[Gdal-dev] The perfect raster format - which is it?

[Tim Sutton]

Hi

Sorry I should have listed bands and colour depth in my requirements.
Here is the revised list then:

- produce the most compact file size
- supports byte output ( no need for float or larger colour depths)
- support nodata
- is writeable by gdal
- and (for special bonus points) is readable by ArcView 3.x and ArcMap >=8
- only single band required
- lossless compression required

Currently we are using HFA which is great except for lack of nodata
support (theres a patch in gdal trac which adds that but it will be a
while before that filters down into distros etc after it has been
applied to gdal svn). Second snag with HFA is that it doesnt work (for
us anyway) on both ArcMap 8 and ArcView 3.x.

Tiff is our second choice but the compression seems to require some
kind of plugin in ArcMap so thats a bit of a bind...and the 4GB file
size limit is sometimes hit due to inability to use compression  :-(

So I was just wondering if there was anything else in terms of format
support that I may be overlooking.

Many thanks,

Regards

Tim

2007/11/19, Simon Perkins <sy at perkins.net>:
>
>  Agreed, though Erdas .img (AKA "HFA" format) is what they're already
> using...
>
>  Cheers!
>
>  Sy
>
>
>
>  Martin Chapman wrote:
>  I agree with Simon. GeoTiff is great. Erdas .img is also really good and
> doesn't have the 4GB limit.
>
> Martin Chapman
> Chief Software Architect
> Fortified Datacom Inc.
> http://www.fortifieddatacom.com
> mchapman at fortifieddatacom.com
> 303-324-1065
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: gdal-dev-bounces at lists.maptools.org
> [mailto:gdal-dev-bounces at lists.maptools.org] On Behalf Of
> Simon Perkins
> Sent: Monday, November 19, 2007 1:06 PM
> To: Tim Sutton
> Cc: Renato De Giovanni; gdal-dev at lists.maptools.org
> Subject: Re: [Gdal-dev] The perfect raster format - which is it?
>
> To throw in my 2c, the answer is of course: it all depends...
>
> For instance, you don't say if you need data types other than byte, or a
> number of bands other than 1 or 3, or whether lossy compression is
> acceptable, or whether your images are targeted at a particular
> community, or whether you want to do random access updates, or whether
> you need to store images larger than 4GB, or whether you need
> georeferencing support, or arbitrary metadata support, or...
>
> Generically though, GeoTIFF is perhaps the most complete non-proprietary
> format supported by GDAL. However it suffers from the severe problem
> that standard TIFF files have a 4GB file size limit (you can create
> BIGTIFF files with unlimited file size, but not all readers will read
> them). Also, multi-band and non-byte support is not part of the core
> spec so different applications may or may not support it. Also, not all
> readers support the deflate compression method, which is the only decent
> lossless compression TIFF offers.
>
> You might also consider JPEG2000, which supports a wide variety of
> storage formats, including lossy or lossless compression.
>
> I'm surprised that HFA doesn't support NODATA though.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Sy
>
>
> Tim Sutton wrote:
>
>
>  Hi All
>
> OK I know its a loaded question, but which format and format options
> are the 'best' in terms of:
>
> - produce the most compact file size
> - supports byte output
> - support nodata
> - is writeable by gdal
> - and (for special bonus points) is readable by ArcView 3.x and ArcMap >=8
>
> Previously we've been using HFA but lack of nodata support is an issue
> and it does not seem to work well under both ArcMap and ArcGIS.
>
> Any tips on the subject will be greatly appreciated.
>
> Regards
>
>
>
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> Gdal-dev at lists.maptools.org
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>
>
>
>


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Tim Sutton
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