Technical specifications for raster formats
Release 9.1 Last modified September 16, 2005	Print all topics in : "Working with rasters in ArcCatalog"

Rasters come in many different formats and support different components. The following table lists all the supported formats and their supported components.

Learn more about pixel (bit) depth

Format	Supported data types	Supports multiband	Supports compression	Supports colormap
ADRG	8-bit unsigned integer	Yes (always three bands)	No	No
ADRG Legend	8-bit unsigned integer	Yes (always three bands)	No	No
ADRG Overview	8-bit unsigned integer	Yes (always three bands)	No	No
ESRI BIL/BIP/BSQ	1-bit unsigned integer	Yes	No	Yes
	4-bit unsigned integer	Yes	No	Yes
	8-bit unsigned integer	Yes	No	Yes
	16-bit unsigned integer	Yes	No	Yes
	32-bit unsigned integer	Yes	No	Yes
CADRG	8-bit unsigned integer	Yes (always three bands)	Vector quantization	No
BMP	1/4/8-bit unsigned integer	Yes (only as 8-bit)	No	Yes
CIB	8-bit unsigned integer	No	Vector quantization	No
DIGEST ASRP/USRP	1/4/8-bit unsigned integer	No	Run length encoding	Yes
DTED Level 0, 1, & 2	16-bit signed integer	No	No	No
ER Mapper	8-bit unsigned integer	Yes	No	No
	16-bit unsigned integer	Yes	No	No
	32-bit unsigned integer	Yes	No	No
	8-bit signed integer	Yes	No	No
	16-bit signed integer	Yes	No	No
	32-bit signed integer	Yes	No	No
	32-bit floating point	Yes	No	No
GIF	8-bit unsigned integer	No	LZW	Yes
ERDAS 7.5 GIS	1-bit unsigned integer	No	No	Yes
	2-bit unsigned integer	No	No	Yes
	4-bit unsigned integer	No	No	Yes
	8-bit unsigned integer	No	No	Yes
	16-bit unsigned integer	No	No	Yes
ERDAS 7.5 LAN	8-bit unsigned integer	Yes	No	No
	16-bit unsigned integer	Yes	No	No
ESRI GRID	32-bit signed integer	No	Adaptive run length compressed	Yes
	32-bit floating point	No	No	No
ESRI GRID Stack	32-bit signed integer	Always	Adaptive run length compressed	No
	32-bit floating point	Always	No	No
ESRI GRID Stack file	32-bit signed integer	Always	Adaptive run length compressed	No
	32-bit floating point	Always	No	No
ERDAS IMAGINE	1-bit unsigned integer	Yes	Adaptive run length compressed or No	Yes
	2-bit unsigned integer	Yes	Adaptive run length compressed or No	Yes
	4-bit unsigned integer	Yes	Adaptive run length compressed or No	Yes
	8-bit unsigned integer	Yes	Adaptive run length compressed or No	Yes
	16-bit unsigned integer	Yes	Adaptive run length compressed or No	Yes
	32-bit unsigned integer	Yes	Adaptive run length compressed or No	Yes
	8-bit signed integer	Yes	Adaptive run length compressed or No	Yes
	16-bit signed integer	Yes	Adaptive run length compressed or No	Yes
	32-bit signed integer	Yes	Adaptive run length compressed or No	Yes
	32-bit floating point	Yes	No	Yes
Intergraph CIT	1-bit	No	CCITT Group 4	No
Intergraph COT	8-bit unsigned integer	No	Run length encoding	No
JFIF (JPEG)	8-bit unsigned integer	Yes (limited to 1 or 3 bands)	JPEG	No
JPEG 2000	8/16-bit unsigned integer	Yes (limited to 1 or 3 bands)	Wavelet	No
MrSID	8/16-bit unsigned integer	Yes (limited to 1 or 3 bands)	Wavelet	No
ArcSDE Raster	32-bit signed integer	Yes	Adaptive run length compressed	Yes
	32-bit floating point	Yes	No	No
ERDAS 7.5 RAW	1-bit unsigned integer	No	No	Yes
	2-bit unsigned integer	No	No	Yes
	4-bit unsigned integer	No	No	Yes
	8-bit unsigned integer	No	No	Yes
	16-bit unsigned integer	No	No	Yes
TIFF	unsigned integer	No	CCITT Group 3 1-D, CCITT Group 4, Packbits, LZW, or No	Yes
	4-bit unsigned integer	No	Packbits, LZW or No	Yes
	8-bit unsigned integer	Yes	Packbits, LZW, JPEG, or No	Yes
	16-bit unsigned integer	No	No	Yes
	32-bit unsigned integer	No	No	Yes
	8-bit signed integer	No	No	No
	16-bit signed integer	No	No	No
	32-bit signed integer	No	No	No
	32-bit floating point	No	No	No
PNG	1-bit unsigned integer	No	Deflate/Inflate	Yes
	2-bit unsigned integer	No	Deflate/Inflate	Yes
	4-bit unsigned integer	No	Deflate/Inflate	Yes
	8-bit unsigned integer	Yes (limited to 1 or 3 bands only, no alpha channel)	Deflate/Inflate	Yes
	16-bit unsigned integer	Yes (limited to 1 or 3 bands only, no alpha channel)	Deflate/Inflate	No
NITF 2.0	1/8/16-bit unsigned integer	Yes	Yes	Yes
NITF 2.1/NSIF 1.0	1/2/4/16-bit unsigned integer	Yes	Yes	Yes
	1/2/4/16-bit signed integer	Yes	No	Yes

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