSID SDK
Meteosat Second Generation | MSG | No | Yes |  | No, needs msg library
EUMETSAT Archive native (.nat) | MSGN | No | Yes |  | Yes
NLAPS Data Format | NDF | No | Yes | No limits | Yes
NOAA NGS Geoid Height Grids | NGSGEOID | No | Yes |  | Yes
NITF (.ntf, .nsf, .gn?, .hr?, .ja?, .jg?, .jn?, .lf?, .on?, .tl?, .tp?, etc.) | NITF | Yes | Yes | 10GB | Yes
NetCDF | netCDF | Yes | Yes | 2GB | No, needs libnetcdf
NTv2 Datum Grid Shift | NTv2 | Yes | Yes |  | Yes
Northwood/VerticalMapper Classified Grid Format .grc/.tab | NWT_GRC | No | Yes | -- | Yes
Northwood/VerticalMapper Numeric Grid Format .grd/.tab | NWT_GRD | No | Yes | -- | Yes
OGDI Bridge | OGDI | No | Yes | -- | No, needs OGDI library
OZI OZF2/OZFX3 | OZI | No | Yes | -- | No
PCI .aux Labelled | PAux | Yes | No | No limits | Yes
PCI Geomatics Database File | PCIDSK | Yes | Yes | No limits | Yes
PCRaster | PCRaster | Yes | Yes |  | Yes (internal libcsf provided)
Geospatial PDF | PDF | No | Yes | -- | No, needs libpoppler or libpodofo
NASA Planetary Data System | PDS | No | Yes | -- | Yes
Portable Network Graphics (.png) | PNG | Yes | No |  | Yes (internal libpng provided)
PostGIS Raster (previously WKTRaster) | PostGISRaster | No | Yes | -- | No, needs PostgreSQL library
Netpbm (.ppm,.pgm) | PNM | Yes | No | No limits | Yes
R Object Data Store | R | Yes | No | -- | Yes
Rasdaman | RASDAMAN | No | No | No limits | No (needs raslib)
Rasterlite - Rasters in SQLite DB | Rasterlite | Yes | Yes | -- | No (needs OGR SQLite driver)
Swedish Grid RIK (.rik) | RIK | No | Yes | 4GB | Yes (internal zlib is used if necessary)
Raster Matrix Format (*.rsw, .mtw) | RMF | Yes | Yes | 4GB | Yes
Raster Product Format/RPF (CADRG, CIB) | RPFTOC | No | Yes | -- | Yes
RadarSat2 XML (product.xml) | RS2 | No | Yes | 4GB | Yes
Idrisi Raster | RST | Yes | Yes | No limits | Yes
SAGA GIS Binary format | SAGA | Yes | Yes | -- | Yes
SAR CEOS | SAR_CEOS | No | Yes | -- | Yes
ArcSDE Raster | SDE | No | Yes | -- | No, needs ESRI SDE
USGS SDTS DEM (*CATD.DDF) | SDTS | No | Yes | -- | Yes
SGI Image Format | SGI | Yes | Yes | -- | Yes
Snow Data Assimilation System | SNODAS | No | Yes | -- | Yes
Standard Raster Product (ASRP/USRP) | SRP | No | Yes | 2GB | Yes
SRTM HGT Format | SRTMHGT | Yes | Yes | -- | Yes
Terragen Heightfield (.ter) | TERRAGEN | Yes | No | -- | Yes
EarthWatch/DigitalGlobe .TIL | TIL | No | No | -- | Yes
TerraSAR-X Product | TSX | Yes | No | -- | Yes
USGS ASCII DEM / CDED (.dem) | USGSDEM | Yes | Yes | -- | Yes
GDAL Virtual (.vrt) | VRT | Yes | Yes | -- | Yes
OGC Web Coverage Service | WCS | No | Yes | -- | No, needs libcurl
WEBP | WEBP | Yes | No | -- | No, needs libwebp
OGC Web Map Service | WMS | No | Yes | -- | No, needs libcurl
X11 Pixmap (.xpm) | XPM | Yes | No |  | Yes
ASCII Gridded XYZ | XYZ | Yes | Yes | -- | Yes
ZMap Plus Grid | ZMap | Yes | Yes |  | Yes

1Maximum file size is not only determined by the file format itself, but operating system/file system capabilities as well. Look here for details.

2ERDAS Imagine has different file format for large files, where 32-bit pointers cannot be used. Look for details here.

$Id: formats_list.html 23473 2011-12-05 22:17:02Z rouault $