Supported formats
Homestead reads the raster and vector formats below on its own. Everything it needs to open them travels inside the application, so there is nothing to install first and nothing that depends on what else is on the computer. Every format on this page has been opened and checked in Homestead. The file pickers also carry an Any file filter for a format that is not listed. Such a file may well open, but only the formats on this page are supported.
Rasters
A raster has to be georeferenced and has to carry a coordinate system, either in the file itself or in a world file with a .prj or .aux.xml beside it. Without one, the open fails with GDAL could not place this raster on the globe. Any band count and any data type will do: three bands draw as RGB, one band as grey, a Float32 DEM among them, and a colour table is expanded. Everything except MBTiles is warped to Web Mercator through a pyramid in the app cache.
| Format | Extensions | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| GeoTIFF | .tif .tiff | LZW, DEFLATE, ZSTD, LERC, JPEG and WebP compression; tiled or stripped; BigTIFF; internal overviews used when present. |
| Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF | .tif | Overviews inside, no pyramid to build; draws at once. |
| TIFF with a world file | .tif + .tfw + .aux.xml | No GeoTIFF keys; the georeference from the sidecars. |
| GeoTIFF, one Float32 band | .tif | A DEM-like raster, drawn as grey. |
| GeoTIFF in a geographic CRS | .tif | WGS 84 (EPSG:4326). |
| JPEG 2000 | .jp2 .j2k | OpenJPEG; 16-bit kept. |
| PNG with a world file | .png + .wld/.pgw + .aux.xml | RGB or a colour table (a palette PNG is expanded). |
| JPEG with a world file | .jpg .jpeg + .wld/.jgw + .aux.xml | |
| WebP | .webp + .aux.xml | The georeference from the .aux.xml only (as gdal_translate and QGIS write it), never from a world file. |
| GIF with a world file | .gif + .wld + .aux.xml | 256-colour palette. |
| BMP with a world file | .bmp + .wld + .aux.xml | |
| PNM with a world file | .ppm .pgm .pnm + .wld + .aux.xml | |
| MBTiles, raster tiles | .mbtiles | PNG, JPEG or WebP tiles; served as they are, no warp. |
| GeoPackage, raster tiles | .gpkg | A tile pyramid table. |
| Erdas Imagine | .img | Compressed or not. |
| ENVI | .dat .bsq .bil .bip + .hdr | The .hdr names the map info. |
| ESRI BIL/BIP/BSQ | .bil .bip .bsq + .hdr (+ .prj) | |
| Arc/Info ASCII Grid | .asc (+ .prj) | One band. |
| ER Mapper | .ers + raw data file | |
| Idrisi | .rst + .rdc | One band. |
| ILWIS | .mpr (+ .mpl) | One band per .mpr. |
| SAGA GIS | .sdat + .sgrd (+ .prj) | One band, square cells. |
| Golden Software Surfer | .grd (Surfer 6 and 7 binary) | One band. |
| R raster | .grd + .gri | |
| ASCII gridded XYZ | .xyz + .aux.xml | One band, sorted grid; the CRS must come from an .aux.xml beside it. |
| NITF | .ntf .nitf | |
| PCI Geomatics | .pix | |
| Raster Matrix Format | .rsw | |
| VTP Binary Terrain | .bt | One band, Int16 or Float32. |
| PCRaster | .map | One band. |
| Meta Raster Format | .mrf + data + index | DEFLATE, PNG or JPEG packing (LERC packing did not decode). |
| USGS ISIS3 cube | .cub | |
| SRTM HGT | .hgt | One-degree cells named like S07E106.hgt. |
| DTED | .dt0 .dt1 .dt2 | |
| GDAL VRT | .vrt | A virtual raster over other files, relative paths resolved. |
Vectors
A vector file is copied once into a GeoPackage in Homestead's cache with a spatial index, though a GeoPackage that already has one is read where it lies, and then cut into tiles as you look at it. Every layer of a multi-layer file becomes a row, and a layer with no geometry is listed but not drawn. A file that carries no coordinate system, such as a CSV, a TopoJSON, a DXF, a DGN, a GeoRSS or a MIF without one, is taken as WGS 84 if every coordinate fits inside longitude and latitude, with a warning in the tree. If not, it stays a table.
| Format | Extensions | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| GeoPackage | .gpkg | Read in place when every table has its R-tree, else copied once. |
| GeoPackage, zipped | .gpkg.zip | Read through the zip, copied. |
| ESRI Shapefile | .shp (+ .shx .dbf .prj .cpg) | One .shp at a time. |
| Shapefile, zipped | .shp.zip .zip | One Shapefile, or a zip of many, every one a layer (a Geofabrik download). |
| GeoJSON | .geojson .json | |
| GeoJSON Sequence | .geojsonl .geojsons | One feature per line. |
| OGC JSON-FG | .json | |
| TopoJSON | .topojson .json | No CRS in the format; taken as WGS 84. |
| ESRIJSON | .json | An ArcGIS REST response saved to a file. |
| KML | .kml | Folders become layers. |
| KMZ | .kmz | Unzipped to a temporary folder first. |
| GPX | .gpx | Waypoints, routes, tracks and their points, each a layer. |
| CSV, TSV | .csv .tsv .psv | A WKT (or geom, geometry, the_geom, shape) column, or an X/Y pair (X/Y, lon/lat, easting/northing…), becomes points; otherwise a table; taken as WGS 84 when the numbers fit. |
| OGR VRT | .vrt | A virtual layer over another file. |
| GML | .gml (+ .xsd) | |
| MapInfo TAB | .tab (+ .map .dat .id) | |
| MapInfo MIF/MID | .mif + .mid | |
| AutoCAD DXF | .dxf | One entities layer with the DXF attributes; no CRS in the format (WGS 84 when drawn in degrees, otherwise a table). |
| MicroStation DGN | .dgn (v7) | One elements layer; CRS as for DXF. |
| FlatGeobuf | .fgb | |
| SQLite, SpatiaLite | .sqlite .db | OGR's own layout and SpatiaLite geometries. |
| Esri File Geodatabase | .gdb folder, .gdb.zip | Two ways in: zip the .gdb folder and add the zip with the usual + button, or add the uncompressed folder with Add › File Geodatabase…. |
| MBTiles, vector tiles | .mbtiles | Decoded from every tile of the finest zoom: slow to open, features split at tile edges as the format stores them. |
| PMTiles | .pmtiles | As MBTiles. |
| Excel | .xlsx .xlsm | A sheet with an X/Y pair becomes points; other sheets are tables. |
| OpenDocument spreadsheet | .ods | As Excel. |
| GMT ASCII | .gmt | |
| GeoRSS | .xml | Atom or RSS with georss: geometry; taken as WGS 84. |
| OpenJUMP JML | .jml | |
| OpenStreetMap | .osm .osm.pbf | Points, lines, multilinestrings, multipolygons, other relations. |