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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 1 Popular GIS file formats 1.1 Raster formats 1.2 Vector formats 1.3 Grid formats (for elevation) 1.4 Other formats 2 See also

• ADRG - NIMA's ARC Digitized Raster Graphics
• BIL - Band Interleaved by Line (image format linked with satellite derived imagery)
• CADRG - NIMA's Compressed ARC Digitised Raster Graphics (nominal compression of 55:1 over ADRG)
• CIB - 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.

• 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 - NIMA's format of vectored data for large geographic databases.
• Personal Geodatabase - ESRI's closed, integrated vector data storage strategy using Microsoft's Access MDB format
• Coverage - ESRI's closed, hybrid vector data storage strategy. Legacy ArcGIS Workstation / ArcInfo format with reduced support in ArcGIS Desktop lineup

• USGS DEM - The USGS' Digital Elevation Model
• DTED - NIMA's Digital Terrain Elevation Data
• GTOPO30 - Large complete Earth elevation model at 30 arc seconds
• SDTS - The USGS' successor to DEM

• 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

• Computer file
• Datum
• GDAL/OGR, a library for reading and writing many formats
• Geographic Information System
• Geography
• Geography portal
• Geoinformation
• Raster graphics
• Vector graphics