GeoJSON originated in the open-source geospatial community, with an initial specification published at geojson.org on 16 June 2008 as a lightweight, web-friendly alternative to XML-based geospatial formats. As adoption grew across spatial databases, web mapping APIs, and open-data platforms, the IETF formed a working group with the original authors to formalize the format, and the result, RFC 7946, was published in August 2016, replacing the 2008 specification as the authoritative reference and defining application\/geo+json as the format’s media type.<\/p>\n
Per RFC 7946, a GeoJSON document is plain JSON text describing Point, LineString, Polygon, and their Multi- variants (or a GeometryCollection), wrapped in Feature or FeatureCollection objects carrying arbitrary properties, and always expressed in WGS84 longitude\/latitude decimal degrees. There is no companion index file, no separate projection file, and no binary encoding \u2014 everything the geometry and attributes need is inside one readable text file.<\/p>\n
That plain-text, single-file, standards-defined structure is exactly why GeoJSON is one of the easiest GIS formats to manage inside a DAM: it can be stored, indexed, previewed, and even diffed like any other text-based asset, and its properties object maps naturally onto a DAM’s own metadata fields without a translation layer. Compared with shapefile’s multi-file bundle or KML’s occasional external image references, GeoJSON has nothing to lose track of.<\/p>\n
The tradeoff is scale: GeoJSON has no spatial index, so very large feature collections can be slow to parse and render, which is why a DAM handling sizable GIS datasets often offers a GeoPackage export alongside the GeoJSON original for anything beyond simple web-mapping use.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GeoJSON is a plain-text, JSON-based format defined by IETF RFC 7946 for encoding geographic features, their properties, and geometry using the WGS84 coordinate system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":"","faq":[{"question":"What standard defines GeoJSON today?","answer":"IETF RFC 7946, \"The GeoJSON Format,\" published in August 2016, which replaced the original 2008 community specification and fixed WGS84 as the coordinate reference system."},{"question":"Why is GeoJSON easy to manage in a DAM compared to Shapefile?","answer":"It's a single plain-text JSON file with no companion index, projection, or attribute files to keep synchronized, so a DAM can store, version, and preview it as one self-contained asset."},{"question":"Can GeoJSON store custom attribute data?","answer":"Yes, each Feature carries a properties object that can hold arbitrary key-value pairs, which maps naturally onto a DAM's own custom metadata fields."},{"question":"What coordinate system does GeoJSON use?","answer":"RFC 7946 mandates WGS84 with coordinates expressed as longitude and latitude in decimal degrees, so there's no ambiguity or separate projection file to check."},{"question":"Is GeoJSON good for very large datasets in a DAM?","answer":"It has no built-in spatial index, so very large feature collections can be slow to parse and render; a GeoPackage export is often better for large-scale datasets."},{"question":"What file extension and media type does GeoJSON use?","answer":"Files typically use the .geojson (or sometimes .json) extension, and RFC 7946 defines application\/geo+json as the official internet media type."},{"question":"Can a DAM preview a GeoJSON file without GIS software?","answer":"Yes, because it's plain JSON, lightweight web viewers like geojson.io or any Leaflet\/Mapbox-based renderer can display it directly in a browser preview."},{"question":"Can GeoJSON be converted to Shapefile or GeoPackage?","answer":"Yes, GDAL\/OGR's ogr2ogr converts GeoJSON to and from Shapefile, GeoPackage, KML, and other common vector formats."}],"checked_date":"2026-08-07","sources":[{"statement":"RFC 7946 published August 2016 by the IETF, defines application\/geo+json media type and WGS84 coordinate system","source_name":"IETF Datatracker \u2014 RFC 7946","url":"https:\/\/datatracker.ietf.org\/doc\/html\/rfc7946","checked":"2026-08-07"},{"statement":"Original GeoJSON specification published 16 June 2008, later replaced by RFC 7946","source_name":"geojson\/geojson-spec (original 2008 specification repository)","url":"https:\/\/github.com\/geojson\/geojson-spec","checked":"2026-08-07"}],"kicker":"","fact_checker":0,"reading_time":0,"revisions":[],"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","noindex":false,"ext":"geojson","full_name":"GeoJSON","vendor_name":"Originally a community specification (geojson.org, 2008); standardized by the IETF as RFC 7946","introduced":"Original community specification published 16 June 2008; standardized as IETF RFC 7946 in August 2016","container_notes":"A GeoJSON file is ordinary JSON text: a single Feature or FeatureCollection object holding geometry (Point, LineString, Polygon, and their Multi- variants, or GeometryCollection) plus arbitrary key-value properties. RFC 7946 fixes the coordinate reference system to WGS84 with longitude\/latitude in decimal degrees and defines application\/geo+json as its media type, so there is no companion projection file or index file to keep track of the way there is with Shapefile.","open_with":[{"platform":"Desktop GIS","how":"QGIS opens GeoJSON directly as a vector layer"},{"platform":"Text\/code editor","how":"Any plain-text or code editor can open and edit GeoJSON since it is standard JSON syntax"},{"platform":"Web","how":"geojson.io renders and edits GeoJSON directly in the browser"},{"platform":"Command line","how":"GDAL\/OGR's ogr2ogr converts GeoJSON to and from Shapefile, KML, and GeoPackage"}],"archive_advice":"GeoJSON archives cleanly as a single UTF-8 text file with no companion-file dependencies, making it straightforward for a DAM to store, version, diff, and index directly; for very large datasets, consider pairing the GeoJSON with a GeoPackage export, since GeoJSON has no built-in indexing and large files can be slow to parse and render at scale.","related":[],"tool_link":""},"silo":[23],"class_list":["post-2998","format","type-format","status-publish","hentry","silo-formats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/picajet.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/format\/2998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/picajet.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/format"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/picajet.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/format"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/picajet.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/format\/2998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3283,"href":"https:\/\/picajet.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/format\/2998\/revisions\/3283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/picajet.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"silo","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/picajet.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/silo?post=2998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}