Kml on ikml.com

iKML 0.1 Shows What Is Inside a KML, KMZ or GeoJSON File Before You Import It

Sun, 25 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Somebody sends you a map file. A KMZ from a drone pilot, a KML export from Google My Maps, a GeoJSON layer from a city’s open data portal. You open it in QGIS, or upload it to a web map, and something is off: a few points are missing, a polygon doesn’t draw, the icons are grey squares, half the attribute columns are gone. Nothing told you why.

iKML 0.1 tells you first. It opens KML, KMZ and GeoJSON files, shows what’s inside them, flags what’s broken, explains exactly what a conversion to another format will lose, and writes a cleaned copy with a list of every change.

Swapped Latitude and Longitude Sends Points to the Wrong Side of the World

Sun, 25 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

KML writes every position as longitude first, then latitude: 34.78,32.08 is a point in Tel Aviv. Most people say coordinates the other way round, “latitude, longitude”, because that’s how maps and phones show them. So when somebody types a few points into a KML file by hand, or a script builds one from a spreadsheet with the columns in the wrong order, the numbers go in backwards.

The file is still valid. Every number is in range. It opens without an error. And every point lands somewhere else entirely: 32.08,34.78 read as longitude 32.08, latitude 34.78 is in the sea just off the west coast of Cyprus. Swap the numbers for Zurich and you get a point in the Horn of Africa.

What KML, KMZ and GeoJSON Are and Why Map Files Lose Data on Import

Sun, 25 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Most map data that moves between people moves in one of three formats. They look interchangeable, and every tool converts between them. They aren’t interchangeable, which is why so much goes missing on the way.

KML: Built for an Earth Viewer

KML, the Keyhole Markup Language, was made for the program that became Google Earth. Keyhole, the company, was bought by Google in 2004. Google later handed the format to the Open Geospatial Consortium, and KML 2.2 became an OGC standard in 2008.