STAC 1.0/1.1 — JSON catalog standard for geo assets: Catalog→Collection→Item→Asset hierarchy, STAC API on top of OGC Features, pystac and stac-fastapi tooling.
SpatiaLite by Alessandro Furieri 2008: SQLite extension with WKB BLOB, R-Tree, ST_* functions, single-file spatial database.
PSD from Adobe 1990: layered raster, blend modes, smart objects, .psd vs .psb, cartographic editorial pipeline.
Deep guide to Shapefile: 1998 ESRI format, mini-zoo of 4–6 files, 2 GB limit, 10-character column names. When you're forced to export it.
Deep guide to PNG (Portable Network Graphics): what's inside the W3C chunked format, the history of replacing GIF, which programs open it, pros and cons. How to get a raster PNG map from any OpenStreetMap area at 72-300 DPI in 30 seconds.
PMTiles is a single-file Protomaps container for vector/raster tiles with HTTP range request reading: serverless map hosting without a tileserver on CloudFlare R2/S3/GitHub Pages.
PLY is the Stanford Polygon File format by Greg Turk (1994): ASCII/binary, per-vertex attributes; standard for point clouds, photogrammetry, 3D scanning, MeshLab.
OsmAnd OBF is the proprietary binary format for OsmAnd Maps & Navigation: multi-zoom indexing, routing graph, POI; standard for offline maps in the open-source nav app since 2010.
OSM XML from OpenStreetMap 2004: nodes/ways/relations + tags, Overpass API, JOSM editor, .osm vs .pbf trade-off.
José Vázquez's OruxMaps for Android: own .map format with manifest + raster tiles, OziExplorer .ozf compatibility, MBTiles support. Free outdoor navigator for hikers.
The ASAM XML standard for lane-level road networks, read by CARLA, IPG CarMaker and NVIDIA DriveSim. Plus: export a ready .xodr for your own area from OpenStreetMap.
OBJ deep dive: line-based ASCII from Wavefront Technologies, .mtl companion materials, OSM building extrusion via building:levels, opening in Blender and Maya.