GeoPackage (GPKG)

GeoPackage is an OGC standard adopted in 2014. Under the hood it is an ordinary SQLite database in which layers, geometry and metadata are laid out by the standard's rules. A single .gpkg file can hold any number of vector layers, rasters, styles and tables without geometry.

It was devised as the replacement for the shapefile, and it cured all of its ailments: field names of any length, UTF-8 with no tricks, no set of companion files that must never be separated, and no two-gigabyte limit. Today GeoPackage is the default format in QGIS and the standard exchange unit in many organizations.

Each map layer becomes a separate table with its own OpenStreetMap attributes and a spatial index that is built automatically. Coordinates are WGS84 (EPSG:4326). All of it in one file: convenient to send, to put in the cloud or to take with you into the field.

You can also work with it as a database: a .gpkg opens in any SQLite client, and ordinary SQL queries apply to the layers.