National Transfer Format Explained

National Transfer Format should not be confused with National Imagery Transmission Format.

The National Transfer Format (NTF) is a file format designed in 1988 specifically for the transfer of geospatial information; it is administered by the British Standards Institution. It is now the standard transfer format for Ordnance Survey digital data. The present version (2.0) conforms to BS 7567.^[1]

It has three parts:

• Part 1: Specification for NTF structures
• Part 2: Specification for implementing plain NTF
• Part 3: Specification for implementing NTF using BS 6690 (= ISO 8211)

Notes and References

1. British Standard BS 7567: Electronic transfer of geographic information (NTF), 1992.