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KMZ
What is a KMZ file?
A KML file plus its images and icons, zipped into one file.
What KMZ is
KMZ is a container: a wrapper that holds streams encoded by something else. It is used for mapping.
The extension is .kmz, and the full name is Zipped KML. Both matter less than what the file can hold, which is what the rest of this page is about.
Where KMZ came from
Open Geospatial Consortium published it in 2008. The specification is OGC KML 2.3.
Age is worth knowing here for one practical reason: the older a format is, the more programs have had time to learn it.
The specification is public
Anyone can implement it without asking permission or paying a licence, which is why it turns up in so many programs and why files written twenty years ago still open.
Nothing is thrown away
KMZ stores its content exactly. Saving it again changes nothing, so it can be opened, edited and re-saved as often as you like without accumulating damage — which is what makes it a working format rather than a delivery one.
It can hold a whole folder
KMZ stores a directory: names, folders and the structure between them. That is what lets it stand in for a folder in an email attachment.
What opens KMZ
Google Earth and QGIS read it, and so do most programs of the same kind.
If a file will not open, the format is rarely the problem — it is more often that the program predates it. Converting to something older is the reliable way past that, and it is what the rest of this site is for.
Opening it in a browser
No browser reads it.
That is the single most common reason to convert it: not that the format is bad, but that the place you want to show the file cannot read it.
It is a working format
KMZ is meant to be opened and changed. Keep the file in this format for as long as the work is going on, and export from it whenever a finished copy is needed.
The facts, in one place
| Extension | .kmz |
|---|---|
| Media type | application/vnd.google-earth.kmz |
| Published by | Open Geospatial Consortium |
| First published | 2008 |
| Specification | OGC KML 2.3 |