Add a raster layer into QGIS

This page shows you how to open a raster export (such as aerial imagery) in QGIS, the free and open-source desktop GIS. The steps are for QGIS 3.

You can also skip the export: the Koordinates plugin for QGIS lets you search for Koordinates data and add it to your QGIS project directly. See Installing the Koordinates QGIS plugin and Including Koordinates datasets in QGIS projects.

1. Export your chosen raster layer

   Select Map on the card for your chosen raster dataset, then select Export in the map viewer. Choose a file format, such as GeoTIFF, then select Create Export and download the .zip file. See The export page.

   A raster export usually contains several image tiles. Together, these tiles cover the area you exported. The .zip file also contains extra files that help GIS software arrange the tiles correctly.

2. Extract your download to a new folder

   Extract the .zip file into a new folder. Keep all the files together in the same folder.

3. Open QGIS

4. Add the raster tiles

   From the Layer menu, select Add Layer > Add Raster Layer. Browse to the folder that contains the image tiles, select all the images, then select Add.

   The tiles are added to your map as separate layers.

5. Zoom to your data

   In the Layers panel, right-click one of the tiles and select Layer CRS > Set Project CRS from Layer.

   To keep the tiles together, right-click in the Layers panel, select Add Group, and drag the tile layers into the new group. Then right-click the group and select Zoom to Group.

   Now you can use the zoom and pan tools to find the area you’re interested in.

   

6. Save as an image

   From the Project menu, select Import/Export > Export Map to Image to save the current view as an image file.

   To add a title, legend, scale bar and other map elements before printing, use a QGIS print layout.

   In our example, our final image looks like this: