Digital raster graphics (DRG) were produced from 1995 to 1998 by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) through an innovative partnership agreement with the Land Information Technology Company, Ltd., of Aurora, Colorado. The objective of the program was to scan all USGS standard quadrangle maps quickly and at low cost.

Most DRGs are made by scanning published paper maps on high-resolution scanners. The raster image is georeferenced and fit to the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) projection. Colors are usually standardized to duplicate the line-drawing character of the published map.