Geospatial PDFs

A geospatial PDF includes information to reference location data. When you import geospatial data into Acrobat, it keeps the location coordinates, allowing you to view and interact with the PDF to find and mark locations.

Geospatial data can be vector or raster-based or a mix of both. After importing the data, you can use it in various ways:

• Find and mark location coordinates.
• Measure distance, perimeter, and area.
• Change the coordinate system and measurement units.
• Copy location coordinates to the clipboard and use them in web mapping services to show locations.

Create geospatial PDFs

You can create a geospatial PDF using any of these methods:

• Open a geospatially enabled TIFF (GeoTIFF) or JPEG 2000 file.
• Georegister a PDF map or scan of geospatial data.

Once you import a file, you'll see measurements, point positions, and lengths displayed in geographic coordinates. You have the option to modify, measure, and annotate them. Additionally, you can compile a PDF map from various sources.

Open GeoTIFF and JPEG 2000 files

GeoTIFF files and JPEG 2000 files are raster images that you can import as new documents or as new layers to an existing document. Acrobat preserves the geospatial coordinates embedded in the file. These files retain their geospatial data when they are imported. If you import these files to existing documents, their coordinate system is converted to the coordinate system of the document.

Import shapefiles

To add a shapefile as a new layer to your PDF, it must overlap with the current PDF map. If there's no overlap, it won't be imported. If it partially overlaps, only the overlapping part is imported.

A shapefile comprises multiple files with various filename extensions. When importing into Acrobat, make sure to include both the SHP file and the DBF file.

Interact with geospatial PDFs

When you open a geospatially enabled PDF, you can do the following:

• Find locations, measure distances, and add location markers.
• Copy coordinates to the clipboard for use with a web mapping service.

To access the geospatial measuring tools, from the All tools menu, select Measure objects > Geospatial location tools.

Utilize the Geospatial Location tool for the following tasks:

• View latitude and longitude when the cursor is over an area with geospatial information.
• Add a geospatial annotation to mark a specific location.
• Search for a location within the document.

Find map locations

Measure distance, perimeter, and area on maps

When you open a geospatial PDF, Acrobat's measuring tools read geospatial information and calculate distances and areas based on the actual geography, not just the page or object dimensions. You can use these tools to measure distance, perimeter, and area on any geospatially enabled PDF.

As you move the mouse pointer over the document's content, snap markers appear, indicating when you are on a path or path endpoint. Additionally, the latitude and longitude of your cursor location are displayed when it hovers over geospatial content.

Copy location coordinates to the clipboard for use with a web mapping service

After you find a location on a geospatial PDF, you can copy the coordinates to the clipboard. From the clipboard, you can paste the data into a web mapping service that reads latitude and longitude coordinates.

Change measurement units within a document

To change the type of measurement units, right-click inside the map with the Measuring tool and choose Distance Unit or Area Unit. Then select a measurement type.

Change geospatial measuring preferences

To change measurement units for all geospatial PDFs, go to  > Preferences > Measuring (Geo).

Here are some useful options that you can set:

• Enable Measurement Markup: Adds labels to geospatial measurements. Select "Use Label" to add custom labels.
• Snap Settings: Choose which path parts the measurements should snap to.
• Display value as: Decide how latitude and longitude values are shown. Choose Decimal for decimal fractions or Degrees, Minutes, Seconds for more traditional notation.
• Display direction as: Choose between Signed (N/S, E/W) or Named (North/South, East/West) directions for latitude and longitude.
• Always display latitude and longitude as WGS 1984: This ensures that latitude and longitude use the current standard reference frame for Earth (World Geodetic System 1984). You can unselect this option for older maps drawn with different grids.
• Use default distance unit: Select the default unit for distance measurements.
• Use default area unit: Choose a different unit for area measurements compared to distance.
• Don’t show transparency layer in GeoTIFF and JPEG 2000 images: Allows you to remove the transparency layer from raster images like GeoTIFF and JPEG 2000.

With these settings, you can customize your geospatial measurements in Acrobat for better accuracy and convenience.

Export location and measurement markups

You can export geospatial location and measurement data to an FDF file. Each geospatial annotation contains a GPTS entry representing its latitude and longitude. You can export the following types of information:

• Marked locations made with the Geospatial Location tool.
• Distance, perimeter (compound distance), and area measurements taken with the Measurement tool over geospatial content.

To export geospatial data:

1. Go to the comments panel.
2. To export all comments, select  > Export All To Data File.
3. To export a subset of the comments, select them, and select   > Export Selected To Data File. Enter the filename and select Save. The FDF file will be saved.