Geotools is an open source, Java GIS toolkit for developing standards compliant solutions. Its modular architecture allows extra functionality to be easily incorporated.

Geotools aims to support OpenGIS and other relevant standards as they are developed. GeoTools code is built using the latest Java tools and environments and will continue to leverage the capabilities of future Java environments and official extensions as and when the technologies are released and have been through the first maintenance cycle (i.e. version 1.x.1).

It is not the intention of the GeoTools 2 project to develop finished products or applications, but it is the intention to interact and support fully other initiatives and projects which would like to use the GeoTools 2 toolkit to create such resources.

The GeoTools project is divided into separate modules, each of which implements a specific requirement. Only a subset of these modules is usually required to build an application based on Geotools2.