Loading raster files

Loading raster files is not much different from loading vector files. Going to Layer | Add Layer | Add Raster Layer, clicking on the Add Raster Layer button, or pressing the Ctrl + Shift + R shortcut will take you directly to the file-opening dialog. Again, you can check the file type filter to see a list of supported file types.

Let's give it a try and load landcover.img from the raster sample data folder. Similarly to vector files, you can load rasters by dragging them into QGIS from the operating system or the built-in file browser. The following screenshot shows the loaded raster layer:

Note

Support for all of these different vector and raster file types in QGIS is handled by the powerful GDAL/OGR package. You can check out the full list of supported formats at www.gdal.org/formats_list.html (for rasters) and http://www.gdal.org/ogr_formats.html (for vectors).

Georeferencing raster maps

Some raster data sources, such as simple scanned maps, lack proper spatial referencing...