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Data format

WKT converter

A .wkt file holds Well-Known Text: geometry written as a compact human-readable string, such as POINT (30 10) or POLYGON ((30 10, 40 40, 20 40, 30 10)). It describes shape only — there are no attributes, no styling and no feature collection wrapper.

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Convert supported files

Runs on your device

Drop WKT files here

Batch files can each use a different output. Nothing uploads for local conversions.

Working inputs include camera RAW, browser-local audio/video, PDF, CBZ/CBR comics, office documents, ebooks, markup, 3D models, structured text, images, and archives.

Where WKT comes from

Well-Known Text was defined by the Open Geospatial Consortium in its Simple Features specification in the 1990s, alongside the binary WKB form, as the interchange representation for spatial databases. It became ubiquitous through PostGIS, Oracle Spatial and SQL Server, where it is how a human types a geometry into a query — which remains its dominant use.

How WKT works

  • Geometry types are POINT, LINESTRING, POLYGON, their MULTI- variants, and GEOMETRYCOLLECTION.
  • Coordinates are space-separated within a pair and comma-separated between pairs — the opposite of most formats.
  • Z and M suffixes add elevation and measure dimensions to a geometry.
  • EWKT, a PostGIS extension, prefixes SRID=4326; to declare a coordinate reference system, which plain WKT cannot express.
  • Polygons list an exterior ring first, then any interior rings as holes.

When to use WKT

  • Typing or reading a geometry directly in a spatial SQL query
  • Exchanging a single shape between spatial databases
  • Defining a bounding box or clipping region by hand
  • Converting a database geometry into a web-mappable format

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

  • Compact and genuinely readable for simple geometry
  • Understood natively by every spatial database
  • Text-based, so it embeds cleanly in SQL and configuration

Limitations

  • No attributes, no styling and no way to group features
  • Plain WKT cannot declare its coordinate reference system
  • Verbose and unreadable for geometry with many vertices

Compatibility

Supported by PostGIS, Oracle Spatial, SQL Server, GDAL, Shapely and JTS. Web mapping libraries expect GeoJSON. Novus Convert parses WKT and bounded EWKT locally, validating coordinates and dimensions, and converts to GeoJSON.

Geometry and dimensionality are preserved, along with an EWKT SRID where one is present. There are no attributes in the format to carry.

Convert WKT to another format

Convert other formats to WKT