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

library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

for reading and writing raster and

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

geospatial data formats (e.g. shapefile), and is released under the permissive X/MIT style free software license by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation. 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 ...

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

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for data translation and processing. Projections and transformations are supported by the PROJ library. The related ''OGR'' library (OGR Simple Features Library), which is part of the GDAL

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, provides a similar ability for simple features

vector graphics Vector graphics are 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 displ ...

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 Open Source Geospatial Foundation. GDAL/OGR is considered a major

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

Adobe Illustrator Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor and Computer-aided design, design software developed and marketed by Adobe Inc., Adobe. Originally designed for the Apple Inc., Apple Mac (computer), Macintosh, development of Adobe Illustrator began ...

. Uses GDAL for

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

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., Adobe for Microsoft Windows, Windows and macOS. It was created in 1987 by Thomas Knoll, Thomas and John Knoll. It is the most used tool for professional digital ...

. Uses GDAL for coordinate system transformation, format reading & writing, & unit conversion. *Avenza Maps - iOS & Android mobile mapping application. Uses GDAL to read metadata information for geospatial maps / data to transform them to WGS84 for offline navigation. * Biosphere3D – Open source landscape scenery globe * Biotop Invent * Cadwork * 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 module translating from GDAL-supported raster graphics formats to the

Google Earth Google Earth is a web mapping, web and computer program created by Google that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satelli ...

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

– A

virtual globe A virtual globe is a 3D computer graphics, 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 vie ...

and world imaging program * GRASS GIS * gvSIG * JMap * MangoMap * MapServer *MS4W - MapServer for Windows, a widely popular installer for the MapServer community, using GDAL for data access. * MapWindow GIS - Open Source C++ based geographic information system, ActiveX Control, and application programmer interface * Merkaartor * NASA Ames Stereo Pipeline, an open-source software package for photogrammetry * World Wind Java – NASA's open source virtual globe and world imaging technology * Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSSIM) – Libraries and applications used to process imagery, maps, terrain, and vector data * OpenEV – Geospatial toolkit and a frontend to that toolkit; to display georeferenced images and

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''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 equipotenti ...

data * Orfeo toolbox – A satellite image processing library *

QGIS QGIS is a geographic information system (GIS) software that is free and open-source. QGIS supports Windows, macOS, and Linux. It supports viewing, editing, printing, and analysis of geospatial data in a range of data formats. Its name comes from ...

* 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 – 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