--- title: 'Adding ECW support in QGIS' url: 'https://www.faunalia.eu/en/blog/2019-05-21_ecw_support' markdown: 'https://www.faunalia.eu/en/blog/2019-05-21_ecw_support.md' lang: en date: '2018-05-21' description: 'Adding ECW support in QGIS' taxonomy: category: - blog tag: - qgis - ecw archives_month: - may_2018 archives_year: - '2018' --- [ Faunalia ](https://www.faunalia.eu/en) [ Blog ](https://www.faunalia.eu/en/blog) Adding ECW support in QGIS ## [Adding ECW support in QGIS](https://www.faunalia.eu/en/blog/2019-05-21_ecw_support) 21st May 2018 [qgis](https://www.faunalia.eu/en/blog/tag:qgis) [ecw](https://www.faunalia.eu/en/blog/tag:ecw) # ECW Support in QGIS The following instructions are deprecated for QGIS 3. The support is enabled by default on Windows, and probably no longer necessary on other Operating Systems. For all your needs on GIS data management, do not hesitate [contacting us](mailto:info@faunalia.eu?subject=ecw-support). Proprietary (closed) formats are a pain in the a\_s for both users and developers of Open Source software. The ECW format is a common format for imagery in GIS software, but unfortunately to read/write it you will need closed (and paid) libraries. Long story short: the latest version of this libraries (that allow to read, but not write ECWs) are free of charge but are not redistributable, this means that cannot be shipped together with software packages like QGIS. The good news is that are still available old libraries from the times when the ECW format was owned (and developed) by a company that used a more permissive license. So: **On Windows**: - install Quantum GIS with the osgeo4w installer - install this package `http://www.gisinternals.com/sdk/Download.aspx?file=release-1600-gdal-1-9-2-mapserver-6-2-0\gdal-19-1600-ecw.msi` - go inside `c:\program files\gdal” and “c:\program files\gdal\gdalplugin`s and pick two `.dlls` `libecwj2.dll` and `gdal_ECW_JP2ECW.dll` - copy `libecwj2.dll` into `c:\OSGeo4W\bin` - copy `gdal_ECW_JP2ECW.dll` into `c:\OSGeo4W\bin\gdalplugins\1.9` **On Ubuntu Linux**: Follow the instructions [here](http://gis.stackexchange.com/a/27398) not before after having added the Ubuntugis repository `https://launchpad.net/~ubuntugis/+archive/ubuntugis-unstable` and installed the `libgdal-ecw` package. 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