Shapefile Viewer
Free, private and fast: everything runs in your browser and your Shapefile files are never uploaded.
Why use an online shapefile viewer
Someone sends you a shapefile and you just want to see what is in it: where the features are, what the attribute table holds and which coordinate system it uses. Installing QGIS or ArcGIS for that is a lot of effort. This viewer opens the shapefile in your browser, draws it on a map and lists the attribute table with every field name and field type. Click a row to zoom to that feature, or click a feature on the map to find its row in the table. The files are read with GDAL, the same open-source library QGIS uses, and nothing is uploaded, so the viewer is safe for client data and confidential plans. If you also need the data in a web format, one click saves it as GeoJSON.
How to open a shapefile online
- Drop a .zip with the shapefile, or select the .shp, .shx, .dbf and .prj files together.
- Look at the features on the map and scroll through the attribute table below it.
- Optionally click Download as GeoJSON to save a copy in WGS84.
What to know about opening shapefiles
A shapefile is several files
The .shp file holds only the shapes. The attributes live in the .dbf file, the .shx file is the index that links the two, and the .prj file says where on Earth the coordinates belong. The viewer needs at least .shp, .shx and .dbf with the same name. Spatial index files such as .sbn, .sbx or .qix are optional and simply ignored. In a .zip the viewer finds the parts on its own, even when they sit in a subfolder.
When the .prj file is missing
Without a .prj the viewer cannot know which coordinate system the numbers are in. If they look like longitude and latitude, it assumes WGS84 and draws the map. Otherwise it asks for the EPSG code, for example EPSG:2263 for New York State Plane Long Island in US feet or EPSG:27700 for the British National Grid. The attribute table works either way.
Short field names and field types
Each column header shows the field name and the type GDAL reads from the .dbf, such as String, Integer, Integer64, Real or Date. Shapefile field names can be at most 10 characters long, which is why so many shapefiles have abbreviated columns like POP_2020 or DESCRIPTIO.
Big shapefiles
To keep the page responsive, the map draws up to 20,000 features per layer and the table lists the first 1,000 rows. The counts above the table always show the full number of features, and the GeoJSON download contains all of them.
Garbled letters in the table
A .cpg file tells which text encoding the .dbf uses. When it is missing, the encoding comes from a code in the .dbf header, which some programs leave out or set wrongly. Names with letters such as é, ñ or ø may then look odd in the table. The data itself is not damaged; add a .cpg file with the right encoding, for example UTF-8 or 1252, and open the shapefile again.
About the formats
Shapefile
The Esri Shapefile is the most widely used GIS vector format. A single "shapefile" is really a set of files with the same name: .shp holds the geometry, .shx an index, .dbf the attribute table, and the optional .prj the coordinate system and .cpg the text encoding.
- Needs at least .shp, .shx and .dbf. Upload them together or as one .zip.
- Field names are limited to 10 characters and text values to 254 characters.
- Each shapefile holds one geometry type only: points, lines or polygons.
- Without a .prj file the coordinate system is unknown.
GeoJSON
GeoJSON is a plain-text JSON format for geographic features, standardized as RFC 7946 in 2016. It is the native format of web maps such as Leaflet, MapLibre and Mapbox, and of many APIs.
- Coordinates are WGS84 longitude, latitude (in that order).
- Points, lines and polygons can be mixed in one file.
- Properties can be any JSON value, with no limit on field name length.
Frequently asked questions
Is my shapefile uploaded to a server?
No. Your browser reads the files from your own disk and draws the map itself. Nothing is sent to FileReshape or anyone else.
Can I open a shapefile without ArcGIS or QGIS?
Yes. This page shows the geometry and the attributes without any software to install, on Windows, Mac, Linux, Chromebooks and tablets. For editing you still need a GIS program; QGIS is free.
Can I view several shapefiles at once?
Yes. Put them in one .zip, or select all their parts together. Every shapefile is drawn on the same map, and a list above the table lets you switch between their attribute tables.
Can I edit the attributes or the shapes?
No, the viewer is read-only, so it cannot damage your files. Use QGIS or ArcGIS to edit.
Why is the background map blank?
The background map comes from OpenFreeMap. If it is blocked by a firewall or an ad blocker, your features are still drawn on a plain background, and the table works as usual.
What does the GeoJSON download contain?
Every feature with all its attributes, reprojected to WGS84 longitude and latitude as the GeoJSON standard requires. With several shapefiles you get a .zip with one GeoJSON file each.