Provided by: gdal-bin_3.10.3+dfsg-1build1_amd64 
NAME
gdal_translate - Converts raster data between different formats.
SYNOPSIS
gdal_translate [--help] [--help-general] [--long-usage]
[-ot {Byte/Int8/Int16/UInt16/UInt32/Int32/UInt64/Int64/Float32/Float64/
CInt16/CInt32/CFloat32/CFloat64}] [-strict]
[-if <format>]... [-of <format>]
[-b <band>] [-mask <band>] [-expand {gray|rgb|rgba}]
[-outsize <xsize>[%]|0 <ysize>[%]|0] [-tr <xres> <yres>]
[-ovr <level>|AUTO|AUTO-<n>|NONE]
[-r {nearest,bilinear,cubic,cubicspline,lanczos,average,mode}]
[-unscale] [-scale[_bn] [<src_min> <src_max> [<dst_min> <dst_max>]]]... [-exponent[_bn] <exp_val>]...
[-srcwin <xoff> <yoff> <xsize> <ysize>] [-epo] [-eco]
[-projwin <ulx> <uly> <lrx> <lry>] [-projwin_srs <srs_def>]
[-a_srs <srs_def>] [-a_coord_epoch <epoch>]
[-a_ullr <ulx> <uly> <lrx> <lry>] [-a_nodata <value>]
[-a_gt <gt0> <gt1> <gt2> <gt3> <gt4> <gt5>]
[-a_scale <value>] [-a_offset <value>]
[-nogcp] [-gcp <pixel> <line> <easting> <northing> [<elevation>]]...
|-colorinterp{_bn} {red|green|blue|alpha|gray|undefined|pan|coastal|rededge|nir|swir|mwir|lwir|...}]
|-colorinterp {red|green|blue|alpha|gray|undefined|pan|coastal|rededge|nir|swir|mwir|lwir|...},...]
[-mo <META-TAG>=<VALUE>]... [-dmo "DOMAIN:META-TAG=VALUE"]... [-q] [-sds]
[-co <NAME>=<VALUE>]... [-stats] [-norat] [-noxmp]
[-oo <NAME>=<VALUE>]...
<src_dataset> <dst_dataset>
DESCRIPTION
The gdal_translate utility can be used to convert raster data between different formats, potentially
performing some operations like subsettings, resampling, and rescaling pixels in the process.
--help Show this help message and exit
--help-general
Gives a brief usage message for the generic GDAL commandline options and exit.
-ot <type>
Force the output image bands to have a specific data type supported by the driver, which may be
one of the following: Byte, Int8, UInt16, Int16, UInt32, Int32, UInt64, Int64, Float32, Float64,
CInt16, CInt32, CFloat32 or CFloat64.
-strict
Don't be forgiving of mismatches and lost data when translating to the output format.
-if <format>
Format/driver name to be attempted to open the input file(s). It is generally not necessary to
specify it, but it can be used to skip automatic driver detection, when it fails to select the
appropriate driver. This option can be repeated several times to specify several candidate
drivers. Note that it does not force those drivers to open the dataset. In particular, some
drivers have requirements on file extensions.
New in version 3.2.
-of <format>
Select the output format. Starting with GDAL 2.3, if not specified, the format is guessed from the
extension (previously was GTiff). Use the short format name.
-b <band>
Select an input band band for output. Bands are numbered from 1. Multiple -b switches may be used
to select a set of input bands to write to the output file, or to reorder bands. band can also be
set to "mask,1" (or just "mask") to mean the mask band of the first band of the input dataset.
-mask <band>
Select an input band band to create output dataset mask band. Bands are numbered from 1. band can
be set to "none" to avoid copying the global mask of the input dataset if it exists. Otherwise it
is copied by default ("auto"), unless the mask is an alpha channel, or if it is explicitly used to
be a regular band of the output dataset ("-b mask"). band can also be set to "mask,1" (or just
"mask") to mean the mask band of the 1st band of the input dataset.
-expand gray|rgb|rgba
To expose a dataset with 1 band with a color table as a dataset with 3 (RGB) or 4 (RGBA) bands.
Useful for output drivers such as JPEG, JPEG2000, MrSID, ECW that don't support color indexed
datasets. The 'gray' value enables to expand a dataset with a color table that only contains gray
levels to a gray indexed dataset.
-outsize <xsize>[%]|0 <ysize>[%]|0
Set the size of the output file. Outsize is in pixels and lines unless '%' is attached in which
case it is as a fraction of the input image size. If one of the 2 values is set to 0, its value
will be determined from the other one, while maintaining the aspect ratio of the source dataset.
-tr <xres> <yres>
set target resolution. The values must be expressed in georeferenced units. Both must be positive
values. This is mutually exclusive with -outsize, -a_ullr, and -a_gt.
-ovr {<level>|AUTO|AUTO-<n>|NONE}
New in version 3.6.
To specify which overview level of source file must be used. The default choice, AUTO, will select
the overview level whose resolution is the closest to the target resolution. Specify an integer
value (0-based, i.e. 0=1st overview level) to select a particular level. Specify AUTO-n where n is
an integer greater or equal to 1, to select an overview level below the AUTO one. Or specify NONE
to force the base resolution to be used (can be useful if overviews have been generated with a low
quality resampling method, and a higher quality resampling method is specified with -r.
When -ovr is specified to an integer value, and none of -outsize and -tr is specified, the size of
the overview will be used as the output size.
When -ovr is specified, values of -srcwin, when specified, should be expressed as pixel offset and
size of the full resolution source dataset. Similarly when using -outsize with percentage values,
they refer to the size of the full resolution source dataset.
-r {nearest|bilinear|cubic|cubicspline|lanczos|average|rms|mode}
Select a resampling algorithm.
nearest (default) applies a nearest neighbour (simple sampling) resampler
average computes the average of all non-NODATA contributing pixels. Starting with GDAL 3.1, this
is a weighted average taking into account properly the weight of source pixels not contributing
fully to the target pixel.
rms computes the root mean squared / quadratic mean of all non-NODATA contributing pixels (GDAL >=
3.3)
bilinear applies a bilinear convolution kernel.
cubic applies a cubic convolution kernel.
cubicspline applies a B-Spline convolution kernel.
lanczos applies a Lanczos windowed sinc convolution kernel.
mode selects the value which appears most often of all the sampled points.
-scale [<src_min> <src_max> [<dst_min> <dst_max>]]
Rescale the input pixels values from the range src_min to src_max to the range dst_min to dst_max.
If omitted the output range is 0 to 255. If omitted the input range is automatically computed
from the source dataset, in its whole (not just the window of interest potentially specified with
-srcwin or -projwin). This may be a slow operation on a large source dataset, and if using it
multiple times for several gdal_translate invocation, it might be beneficial to call gdalinfo
-stats {source_dataset} priorly to precompute statistics, for formats that support serializing
statistics computations (GeoTIFF, VRT...) Note that the values specified after -scale are only
used to compute a scale and offset to apply to the input raster values. In particular, src_min and
src_max are not used to clip input values unless -exponent is also specified. Instead of being
clipped, source values that are outside the range of src_min and src_max will be scaled to values
outside the range of dst_min and dst_max. If clipping without exponential scaling is desired,
-exponent 1 can be used. -scale can be repeated several times (if specified only once, it also
applies to all bands of the output dataset), so as to specify per band parameters. It is also
possible to use the -scale_bn syntax where bn is a band number (e.g. -scale_2 for the 2nd band of
the output dataset) to specify the parameters of one or several specific bands.
-exponent <exp_val>
Apply non-linear scaling with a power function. exp_val is the exponent of the power function
(must be positive). This option must be used with the -scale option. If specified only once,
-exponent applies to all bands of the output image. It can be repeated several times so as to
specify per band parameters. It is also possible to use the -exponent_bn syntax where bn is a band
number (e.g. -exponent_2 for the 2nd band of the output dataset) to specify the parameters of one
or several specific bands.
The scaled value Dst is calculated from the source value Src with the following formula:
{Dst} = \left( {Dst}_{max} - {Dst}_{min} \right) \times \operatorname{max} \left( 0,
\operatorname{min} \left( 1, \left( \frac{{Src} - {Src}_{min}}{{Src}_{max}-{Src}_{min}}
\right)^{exp\_val} \right) \right) + {Dst}_{min}
-unscale
Apply the scale/offset metadata for the bands to convert scaled values to unscaled values. It is
also often necessary to reset the output datatype with the -ot switch. The unscaled value is
computed from the scaled raw value with the following formula:
{unscaled\_value} = {scaled\_value} * {scale} + {offset}
-srcwin <xoff> <yoff> <xsize> <ysize>
Selects a subwindow from the source image for copying based on pixel/line location.
-projwin <ulx> <uly> <lrx> <lry>
Selects a subwindow from the source image for copying (like -srcwin) but with the corners given in
georeferenced coordinates (by default expressed in the SRS of the dataset. Can be changed with
-projwin_srs).
NOTE:
In GDAL 2.1.0 and 2.1.1, using -projwin with coordinates not aligned with pixels will result in
a sub-pixel shift. This has been corrected in later versions. When selecting non-nearest
neighbour resampling, starting with GDAL 2.1.0, sub-pixel accuracy is however used to get
better results.
-projwin_srs <srs_def>
Specifies the SRS in which to interpret the coordinates given with -projwin. The <srs_def> may be
any of the usual GDAL/OGR forms, complete WKT, PROJ.4, EPSG:n or a file containing the WKT.
WARNING:
This does not cause reprojection of the dataset to the specified SRS.
-epo (Error when Partially Outside) If this option is set, -srcwin or -projwin values that falls
partially outside the source raster extent will be considered as an error. The default behavior is
to accept such requests, when they were considered as an error before.
-eco (Error when Completely Outside) Same as -epo, except that the criterion for erroring out is when
the request falls completely outside the source raster extent.
-a_srs <srs_def>
Override the projection for the output file. Can be used with -a_ullr or -a_gt to specify the
extent in this projection.
The coordinate reference systems that can be passed are anything supported by the
OGRSpatialReference::SetFromUserInput() call, which includes EPSG Projected, Geographic or
Compound CRS (i.e. EPSG:4296), a well known text (WKT) CRS definition, PROJ.4 declarations, or the
name of a .prj file containing a WKT CRS definition.
NOTE:
No reprojection is done.
-a_coord_epoch <epoch>
New in version 3.4.
Assign a coordinate epoch, linked with the output SRS. Useful when the output SRS is a dynamic
CRS.
-a_scale <value>
Set band scaling value. No modification of pixel values is done. Note that the -unscale does not
take into account -a_scale. You may for example specify -scale 0 1 <offset> <offset+scale> to
apply a (offset, scale) tuple, for the equivalent of the 2 steps: gdal_translate input.tif tmp.vrt
-a_scale scale -a_offset offset followed by gdal_translate tmp.vrt output.tif -unscale
New in version 2.3.
-a_offset <value>
Set band offset value. No modification of pixel values is done. Note that the -unscale does not
take into account -a_offset. You may for example specify -scale 0 1 <offset> <offset+scale> to
apply a (offset, scale) tuple, for the equivalent of the 2 steps: gdal_translate input.tif tmp.vrt
-a_scale scale -a_offset offset followed by gdal_translate tmp.vrt output.tif -unscale
New in version 2.3.
-a_ullr <ulx> <uly> <lrx> <lry>
Assign/override the georeferenced bounds of the output file. This assigns georeferenced bounds to
the output file, ignoring what would have been derived from the source file. So this does not
cause reprojection to the specified SRS. This is mutually exclusive with -a_gt
-a_gt <gt(0)> <gt(1)> <gt(2)> <gt(3)> <gt(4)> <gt(5)>
Assign/override the geotransform of the output file. This assigns the geotransform to the output
file, ignoring what would have been derived from the source file. So this does not cause
reprojection to the specified SRS. See Geotransform Tutorial. This is mutually exclusive with
-a_ullr
New in version 3.8.
-a_nodata <value>
Assign a specified nodata value to output bands. It can be set to none to avoid setting a nodata
value to the output file if one exists for the source file. Note that, if the input dataset has a
nodata value, this does not cause pixel values that are equal to that nodata value to be changed
to the value specified with this option.
-colorinterp_X <red|green|blue|alpha|gray|undefined|pan|coastal|rededge|nir|swir|mwir|lwir|...>
Override the color interpretation of band X (where X is a valid band number, starting at 1)
New in version 2.3.
-colorinterp {red|green|blue|alpha|gray|undefined|pan|coastal|rededge|nir|swir|mwir|lwir|...},...
Override the color interpretation of all specified bands. For example -colorinterp
red,green,blue,alpha for a 4 band output dataset.
New in version 2.3.
-mo <META-TAG>=<VALUE>
Passes a metadata key and value to set on the output dataset if possible.
-dmo DOMAIN:META-TAG=VALUE
Passes a metadata key and value in specified domain to set on the output dataset if possible.
New in version 3.9.
-co <NAME>=<VALUE>
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.
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.
In addition to the driver-specific creation options, gdal_translate (and GDALTranslate() and
GDALCreateCopy()) recognize the following options:
• APPEND_SUBDATASET=[YES/NO]: Defaults to NO.
Can be specified to YES to avoid prior destruction of existing dataset, for drivers that support
adding several subdatasets (e.g. GTIFF, NITF)
• COPY_SRC_MDD=[AUTO/YES/NO]: (GDAL >= 3.8) Defaults to AUTO.
Defines if metadata domains of the source dataset should be copied to the destination dataset.
In the default AUTO mode, only "safe" domains will be copied, which include the default metadata
domain (some drivers may include other domains such as IMD, RPC, GEOLOCATION). When setting
YES, all domains will be copied (but a few reserved ones like IMAGE_STRUCTURE or
DERIVED_SUBDATASETS). Currently only recognized by the GTiff, COG, VRT, PNG and JPEG drivers.
When setting NO, no source metadata will be copied.
• SRC_MDD=<domain_name>: (GDAL >= 3.8)
Defines which source metadata domain should be copied. This option restricts the list of source
metadata domains to be copied (it implies COPY_SRC_MDD=YES if it is not set). This option may be
specified as many times as they are source domains. The default metadata domain is the empty
string "" ("_DEFAULT_") may also be used when empty string is not practical). Currently only
recognized by the GTiff, COG, VRT, PNG and JPEG drivers.
-nogcp Do not copy the GCPs in the source dataset to the output dataset.
-gcp <pixel> <line> <easting> <northing> [<elevation>]
Add the indicated ground control point to the output dataset. This option may be provided
multiple times to provide a set of GCPs.
-q Suppress progress monitor and other non-error output.
-sds Copy all subdatasets of this file to individual output files. Use with formats like HDF that have
subdatasets.
-stats Force (re)computation of statistics.
-norat Do not copy source RAT into destination dataset.
-noxmp Do not copy the XMP metadata in the source dataset to the output dataset when driver is able to
copy it.
New in version 3.2.
-oo <NAME>=<VALUE>
Dataset open option (format specific)
<src_dataset>
The source dataset name. It can be either file name, URL of data source or subdataset name for
multi-dataset files.
<dst_dataset>
The destination file name.
NODATA / SOURCE VALIDITY MASK HANDLING DURING RESAMPLING
Masked values, either identified through a nodata value metadata set on the source band, a mask band, an
alpha band will not be used during resampling (when using -outsize or -tr).
The details of how it is taken into account depends on the resampling kernel:
• for nearest resampling, for each target pixel, one of the potential contributing source pixels is
selected (in an implementation specific way). Its value is used as it, be it valid or invalid.
• for bilinear, cubic, cubicspline and lanczos, for each target pixel, the weights of contributing source
pixels is set to zero to ignore them when they are masked. There is an extra specificity for cubic:
given that some of the weights in the kernel are negative, such strategy could lead to strong
overshoot/undershoot when there is an alternance of valid and invalid pixels. Consequently, if any of
the horizontal or vertical direction, if the maximum number of valid source pixels in each dimension is
less than the radius of the resampling kernel, the target pixel is considered as nodata.
• for the other resampling methods, source pixels contributing to the target pixel are ignored if masked.
Only the valid ones are taken into account. If there are none, the target pixel is considered as
nodata.
C API
This utility is also callable from C with GDALTranslate().
New in version 2.1.
EXAMPLES
gdal_translate -of GTiff -co "TILED=YES" utm.tif utm_tiled.tif
To create a JPEG-compressed TIFF with internal mask from a RGBA dataset
gdal_translate rgba.tif withmask.tif -b 1 -b 2 -b 3 -mask 4 -co COMPRESS=JPEG \
-co PHOTOMETRIC=YCBCR --config GDAL_TIFF_INTERNAL_MASK YES
To create a RGBA dataset from a RGB dataset with a mask
gdal_translate withmask.tif rgba.tif -b 1 -b 2 -b 3 -b mask
Subsetting using -projwin and -outsize:
gdal_translate -projwin -20037500 10037500 0 0 -outsize 100 100 frmt_wms_googlemaps_tms.xml junk.png
AUTHOR
Frank Warmerdam <warmerdam@pobox.com>, Silke Reimer <silke@intevation.de>
COPYRIGHT
1998-2025
Apr 01, 2025 GDAL_TRANSLATE(1)