GDAL-RASTER-TILE(1) GDAL GDAL-RASTER-TILE(1)
NAME
gdal-raster-tile - Generate tiles in separate files from a raster
dataset
Added in version 3.11.
SYNOPSIS
Usage: gdal raster tile [OPTIONS]
Generate tiles in separate files from a raster dataset.
Positional arguments:
-i, --input Input raster dataset [required]
-o, --output Output directory [required]
Common Options:
-h, --help Display help message and exit
--json-usage Display usage as JSON document and exit
--config = Configuration option [may be repeated]
--progress Display progress bar
Options:
-f, --of, --format, --output-format Output format (default: PNG)
--co, --creation-option = Creation option [may be repeated]
--tiling-scheme Tiling scheme. TILING-SCHEME=raster|WebMercatorQuad|WorldCRS84Quad|WorldMercatorWGS84Quad|GoogleCRS84Quad|PseudoTMS_GlobalMercator|LINZAntarticaMapTilegrid|APSTILE|CBMTILE|NZTM2000 (default: WebMercatorQuad)
--min-zoom Minimum zoom level
--max-zoom Maximum zoom level
--min-x Minimum tile X coordinate
--max-x Maximum tile X coordinate
--min-y Minimum tile Y coordinate
--max-y Maximum tile Y coordinate
--no-intersection-ok Whether dataset extent not intersecting tile matrix is only a warning
-r, --resampling Resampling method for max zoom. RESAMPLING=nearest|bilinear|cubic|cubicspline|lanczos|average|rms|mode|min|max|med|q1|q3|sum (default: cubic)
--overview-resampling Resampling method for overviews. OVERVIEW-RESAMPLING=nearest|bilinear|cubic|cubicspline|lanczos|average|rms|mode|min|max|med|q1|q3|sum
--convention Tile numbering convention: xyz (from top) or tms (from bottom). CONVENTION=xyz|tms (default: xyz)
--tile-size Override default tile size
--add-alpha Whether to force adding an alpha channel
Mutually exclusive with --no-alpha
--no-alpha Whether to disable adding an alpha channel
Mutually exclusive with --add-alpha
--dst-nodata Destination nodata value
--skip-blank Do not generate blank tiles
--metadata = Add metadata item to output tiles [may be repeated]
--copy-src-metadata Whether to copy metadata from source dataset
--aux-xml Generate .aux.xml sidecar files when needed
--kml Generate KML files
--resume Generate only missing files
-j, --num-threads Number of jobs (or ALL_CPUS) (default: ALL_CPUS)
Advanced Options:
--oo, --open-option = Open options [may be repeated]
--if, --input-format Input formats [may be repeated]
Publication Options:
--webviewer Web viewer to generate. WEBVIEWER=none|all|leaflet|openlayers|mapml (default: all) [may be repeated]
--url URL address where the generated tiles are going to be published
--title Title of the map
--copyright Copyright for the map
--mapml-template Filename of a template mapml file where variables will be substituted
DESCRIPTION
gdal raster tile generates a directory with small tiles and metadata,
following the OGC WMTS Specification. Simple web pages with viewers
based on OpenLayers and Leaflet are generated as well - so anybody can
comfortably explore your maps on-line and you do not need to install or
configure any special software (like MapServer) and the map displays
very fast in the web browser. You only need to upload the generated
directory onto a web server.
It generates PNG files by default, but other output formats can be
selected (JPEG, WEBP, GTiff, etc.). Note that not all formats support
non-Byte data types. JPEG and WEBP only support Byte. PNG supports
Byte and UInt16. GeoTiff can support all data types.
It can also use a tiling scheme fully adapted to the input raster, in
terms of origin and resolution, when using the raster tiling scheme. In
that scheme, tiles at the maximum zoom level will have the same
resolution as the raster.
Standard options
-i, --input
Input raster dataset [required]
-o, --output
Output directory [required]
The directory will be created if it does not exist, but its
parent directory must exist.
-f, --of, --format, --output-format
Which output raster format to use. Allowed values may be given
by gdal --formats | grep raster | grep rw | sort
Defaults to PNG.
--co =
Many formats have one or more optional creation options that can
be used to control particulars about the file created. For
instance, the GeoTIFF driver supports creation options to
control compression, and whether the file should be tiled.
May be repeated.
The creation options available vary by format driver, and some
simple formats have no creation options at all. A list of
options supported for a format can be listed with the --formats
command line option but the documentation for the format is the
definitive source of information on driver creation options.
See Raster drivers format specific documentation for legal
creation options for each format.
--tiling-scheme
Tile cutting scheme. Defaults to WebMercatorQuad (also known as
Google Maps compatible).
The following base profiles are available:
o raster: CRS = CRS of raster, tile size = 256 pixels, raster
coverage at all zoom levels.
o WebMercatorQuad: CRS = EPSG:3857 ("WGS 84 / Pseudo-Mercator"),
tile size: 256 pixels, whole world coverage at zoom level 0,
one single tile at zoom level 0.
o WorldCRS84Quad: CRS = EPSG:4326 ("WGS 84"), tile size: 256
pixels, whole world coverage at zoom level 0, two side-by-side
tiles at zoom level 0
o WorldMercatorWGS84Quad: CRS = EPSG:3395 ("WGS 84 / World
Mercator"), tile size: 256 pixels, whole world coverage at
zoom level 0, one single tile at zoom level 0. This can be
seen as a variant of WebMercatorQuad except that it is fully
conformal on the WGS84 ellipsoid.
o GoogleCRS84Quad: CRS = EPSG:4326 ("WGS 84"), tile size: 256
pixels, whole world coverage at zoom level 0, one single tile
at zoom level 0 whose first and last 64 lines are blank (the
top origin of the tile is a pseudo latitude of 180 degree, and
its bottom -180 degree).
o PseudoTMS_GlobalMercator: CRS = EPSG:3857 ("WGS 84 /
Pseudo-Mercator"), tile size: 256 pixels, whole world coverage
at zoom level 0, 2x2 tiles at zoom level 0. This is equivalent
to WebMercatorQuad, but with the zoom level shifted by one.
o LINZAntarticaMapTileGrid: LINZ Antarctic Map Tile Grid (Ross
Sea Region). See tms_LINZAntarticaMapTileGrid.json
o APSTILE: Alaska Polar Stereographic-based tiled coordinate
reference system for the Arctic region. See
tms_MapML_APSTILE.json
o CBMTILE: Lambert Conformal Conic-based tiled coordinate
reference system for Canada. See tms_MapML_CBMTILE.json
o NZTM2000: LINZ NZTM2000 Map Tile Grid. See tms_NZTM2000.json
Additional tiling schemes are discovered from tms_XXXX.json
files placed in the GDAL data directory.
--min-zoom
Minimum zoom level to generate. If not specified, equal to
--max-zoom.
--max-zoom
Maximum zoom level to generate. If not specified, this will be
determined by comparing the resolution of the input dataset with
the closest resolution in the list of tile matrix of the tile
matrix set.
--min-x
Minimum tile X coordinate, at maximum zoom level. Can be set to
restrict the tiling process.
--min-y
Minimum tile Y coordinate, at maximum zoom level. Can be set to
restrict the tiling process.
--max-x
Maximum tile X coordinate, at maximum zoom level. Can be set to
restrict the tiling process.
--max-y
Maximum tile Y coordinate, at maximum zoom level. Can be set to
restrict the tiling process.
--no-intersection-ok
Whether the dataset extent not intersecting the tile matrix is
only a warning. Otherwise, by default, an error will be emitted
if that occurs.
-r, --resampling
nearest|bilinear|cubic|cubicspline|lanczos|average|rms|mode|min|max|med|q1|q3|sum
Resampling method used to generate maximum zoom level, and also
lower zoom levels if --overview-resampling is not specified.
Defaults to cubic.
--overview-resampling
nearest|bilinear|cubic|cubicspline|lanczos|average|rms|mode|min|max|med|q1|q3|sum
Resampling method used to generate zoom levels lower than the
maximum zoom level. Defaults to the value of --resampling is not
specified.
--convention xyz|tms
Tile numbering convention:
o xyz (default): from top, as in OGC Web Map Tiling
Specification (WMTS)
o tms: from bottom, as in OSGeo Tile Map Service (TMS)
Specification.
--tile-size
Width and height of a tile, in pixels. Default is 256 for
default tiling schemes. Setting it to a higher value enables
generating higher DPI tile sets.
--add-alpha
Whether to force adding an alpha channel. An alpha channel is
added by default, unless the source dataset has a nodata value
and the output format supports it.
--no-alpha
Disable the creation of an alpha channel.
--dstnodata
Destination nodata value.
--skip-blank
Do not generate fully blank/transparent tiles.
--metadata =
Add metadata item to output tiles [may be repeated]
--copy-src-metadata
Whether to copy metadata from source dataset into output tiles.
--aux-xml
Generate .aux.xml sidecar files when needed
--kml Generate Google Earth SuperOverlay metadata. Not compatible
with tiling schemes with non-power-of-two zoom levels.
--resume
Generate only missing files. Can be used when interrupting a
previous run to restart it.
-j, --num-threads
Number of jobs to run at once. Default: number of CPUs
detected.
Publication Options
--webviewer none|all|leaflet|openlayers|mapml
Web viewer to generate. Defaults to all.
--url URL address where the generated tiles are going to be published.
--title
Title of the map.
--copyright
Copyright for the map.
MapML options
MapML webviewer can only be generated if --convention is set to the
default value xyz.
The following profiles are supported:
o WebMercatorQuad: mapped to OSMTILE MapML tiling scheme
o GoogleCRS84Quad: mapped to WGS84 MapML tiling scheme
o APSTILE: from the tms_MapML_APSTILE.json data file
o CBMTILE: from the tms_MapML_CBMTILE.json data file
The generated MapML file in the output directory is mapml.mapl
Available options are:
--mapml-template
Filename of a template mapml file where variables will be
substituted. If not specified, the generic template_tiles.mapml
file from GDAL data resources will be used
The --url option is also used to substitute ${URL} in the template
MapML file.
EXAMPLES
Example 1: Generate PNG tiles with WebMercatorQuad tiling scheme for zoom
levels 2 to 5.
gdal raster tile --min-zoom=2 --max-zoom=5 input.tif output_folder
Example 2: Retile a raster using its origin and resolution
gdal raster tile --tiling-scheme raster input.tif output_folder
AUTHOR
Even Rouault
COPYRIGHT
1998-2025
May 6, 2025 GDAL-RASTER-TILE(1)