How to extract text from your HGT file
- Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your HGT file.
- You’ll see a preview, if available.
- Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.
Convert HGT to another file type
To convert your HGT file to another format, you need QGIS or other GIS software.
- HGT to TIFF
- HGT to DEM
- HGT to PNG
- HGT to SHP
- HGT to KML
- HGT to KMZ
- HGT to GPX
- HGT to GEOJSON
- HGT to TOPOJSON
- HGT to TIF
- HGT to ECW
- HGT to SID
Convert a file to HGT
To convert other file formats to the "SRTM Height Data" file type, you need software like QGIS or a similar tool.
- LAZ to HGT
- KMZ to HGT
- DTM to HGT
- CSV to HGT
- DEM to HGT
- PRJ to HGT
- LAS to HGT
- GPX to HGT
- DSM to HGT
- SHP to HGT
- DBF to HGT
- KML to HGT
About HGT files
The .HGT file format stores raw elevation data derived from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). Each file represents a 1x1 degree tile of the Earth's surface, containing a grid of 16-bit signed integers that correspond to height values in meters. While invaluable for terrain modeling and scientific analysis, working with .HGT files presents significant friction for non-experts. The data is stored in a raw binary format (Big Endian) with no header information, meaning standard image viewers and text editors cannot open or interpret them. Furthermore, users often struggle with the strict coordinate-based naming convention (e.g., N34W118.hgt) and the need to merge multiple small files to cover a specific region of interest. To make this data usable for visualizations, 3D printing, or general mapping, it is highly recommended to convert .HGT files. For broad compatibility with GIS applications like QGIS or ArcGIS, convert to GeoTIFF or DEM. For data analysis in spreadsheet software, convert to CSV or TXT. For 3D modeling and printing of terrain, converting to STL or OBJ is essential.
Convert.Guru analyzes your HGT file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted ZIP, TIF, PNG, DEM, SVP, P7S, XAPK, CRDOWNLOAD and TIFF files.
The HGT Converter Story
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our HGT converter.