Geospatial PDFs

A geospatial PDF contains information that is required to georeference location data. When geospatial data is imported into a PDF, Acrobat retains the geospatial coordinates. With the coordinates, you can view and interact with the PDF to find and mark location data.

Geospatial data can be either vector or raster based or a combination of both. After you import geospatial data into Acrobat, you can use the data in a variety of 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 then use them to show locations in several web mapping services.

Create geospatial PDFs

You can create a geospatial PDF in one of these ways:

• Opening a geospatially enabled TIFF (GeoTIFF) or JPEG 2000 file

• Georegistering a PDF map or scan of geospatial data

When you open an imported file, measurements, point position, and length are displayed in geographic coordinates, which you can change, measure, and mark up. You can also assemble a PDF map from a variety of 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

You can import a shapefile as a new layer to an existing PDF. The shapefile must overlap with the current PDF map. Otherwise, it is not imported. If it overlaps only partially, only the part that overlaps the current PDF is imported.

A shapefile consists of several files with differing filename extensions. Acrobat requires both the SHP file and the DBF file for importing.

Interact with geospatial PDFs

When you open a geospatially enabled PDF, you can find locations, measure distances, and add location markers. You can also copy coordinates to the clipboard for use with a web mapping service.

View the geospatial measuring tools by choosing Tools > Measure.

Use the Geospatial Location tool to perform these tasks:

• View latitude and longitude while the cursor is over an area containing geospatial information.

• Mark a location with a geospatial annotation.

• Search for a location in a document.

Find map locations

Mark geospatial locations

Measure distance, perimeter, and area on maps

When you open a geospatial PDF, the Acrobat measuring tools read the geospatial information and measure distance and area instead of page or object dimensions. Use the measurement tools to calculate distance, perimeter, and area on any geospatially enabled PDF. As you move the mouse pointer over content in the document, snap markers are shown that indicate that you are on a path or path end point. You can also see the latitude and longitude of your cursor location when the mouse pointer is 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

You can change the measurement units for all geospatial PDFs in the Preferences dialog box. Click Measuring (Geo) from the Categories section.

Adds a label to a geospatial measurement. When Enable Measurement Markup is selected, choose Use Label, and then type a label for measurements.

Select the path parts to which you want measurements to snap to.

Determines how latitude and longitude values are calculated. Choose Decimal to display latitude and longitude as a decimal fraction. Choose Degrees, Minutes, Seconds to divide each degree of longitude into 60 minutes, each of which is divided into 60 seconds.

Choose between Signed and Named. Named direction displays an N (north) or S (south) next to the Latitude, and an E (east) and W (west) for Longitude.

Select to ensure that latitude and longitude use the current standard reference frame for earth (World Geodetic System 1984). For older maps that were drawn with an earlier grid (such as NAD 1927), you can deselect this option to see the original values. When an older map is registered in its native coordinates, coordinate positions can be different from current standards used in GPS devices and web mapping services.

Select the measurement unit to use.

Area can be measured using a different unit from distance.

Raster image formats include a transparency layer that you can choose to remove.

Export location and measurement markups

You can export geospatial location and measurement data to an FDF file. Each geospatial annotation has a GPTS entry. The entry corresponds to the latitude and longitude for each of the annotation points. The types of information that can be exported include the following:

• Marked locations entered by using the Geospatial Location tool

• Distance, perimeter (compound distance), and area measurements entered by using the Measurement tool over geospatial content

Geospatial data can be exported by using the Comments List panel.