Supported Raster Formats
On this page, you will find general help for the ProRaster product family including links to documentation, instructional videos, and training videos.
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The ProRaster User Guide is available for download as a PDF.
ProRaster has a set of native drivers which can mount a wide variety of common raster formats. One of these drivers uses the open-source GDAL library to provide support for many more common and less common raster formats.
When ProRaster tries to mount a raster, it first tries to open it with the native drivers. If this is not successful it will try to open it with the GDAL driver. If you wish to exercise control over which driver opens a raster, you can do so via the Advanced settings found in the raster source editor dialog.
Some formats supported by native drivers can be opened if they are stored inside a ZIP archive. If so, “zip” will be included as a supported extension. Rasters supported by native drivers can also be opened via the “tab” file (if present).
Table 1 : Formats supported by native drivers
| Format | Driver Name | File Extension | File Extension List |
|---|---|---|---|
| MRR - Multi-resolution raster | MI_MRR | mrr | mrr, tab |
| MRD - MapInfo Render Algorithm | MI_MRD | mrd | mrd, xml, tab |
| MVR - MapInfo Virtual Raster | MI_MVR | mvr | mvr, xml, tab |
| Encom Grid | MI_Encom_Float_GRD | grd | grd, zip, tab |
| Vertical Mapper Grid | MI_VerticalMapper_GRD | grd | grd, zip, tab |
| Vertical Mapper Classified Grid | MI_VerticalMapper_GRC | grc | grc, zip, tab |
| ERMapper | MI_ERMapper_ERS | ers | ers, zip, tab |
| BIL - Band Interleaved | MI_BandInterleaved_BIL | bil | bil, zip, tab |
| BIP - Band Interleaved | MI_BandInterleaved_BIP | bip | bip, zip, tab |
| BSQ- Band Interleaved | MI_BandInterleaved_BSQ | bsq | bsq, zip, tab |
| GeoTIFF, Cloud Optimised GeoTIFF (COG) | MI_GeoTiff_IMG | tif | tif, tiff, tab |
| TIFF | MI_Tiff_IMG | tif | tif, tiff, tab |
| Arc/Info ASCII Grid | MI_ESRI_ASCII_GRD | asc | asc, zip, tab |
| Arc/Info Float Grid | MI_ESRI_Float_GRD | flt | flt, zip, tab |
| Arc/Info Binary Grid | MI_ESRI_GRD | adf | adf, tab |
| Surfer Binary Grid | MI_Surfer_Binary_GRD | grd | grd, zip, tab |
| Surfer ASCII Grid | MI_Surfer_ASCII_GRD | grd | grd, zip, tab |
| Located Image | MI_Located_RawImage | png, jpg | png, jpg, jpeg, jfi, jfif, tab |
| Image | MI_Unlocated_RawImage | png, jpg | png, jpg, jpeg, jfi, jfif |
| ECW/JP2000 – Enhanced Compression Wavelet | MI_ECW_IMG | ecw | ecw, jp2, j2k, j2c, jpc, jpx, jpf, tab |
| Geosoft | MI_Geosoft_GRD | grd | grd, tab |
| GDAL multi-format driver | MI_GDAL_GENERIC | ||
| GDAL OpenJPEG | MI_GDAL_JP2OpenJPEG | jp2 | jp2, j2k, j2c, jpc, jpx, jpf |
| GDAL MrSID JPEG2000 Not available from 2.2.04 onwards | MI_GDAL_JP2MrSID | jp2 | jp2, j2k, j2c, jpc, jpx, jpf |
Table 2 : Formats supported by the GDAL driver
| Format | Driver | Extension |
|---|---|---|
| ASCII Gridded XYZ | XYZ | xyz |
| COG- Cloud Optimised GeoTIFF | GTiff | tif |
| NOAA BSB Nautical Chart | BSB | kap |
| Multi-resolution Seamless Image Database | MrSID | sid |
| Grid eXchange File | GXF | gxf |
| GDAL Virtual Format | VRT | vrt |
| ENVI | ENVI | dat |
| ERDAS Imagine | HFA | img |
| First Generation USGS DOQ | DOQ1 | doq |
| New Labelled USGS DOQ | DOQ2 | doq |
| Military Elevation Data | DTED | dt0, dt1, dt2 |
Table 3 : Formats duplicated by the GDAL driver
| Format | Driver | Extension |
|---|---|---|
| GeoTIFF | GTiff | tif |
| Surfer Binary Grid | GSBG | grd |
| Arc/Info ASCII Grid | AAIGrid | asc |
| ERMapper | ERS | ers |
| Enhanced Compressed Wavelets Not available from 2.2.04 onwards | ECW | ecw |
| JPEG2000 Not availble from 2.2.04 onwards | JP2MrSID | jp2 |
In ProRaster Premium and ProRaster Scientific, the support for all formats in GDAL has been unlocked. This may provide support for dozens of additional formats (although most are obscure). Support for most formats has not been tested and is not guaranteed. To test for support of a format that you need to open, download a free version of ProRaster and try to open the raster. Refer to the GDAL online documentation for assistance.
The following list of formats has been tested (but this does not provide any substantial guarantee).
Table 4 : Additional formats supported by GDAL driver in ProRaster Premium and ProRaster Scientific
| Format | Driver | Extension |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Windows Device Independent Bitmap | BMP | bmp |
| CEOS Image | CEOS | img |
| FIT | FIT | fit |
| WMO General Regularly-distributed Information in Binary form | GRIB | grb |
| Hierarchical Data Format | HDF4 | hdf |
| NOAA Polar Orbiter | L1B | l1b |
| Network Common Data Form | netCDF | nc |
| National Imagery Transmission Format | NITF | ntf |
| PCI Geomatics Database File | PCIDSK | pix |
| Planetary Data System v3 | PDS | img |
| Netpbm | PNM | pnm |
| USGS ASCII DEM | USGSDEM | dem |
| Web Map Service | WMS | xml |
| X11 Pixmap | XPM | xpm |
WMS (Web Map Service) support via GDAL
Web Map Services can be accessed by supplying an XML format local service description file as the “raster”. For information, refer to the WMS format documentation on the GDAL website.
https://gdal.org/drivers/raster/wms.html
A small collection of WMS XML files ship with ProRaster Premium. You will find XML files for Google Maps, Open Street Maps, and other offerings from ESRI, NASA and Amazon. Look in the C:\ProgramData\RGE\WebMaps directory to find these files.