Talk:GIS file formats

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[edit] Is DRG an example of GeoTIFF?

Is DRG an example of GeoTIFF? I added DRG to the section: GIS file formats#Raster_formats because DRG's are popular in the USA, and thus a large subset of readers might benefit from seeing them mentioned here. However, if DRG is merely an example of GeoTIFF, then perhaps we should move the DRG list item to a subitem of the GeoTIFF item in this article. It might also make sense to mention DRG in the GeoTIFF articles (and vice versa); as of now, the DRG and GeoTIFF articles do not mention each other. — Teratornis 16:17, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Most DRGs are made by scanning published paper maps on high-resolution scanners. The raster image is georeferenced and fit to the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) projection. Colors are usually standardized to duplicate the line-drawing character of the published map. The average data set size of a 7.5-minute DRG is about 8 megabytes in Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) with PackBits compression.[1]

So, I think your correct. This article is to an awkward combination of datasets and file formats. I think we need two articles: "GIS file formats" and "Government GIS datasets" since both are important to the topic of GIS. I would not just delete DRG, I would split the article. --Ratberta 03:46, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Should JPEG 2000 be added to the list of popular GIS raster data formats?

JPEG 2000 has been supported by ArcGIS. I don't know anyone personally who is using it, but a Google search shows some imagery is being provided in this format. This comment left by geognerd.