Flags:¶

-l

List supported output formats

-c

Do not write GDAL standard colortable
Only applicable to Byte or UInt16 data types

-m

Do not write non-standard metadata
Enhances compatibility with other GIS software

-t

Write raster attribute table
Some export formats may not be supported

-f

Force raster export despite any warnings of data loss
Overrides nodata safety check

--overwrite

Allow output files to overwrite existing files

--help

Print usage summary

--verbose

Verbose module output

--quiet

Quiet module output

--ui

Force launching GUI dialog

Parameters:¶

input=name [required]

Name of raster map (or group) to export

output=name [required]

Name for output raster file

format=string [required]

Raster data format to write (case sensitive, see also -l flag)
Options: VRT, GTiff, COG, NITF, HFA, ELAS, AAIGrid, DTED, PNG, JPEG, MEM, GIF, FITS, XPM, BMP, PCIDSK, PCRaster, ILWIS, SGI, SRTMHGT, Leveller, Terragen, netCDF, HDF4Image, ISIS3, ISIS2, PDS4, VICAR, ERS, JP2OpenJPEG, FIT, GRIB, RMF, WMS, RST, GSAG, GSBG, GS7BG, R, KMLSUPEROVERLAY, WEBP, PDF, Rasterlite, MBTiles, CALS, WMTS, MRF, PNM, PAux, MFF, MFF2, BT, LAN, LCP, GTX, NTv2, CTable2, KRO, ROI_PAC, RRASTER, BYN, ARG, USGSDEM, BAG, NWT_GRD, ADRG, BLX, PostGISRaster, SAGA, XYZ, HF2, ZMap, SIGDEM, GPKG, OpenFileGDB, NGW, ENVI, EHdr, ISCE, Zarr
Default: GTiff

type=string

Data type
Options: Byte, Int16, UInt16, Int32, UInt32, Float32, Float64, CInt16, CInt32, CFloat32, CFloat64

createopt=string[,string,...]

Creation option(s) to pass to the output format driver
In the form of "NAME=VALUE", separate multiple entries with a comma

metaopt=string[,string,...]

Metadata key(s) and value(s) to include
In the form of "META-TAG=VALUE", separate multiple entries with a comma. Not supported by all output format drivers.

nodata=float

Assign a specified nodata value to output bands
If given, the nodata value is always written to metadata even if there are no NULL cells in the input band (enhances output compatibility).

overviews=integer

Number of overviews to create for the output dataset
Options: 0-5
Default: 0

offset=float

Assign a specified offset value to output bands

scale=float

Assign a specified scale value to output bands

Ranges of GDAL data types¶

  GDAL data type	       minimum  	maximum


  Byte  			     0  	    255


  UInt16			     0  	 65,535


  Int16, CInt16 	       -32,768  	 32,767


  UInt32			     0    4,294,967,295


  Int32, CInt32 	-2,147,483,648    2,147,483,647


  Float32, CFloat32	       -3.4E38  	 3.4E38


  Float64, CFloat64	     -1.79E308         1.79E308

If there is a need to keep file sizes small, use the simplest data type covering the data range of the raster(s) to be exported, e.g., if suitable use Byte rather than UInt16; use Int16 rather than Int32; or use Float32 rather than Float64. In addition, the COMPRESS createopt used can have a very large impact on the size of the output file.

Some software may not recognize all of the compression methods available for a given file format, and certain compression methods may only be supported for certain data types (depends on vendor and version).

If the export settings are set such that data loss would occur in the output file (i.e, due to the particular choice of data type and/or file type), the normal behaviour of r.out.gdal in this case would be to issue an error message describing the problem and exit without exporting. The -f flag allows raster export even if some of the data loss tests are not passed, and warnings are issued instead of errors.

r.out.gdal exports may appear all black or gray on initial display in other GIS software. This is not a bug of r.out.gdal, but often caused by the default color table assigned by that software. The default color table may be grayscale covering the whole range of possible values which is very large for e.g. Int32 or Float32. E.g. stretching the color table to actual min/max would help (sometimes under symbology).

Adding overviews to speed up map display in other software¶

Adding overviews with gdaladdo after exporting can speed up display. The overviews are created internally within the exported file. The amount of levels (power-of-two factors) are controlled with the overviews parameter. The higher the overview level defined by the user the more lower resolution internal overviews are added Note that other software might create their own overviews, ignoring existing overviews.

GeoTIFF caveats¶

GeoTIFF exports can only be displayed by standard image viewers if the GDAL data type was set to Byte and the GeoTIFF contains either one or three bands. All other data types and numbers of bands can be properly read with GIS software only. Although GeoTIFF files usually have a .tif extension, these files are not necessarily images but first of all spatial raster datasets, e.g. land cover or elevation.

When writing out multi-band GeoTIFF images for users of ESRI software or ImageMagick, the interleaving mode should be set to "pixel" using createopt="INTERLEAVE=PIXEL". BAND interleaving is slightly more efficient, but not supported by some applications. This issue only arises when writing out multi-band imagery groups.

Classic TIFF format supports only files with up to 4GB. Files that exceed this limit (in compressed or uncompressed form) need to be exported with createopt="BIGTIFF=YES". BIGTIFF is available if GDAL is built with libtiff &= 4.0.

Improving GeoTIFF compatibility¶

To create a GeoTIFF that is highly compatible with various other GIS software packages, it is recommended to keep the GeoTIFF file as simple as possible. You will have to experiment with which options your software is compatible with, as this varies widely between vendors and versions. Long term, the less metadata you have to remove the more self-documenting (and useful) the dataset will be.

Here are some things to try:

Offset/scale parameters¶

Offset is only relevant if not zero. Scale is only relevant if not 1.

Export the integer raster basin_50K map to GeoTIFF format¶

See also GeoTIFF format description (GDAL):

g.region raster=basin_50K -p
r.out.gdal input=basin_50K output=basin_50K.tif

Export the integer raster landclass96 map to Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF format¶

See also Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF (COG) format description (GDAL):

g.region -p raster=landclass96
r.out.gdal -fmt input=landclass96 output=landclass96.tif format=COG overviews=4

Export a DCELL raster map in GeoTIFF format suitable for ESRI software¶

g.region raster=elevation -p
r.out.gdal in=elevation output=elevation.tif createopt="PROFILE=GeoTIFF,TFW=YES"

Export a raster map in "Deflate" compressed GeoTIFF format¶

g.region raster=elevation -p
r.out.gdal in=elevation output=elevation.tif createopt="COMPRESS=DEFLATE"

Export a large raster map in LZW compressed (Big) GeoTIFF format¶

# integer map export
g.region raster=zipcodes -p
# Using PREDICTOR 2 for integer maps can further reduce file size
r.out.gdal in=zipcodes output=zipcodes.tif createopt="COMPRESS=LZW,PREDICTOR=2,BIGTIFF=YES"
# floating point map export
g.region raster=elevation -p
# Using PREDICTOR 3 for floating point data can further reduce file size
r.out.gdal in=elevation output=elevation.tif createopt="COMPRESS=LZW,PREDICTOR=3,BIGTIFF=YES"

Export a raster map with internal overview in "Deflate" compressed GeoTIFF format¶

g.region raster=elevation -p
# overviews=5 corresponds to ’gdaladdo ... 2 4 8 16 32’
r.out.gdal in=elevation output=elevation.tif createopt="COMPRESS=DEFLATE" overviews=5

Export R,G,B imagery bands in GeoTIFF format suitable for ESRI software¶

i.group group=nc_landsat_rgb input=lsat7_2002_30,lsat7_2002_20,lsat7_2002_10
g.region raster=lsat7_2002_30 -p
r.out.gdal in=nc_landsat_rgb output=nc_landsat_rgb.tif type=Byte \


  createopt="PROFILE=GeoTIFF,INTERLEAVE=PIXEL,TFW=YES"

Export group of image maps as multi-band file¶

g.list group
i.group group=tm7 subgroup=tm7 input=tm7_10,tm7_20,tm7_30,tm7_40,tm7_50,tm7_60,tm7_70
i.group -l tm7
g.region raster=tm7_10 -p
r.out.gdal tm7 output=lsat_multiband.tif
gdalinfo lsat_multiband.tif

Export RGB with alpha channel that encodes NULL cells¶

When exporting exporting RGB data rather than GIS data for Web applications or generally the scope of visualization, the alpha channel is of use. Here the export type is commonly the Byte data type.

When exporting data with r.out.gdal, assigning a nodata value (specific parameter of the module) means that any band values equal to this nodata value will be interpreted as nodata. Using an additional alpha channel means that all pixels with an alpha value of 0 are transparent. The alpha channel thus represents per-pixel encoding of nodata, just like the GRASS MASK (null file). That means when using an alpha channel, you do not need to "free up" any particular value, but you can use any value you like to replace NULL cells, as long as the value can be represented by the Byte data type. It does not matter if that value is already present in any of the input bands.

Hence for "visual-only" RGB data export it is needed to create an additional alpha channel that encodes all NULL cells and in the RGB bands to be exported replace NULL cells with some value in the range 0-255. For example:

# for simplicity variables are used
RMAP="lsat7_2000_30"
GMAP="lsat7_2000_20"
BMAP="lsat7_2000_10"
OUTNAME="lsat7_2000_RGBA.tif"
# extract alpha
r.mapcalc "out_a = if(isnull($RMAP) || isnull($GMAP) || isnull($BMAP), 0, 255)"
# replace NULL cells with a valid value, extract colors
# exporting 8 bit RGB data, not GIS data, therefore the `#` operator:
r.mapcalc "out_r = if(isnull($RMAP), 0, #$RMAP)"
r.mapcalc "out_g = if(isnull($GMAP), 0, #$GMAP)"
r.mapcalc "out_b = if(isnull($BMAP), 0, #$BMAP)"
# create group for export
i.group group=out_rgba input=out_r,out_g,out_b,out_a
# remove any MASK because this works only if there are
# no NULL cells in the bands to be exported
r.mask -r
# export the group:
# add PROFILE=BASELINE to createopt to produce a standard TIFF file
# without any GTiff extensions
r.out.gdal input=out_rgba output=$OUTNAME -cm createopt="PHOTOMETRIC=RGB,ALPHA=YES"
gdalinfo $OUTNAME

Export the floating point raster elevation map to ERDAS/IMG format¶

See also Erdas Imagine .img format description (GDAL):

g.region raster=elevation -p
r.out.gdal input=elevation output=elelevation.img format=HFA type=Float32

Export raster map with offset/scale assigned¶

An offset value can be assigned to output raster data by offset parameter. Similarly a scale value can be assigned by scale parameter.

# produce raster map
g.region n=100 s=0 e=100 w=0 res=1
r.random.cells output=random distance=1.0
r.info -r random
# export raster data with offset/scale assigned
r.out.gdal input=random output=random.tif offset=100 scale=0.01

Check result by gdalinfo command line tool:

gdalinfo random.tif
...
Band 1 Block=100x40 Type=UInt16, ColorInterp=Palette


  Description = random


    Computed Min/Max=1.000,3661.000


  NoData Value=65535


  Offset: 100,   Scale:0.01
...