This question already has an answer here:

How do I combine a .tif file with a .tfw file to create a GeoTiff? There are many answers telling me to use gdal, but I have no clue. So can someone provide a step by step example of how to do this please?

marked as duplicate by Chris W, Michael Stimson, Vince, Fezter, PolyGeo Jul 1 '14 at 1:54


  • I understand this is a duplicate question, in fact there are many duplicates. Can you tell us why you have a problem with GDAL? Is it that you're unsure about command line? – Michael Stimson Jun 30 '14 at 23:34
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    You should edit your prior question rather than re-asking it. If one of the answers there suggested using gdal and you wanted to go that route, you could comment on that answer to request step-by-step instructions and the answerer could then edit their answer with more detail. As it stands, an answer was given for ArcGIS at your first question as both an answer and a comment referring to another question where the same answer was given. There was also a link to yet another question that has an explanation of what the tfw file is. – Chris W Jul 1 '14 at 0:02
  • @MichaelMiles-Stimson Yes, that's why. I searched online for examples or explanations but everything I find just tells me a line of code that I should use, though I don't know how to get started. Thanks for your answer below, I'll give it a shot. – interactivemaps Jul 1 '14 at 15:24

If you're scared or unsure about using command line tools like GDAL_Translate then there are other ways to do this.

If you have Esri products then you can use Raster to Other Format or Copy Raster, you can even export the image from ArcMap just by right clicking on the layer and select export then fill in the blanks and select GeoTiff.

If you want to use GDAL to do this then I recommend downloading and installing QGIS. This will give you a menu to export, which is just building the command line for GDAL_Translate. Go to the raster menu, select translate and a menu will come up: enter image description here

Notice at the bottom is the GDAL_Translate command. This is from version 1.8, the new one might look a little different. There is also an option for batch mode which will convert a folder full of rasters!
