Why the Map File Inspector Is Called iKML

iKML is two parts: the “i” of inspect, and KML.

KML is the format the tool reads most, and the one people struggle with most. It’s the Keyhole Markup Language, named after Keyhole, the company whose Earth viewer became Google Earth. Today it’s an open standard of the Open Geospatial Consortium, which is why any tool, iKML included, can read and write it freely. iKML reads KMZ and GeoJSON too, but KML is where the trouble usually starts.

i is for inspect, the first thing iKML does and the thing it’s for: look inside the file before something else imports it.

The name iKML split into its two parts: i for inspect, look before you import; KML for Keyhole Markup Language, the open OGC standard.

The lowercase “i” in front of a name has meant “internet” or “personal” in a lot of product names since the late 1990s. Here it’s simpler than that, and a little more literal. It’s the question you ask about a file someone sent you: what’s in it?

Say it letter by letter, “I-K-M-L”. The program is ikml, and the site is ikml.com.