The Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL) is a computer software

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

for reading and writing

raster Raster may refer to: * Raster graphics, graphical techniques using arrays of pixel values * Raster graphics editor, a computer program * Raster scan, the pattern of image readout, transmission, storage, and reconstruction in television and compu ...

and

vector Vector most often refers to: *Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction *Vector (epidemiology), an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism Vector may also refer to: Mathematic ...

geospatial data formats (e.g.

shapefile The shapefile format is a geospatial vector data format for geographic information system (GIS) software. It is developed and regulated by Esri as a mostly open specification for data interoperability among Esri and other GIS software product ...

), and is released under the

permissive {{about, , the 1970 British film, Permissive (film), the grammatical mode, Permissive mood, the flavor of software license, permissive free software licence A permissive cell or host is one that allows a virus to circumvent its defenses and replica ...

X/MIT style free software license by the

Open Source Geospatial Foundation The Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo), is a non-profit non-governmental organization whose mission is to support and promote the collaborative development of open geospatial technologies and data. The foundation was formed in February 200 ...

. As a library, it presents a single abstract

data model A data model is an abstract model that organizes elements of data and standardizes how they relate to one another and to the properties of real-world entities. For instance, a data model may specify that the data element representing a car be co ...

to the calling application for all supported formats. It may also be built with a variety of useful

command line interface A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive commands from a user in the form of lines of text. This provides a means of setting parameters for the environment, invoking executables and pro ...

utilities A public utility company (usually just utility) is an organization that maintains the infrastructure for a public service (often also providing a service using that infrastructure). Public utilities are subject to forms of public control and r ...

for data translation and processing. Projections and transformations are supported by the

PROJ PROJ (formerly PROJ.4) is a library for performing conversions between cartographic projections. The library is based on the work of Gerald Evenden at the United States Geological Survey (USGS), but since 2019-11-26 is an Open Source Geospatial Fo ...

library. The related ''OGR'' library (OGR Simple Features Library), which is part of the GDAL

source tree In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the wo ...

, provides a similar ability for simple features

vector graphics Vector graphics is a form of computer graphics in which visual images are created directly from geometric shapes defined on a Cartesian plane, such as points, lines, curves and polygons. The associated mechanisms may include vector display a ...

data. GDAL was developed mainly by Frank Warmerdam until the release of version 1.3.2, when maintenance was officially transferred to the GDAL/OGR Project Management Committee under the

. GDAL/OGR is considered a major

free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...

project for its "extensive capabilities of data exchange" and also in the commercial GIS community due to its widespread use and comprehensive set of functionalities.

Software using GDAL/OGR

Several software programs use the GDAL/OGR libraries to allow them to read and write multiple GIS formats. Such programs include: *

ArcGIS ArcGIS is a family of client, server and online geographic information system (GIS) software developed and maintained by Esri. ArcGIS was first released in 1999 and originally was released as ARC/INFO, a command line based GIS system for manipula ...

– Uses GDAL for custom raster formats *Avenza MAPublisher - GIS and mapping tools for

Adobe Illustrator Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor and design program developed and marketed by Adobe Inc. Originally designed for the Apple Macintosh, development of Adobe Illustrator began in 1985. Along with Creative Cloud (Adobe's shift to month ...

. Uses GDAL for

coordinate system In geometry, a coordinate system is a system that uses one or more numbers, or coordinates, to uniquely determine the position of the points or other geometric elements on a manifold such as Euclidean space. The order of the coordinates is sig ...

transformation, format reading & writing, geometry operations, & unit conversion. *Avenza Geographic Imager - Spatial imaging tools for

Adobe Photoshop Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Inc. for Microsoft Windows, Windows and macOS. It was originally created in 1988 by Thomas Knoll, Thomas and John Knoll. Since then, the software has become the indu ...

. Uses GDAL for coordinate system transformation, format reading & writing, & unit conversion. *Avenza Maps -

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

& Android mobile mapping application. Uses GDAL to read metadata information for geospatial maps / data to transform them to

WGS84 The World Geodetic System (WGS) is a standard used in cartography, geodesy, and satellite navigation including GPS. The current version, WGS 84, defines an Earth-centered, Earth-fixed coordinate system and a geodetic datum, and also descr ...

for offline navigation. * Biosphere3D – Open source landscape scenery globe *

Biotop Invent ''Biotop'' is the second album by German electronic musician Asmus Tietchens, released in 1981 on Sky Records. Tietchens recorded the album at Audiplex Studios with producer and mentor Okko Bekker, who is credited as Rokko Ekbek. Departing from t ...

Cadwork cadwork is a software suite that includes IFC-based virtual design and construction software tools developed by cadwork informatik AG. This suite of tools provides a solution for 3D wood manufacturing (Computer-aided manufacturing, CAM) and a solu ...

* ENVI – Remote Sensing software *ERDAS APOLLO - Image Server and remote sensing geo-services *ERDAS GeoCompressor - Image compression to ECW and JP2 formats * Geoconcept integrated GDAL in its 7.1 release * FWTools – A cross-platform open source GIS software bundle compiled by Frank Warmerdam * gdaltokmz – A

Python Python may refer to: Snakes * Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia ** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia * Python (mythology), a mythical serpent Computing * Python (pro ...

module translating from GDAL-supported raster graphics formats to the

Google Earth Google Earth is a computer program that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satellite images, aerial photography, and geog ...

KMZ format * GeoDjango – Django's support for GIS-enabled databases * GeoDMS - A framework for building spatial calculation models.
GeoView Pro
–

mobile mapping application *

– A

virtual globe A virtual globe is a three-dimensional (3D) software model or representation of Earth or another world. A virtual globe provides the user with the ability to freely move around in the virtual environment by changing the viewing angle and positio ...

and world imaging program *

GRASS GIS ''Geographic Resources Analysis Support System'' (commonly termed ''GRASS GIS'') is a geographic information system (GIS) software suite used for geospatial data management and analysis, image processing, producing graphics and maps, spatial and ...

gvSIG gvSIG, geographic information system (GIS), is a desktop application designed for capturing, storing, handling, analyzing and deploying any kind of referenced geographic information in order to solve complex management and planning problems. gv ...

* JMap * MangoMap *

MapServer MapServer is an open-source development environment for building spatially enabled internet applications, built in the C language, and is widely known as one of the fastest Web mapping engines available. It can run as a CGI program or via MapSc ...

*MS4W - MapServer for Windows, a widely popular installer for the MapServer community, using GDAL for data access. * MapWindow GIS - Open Source

C++ C++ (pronounced "C plus plus") is a high-level general-purpose programming language created by Danish computer scientist Bjarne Stroustrup as an extension of the C programming language, or "C with Classes". The language has expanded significan ...

based geographic information system,

ActiveX Control ActiveX is a deprecated software framework created by Microsoft that adapts its earlier Component Object Model (COM) and Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) technologies for content downloaded from a network, particularly from the World Wide Web. ...

, and application programmer interface *

Merkaartor OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a free, open geographic database updated and maintained by a community of volunteers via open collaboration. Contributors collect data from surveys, trace from aerial imagery and also import from other freely licensed g ...

* NASA Ames Stereo Pipeline, an open-source software package for photogrammetry * World Wind Java – NASA's open source virtual globe and world imaging technology *

(OSSIM) – Libraries and applications used to process imagery, maps, terrain, and vector data *

OpenEV OpenEV is an open-source geospatial toolkit and a frontend to that toolkit. OpenEV was developed using Python and uses the GDAL library to display georeferenced images and elevation data. The application also has image editing capabilities and us ...

– Geospatial toolkit and a frontend to that toolkit; to display

georeference Georeferencing means that the internal coordinate system of a map or aerial photo image can be related to a geographic coordinate system. The relevant coordinate transforms are typically stored within the image file ( GeoPDF and GeoTIFF are exam ...

d images and

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

data *

Orfeo toolbox In computer science, Orfeo Toolbox (OTB) is a software library for processing images from Earth observation satellites. OTB was initiated by the French space agency (CNES) in 2006. The software is released under a free licence; a number of contri ...

– A satellite image processing library *

QGIS QGIS is a free and open-source cross-platform desktop geographic information system (GIS) application that supports viewing, editing, printing, and analysis of geospatial data. Functionality QGIS functions as geographic information system (GIS ...

* R – An open source statistical software with extensions for spatial data analysis. *

SAGA GIS System for Automated Geoscientific Analyses (SAGA GIS) is a geographic information system (GIS) computer program, used to edit spatial data. It is free and open-source software, developed originally by a small team at the Department of Physical Ge ...

– A cross-platform open source GIS software *

TopoQuest TopoQuest is a free web mapping service built on Open-source software, open source software that provides internet-based topographic maps for most of the United States. The site is one of three internet services used by Wikipedia for providing topo ...

– Internet topographic map viewer * Rolta Geomatica software

Supported raster data formats

As of version 2.2.3, GDAL/OGR provides at least partial support for 154 raster and 93 vector geospatial data formats. A subset of data formats is supported to ensure the ability to directly create files and georeferencing them with the default GDAL compiling options. Here follows the list of data formats whose support is, by default, compiled to allow creation and georeferencing.

Supported vector data formats

GDAL supports a variety of vector data formats as see
here
It is extensible as well.

References

;Notes * *

External links

*{{Official website
OSGeo project homepage
C++ libraries Cross-platform software Data structures libraries and frameworks Free computer libraries Free GIS software GIS file formats Software using the MIT license