NAME
r.colors.toqml - Exports GRASS raster colors and category labels to a QGIS .qml style file. Optionally exports the raster to GeoTIFF with the same basename.
KEYWORDS
raster,
color table,
category,
QGIS
SYNOPSIS
r.colors.toqml
r.colors.toqml --help
r.colors.toqml [-rdc] map=name output=name [--overwrite] [--help] [--verbose] [--quiet] [--ui]
Flags:
- -r
- Export raster as GeoTIFF
- Export the raster to GeoTIFF with the same basename as the QML
- -d
- Force discrete/paletted style
- For CELL: force 'Paletted' (unique values) even if no categories exist. For FCELL/DCELL: force 'SinglebandPseudocolor' with DISCRETE interpolation (bins).
- -c
- Force continuous/linear style
- Force 'SinglebandPseudocolor' with LINEAR interpolation. If CELL map has categories, they are ignored.
- --overwrite
- Allow output files to overwrite existing files
- --help
- Print usage summary
- --verbose
- Verbose module output
- --quiet
- Quiet module output
- --ui
- Force launching GUI dialog
Parameters:
- map=name [required]
- Input GRASS raster map
- output=name [required]
- Output QGIS .qml style file
r.colors.toqml exports raster symbology defined in GRASS GIS to a QGIS
QML style file. The addon reads the GRASS raster color table and, where
applicable, raster category labels, and writes a QML file that can be used to
style the raster in QGIS.
Optionally, the raster itself can be exported simultaneously to GeoTIFF, using
the same basename as the QML file. As long as the two files are kept in the same
folder, opening the GeoTIFF in QGIS will automatically apply the style.

From GRASS through QML to QGIS raster symbology.
The addon supports Categorical rasters (CELL with categories),
exported as paletted QGIS renderers, and Continuous rasters
(FCELL/DCELL), exported as singleband pseudocolor renderers with interpolated or
discrete color ramps.
For categorical rasters, only categories actually present in the current
computational region and MASK are included in the QML file.
Percentage-based color rules are not supported and cause the module to fail.
such rules are relative to the raster range in GRASS and cannot be faithfully
represented in a QGIS QML style, which requires absolute numeric breakpoints.
Continuous range vs. breakpoints: for continuous rasters, the QML range is
derived from the numeric color-rule breakpoints. If the raster range in a given
region is narrower than the color table domain, QGIS will still show the full
ramp domain defined by the breakpoints.
Category subset in current region: for categorical rasters, the exported palette
is filtered to categories present in the current region/MASK. If you want a
palette for the full raster extent, set the computational region to the full
raster before running the module.
Export the color table and category labels of a categorical raster to a QML
file:
r.colors.toqml map=landclass96 output=landclass96.qml
Export a continuous raster color table to QML and export the corresponding
raster to GeoTIFF:
r.colors.toqml -r map=cfactor output=cfactor.qml
Force a discrete color ramp for a continuous raster:
r.colors.toqml -r map=cfactor output=cfactor.qml discrete=yes
r.colors.out
Paulo van Breugel,
HAS green academy,
Innovative Biomonitoring research group,
Climate-robust Landscapes research group
SOURCE CODE
Available at:
r.colors.toqml source code
(history)
Latest change: Monday Jan 19 23:04:27 2026 in commit: 619af32fc64428e3548aedba6eee30397693435e
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GRASS Development Team,
GRASS GIS 8.4.3dev Reference Manual