BigTIFF Explained: Next-Gen GeoTIFF for Large Raster Data
- Anvita Shrivastava
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
The GeoTIFF format has been a primary format for geospatial raster storage — flexible, open, and widely used. But as images increase in resolution and pixel count, traditional GeoTIFFs hit a significant wall — the 4 GB limit. To overcome that, the community created BigTIFF, a new GeoTIFF format that can store extremely large datasets.
Although BigTIFF fixes the size limitation, it adds new performance and compatibility issues — two areas where MrSID, a proprietary format created by LizardTech, has proven.
What is BigTIFF?
BigTIFF is an expansion of the traditional TIFF and GeoTIFF formats that uses 64-bit file offsets to create datasets larger than 4 GB in size. In theory, raster datasets can reach 18 exabytes with BigTIFF, which allows for the storage of even the largest Earth observation datasets.
Increased size comes with some costs, though—more storage required, slower I/O speeds, and limited compatibility with existing (and legacy) systems—areas where MrSID had provided a more efficient solution for many years.
The Importance of BigTIFF
BigTIFF is an important step to advance open-source geospatial workflows, as it allows:
The process of ultra-large rasters greater than 4 GB.
Access modern GIS libraries, GDAL, and Rasterio.
Store uncompressed or losslessly compressed imagery.
For example:
gdal_translate input.tif output_big.tif -co BIGTIFF=YES
This command enables BigTIFF output seamlessly.
However, even with compression, BigTIFF files can grow massive — sometimes hundreds of gigabytes. That’s where MrSID offers a smarter path.
Disadvantages of BigTIFF
While BigTIFF addresses the 4 GB limitation of standard GeoTIFFs, it has its disadvantages. Notable cons include:
Huge File Sizes
BigTIFF supports files much beyond 4 GB; it creates very large files (tens/hundreds of GB).
Large files have increased storage needs, complicate the backup process, and extend the transfer time.
Slower Read / Write I/O Times
When comparing other optimized formats like MrSID or Cloud-Optimized GeoTIFF (COG) to read and write large raster files, you can find degraded performance.
Disk-based I/O or memory usage may introduce bottlenecks in processing, especially for laptops/inadequate hardware.
Limited Compression Advantages
Although BigTIFF has a few types of compression that meet standard TIFF compression (i.e., LZW, DEFLATE, and ZSTD), it is relatively efficient with respect to wavelet-based formats like MrSID.
For datasets that are ultra-large, you will need to decide whether a larger file size will still save you overall storage costs.
Lack of Compatibility
Not all GIS or remote sensing tools are consistently compatible with BigTIFF, especially outdated or older tools.
Older software may have difficulty opening or processing BigTIFF and ultimately requires a conversion of that data instead.
The Case for MrSID
While BigTIFF offers capacity for massive image datasets, MrSID delivers true optimization. Designed for scalability and high performance, MrSID efficiently handles large raster files. By converting your BigTIFFs into MrSID, you can combine the storage power of BigTIFF with the speed and efficiency of MrSID.
Better compression
MrSID uses a wavelet-based compression algorithm to decrease file sizes to as much as 95% smaller than the uncompressed version of a GeoTIFF image, which not only saves costs for storage but also allows for better efficiencies in sharing them around.
Multi-resolution access
Whereas BigTIFF stores raster data in a single resolution, MrSID stores multiple resolutions in the same file, allowing GIS software to quickly load and render a low-resolution preview and intuitively zoom in, allowing GIS raster datasets to be effectively used for mapping on the web, in mobile GIS, and for cloud streaming GIS applications.
Fast and efficient
It is faster to load MrSIDs than BigTIFF images for the same reasons listed above (i.e., random access and streaming) even over a network. Users are able to view only the part of the image in the file they want without reading (decoding) the whole file.
Enterprise-ready integration
MrSID is fully supported in Esri ArcGIS, ERDAS Imagine, ENVI, and Extensis Express Server, making it a go-to format for institutional organizations.
BigTIFF has made a significant advance in the development of open raster formats by surpassing the 4 GB barrier, allowing modern GIS workflows to handle very large datasets.
Yet, for organizations focused on storage optimization, speed-of-use, and scaling up, MrSID is the better and more efficient solution. With its superior compression, multi-resolution architecture, and seamless integration into enterprise-level GIS software, MrSID remains the standard for managing next-generation spatial imagery.
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