MapInfo MIF/MID

MIF/MID is MapInfo's text interchange format: geometry and column definitions live in the .mif file, and the attribute values themselves in the .mid, line by line. The format is documented and readable in an ordinary text editor, which is why it has been used for decades as a neutral go-between for GIS: MapInfo Pro, QGIS, Global Mapper and FME read it without plugins.

In Russia MIF/MID is still found in municipal and cadastral workflows: development, boundary and road network layers are accepted and issued in it. Exporting OSM into this format saves you from digitizing the base by hand — the data arrives right away in the shape the receiving side opens natively.

The output is a ZIP archive: a pair of .mif and .mid files per layer plus a README.txt naming the coordinate system. The pairs must be kept together: without the .mid the layer opens with no attributes. Coordinates are in WGS84 (EPSG:4326) by default, and another projection can be chosen at export time. The files are built by the ogr2ogr utility in MapInfo File mode with an explicit FORMAT=MIF, and if a layer fails to convert it is honestly marked as failed — the service does not slip you a binary TAB under a .mif name.