.KML

Introduction

KML is the format of Google Earth: places, paths and areas to show on a map or globe, with names, descriptions, icons and colours. It was created by Keyhole, the company whose viewer became Google Earth, and became an Open Geospatial Consortium standard, KML 2.2, in 2008. Google My Maps and many GPS and mapping tools import and export it.

A .kmz file is a ZIP archive holding a KML file, usually named doc.kml, together with the images and other files it uses.

Structure

KML is XML. The root element is <kml> in the namespace http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2, usually holding one <Document>. Inside it, <Folder> elements group <Placemark> elements, and each placemark has a name, a description and a geometry: <Point>, <LineString>, <Polygon> or <MultiGeometry>.

Coordinates are written in a <coordinates> element as longitude,latitude,altitude triples separated by spaces, in WGS 84. <Style> elements set icons, line colours and fills, and <GroundOverlay> drapes an image over the ground.

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