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I have 3 separate *.tif image files as grayscale. They are representing data acquired with a scanner. Each of them is a separate band of the scanner; red, green, and blue. I would like to reassemble them in a single RGB *.tif image file.

Using gdal_merge.py -o RGB.tif -co PHOTOMETRIC=RGB red.tif green.tif blue.tif

doesn't work; I end up with a single grayscale image which size is the sum of all individual images. How to achieve this simple operation?

(They are not geotiff, just simple tif files; there is no tfw)

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Per user30184's comment, you can use gdal_merge like so:

gdal_merge.py -separate  -o new_rgb.tif -co PHOTOMETRIC=MINISBLACK C:\input_r.tif C:\input_g.tif C:\input_b.tif
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I had MemoryError with gdal_merge.py -separate ... when used on big input. Different answer helped my issue:

gdalbuildvrt -separate RGB.vrt red.tif green.tif blue.tif
gdal_translate RGB.vrt RGB.tif
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  • +1. You should always use VRT's when possible. They're much less of a memory-hog.
    – Kyle Barron
    Dec 6, 2019 at 22:43
  • This was not the case for OP, but when merging GeoTiff files you may want to specify the CRS with e.g. -a_srs epsg:1234 to avoid further issues.
    – Skippy le Grand Gourou
    Oct 8, 2020 at 13:03

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