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

[Simon Perkins]

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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>   

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