1537 lines
76 KiB
HTML
1537 lines
76 KiB
HTML
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
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"http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-html401-19991224/loose.dtd">
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<html>
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<head>
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<title>ExifTool FAQ</title>
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<link rel=stylesheet type='text/css' href='style.css' title='Style'>
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<style type="text/css">
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pre { color: #800; margin-left: 2em }
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</style>
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</head>
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<body>
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<div class='index'>
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<ol class='index'>
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<li><a href="#Q1">Discussion forum</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Q2">Determining tag names</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Q3">ExifTool doesn't read/write properly</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Q4">Aperture and shutter speed</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Q5">Date and time formats</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Q6">"Can't convert TAG" errors</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Q7">Deleting all EXIF from a TIFF</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Q8">Writing Make, Model & MakerNotes</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Q9">Tag locations when copying</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Q10">Coded character sets</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Q11">User-defined tags</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Q12">Export to database</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Q13">Output file size</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Q14">GPS coordinate format</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Q15">MakerNote errors</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Q16">Some files not renamed</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Q17">List-type tags</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Q18">Windows character encoding</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Q19">Formatting tag values</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Q20">Write errors (repair corrupted EXIF)</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Q21">Newlines in values</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Q22">Order of operations</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Q23">"0 image files updated"</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Q24">Date/time gets reset to today</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Q25">Image validation</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Q26">Import from database</a></li>
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</ol>
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</div>
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<h1 class='up'>ExifTool FAQ</h1>
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<a name="Q1"></a>
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<p>1. <b>"Is there a forum for discussing ExifTool issues?"</b></p>
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<blockquote>
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ExifTool issues can be discussed on the ExifTool forum at
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<a href="http://u88.n24.queensu.ca/exiftool/forum/">http://u88.n24.queensu.ca/exiftool/forum/</a>
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</blockquote>
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<a name="Q2"></a>
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<p>2. <b>"How do I determine the tag name for some information?"</b></p>
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<blockquote>When you run exiftool, by default it prints descriptions, not tag
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names, for the information it extracts. These descriptions are in English
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unless the <code>-lang</code> option is used to select another language. Note
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that descriptions often contain spaces between words, but tag names never do.
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Also, tag names are always English, regardless of the <code>-lang</code>
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setting. To print the tag names instead instead of descriptions, use the
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<code>-s</code> option when extracting information. eg)
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<pre>exiftool -s image.jpg</pre>
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Valid characters in tag names are <code>A-Z</code>, <code>a-z</code>,
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<code>0-9</code>, <code>_</code> and <code>-</code>. See the
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<a href="TagNames/index.html">tag name documentation</a> for a complete list of
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available tag names.</blockquote>
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<blockquote>Tag names may be optionally prefixed by a family 0 or 1 group name
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to specify a particular information type or location. Use the
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<code>-g0</code> and <code>-g1</code> (or
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<code>-G0</code> and <code>-G1</code>) options when extracting
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information to see the corresponding group names.
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</blockquote>
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<a name="Q3"></a>
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<p>3a. <b>"ExifTool reports the wrong value or doesn't extract a tag"</b>,
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<br>3b. <b>"ExifTool doesn't write a tag properly"</b>, or
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<br>3c. <b>"Other software can't read information written by ExifTool"</b></p>
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<blockquote><i>[Also see <a href="#Q23">FAQ number 23</a> for reasons why
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ExifTool may not write some tags to certain file types.]</i></blockquote>
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<blockquote>First, make sure you are looking at the right information. Use
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ExifTool with a command like this to extract all information from the file,
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along with the location it was written:
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<pre>exiftool -a -G1 -s c:\images\test.jpg</pre>
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In this command, <code>-a</code> allows duplicate tags to be extracted,
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<code>-G1</code> shows the family 1 group name (ie. the location) of each tag,
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and <code>-s</code> shows the tag names instead of their descriptions.
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(Substitute the path name of your file in place of
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"<code>c:\images\test.jpg</code>".)</blockquote>
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<blockquote>When duplicate tags exist, only one is extracted unless the
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<code>-a</code> option is used. Beware that options like <code>-EXIF:all</code>
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select all EXIF tags from the extracted tags, so EXIF tags hidden by duplicate
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tags in other locations will not appear in the output for
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<code>-EXIF:all</code>. For example, the command
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<pre>exiftool -gps:all image.jpg</pre>
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will NOT necessarily extract all GPS tags because some GPS tags may have been
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suppressed by same-named tags in other groups. To be sure all GPS tags are
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extracted, the <code>-a</code> option must be used:
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<pre>exiftool -a -gps:all image.jpg</pre>
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If you are having problems with other software reading information written by
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ExifTool, if possible try first writing the information from the other software,
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then use ExifTool (with the <code>-a</code> and <code>-G1</code> options) to
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determine where the information was written. Once you know where it should go,
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you can use ExifTool to write to this location. You can read or write
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information in a specific location by prefixing the tag name on the command line
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with the desired group name. eg.) "<code>-ExifIFD:DateTimeOriginal</code>"
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</blockquote>
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<blockquote>This problem may also occur if contradictory information exists in
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different meta information formats within the same file. For example, often XMP
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will be ignored if IPTC exists and the Photoshop:IPTCDigest does not agree with
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the IPTC content. The
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<a href="http://www.metadataworkinggroup.org/">Metadata Working Group</a>
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recommends techniques to keep the EXIF, IPTC and XMP metadata synchronized.
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These recommendations are implemented by the ExifTool
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<a href="TagNames/MWG.html">MWG tags</a>. For maximum compatibility with the
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widest range of applications, it is suggested that these MWG tags be used
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whenever possible.</blockquote>
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<blockquote>One final note: When writing, the <code>-v2</code> option may be
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useful because it provides details about what ExifTool is writing, and where.
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</blockquote>
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<a name="Q4"></a>
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<p>4. <b>"ExifTool reports more than one shutter speed or aperture value, and
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they are slightly different"</b></p>
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<blockquote>
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There are a number of different ways that aperture and shutter speed information
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are stored in many images. The standard EXIF values (EXIF:FNumber and
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EXIF:ExposureTime) should correspond to the values displayed by your camera,
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but these values may have been rounded off. The corresponding EXIF APEX
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values (EXIF:ApertureValue and EXIF:ShutterSpeedValue) may be different due
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to their own round-off errors. If available, the MakerNotes values may be
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the most accurate because they haven't been rounded off to nice even values
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for display, so with these you may see odd values like 1/102 instead of
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1/100, etc.
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</blockquote>
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<a name="Q5"></a>
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<p>5. <b>"How do I format date and time information for writing?"</b></p>
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<blockquote>All information (including date/time information) is written in the
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same format as it is read out. When reading, ExifTool converts all date and
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time information to standard EXIF format, so this is also the way it is
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specified when writing. The standard EXIF date/time format is
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"<code>YYYY:mm:dd HH:MM:SS</code>", and some meta information formats such as
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XMP also allow sub-seconds and a timezone to be specified. The timezone format
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is "<code>+HH:MM</code>", "<code>-HH:MM</code>" or "<code>Z</code>". For
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example:
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<pre>exiftool -xmp:dateTimeOriginal="2005:10:23 20:06:34.33-05:00" a.jpg
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</pre>
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When writing XMP or other information types which allow incomplete date/time
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values, the following input formats are also accepted:
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<pre>YYYY
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YYYY:mm
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YYYY:mm:dd
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YYYY:mm:dd HH:MM
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</pre>
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Having said this, ExifTool is very flexible about the actual format of input
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date/time values when writing, and will attempt to reformat any values into the
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standard format unless the <code>-n</code> option is used. Any separators may
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be used (or in fact, none at all). The first 4 consecutive digits found in the
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value are interpreted as the year, then next 2 digits are the month, and so on.
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<i class=lt>[The year must be 4 digits. Other fields are expected to be 2
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digits, but a single digit is allowed if the subsequent character is a
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non-digit.]</i> For EXIF date/time values, all 6 date/time fields must exist
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("<code>YYYYmmddHHMMSS</code>"), but XMP date/time values require only the year
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("<code>YYYY</code>"). This feature facilitates useful operations such as
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setting date/time tags from a date embedded in the file name. For example, the
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command
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<pre>exiftool "-alldates<filename" c:\images</pre>
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will set the common date/time tags from the file name for all images in the
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directory "<code>c:\images</code>". This will work for any file name which
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matches the above criteria (eg. "IMG_20110927_103000.jpg").
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<i class=lt>[AllDates is a shortcut for 3 tag names: DateTimeOriginal,
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CreateDate and ModifyDate. See the <a href="TagNames/Shortcuts.html">Shortcuts
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Tags documentation</a> for more information.]</i></blockquote>
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<blockquote>The <code>-d</code> option allows full control over the format of
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date/time values when reading. However, the effect of the <code>-d</code>
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option is not reversible, so date/time values must be written using the format
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described above, even when the <code>-d</code> option is used. Note that when
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reading, the effect of the <code>-n</code> option on date/time values is only to
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disable the <code>-d</code> formatting.</blockquote>
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<blockquote><b>Special feature</b>: A value of "<code>now</code>" may be used to
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represent the current time when writing any date/time tag. For example:
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<pre>exiftool -xmp:dateTimeOriginal=now a.jpg</pre>
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<i class=lt>[There is also a <a href="TagNames/Extra.html">Now tag</a> which may
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be used for a similar purpose by copying its value to another tag, but copying
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tags adds an extra read stage to the processing which is best avoided if
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performance is an issue.]</i>
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</blockquote>
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<a name="Q6"></a>
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<p>6. <b>"I get '<code>Can't convert TAG (not in PrintConv)</code>' errors when
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writing a tag"</b></p>
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<blockquote>
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By default, ExifTool applies a print conversion (PrintConv) to extracted
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information to make the output more human-readable. Some conversions involve
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lookup tables which are documented in the <b>Values</b> column of the
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<a href="TagNames/index.html">tag name documentation</a>. For example, the
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GPSAltitudeRef tag defines the following conversions:
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<pre>0 = Above Sea Level
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1 = Below Sea Level
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</pre>
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For this tag, a value of '0' is printed as 'Above Sea Level', and '1' is printed
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as 'Below Sea Level'. Reading and writing with ExifTool is symmetrical <i>[with
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the possible exception of list-type tags -- see <a href="#Q17">FAQ number 17</a>
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below]</i>, so a value that is printed as 'Above Sea Level' must also be written in
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that form. (In other words, the inverse print conversion is applied when writing
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values.) For example, to write GPSAltitudeRef you can type:
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<pre>exiftool -gpsaltituderef="Above Sea Level" image.jpg
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</pre>
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or any unambiguous short form may be used and ExifTool will know what you mean, eg)
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<pre>exiftool -gpsaltituderef=above image.jpg
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</pre>
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Alternatively, the print conversion can be disabled for all tags with the
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<code>-n</code> option, or for individual tags by suffixing the tag name with a
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'<code>#</code>' character. In either case the printed value of GPSAltitudeRef
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will be '0' or '1' when extracting information, and the value is written in the
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same way. So following two commands have exactly the same effect as above:
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<pre>exiftool -gpsaltituderef=0 -n image.jpg
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exiftool -gpsaltituderef#=0 image.jpg
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</pre>
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Integer values may also be specified in hexadecimal (with a leading '0x'). For
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example, the following commands are all equivalent:
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<pre>exiftool -flash=1 -n image.jpg
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exiftool -flash=0x1 -n image.jpg
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exiftool -flash#=1 image.jpg
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exiftool -flash#=0x1 image.jpg
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exiftool -flash=fired image.jpg
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</pre></blockquote><blockquote class=prog>
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<b>Programmers</b>: These techniques look like this when calling Image::ExifTool
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functions from a Perl script:
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<pre>$exifTool->SetNewValue(flash => 1, Type => 'ValueConv');
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$exifTool->SetNewValue(flash => 0x1, Type => 'ValueConv');
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$exifTool->SetNewValue('flash#' => 1);
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$exifTool->SetNewValue('flash#' => 0x1);
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$exifTool->SetNewValue(flash => 'fired');
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</pre></blockquote>
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<a name="Q7"></a>
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<p>7. <b>"I can't delete all EXIF information from a TIFF file using
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'<code>exiftool -exif:all= img.tif</code>'"</b></p>
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<blockquote>This is because of the way a TIFF file is structured. With a JPEG
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image, this command removes IFD0 (the main Image File Directory) as well as any
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subdirectories, thus removing all EXIF information. But with the TIFF format,
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the main image itself is stored in IFD0, so deleting this directory would
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destroy the image. The same is true for any TIFF-based RAW file such as DNG,
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CR2, NEF, etc. For these types of files, ExifTool just deletes the ExifIFD
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subdirectory, so any information stored in other directories is preserved.
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</blockquote>
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<blockquote>Use "<code>exiftool -a -G1 -s img.tif</code>" to see where the
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information is stored. Any tags remaining in other IFD's must be deleted
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individually from a TIFF-format file if desired. For convenience, a
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<a href="TagNames/Shortcuts.html">shortcut tag</a> is provided to simplify the
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deletion of common metadata tags from IFD0 by adding "<code>-CommonIFD0=</code>"
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to the command line.
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</blockquote>
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<a name="Q8"></a>
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<p>8a. <b>"All maker note information is lost if I change the Make or Model tag"</b>, or
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<br>8b. <b>"I can't copy maker note information to an image"</b>, or
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<br>8c. <b>"I can't view a RAW image after changing the model tag"</b></p>
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<blockquote>
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The Make and Model tags are used by some image utilities (including ExifTool) to
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determine the format of the maker note information. Deleting or changing either
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of these tags may prevent these utilities from recognizing or properly
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interpreting the maker notes (which, for a RAW image, may mean that the image
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can no longer be properly rendered). Also beware that the maker notes
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|
information may be damaged if an image is edited when the maker notes are not
|
||
|
|
properly recognized. So it is a good idea not to edit the Make and Model tags in
|
||
|
|
the first place.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>If you really want to delete the Make and Model information, you
|
||
|
|
might as well delete the maker notes too. You can do this with either of the
|
||
|
|
following commands:
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool -make= -model= -makernotes:all= image.jpg
|
||
|
|
exiftool -make= -model= -makernotes= image.jpg
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
For the same reason, maker notes can not be copied to an image with an
|
||
|
|
incompatible Make or Model. To do this, the Make and Model tags must also be
|
||
|
|
copied. eg)
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool -tagsfromfile src.jpg -makernotes -make -model dst.jpg
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
(Note that in this case the "<code>-makernotes:all</code>" syntax does not work
|
||
|
|
because it attempts to copy the maker note tags individually. Since maker note
|
||
|
|
tags may not be created individually, they must instead be copied as a block
|
||
|
|
with "<code>-makernotes</code>".)
|
||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<a name="Q9"></a>
|
||
|
|
<p>9a. <b>"The information is different when I copy all tags to a new file"</b>, or
|
||
|
|
<br>9b. <b>"The tag locations change when I use <code>-tagsfromfile</code>
|
||
|
|
to copy information"</b></p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>
|
||
|
|
This feature is explained under the <code>-tagsFromFile</code> option in
|
||
|
|
the <a href="exiftool_pod.html">exiftool application documentation</a>, but the
|
||
|
|
question is common enough that it is discussed here in more detail.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>By default, ExifTool will store information in preferred locations
|
||
|
|
when either writing new information or copying information between files. This
|
||
|
|
freedom allows ExifTool to write or copy information to files of different
|
||
|
|
formats without requiring the user to know details about where the information
|
||
|
|
is stored.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>The preferred general locations for information written to JPEG
|
||
|
|
images are 1) EXIF, 2) IPTC and 3) XMP. As an example, information extracted
|
||
|
|
from the maker notes will be preferentially written (on a tag-by-tag basis) in
|
||
|
|
EXIF format when copying information between two JPEG images. But if a specific
|
||
|
|
tag doesn't exist in EXIF, then the tag is written to the first valid group in
|
||
|
|
the order specified above. The advantage of "translating" the information to
|
||
|
|
EXIF is that it then becomes readable by applications which only support
|
||
|
|
standard EXIF. The disadvantage is that you don't get an exact copy of the
|
||
|
|
original information structure.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>But ExifTool gives you the ability to customize this behaviour to
|
||
|
|
write the information to wherever you want. This is done by specifying a group
|
||
|
|
name for the tag(s) to be copied. This applies even if the group name is
|
||
|
|
"<code>all</code>", in which case the original family 1 group is preserved. So
|
||
|
|
to copy all information and preserve the original structure, use this syntax:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool -tagsfromfile src.jpg -all:all dst.jpg
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
In this command, since no destination tag was specified, the destination is the
|
||
|
|
same as the source (ie. "<code>-all:all>all:all</code>"), so the information is
|
||
|
|
copied to the same family 1 group.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>Here are some examples to show you the type of control you have over
|
||
|
|
where the information is written. All commands in each example are equivalent:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre><span class='blk'># copy all tags to preferred groups (no destination group)</span>
|
||
|
|
exiftool -tagsfromfile src.jpg dst.jpg
|
||
|
|
exiftool -tagsfromfile src.jpg -all dst.jpg
|
||
|
|
exiftool -tagsfromfile src.jpg "-all>all" dst.jpg
|
||
|
|
exiftool -tagsfromfile src.jpg "-all:all>all" dst.jpg
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<span class='blk'># copy all tags, preserving family 1 group (destination group 'all')</span>
|
||
|
|
exiftool -tagsfromfile src.jpg -all:all dst.jpg
|
||
|
|
exiftool -tagsfromfile src.jpg "-all>all:all" dst.jpg
|
||
|
|
exiftool -tagsfromfile src.jpg "-all:all>all:all" dst.jpg
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<span class='blk'># copy all tags to EXIF group (destination group 'exif')
|
||
|
|
# [the destination family 1 group is the preferred EXIF IFD]</span>
|
||
|
|
exiftool -tagsfromfile src.jpg "-all>exif:all" dst.jpg
|
||
|
|
exiftool -tagsfromfile src.jpg "-all:all>exif:all" dst.jpg
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<span class='blk'># copy XMP tags to XMP group (destination group 'xmp')
|
||
|
|
# [the destination family 1 group is the preferred XMP namespace]</span>
|
||
|
|
exiftool -tagsfromfile src.jpg "-xmp:all" dst.jpg
|
||
|
|
exiftool -tagsfromfile src.jpg "-xmp:all>xmp:all" dst.jpg
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<span class='blk'># copy XMP tags, preserving family 1 group (destination group 'all')</span>
|
||
|
|
exiftool -tagsfromfile src.jpg "-xmp:all>all:all" dst.jpg
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<span class='blk'># copy XMP tags to preferred groups (no destination group)</span>
|
||
|
|
exiftool -tagsfromfile src.jpg "-xmp:all>all" dst.jpg
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<span class='blk'># copy XMP tags to EXIF only (destination group 'exif')
|
||
|
|
# [the destination family 1 group is the preferred EXIF IFD]</span>
|
||
|
|
exiftool -tagsfromfile src.jpg "-xmp:all>exif:all" dst.jpg
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
The same rules illustrated above also apply when copying individual tags.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>Note: If no destination group is specified, a new tag is created if
|
||
|
|
necessary only in the preferred group, but if the same tag already exists in
|
||
|
|
another group, then this information is also updated. (Otherwise inconsistent
|
||
|
|
values for the same information would exist in different locations. Of course,
|
||
|
|
you can always generate inconsistencies like this if you really want to by
|
||
|
|
specifically writing contradictory information to different groups.)
|
||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>Certain types of meta information (such as EXIF, IPTC, XMP and
|
||
|
|
ICC_Profile) may also be <b>copied as a block</b>. This technique copies all
|
||
|
|
meta information, even if ExifTool doesn't have the ability to write some
|
||
|
|
individual tags contained in the block. For all block types except EXIF, the
|
||
|
|
metadata is copied byte-for-byte from the original image. With EXIF however,
|
||
|
|
the metadata may be restructured to ensure that it is self-contained. Also note
|
||
|
|
that EXIF may not be written as a block to TIFF-based file formats. Beware that
|
||
|
|
<b>any existing metadata</b> of this type in the distination file <b>will be
|
||
|
|
overwritten</b> by the new block.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre><span class='blk'># copy EXIF as a block between same-named JPG files in different directories</span>
|
||
|
|
exiftool -tagsfromfile SRCDIR/%f.%e -exif -ext jpg DSTDIR
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<span class='blk'># copy XMP as a block from one file to another</span>
|
||
|
|
exiftool -tagsfromfile src.jpg -xmp dst.cr2
|
||
|
|
</pre></blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<a name="Q10"></a>
|
||
|
|
<p>10. <b>"How does ExifTool handle coded character sets?"</b></p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<!-- vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv -->
|
||
|
|
<!-- NOTE: CHANGES TO FAQ 10 MUST ALSO BE REFLECTED IN ExifTool.pod! -->
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote><i>[Also see <a href="#Q18">FAQ number 18</a> for help on displaying
|
||
|
|
special characters in a Windows console.]</i></blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>Certain meta information formats allow coded character sets other
|
||
|
|
than plain ASCII. When reading, most known encodings are converted to the
|
||
|
|
external character set according to the exiftool "<code>-charset CHARSET</code>"
|
||
|
|
or <code>-L</code> option, or to UTF‑8 by default. When writing, the
|
||
|
|
inverse conversion is performed. Alternatively, special characters may be
|
||
|
|
converted to/from HTML character entities with the <code>-E</code> option.
|
||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>A distinction is made between the <b>external</b> character set
|
||
|
|
visible to the ExifTool user, and the <b>internal</b> character used to store
|
||
|
|
text in the metadata of a file. These character sets may be specified
|
||
|
|
separately as follows:
|
||
|
|
<ol><li>The <b>external</b> character set for <b>tag values</b> passed to/from
|
||
|
|
ExifTool is UTF‑8 by default, but it may be changed through any of these
|
||
|
|
command-line options:
|
||
|
|
<blockquote><code>-charset CHARSET</code> or
|
||
|
|
<code>-charset exiftool=CHARSET</code> or <code>-L</code>
|
||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
The encoding of <b>file and directory names</b> (eg. the <i>FILE</i> argument on
|
||
|
|
the command line) is different. By default, these names are passed straight
|
||
|
|
through to the standard C I/O routines without recoding. On Mac/Linux these
|
||
|
|
routines expect UTF‑8, but on Windows they use the system code page (which
|
||
|
|
is dependent on your system settings). However, as of ExifTool 9.79, the
|
||
|
|
external filename encoding may be specified:
|
||
|
|
<blockquote><code>-charset filename=CHARSET</code></blockquote>
|
||
|
|
When this is done, file and directory names are converted from the specified
|
||
|
|
encoding to one appropriate for system I/O routines. In Windows, this also has
|
||
|
|
the effect of enabling Unicode filename support via the special Windows
|
||
|
|
wide-character I/O routines if the required Perl modules are available
|
||
|
|
(these are included in the Windows executable version of ExifTool). See
|
||
|
|
<a href="exiftool_pod.html#windows_unicode_file_names">WINDOWS UNICODE FILE NAMES</a>
|
||
|
|
in the application documentation for more details.<br><br></li>
|
||
|
|
<li>The <b>internal</b> character set for strings stored in file metadata may be
|
||
|
|
specified for some metadata types:
|
||
|
|
<blockquote><code>-charset TYPE=CHARSET</code></blockquote>
|
||
|
|
(where <code>TYPE</code> is "<code>exif</code>", "<code>iptc</code>",
|
||
|
|
"<code>id3</code>", "<code>photoshop</code>" or "<code>quicktime</code>")</li></ol>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Valid <code>CHARSET</code> values are (with aliases given in brackets):
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote><table class=clear>
|
||
|
|
<tr><td>UTF8</td><td>(cp65001, UTF‑8)</td><td>Thai</td><td>(cp874)</td></tr>
|
||
|
|
<tr><td>Latin</td><td>(cp1252, Latin1)</td><td>MacRoman</td><td>(cp10000, Mac, Roman)</td></tr>
|
||
|
|
<tr><td>Latin2</td><td>(cp1250)</td><td>MacLatin2</td><td>(cp10029)</td></tr>
|
||
|
|
<tr><td>Cyrillic</td><td>(cp1251, Russian) </td><td>MacCyrillic</td><td>(cp10007)</td></tr>
|
||
|
|
<tr><td>Greek</td><td>(cp1253)</td><td>MacGreek</td><td>(cp10006)</td></tr>
|
||
|
|
<tr><td>Turkish</td><td>(cp1254)</td><td>MacTurkish</td><td>(cp10081)</td></tr>
|
||
|
|
<tr><td>Hebrew</td><td>(cp1255)</td><td>MacRomanian</td><td>(cp10010)</td></tr>
|
||
|
|
<tr><td>Arabic</td><td>(cp1256)</td><td>MacIceland</td><td>(cp10079)</td></tr>
|
||
|
|
<tr><td>Baltic</td><td>(cp1257)</td><td>MacCroatian</td><td>(cp10082)</td></tr>
|
||
|
|
<tr><td>Vietnam</td><td>(cp1258)</td></tr>
|
||
|
|
</table></blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
The <code>-L</code> option is equivalent to "<code>-charset Latin</code>",
|
||
|
|
"<code>-charset Latin1</code>" and "<code>-charset cp1252</code>".</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>Type-specific details are given below about the special character
|
||
|
|
handling for EXIF, IPTC, XMP, PNG, ID3, PDF, Photoshop, QuickTime, AIFF, MIE and
|
||
|
|
Vorbis information:</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<!-- NOTE: CHANGES TO FAQ 10 MUST ALSO BE REFLECTED IN ExifTool.pod! -->
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote><b>EXIF</b>: Most textual information in EXIF is stored in ASCII
|
||
|
|
format (called "string" in the <a href="TagNames/index.html">ExifTool tag name
|
||
|
|
documentation</a>). By default ExifTool does not convert these strings.
|
||
|
|
However, it is not uncommon for applications to write UTF‑8 or other
|
||
|
|
encodings where ASCII is expected. To deal with these, ExifTool allows the
|
||
|
|
internal EXIF string encoding to be specified with
|
||
|
|
"<code>-charset exif=CHARSET</code>", which causes EXIF string values to be
|
||
|
|
converted from the specified character set when reading, and stored with this
|
||
|
|
character set when writing. (The
|
||
|
|
<a href="http://www.metadataworkinggroup.org/">MWG</a> recommends using
|
||
|
|
UTF‑8 encoding for EXIF strings, and in keeping with this the
|
||
|
|
"<code>-use mwg</code>" feature sets the default internal EXIF string encoding
|
||
|
|
to UTF‑8, but note that this will have no effect unless the external
|
||
|
|
encoding is also set to something other than the default of UTF‑8.)</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>A few EXIF tags (UserComment, GPSProcessingMethod and
|
||
|
|
GPSAreaInformation) support a designated internal text encoding, with values
|
||
|
|
stored as ASCII, Unicode (UCS‑2) or JIS. When reading these tags, ExifTool
|
||
|
|
converts Unicode and JIS to the external character set specified by the
|
||
|
|
<code>-charset</code> or <code>-L</code> option, or to UTF‑8 by default.
|
||
|
|
ASCII text is not converted. When writing, text is stored as ASCII unless the
|
||
|
|
string contains special characters, in which case it is converted from the
|
||
|
|
external character set (UTF‑8 by default), and stored as Unicode. ExifTool
|
||
|
|
writes Unicode in native EXIF byte ordering by default, but the byte order may
|
||
|
|
be specified by setting the ExifUnicodeByteOrder tag (see the
|
||
|
|
<a href="TagNames/Extra.html">Extra Tags</a> documentation).</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>The EXIF "XP" tags (XPTitle, XPComment, etc) are always stored
|
||
|
|
internally as little-endian Unicode (UCS‑2), and are read and written
|
||
|
|
using the specified external character set.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<!-- NOTE: CHANGES TO FAQ 10 MUST ALSO BE REFLECTED IN ExifTool.pod! -->
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote><b>IPTC</b><span class='sm'><sup>†</sup></span>: The
|
||
|
|
value of the IPTC:CodedCharacterSet tag determines how the internal IPTC string
|
||
|
|
values are interpreted. If CodedCharacterSet exists and has a value of
|
||
|
|
"<code>UTF8</code>" (or "<code>ESC % G</code>") then string values are
|
||
|
|
assumed to be stored as UTF‑8. Otherwise the internal IPTC encoding is
|
||
|
|
assumed to be Windows Latin1 (cp1252), but this can be changed with
|
||
|
|
"<code>-charset iptc=CHARSET</code>". When reading, these strings are converted
|
||
|
|
to UTF‑8 by default, or to the character set specified by the
|
||
|
|
<code>-charset</code> or <code>-L</code> option. When writing, the inverse
|
||
|
|
conversions are performed. No conversion is done if the internal (IPTC) and
|
||
|
|
external (ExifTool) character sets are the same. Note that ISO 2022 character
|
||
|
|
set shifting is not supported. Instead, a warning is issued and the string is
|
||
|
|
not converted if an ISO 2022 shift code is encountered. See the
|
||
|
|
<a href="http://www.iptc.org/std/IIM/4.1/specification/IIMV4.1.pdf">IPTC IIM
|
||
|
|
specification</a> for more information about IPTC character coding.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>ExifTool may be used to convert IPTC values to a different internal
|
||
|
|
encoding. To do this, all IPTC tags must be rewritten along with the desired
|
||
|
|
value of CodedCharacterSet. For example, the following command changes the
|
||
|
|
internal IPTC encoding to UTF‑8 (from Windows Latin1 unless
|
||
|
|
CodedCharacterSet was already "UTF8"):
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool -tagsfromfile @ -iptc:all -codedcharacterset=utf8 a.jpg
|
||
|
|
</pre>or from Windows Latin2 (cp1250) to UTF‑8:
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool -tagsfromfile @ -iptc:all -codedcharacterset=utf8 -charset iptc=latin2 a.jpg
|
||
|
|
</pre>and this command changes it back from UTF‑8 to Windows Latin1 (cp1252):
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool -tagsfromfile @ -iptc:all -codedcharacterset= a.jpg
|
||
|
|
</pre>or to Windows Latin2:
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool -tagsfromfile @ -iptc:all -codedcharacterset= -charset iptc=latin2 a.jpg
|
||
|
|
</pre>Note that unless CodedCharacterSet is UTF‑8, applications have no
|
||
|
|
reliable way to determine the IPTC character encoding. For this reason, it is
|
||
|
|
recommended that CodedCharacterSet be set to "<code>UTF8</code>" when creating
|
||
|
|
new IPTC.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote class='sm'><sup>†</sup> <span class=lt>Refers to the older
|
||
|
|
<a href="http://www.iptc.org/site/News_Exchange_Formats/IIM/">IPTC IIM</a> format.
|
||
|
|
The more recent
|
||
|
|
<a href="http://iptc.cms.apa.at/site/Photo_Metadata/IPTC_Core_&_Extension/">IPTC
|
||
|
|
Core and Extension specifications</a> actually use the XMP format (see below).</span>
|
||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<!-- NOTE: CHANGES TO FAQ 10 MUST ALSO BE REFLECTED IN ExifTool.pod! -->
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote><b>XMP</b>: Exiftool reads XMP encoded as UTF‑8, UTF‑16
|
||
|
|
or UTF‑32, and converts them all to UTF‑8 internally. Also, all XML
|
||
|
|
character entity references and numeric character references are converted.
|
||
|
|
When writing, ExifTool always encodes XMP as UTF‑8, converting the
|
||
|
|
following 5 characters to XML character references: <code>& < > '
|
||
|
|
"</code>. By default no further conversion is performed, however the
|
||
|
|
<code>-charset</code> or <code>-L</code> option may be used used to convert
|
||
|
|
text to/from a specified character set when reading/writing.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote><b>PNG</b>: <a href="TagNames/PNG.html#TextualData">PNG TextualData
|
||
|
|
tags</a> are stored as tEXt, zTXt and iTXt chunks in PNG images. The tEXt and
|
||
|
|
zTXt chunks use ISO 8859-1 encoding, while iTXt uses UTF‑8. When reading,
|
||
|
|
ExifTool converts all PNG textual data to the character set specified by the
|
||
|
|
<code>-charset</code> or <code>-L</code> option, or to UTF‑8 by default.
|
||
|
|
When writing, ExifTool generates a tEXt chunk (or zTXt with the <code>-z</code>
|
||
|
|
option) if the text doesn't contain special characters or if Latin encoding is
|
||
|
|
specified (<code>-L</code> or <code>-charset latin</code>); otherwise an iTXt
|
||
|
|
chunk is used and the text is converted from the specified character set and
|
||
|
|
stored as UTF‑8.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote><b>JPEG Comment</b>: The encoding for the JPEG Comment (COM segment)
|
||
|
|
is not specified, so ExifTool reads/writes this text without
|
||
|
|
conversion.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote><b>ID3</b>: The ID3v1 specification officially supports only ISO
|
||
|
|
8859‑1 encoding (a subset of Windows Latin1), although some applications
|
||
|
|
may incorrectly use other character sets. By default ExifTool converts ID3v1
|
||
|
|
text from Latin to the character set specified by the <code>-charset</code> or
|
||
|
|
<code>-L</code> option, or to UTF‑8 by default. However, the internal
|
||
|
|
ID3v1 charset may be specified with "<code>-charset id3=CHARSET</code>". The
|
||
|
|
encoding for ID3v2 information is stored in the file, so ExifTool converts
|
||
|
|
ID3v2 text from this encoding to the character set specified by
|
||
|
|
<code>-charset</code> or <code>-L</code>, or to UTF‑8 by default. ExifTool
|
||
|
|
does not currently write ID3 information.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote><b>PDF</b>: PDF text strings are stored in either PDFDocEncoding
|
||
|
|
(similar to Windows Latin1) or Unicode (UCS‑2). When reading, ExifTool
|
||
|
|
converts to the character set specified by the <code>-charset</code> or
|
||
|
|
<code>-L</code> option, or to UTF‑8 by default. When writing, ExifTool
|
||
|
|
encodes input text from the specified character set as Unicode only if the
|
||
|
|
string contains special characters, otherwise PDFDocEncoding is
|
||
|
|
used.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote><b>Photoshop</b>: Some Photoshop resource names are stored as
|
||
|
|
Pascal strings with unknown encoding. By default, ExifTool assumes MacRoman
|
||
|
|
encoding and converts this to UTF‑8, but the internal and external
|
||
|
|
character sets may be specified with <code>-charset Photoshop=CHARSET</code>
|
||
|
|
and <code>-charset CHARSET</code> respectively.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote><b>QuickTime</b>: QuickTime text strings may be stored in a
|
||
|
|
variety of poorly documented formats, and ExifTool does its best to decode
|
||
|
|
these according to the <code>-charset</code> option setting. For some
|
||
|
|
QuickTime strings where the internal encoding is not known, ExifTool assumes
|
||
|
|
a default encoding of MacRoman, but this may be changed with
|
||
|
|
"<code>-charset QuickTime=CHARSET</code>".</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote><b>AIFF</b>: AIFF strings are assumed to be stored in MacRoman, and
|
||
|
|
are converted according to the <code>-charset</code> option when reading.
|
||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote><b>MIE</b>: MIE strings are stored as either UTF‑8 or ISO
|
||
|
|
8859‑1. When reading, UTF‑8 strings are converted according to
|
||
|
|
the <code>-charset</code> or <code>-L</code> option, and ISO 8859‑1
|
||
|
|
strings are never converted. When writing, input strings are converted from
|
||
|
|
the specified character set to UTF‑8. The resulting strings are stored as
|
||
|
|
UTF‑8 if they contain multi-byte UTF‑8 character sequences,
|
||
|
|
otherwise they are stored as ISO 8859‑1.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote><b>Vorbis</b>: Vorbis comments are stored as UTF‑8,
|
||
|
|
and are converted to the character set specified by <code>-charset</code> or
|
||
|
|
<code>-L</code> when reading.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote class=prog>
|
||
|
|
<b>Programmers</b>: ExifTool returns all values as byte strings of encoded
|
||
|
|
characters. Perl wide characters are not used. The encoding is UTF‑8 by
|
||
|
|
default, but valid UTF‑8 can not be guaranteed for all values, so the
|
||
|
|
caller must validate the encoding if necessary. The encodings described above
|
||
|
|
are set by the various <a href="ExifTool.html#Charset">Charset options</a> of
|
||
|
|
the API.
|
||
|
|
<br><br><b>Note</b>: Some settings of the system PERL_UNICODE environment
|
||
|
|
variable may be incompatible with ExifTool's character handling.
|
||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<!-- NOTE: CHANGES TO FAQ 10 MUST ALSO BE REFLECTED IN ExifTool.pod! -->
|
||
|
|
<!-- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ -->
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<a name="Q11"></a>
|
||
|
|
<p>11. <b>"My user-defined tags don't work"</b></p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>
|
||
|
|
For examples of how to add user-defined tags, see the
|
||
|
|
<a href="config.html">ExifTool_config</a> file in the ExifTool distribution.
|
||
|
|
It may be useful to activate this file as a test before trying to implement
|
||
|
|
your own config file. To activate this file, copy it to your <b>HOME</b>
|
||
|
|
directory then rename it to "<code>.ExifTool_config</code>".
|
||
|
|
<blockquote class=lt><b>Note</b>: The config file must be renamed at the
|
||
|
|
command line because neither the Windows nor Mac GUI allow a file name to
|
||
|
|
begin with a "<code>.</code>". To do this in Windows, run "cmd.exe" and type
|
||
|
|
the following (pressing <i>RETURN</i> at the end of each line):
|
||
|
|
<pre>cd %HOMEPATH%
|
||
|
|
rename ExifTool_config .ExifTool_config
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
or on a Mac, open the "Terminal" application (from the /Applications/Utilities
|
||
|
|
folder) and type this command then press <i>RETURN</i>:
|
||
|
|
<pre>mv ExifTool_config .ExifTool_config
|
||
|
|
</pre></blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
With the sample config file installed, you should be able to write the example
|
||
|
|
tags. A command like this:
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool -v2 -NewXMPxmpTag=test <i>FILE</i></pre>
|
||
|
|
should print this as the first line of its output:
|
||
|
|
<pre>Writing XMP-xmp:NewXMPxmpTag
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
If this doesn't work, the most common problem is that the
|
||
|
|
"<code>.ExifTool_config</code>" configuration file isn't getting loaded. In
|
||
|
|
this case, there are a few things you can try:
|
||
|
|
<ol>
|
||
|
|
<li>Make sure the config file name is correct. It must be
|
||
|
|
"<code>.ExifTool_config</code>" (note the leading "<code>.</code>", and the
|
||
|
|
capital "<code>T</code>").</li>
|
||
|
|
<li>Set either the <b>HOME</b> or the <b>EXIFTOOL_HOME</b> environment variable
|
||
|
|
to the name of the directory where you put your "<code>.ExifTool_config</code>"
|
||
|
|
file.</li>
|
||
|
|
<li>Put the config file in the same directory as the exiftool script. (Also, be
|
||
|
|
sure the config filename starts with a dot! See the note above for help
|
||
|
|
renaming the config file.)</li>
|
||
|
|
<li>If you can't get the config file to load automatically, you can try loading
|
||
|
|
it manually with the exiftool <code>-config <i>CFGFILE</i></code> option. (Note:
|
||
|
|
This must be the first option on the command line.) This allows loading
|
||
|
|
of a config file with any name.</li>
|
||
|
|
</ol>
|
||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>If necessary, you can verify that ExifTool is loading your config
|
||
|
|
file by adding the following line to your file:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre>print "LOADED!\n";
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
If you see a "<code>LOADED!</code>" message when you run exiftool, but your new
|
||
|
|
tags still don't work, make sure you are using the proper tag name and that the
|
||
|
|
file you are writing can support this type of information.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>Note that all tag names in the config file are <b>case
|
||
|
|
sensitive</b>. Specifically, the case must be correct for tag names in
|
||
|
|
Composite tag Require/Desire entries. Also note that XMP tag names are
|
||
|
|
generated automatically by capitalizing the tag ID unless the tag definition
|
||
|
|
contains a "Name" entry.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote class=prog><b>Programmers</b>: To specify the config file directory from within
|
||
|
|
a Perl script when using the ExifTool API, set the <b>EXIFTOOL_HOME</b>
|
||
|
|
environment variable before loading the ExifTool module:
|
||
|
|
<pre>BEGIN { $ENV{EXIFTOOL_HOME} = '/config_file_directory' }
|
||
|
|
use Image::ExifTool;
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
Also see the <a href="ExifTool.html#Config">Configuration section of the
|
||
|
|
ExifTool API documentation</a> for techniques to use a config file with another
|
||
|
|
name, or to disable the config file feature.
|
||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<a name="Q12"></a>
|
||
|
|
<p>12. <b>"How do I export information from exiftool to a database?"</b></p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote><i>[See <a href="#Q26">FAQ number 26</a> for help with the reverse
|
||
|
|
-- importing metadata from a database.]</i></blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>
|
||
|
|
It is often easiest to export information formatted as a tab-delimited or
|
||
|
|
comma-separated list of values using the exiftool <code>-T</code> or
|
||
|
|
<code>-csv</code> option. As well, the <code>-r</code> option is useful for
|
||
|
|
recursing through all images in a hierarchy of directories. For example:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool -T -r -filename -exposuremode -ISO t/images > out.txt
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
This command recursively processes all images in the "<code>t/images</code>"
|
||
|
|
directory, extracting FileName, ExposureMode and ISO tags, and writing the
|
||
|
|
output to a tab-delimited text file called "<code>out.txt</code>". After the
|
||
|
|
command has executed, "<code>out.txt</code>" will look something like this:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre>Canon.jpg Manual 100
|
||
|
|
Casio.jpg - 64
|
||
|
|
Nikon.jpg - 100
|
||
|
|
OlympusE1.jpg Auto 400
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
One limitation of the <code>-T</code> option is that a list of tags to extract
|
||
|
|
must be specified. Otherwise, all information is extracted from each input
|
||
|
|
file, and the columns would contain values from random tags.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote> The <code>-csv</code> (comma separated values) option solves this
|
||
|
|
dilemma by pre-extracting information from all input files, then producing a
|
||
|
|
sorted list of available tag names as the first row of the output, and
|
||
|
|
organizing the information into columns for each tag. As well, a first column
|
||
|
|
labelled "SourceFile" is generated. These features make it practical to use the
|
||
|
|
<code>-csv</code> option for extracting all information from multiple images.
|
||
|
|
For example, this command:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool -csv -r t/images > out.csv</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
gives an output like this:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre>SourceFile,AEBBracketValue,AELock,AFAreaHeight,AFAreaMode,AFAreas,[...]
|
||
|
|
t/images/Canon.jpg,0,,151,,,[...]
|
||
|
|
t/images/Casio.jpg,,,,,,[...]
|
||
|
|
t/images/Nikon.jpg,,,,Single Area,,[...]
|
||
|
|
t/images/OlympusE1.jpg,,Off,,,"Center (121,121)-(133,133)",[...]
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Note that the number of columns in the <code>-csv</code> output may be very
|
||
|
|
large if all information is extracted. Missing tags are indicated by empty
|
||
|
|
strings as in the example above, or by dashes if the <code>-f</code> option is
|
||
|
|
used.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote> It should be possible to import these files directly into most
|
||
|
|
database applications. On the command line, any list of tag names may be used,
|
||
|
|
and any number of file or directory names may be specified. (Hint: If your
|
||
|
|
command line starts to get too long, you may want to look into using the
|
||
|
|
<code>-@</code> option and/or the <a href="index.html#shortcut">ShortCut</a>
|
||
|
|
feature).</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>In Windows, a .BAT file containing the exiftool command may be used
|
||
|
|
to give drag and drop functionality. Dropping a folder on the following .BAT
|
||
|
|
file will create "out.txt" in the folder:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre>echo "FileName<tab>Aperture<tab>ISO" > %1\out.txt
|
||
|
|
exiftool -T -r -filename -aperture -ISO %1 >> %1\out.txt
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
The "<code>echo</code>" command was included to add column headings to the
|
||
|
|
output. (The tab character in the echo command, indicated by
|
||
|
|
"<code><tab></code>", may be generated in Mac/Linux shells with CTRL-v
|
||
|
|
then TAB, or in a Windows cmd shell with TAB when cmd.exe is run with the
|
||
|
|
<code>/f:off</code> option to disable tab completion.)
|
||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>Other possible export formats include RDF/XML (with the the
|
||
|
|
<code>-X</code> option), or JSON (with the <code>-j</code> option). These
|
||
|
|
methods allow transfer of more complex data sets (including structured
|
||
|
|
information with the <code>-struct</code> option), but require that the
|
||
|
|
importing software supports these formats.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>Finally, the <code>-p</code> option may be used to generate any
|
||
|
|
arbitrary output format. For example, the following format file
|
||
|
|
(let's call it "<code>my.fmt</code>") may be used to emulate a CSV-formatted
|
||
|
|
output:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre>#[HEAD]FileName, Aperture, ISO
|
||
|
|
$filename, $aperture, $iso
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
with a command like this:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool -f -r -p my.fmt t/images > out.csv
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Alternatively, the <code>-p</code> option may be used with a format string instead
|
||
|
|
of a file name. The following command has the same effect as above except that
|
||
|
|
the row of headings is not printed (Note: Use single quotes as below on Mac/Linux,
|
||
|
|
or double quotes instead on Windows):
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool -f -r -p '$filename, $aperture, $iso' t/images > out.csv
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
With the <code>-f</code> option, the value of any missing tag is printed as a
|
||
|
|
dash. Without this option, missing tags generate a minor warning and the
|
||
|
|
line in the <code>-p</code> output is not printed. The <code>-m</code> option
|
||
|
|
may be used to ignore minor warnings, which causes these lines to be printed
|
||
|
|
with an empty value for missing tags.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>
|
||
|
|
See the <code>-p</code> option in the <a href="exiftool_pod.html">application
|
||
|
|
documentation</a> for more information about this feature.
|
||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<a name="Q13"></a>
|
||
|
|
<p>13a. <b>"Why is my file smaller after I use ExifTool to write information?"</b>, or
|
||
|
|
<br>13b. <b>"Why do some Offset tags change value when I write other tags?"</b></p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>
|
||
|
|
There are various specific reasons why this can happen, but the general answer
|
||
|
|
is: When ExifTool writes an image, the meta information may be restructured in
|
||
|
|
such a way that it takes less space than in the original file, or so that some
|
||
|
|
tags are stored at different offsets in the file.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>The EXIF/TIFF standard allows for blocks of unreferenced data to
|
||
|
|
exist in an image. Some digital cameras write JPEG or TIFF-based RAW files
|
||
|
|
which contain large blocks of unused data, usually filled with binary zeros.
|
||
|
|
The reason for this could be to simplify camera algorithms by allowing
|
||
|
|
variable-sized information to be written at fixed offsets in the output image.
|
||
|
|
When ExifTool rewrites an image it does not copy these unused blocks. This can
|
||
|
|
result in a significant reduction in file size for some images. <i>[The
|
||
|
|
<code>-htmlDump</code> option may be used to view the file structure if you are
|
||
|
|
interested in seeing these unused data blocks -- use a command like
|
||
|
|
"<code>exiftool -htmlDump a.jpg > out.html</code>", then open
|
||
|
|
<code>out.html</code> in your web browser. Unused data blocks are
|
||
|
|
<span class=U>brown</span> in this output.]</i> </blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>Also, the size of an XMP record may easily shrink or grow when it is
|
||
|
|
rewritten, even if no meta information is changed. This is partly due to the
|
||
|
|
fact that the XMP specification recommends a few KB of padding at the end of the
|
||
|
|
record (ExifTool adds 2424 bytes by default, but this padding is omitted if the
|
||
|
|
<code>-z</code> option is used), and partly due to the flexibility of the XMP
|
||
|
|
format which allows the information to be written in various styles, some of
|
||
|
|
which are more compact than others.
|
||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>You may also notice that the values of some "offset" tags (like
|
||
|
|
ThumbnailOffset and PreviewImageStart) may change when the file is rewritten.
|
||
|
|
This is normal, and simply indicates that the associated data is now stored at a
|
||
|
|
different position within the file.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>ExifTool does not modify the image data itself, so editing a file is
|
||
|
|
"lossless" as far as the image is concerned.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<a name="Q14"></a>
|
||
|
|
<p>14. <b>"What format do I use for writing GPS coordinates?"</b></p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>ExifTool is very flexible in the formats allowed for entering GPS
|
||
|
|
coordinates. Any string containing between 1 and 3 floating point numbers is
|
||
|
|
valid. The numbers represent degrees, (and optionally) minutes and
|
||
|
|
seconds.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>For EXIF GPS coordinates, the reference direction is specified
|
||
|
|
separately with the EXIF:GPSLatitudeRef or EXIF:GPSLongitudeRef
|
||
|
|
tag.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>For XMP GPS coordinates, the reference direction is specified within
|
||
|
|
the XMP:GPSLatitude or XMP:GPSLongitude value, with west longitudes and south
|
||
|
|
latitudes being specified either by negative coordinate values or by ending the
|
||
|
|
string with "<code>W</code>" or "<code>S</code>". </blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>Here are some examples of equivalent ways to specify a GPS
|
||
|
|
latitude in both EXIF and XMP:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool -exif:gpslatitude="42 30 0.00" -exif:gpslatituderef=S a.jpg
|
||
|
|
exiftool -exif:gpslatitude="42 deg 30.00 min" -exif:gpslatituderef=S a.jpg
|
||
|
|
exiftool -exif:gpslatitude=42.5 -exif:gpslatituderef=S a.jpg
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
exiftool -xmp:gpslatitude="42 30 0.00 S" a.jpg
|
||
|
|
exiftool -xmp:gpslatitude=42.50S a.jpg
|
||
|
|
exiftool -xmp:gpslatitude=-42.5 a.jpg
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Similar styles may be used for longitude. ExifTool will convert any of these
|
||
|
|
coordinate styles to the proper format for the specific tag used.
|
||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>When reading, ExifTool reports coordinates in the format
|
||
|
|
<pre>DDD deg MM' SS.SS"</pre>
|
||
|
|
where <code>DDD</code> is degress, <code>MM</code> is minutes, and <code>SS.SS</code>
|
||
|
|
is seconds. The <code>-n</code> option may be used to change this to decimal
|
||
|
|
degrees, or any arbitrary format may be specified with the <code>-c</code> option.
|
||
|
|
See the <a href="exiftool_pod.html">application documentation</a> for details.
|
||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<a name="Q15"></a>
|
||
|
|
<p>15. <b>"I get MakerNote warnings or errors when reading or writing information"</b></p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>Problems like this may be caused by image editing software which
|
||
|
|
doesn't properly update offsets in the MakerNotes when rewriting an image. These
|
||
|
|
offsets are used as pointers to reference tag values and structures within the
|
||
|
|
metadata, and errors like this may lead to missing or incorrect values for some
|
||
|
|
MakerNotes tags. In many cases, ExifTool will detect this type of problem and
|
||
|
|
issue a warning like this when reading (or an error when writing):
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre>Warning: [minor] Possibly incorrect maker notes offsets (fix by -340?)
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<i class=lt>[Be aware that if multiple warnings occur, the <code>-a</code>
|
||
|
|
option must be used to see them all, since by default only one warning is
|
||
|
|
displayed per file.]</i> </blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>This is a particularly insidious problem that is sometimes difficult
|
||
|
|
for ExifTool to correct automagically, so it requires some operator
|
||
|
|
intervention. If this warning occurs, you have a few alternatives:</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>1) Use the <code>-F</code> option to allow ExifTool to attempt to
|
||
|
|
fix the incorrect offsets. If ExifTool was correct in its diagnosis, then this
|
||
|
|
option will fix the incorrect offsets. This is usually the appropriate choice
|
||
|
|
if this problem was caused by editing the image with other
|
||
|
|
software.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>2) Use the <code>-m</code> option to ignore the warning (or downgrade
|
||
|
|
the error to a warning when writing). This causes ExifTool to honour the
|
||
|
|
existing maker note offsets, and may be the correct choice if images straight
|
||
|
|
out of the camera have this problem.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>Often, the first choice (<code>-F</code>) is the right thing to do,
|
||
|
|
but this depends on many factors, so it is best to try both methods then compare
|
||
|
|
the resulting maker note information to see which works best for your
|
||
|
|
situation.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>When writing, <code>-F</code> applies a permanent correction to the
|
||
|
|
maker notes. Note that <u>some MakerNote information may be lost permanently
|
||
|
|
if the proper correction is not applied when writing images with this
|
||
|
|
problem</u>.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>3) The third alternative is to adjust the maker note offsets by a
|
||
|
|
specific amount. This is done by appending an integer to the <code>-F</code>
|
||
|
|
option. For example, with the warning above (where ExifTool suggests "fix by
|
||
|
|
-340?"), <code>-F</code> would be equivalent to <code>-F-340</code>. See the
|
||
|
|
<a href="exiftool_pod.html#f_offset_fixbase">-F option documentation</a> for
|
||
|
|
more details. This advanced feature may require some technical knowledge about
|
||
|
|
the structure of EXIF information (and here, ExifTool's <code>-htmlDump</code>
|
||
|
|
feature may be very useful for visualizing this structure).</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>Other types of MakerNote errors may also prevent the file from
|
||
|
|
being written. However, most MakerNote errors are designated as <b>minor</b>,
|
||
|
|
which allows them to be ignored by using the <code>-m</code> option. For
|
||
|
|
example:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre>Error: [minor] Bad format (65535) for MakerNotes entry 17
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Using <code>-m</code> will downgrade the minor error to a warning, allowing the
|
||
|
|
file to be written, but <u>some MakerNote information may be lost when ignoring
|
||
|
|
certain types of errors like this</u>. </blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<a name="Q16"></a>
|
||
|
|
<p>16. <b>"Why doesn't ExifTool rename my AVI files?"</b></p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>By default, ExifTool only processes <u>writable file
|
||
|
|
types</u><span class='sm'><sup>†</sup></span> when <u>any
|
||
|
|
tag</u><span class='sm'><sup>‡</sup></span> is being written and a
|
||
|
|
directory name is specified on the command line. To force exiftool to process
|
||
|
|
other files, they must either be listed on the command line by name, or be
|
||
|
|
specified using the <code>-ext</code> option, something like this:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool -ext AVI -ext JPG -d pics/%Y/%m "-directory<dateTimeOriginal" DIR
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
When a single <code>-ext</code> option is used, only files of the specified type
|
||
|
|
are processed. However, multiple <code>-ext</code> options may be used in the
|
||
|
|
same command (as in the example above) to process any number of different file
|
||
|
|
types.
|
||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote class='sm'><sup>†</sup> <span class=lt>The
|
||
|
|
<code>-listwf</code> option may be used to list the extensions of all writable file types.</span>
|
||
|
|
<br><sup>‡</sup> <span class=lt>This includes "pseudo" tags like
|
||
|
|
FileName, Directory, FileModifyDate and FileCreateDate.</span></blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<a name="Q17"></a>
|
||
|
|
<p>17. <b>"List-type tags do not behave as expected"</b></p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>Tags indicated by a plus sign (<code>+</code>) in the
|
||
|
|
<a href="TagNames/index.html">tag name documentation</a> are list-type tags.
|
||
|
|
Two examples of common list-type tags are
|
||
|
|
<a href="TagNames/IPTC.html#ApplicationRecord">IPTC:Keywords</a> and
|
||
|
|
<a href="TagNames/XMP.html#dc">XMP:Subject</a>. These tags may contain multiple
|
||
|
|
items which are combined into a single string when reading. (By default,
|
||
|
|
extracted list items are separated by a comma and a space, but the
|
||
|
|
<code>-sep</code> option may be used to change this.) When writing, separate
|
||
|
|
items are assigned individually. For example, the following command writes
|
||
|
|
three keywords to all writable files in directory <code>DIR</code>, replacing
|
||
|
|
any previously existing keywords:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool -keywords=one -keywords=two -keywords=three DIR
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
List items are assigned separately, NOT all together, because this would
|
||
|
|
represent a single keyword:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool -keywords="one, two, three" test.jpg <span class=blk>(WRONG!)</span>
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
With exiftool version 7.56 or later, the <code>-sep</code> option may be used to
|
||
|
|
split values of list-type tags into separate items when writing. For example,
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool -sep ", " -keywords="one, two, three" DIR
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
will store three separate keywords, the same as the first example above. This
|
||
|
|
feature may also be used to split a tag value into separate items if it was
|
||
|
|
originally stored incorrectly as a single string:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool -sep ", " -tagsfromfile @ -keywords test.jpg
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
However, sometimes it is desirable to have list items which contain a comma, and
|
||
|
|
this is allowed:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool -contributor="Harvey, Phil" -contributor="Marley, Bob" a.jpg
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
But to distinguish these entries when extracting information, a different list
|
||
|
|
separator or a different output format must be used. For instance, the
|
||
|
|
following command uses "<code>//</code>" to separate list items,
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool -contributor -sep "//" a.jpg
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
and produces an output like this:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre class=blk>Contributor : Harvey, Phil//Marley, Bob
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Alternatively, the <code>-j</code>, <code>-php</code> and <code>-X</code>
|
||
|
|
options use an output format which preserves the structure of a
|
||
|
|
list (if <code>-sep</code> is NOT used).</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>Note that the writing examples above overwrite any values which
|
||
|
|
already existed in the original file for these tags. Instead, to add or delete
|
||
|
|
items from an existing list, use "<code>+=</code>" or "<code>-=</code>" in place
|
||
|
|
of "<code>=</code>". For example:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool -keywords+="add this" -keywords-="remove this" DIR
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
With commands like this, new items are added to the list in place of the first
|
||
|
|
deleted item, or at the end of the list if no items were removed.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>Note: Using "<code>=</code>" is equivalent to "<code>+=</code>" in
|
||
|
|
any command where the same tag is set with "<code>+=</code>" or
|
||
|
|
"<code>-=</code>" in another assignment. (ie. existing items will be preserved
|
||
|
|
unless specifically deleted with "<code>-=</code>".)</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>To prevent duplication when adding new items, specific items can be
|
||
|
|
deleted then added back again in the same command. For example, the following
|
||
|
|
command adds the keywords "one" and "two", ensuring that they are not duplicated
|
||
|
|
if they already existed in the keywords of an image:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool -keywords-=one -keywords+=one -keywords-=two -keywords+=two DIR
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
When copying list tags using the <code>-tagsFromFile</code> option, items are
|
||
|
|
copied individually to form proper lists. However, there is a complication when
|
||
|
|
copying multiple tags to a single list tag: Here, any assignment to a tag
|
||
|
|
overrides earlier assignments to the same tag in the command. For instance,
|
||
|
|
this command
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool "-keywords<filename" "-keywords<comment" DIR
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
writes only the value from the Comment tag. (Note that <code>-tagsFromFile @</code>
|
||
|
|
is implied by the "<code><</code>" operation in this command, causing tags to
|
||
|
|
be copied from the original file.) This may seem strange, but it prevents
|
||
|
|
duplicate items from being added to a list when copying a group of tags from a
|
||
|
|
file containing duplicate information. Alternatively, the
|
||
|
|
<code>-addTagsFromFile</code> option may be used to accumulate items when
|
||
|
|
copying from multiple tags:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool -addTagsFromFile @ "-keywords<filename" "-keywords<comment" DIR
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Note that as with "<code>=</code>" in the first three examples above, the
|
||
|
|
"<code><</code>" operation of this command overwrites any Keywords that
|
||
|
|
existed previously in the original file. To add to or remove from the existing
|
||
|
|
keywords, use "<code>+<</code>" or "<code>-<</code>".
|
||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<a name="Q18"></a>
|
||
|
|
<p>18. <b>"Special characters don't display properly in my Windows console"</b></p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>The Windows cmd.exe console uses an MS-DOS encoding by default
|
||
|
|
(cp437 or something similar, depending on your region). The exiftool
|
||
|
|
<code>-charset</code> option may be used to encode the exiftool output for a
|
||
|
|
specific Windows code page, which may help display some special characters, but
|
||
|
|
instead it may be better to switch the console to UTF‑8 (the native
|
||
|
|
ExifTool character encoding). This is especially useful if you are using the
|
||
|
|
<code>-lang</code> option to translate exiftool output to another language. To
|
||
|
|
change the the Windows console to UTF‑8, follow these steps:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<ol><li>Run "cmd.exe" to open a Windows console (select "Run..." from the
|
||
|
|
Start menu and enter "cmd").</li>
|
||
|
|
<li>Change the font in the console Properties to any True Type font (eg. "TT
|
||
|
|
Lucida Console").</li>
|
||
|
|
<li>Type "<code>chcp 65001</code>" then press RETURN at the command prompt.</li>
|
||
|
|
</ol>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
The console should now be able to display UTF‑8 characters (cp65001). But
|
||
|
|
note that the TT Lucida Console font shipped with Windows, at least my version,
|
||
|
|
may not be very complete, and doesn't seem to contain Japanese or Chinese
|
||
|
|
characters.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>To permanently set the font, select "Save properties for future
|
||
|
|
windows" when changing the font Properties. Also, you can automatically run
|
||
|
|
"<code>chcp 65001</code>" every time "cmd.exe" is launched by changing the
|
||
|
|
Windows Registry for the Command Processor: Run "regedit" and put "<code>chcp
|
||
|
|
65001</code>" into Data field for "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command
|
||
|
|
Processor\Autorun". (Unfortunately, I haven't been able to figure out how to
|
||
|
|
change the code page for exiftool when launched via the Windows GUI. If anyone
|
||
|
|
can figure out how to do this, please let me know.)
|
||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>On some Windows systems, using UTF‑8 doesn't seem to work. In
|
||
|
|
this case, a Windows character set may be the best alternative: For instance,
|
||
|
|
for Windows Latin1 (cp1252) type "<code>chcp 1252</code>" in the console to
|
||
|
|
switch to cp1252, then run exiftool with "<code>-charset cp1252</code>" (or
|
||
|
|
<code>-L</code>). This same technique can be used for other supported Windows
|
||
|
|
code pages.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>A final alternative is to bypass the command-line encoding problems
|
||
|
|
totally by extracting/writing to/from a separate text file, and using a UTF‑8
|
||
|
|
aware text editor to view/edit the text. For example:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre><span class=blk># extracting...</span>
|
||
|
|
exiftool image.jpg > out.txt
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<span class=blk># writing...</span>
|
||
|
|
exiftool "-subject<=subject.txt" image.jpg</pre></blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<a name="Q19"></a>
|
||
|
|
<p>19. <b>"How do I change the format of an extracted tag value?"</b></p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>The exiftool application has built-in options which allow you to
|
||
|
|
display numeric values (<code>-n</code>), escape special HTML characters
|
||
|
|
(<code>-E</code>), and change the date/time (<code>-d</code>) and GPS coordinate
|
||
|
|
(<code>-c</code>) formats, but sometimes more control is needed over the
|
||
|
|
formatting of a value...</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>The <code>-p</code> and <code>-tagsFromFile</code> options provide
|
||
|
|
an advanced translation feature that allows arbitrary Perl expressions to be
|
||
|
|
used to modify tag values. The basic syntax is this:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre>${TAG;EXPR}</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
where <code>TAG</code> is the tag name, and <code>EXPR</code> is a Perl
|
||
|
|
expression acting on the default input variable (<code>$_</code>), which is
|
||
|
|
initially the original value of the tag. For example, the following command
|
||
|
|
sets the FileName from Artist, translating spaces to underlines:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool '-filename<${artist;tr/ /_/}.%e' image.jpg</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
(Note: Use single quotes as above in Mac/Linux, or double quotes instead
|
||
|
|
in Windows.)</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>Another technique is to create a user-defined Composite tag to do
|
||
|
|
the reformatting. Here is a basic config file that reformats the Artist tag to
|
||
|
|
provide a new MyArtist tag with the same character translation as the example
|
||
|
|
above:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre>%Image::ExifTool::UserDefined = (
|
||
|
|
'Image::ExifTool::Composite' => {
|
||
|
|
MyArtist => {
|
||
|
|
Require => 'Artist',
|
||
|
|
ValueConv => '$val =~ tr/ /_/; $val',
|
||
|
|
},
|
||
|
|
},
|
||
|
|
);
|
||
|
|
1; # end
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
With this config file, an Artist value of "Phil Harvey" yields a corresponding
|
||
|
|
MyArtist value of "Phil_Harvey". The ValueConv string may be any valid Perl
|
||
|
|
expression, and is evaluated to obtain the value for the new tag. In this
|
||
|
|
expression, <code>$val</code> represents the ValueConv value of the Require'd
|
||
|
|
tag. </blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>To activate the config file, it must be named
|
||
|
|
"<code>.ExifTool_config</code>" and placed either in your home directory or in
|
||
|
|
the same directory as the exiftool application. Note that the file name begins
|
||
|
|
with a "<code>.</code>", so if you are in Windows or on a Mac you may need to
|
||
|
|
rename the file from the command line since the GUI might not like file names
|
||
|
|
beginning with a "<code>.</code>".</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>User-defined Composite tags have many other features, including the
|
||
|
|
ability to combine the values of multiple tags. See the
|
||
|
|
<a href="config.html">config file documentation</a> for more details about
|
||
|
|
user-defined tags, and lib/Image/ExifTool/README in the full distribution for a
|
||
|
|
complete description of ValueConv features. Also, a
|
||
|
|
<a href="http://u88.n24.queensu.ca/exiftool/forum/index.php?action=search2&search=code+userdefined">quick
|
||
|
|
search of the ExifTool forum</a> should reveal a number of user-defined tag
|
||
|
|
examples, and there are other good (and often more complex) examples which can
|
||
|
|
be found in the %Image::ExifTool::Exif::Composite hash of the
|
||
|
|
lib/Image/ExifTool/Exif.pm source code.
|
||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<a name="Q20"></a>
|
||
|
|
<p>20. <b>"ExifTool won't write an image due to errors"</b></p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>Minor errors may be ignored using the <code>-m</code> option
|
||
|
|
(<a href="#Q15">FAQ 15</a> discusses this with respect to MakerNote errors), but
|
||
|
|
sometimes there are more serious errors which can't be ignored. ExifTool may be
|
||
|
|
used to fix metadata problems in JPEG images by deleting all metadata and
|
||
|
|
rebuilding it from scratch. The command looks like this:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool -all= -tagsfromfile @ -all:all -unsafe -icc_profile bad.jpg
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
where "<code>bad.jpg</code>" is the name of the image that requires fixing. This
|
||
|
|
command deletes all metadata then copies all writable tags that can be extracted
|
||
|
|
from the original image to the same locations in the updated image. The
|
||
|
|
"<code>Unsafe</code>" tag is a <a href="TagNames/Shortcuts.html">shortcut</a>
|
||
|
|
for unsafe EXIF tags in JPEG images which are not normally copied. JPEG images
|
||
|
|
may also contain an ICC color profile which should be preserved. The
|
||
|
|
"<code>ICC_Profile</code>" tag is also marked as unsafe, but is not part of the
|
||
|
|
EXIF so it isn't covered by the "<code>Unsafe</code>" shortcut and must be
|
||
|
|
specified separately.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>After repairing an image like this you should be able to write to it
|
||
|
|
without errors, but note that <u>some metadata from the original image may have
|
||
|
|
been lost in the process</u>.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote><b>Note</b>: ExifTool will not modify the JPEG image data, so if the
|
||
|
|
image itself is corrupted (eg. if you get a message saying "Not a valid JPEG"),
|
||
|
|
then ExifTool can not be used to repair the image. Also, ExifTool may not
|
||
|
|
be used like this to repair TIFF-based files -- the risk of image corruption is
|
||
|
|
too great because the image is stored in the same IFD as the metadata in these
|
||
|
|
files.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>If there are also MakerNote problems in the file, you may want to
|
||
|
|
add the <code>-F</code> option to the command. See <a href='#Q15'>FAQ 15</a>
|
||
|
|
for details. For example, to rebuild the EXIF only and fix the MakerNote
|
||
|
|
offsets you could do this:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool -exif:all= -tagsfromfile @ -exif:all -unsafe -thumbnailimage -F bad.jpg
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<b>Advanced</b>: The byte order of the newly created EXIF is set by the value of
|
||
|
|
the ExifByteOrder tag. Since this tag does not belong to the EXIF group, it is
|
||
|
|
not copied with <code>-exif:all</code> above (but would be copied with
|
||
|
|
<code>-all:all</code> as in the first example). If ExifByteOrder is not set
|
||
|
|
then the byte order is determined by the ordering of the MakerNotes if they are
|
||
|
|
copied, otherwise big-endian ("MM") byte order is used by default.
|
||
|
|
ExifByteOrder may be set to a specific value to force a particular byte order
|
||
|
|
when creating new EXIF (eg. "<code>-ExifByteOrder=II</code>" for little-endian).
|
||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<a name="Q21"></a>
|
||
|
|
<p>21. <b>"How do I read/write values containing newline characters?"</b></p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>When reading, by default exiftool converts all control characters to
|
||
|
|
"." to avoid messing up the output formatting, so newlines will appear as a "."
|
||
|
|
in the output. The <code>-b</code> option may be used to bypass all output
|
||
|
|
formatting (except that a line-feed character is inserted between items in a
|
||
|
|
list), but this may not be appropriate when the values of many tags must be
|
||
|
|
extracted. In this case, the formatted output (<code>-p</code>), JSON
|
||
|
|
(<code>-j</code>), XML (<code>-X</code>) and PHP (<code>-php</code>) options
|
||
|
|
provide alternative output formats which preserve newlines in values.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>When writing, there are a number of options:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<ol type='a'>
|
||
|
|
<li>In many shells, a newline may be inserted directly in the command
|
||
|
|
line:
|
||
|
|
<p>Bourne shells (press <i>RETURN</i> inside a quoted string)</p>
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool -comment="line 1
|
||
|
|
line 2" image.jpg
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
<p>(Also, in Bourne shells the character sequence <code>$'\n'</code>
|
||
|
|
may be used for a newline.)</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>C shells (press "<code>\</code>" then <i>RETURN</i> inside a quoted string)</p>
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool -comment="line 1\
|
||
|
|
line 2" image.jpg
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
<i class=lt>[Unfortunately the Windows cmd shell provides no method to get a
|
||
|
|
newline (CR/LF in Windows) into the command line. A linefeed (LF) may be
|
||
|
|
inserted with CTRL-T, but I have found no way to insert a carriage return
|
||
|
|
(CR).]</i><br><br>
|
||
|
|
</li>
|
||
|
|
<li>Use the <code>-E</code> option to allow HTML character entities (Note:
|
||
|
|
In Windows a newline is "<code>&#xd;&#xa;</code>" instead of just
|
||
|
|
"<code>&#xa;</code>"):
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool -E "-comment=line 1&#xa;line 2" image.jpg
|
||
|
|
</pre></li>
|
||
|
|
<li>Write the tag from the contents of a separate text file:
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool "-comment<=file.txt" image.jpg
|
||
|
|
</pre></li>
|
||
|
|
<li>Use <code>$/</code> in a redirection expression: (Note: Single quotes
|
||
|
|
must be used in Mac/Linux shells around arguments containing a dollar sign,
|
||
|
|
but double quotes are used instead in Windows. Also note that this technique
|
||
|
|
is slower since the implied <code>-tagsFromFile</code> adds an extra unnecessary
|
||
|
|
processing pass to read tags from the file.)
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool '-comment<line 1$/line 2' image.jpg
|
||
|
|
</pre></li>
|
||
|
|
</ol>
|
||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<a name="Q22"></a>
|
||
|
|
<p>22. <b>"In what order are command-line assignments applied when writing?"</b></p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>When writing, tag assignments on the command line are queued and
|
||
|
|
applied together as each target file is processed. In general, assignments
|
||
|
|
later on the command line override earlier assignments, but there are
|
||
|
|
exceptions:
|
||
|
|
<ol><li>When writing list-type tags (eg. <code>-keywords=one</code>), new values
|
||
|
|
are accumulated rather than overriding earlier assignments.<br> </li>
|
||
|
|
<li>When copying values to list-type tags (eg.
|
||
|
|
<code>"-keywords<filename"</code>), new values are accumulated only if
|
||
|
|
<code>-addTagsFromFile</code> is used, otherwise they override earlier
|
||
|
|
assigments if <code>-tagsFromFile</code> is used or implied.<br> </li>
|
||
|
|
<li>Tags copied with the <code>-tagsFromFile</code> option are assigned in
|
||
|
|
order, and all together at the point in the command line where the
|
||
|
|
<code>-tagsFromFile</code> option is located, regardless of whether these tags
|
||
|
|
are specified immediately after the <code>-tagsFromFile</code> option or later
|
||
|
|
on the command line. Remember that "<code>-tagsFromFile @</code>" is implied
|
||
|
|
unless another file is specified when redirecting information with arguments
|
||
|
|
like <code>"-DSTTAG<SRCTAG"</code>.</li></ol> Note: When copying tag values,
|
||
|
|
adding to lists, or shifting date/time values, the source value is always the
|
||
|
|
original value found in the file, regardless of any previous assignments. For
|
||
|
|
example, the following command sets Subject to the original value of Title in
|
||
|
|
the file (NOT to "test"):
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool -title=test "-subject<title" a.jpg</pre></blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<a name="Q23"></a>
|
||
|
|
<p>23a. <b>"Why do I get '<code>0 image files updated</code>' when writing?"</b>, or<br>
|
||
|
|
23b. <b>"ExifTool doesn't write some tags to a file"</b></p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>There are a few reasons why this may happen:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<ol><li>The value of the tag is not being set correctly.</li></ol>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
This may be due to a tag value which can't be converted, in which case you
|
||
|
|
should warning like this (note: you may need to use the <code>-v3</code> option
|
||
|
|
to see the warning if other same-named tags are being set properly by the same
|
||
|
|
assignment):
|
||
|
|
<pre>Warning: Can't convert IFD0:Orientation (not in PrintConv)
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
You get this warning if you write an invalid value to a tag which accepts only
|
||
|
|
specific values. See the "Values" column in the appropriate table of the
|
||
|
|
<a href="TagNames/index.html">tag name documentation</a> for a list of valid
|
||
|
|
values for these types of tags. The value conversion may also be bypassed with
|
||
|
|
the <code>-n</code> option, allowing numerical values to be written directly.
|
||
|
|
See <a href="#Q6">FAQ number 6</a> for more details.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<ol start="2"><li>The information type isn't supported by the format of the
|
||
|
|
target file.</li></ol>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Warnings are NOT generated when a tag isn't written because it is
|
||
|
|
normal that many tags can't be written when copying between files of different
|
||
|
|
formats.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>Tags are not written if the format of the target file doesn't
|
||
|
|
support the specific type of meta information. For example, CRW images do not
|
||
|
|
support EXIF or IPTC metdata. See the
|
||
|
|
<a href="index.html#supported">Supported File Types</a> table for an indication
|
||
|
|
of the tags supported by your file. If the tags aren't supported for your file
|
||
|
|
type, then a <a href='metafiles.html'>metadata sidecar file</a> is an
|
||
|
|
alternative.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>Also note that MakerNotes tags can not be created or deleted
|
||
|
|
individually, so they can only be written if they already exist in a
|
||
|
|
file. The entire MakerNotes must be created or deleted as a block (see
|
||
|
|
<a href="#Q8">FAQ number 8</a> for details).
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<ol start="3"><li>A time value is being shifted but the specified tag doesn't
|
||
|
|
exist.</li></ol>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
For example, <code>-datetimeoriginal+=1</code> will have no effect unless
|
||
|
|
the DateTimeOriginal tag exists in the image.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<a name="Q24"></a>
|
||
|
|
<p>24. <b>"When I write a file the date/time gets reset to today's date"</b></p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>There is sometimes confusion between date/time values stored in the
|
||
|
|
metadata of the file itself and date/time values stored in the filesystem (ie.
|
||
|
|
in the disk directory information). A command like this may be used to extract
|
||
|
|
all date/time information with an indication of where it is stored:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre>exiftool -time:all -a -G0:1 -s c:\images\test.jpg</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
and should give an output something like this:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre>[File:System] FileModifyDate : 2009:10:05 20:40:36-04:00
|
||
|
|
[File:System] FileAccessDate : 2009:10:07 09:22:12-04:00
|
||
|
|
[File:System] FileCreateDate : 2009:10:05 20:40:36-04:00
|
||
|
|
[EXIF:IFD0] ModifyDate : 2003:10:31 15:44:19
|
||
|
|
[EXIF:ExifIFD] DateTimeOriginal : 2003:10:31 15:44:19
|
||
|
|
[EXIF:ExifIFD] CreateDate : 2003:10:31 15:44:19</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
The <code>-G0:1</code> option causes the family 0 and 1 group names to be
|
||
|
|
reported in square brackets for each tag. Tags labelled "File:System" are
|
||
|
|
"pseudo" tags stored in the filesystem, while the others are "real" tags stored
|
||
|
|
in the metadata of the file.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>ExifTool's <b>default behaviour is to set all filesystem times to
|
||
|
|
the current date/time when any "real" tag is written</b>, but the
|
||
|
|
<code>-P</code> option may be used to preserve the original FileModifyDate.
|
||
|
|
FileAccessDate represents the time the file was last accessed, and is set to the
|
||
|
|
current date/time whenever any software (including ExifTool) accesses the
|
||
|
|
file.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>On systems where a filesystem creation date is maintained, ExifTool
|
||
|
|
also sets this to the current date/time when the file is edited. On Windows the
|
||
|
|
creation date is accessed through the FileCreateDate tag, and is also preserved
|
||
|
|
with the <code>-P</code> option. On Mac/Linux FileInodeChangeDate is available
|
||
|
|
instead of FileCreateDate, and the only way to preserve the file creation date
|
||
|
|
is with the <code>-overwrite_original_in_place</code> option.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>For example, commands like this act on common metadata tags, setting
|
||
|
|
the filesystem modification date/time to the current date/time:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre><span class='blk'># common metadata date/time tags are incremented by 1 hour, while
|
||
|
|
# FileModifyDate is set to the current date/time</span>
|
||
|
|
exiftool -alldates+=1 c:\images</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<i class=lt>[The AllDates tag is a shortcut which represents the 3 common
|
||
|
|
metadata date/time tags: DateTimeOriginal, CreateDate and
|
||
|
|
ModifyDate.]</i></blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>However, FileModifyDate may be preserved with the <code>-P</code>
|
||
|
|
option:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre><span class='blk'># FileModifyDate is not changed</span>
|
||
|
|
exiftool -alldates+=1 -P c:\images</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
ExifTool also allows FileModifyDate to be written, which provides full control
|
||
|
|
over the filesystem modification date/time when writing:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre><span class='blk'># FileModifyDate is incremented by 1 hour</span>
|
||
|
|
exiftool -alldates+=1 -filemodifydate+=1 c:\images
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<span class='blk'># FileModifyDate is set from the value of DateTimeOriginal
|
||
|
|
# (before DateTimeOriginal is incremented by 1 hour)</span>
|
||
|
|
exiftool -alldates+=1 "-filemodifydate<datetimeoriginal" c:\images
|
||
|
|
</pre></blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<a name="Q25"></a>
|
||
|
|
<p>25. <b>"Can ExifTool be used as an image validator?"</b></p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>ExifTool is <u>not</u> designed as an image validator. It does issue
|
||
|
|
warnings about some of the more important problems in the metadata when
|
||
|
|
reading, and will often catch more problems when writing, but it does not
|
||
|
|
attempt to do a full validation. If you are looking for a validator,
|
||
|
|
try <a href="http://jhove.sourceforge.net">JHOVE</a>.</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<a name="Q26"></a>
|
||
|
|
<p>26. <b>"How do I import information from a database?"</b></p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote><i>[See <a href="#Q12">FAQ number 12</a> for help with the reverse
|
||
|
|
-- exporting metadata to a database.]</i></blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>ExifTool has the ability to import metadata from CSV and JSON format
|
||
|
|
database files for writing to output image files. For example, the following
|
||
|
|
commands use imported metadata to write to all image files in a directory.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre><span class='blk'># import from CSV file</span>
|
||
|
|
exiftool -csv="c:\Users\Phil\test.csv" "c:\Users\Phil\Images"
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<span class='blk'># import from JSON file</span>
|
||
|
|
exiftool -json="c:\Users\Phil\test.json" "c:\Users\Phil\Images"</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
For the above commands, the input CSV or JSON file must have the same format as
|
||
|
|
the output from these commands:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<pre><span class='blk'># export to CSV file</span>
|
||
|
|
exiftool -csv "c:\Users\Phil\Images" > "c:\Users\Phil\test.csv"
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<span class='blk'># export to JSON file</span>
|
||
|
|
exiftool -json "c:\Users\Phil\Images" > "c:\Users\Phil\test.json"</pre>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Specifically, the first row of the CSV file must contain the tag names.
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The first column must be a special "SourceFile" column, containing the names of
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the associated image files, with paths specified in the same way as on the
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command line. The JSON file contains similar entries, but is not structured in
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row/column format.</blockquote>
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<blockquote>For each image file specified on the command line, all tags for the
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database entry with the corresponding SourceFile name are written (with the
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exception of the FileName and Directory tags, which are ignored). A special
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SourceFile name of "*" may be used to match any image file. A warning is issued
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and nothing is written if a specified file does not match any SourceFile entry
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in the database.</blockquote>
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<blockquote>Tag names may be prefixed by a group name to write to a specific
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group (using the same format as when <code>-G</code> or <code>-G1</code> is
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added to the export command). Tags with empty values are ignored. To delete a
|
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tag, set the tag value to "-" and use the <code>-f</code> option when
|
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importing.</blockquote>
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<blockquote>See the <code>-csv</code> or <code>-j</code> option in the
|
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|
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<a href="exiftool_pod.html#input_output_text_formatting">application documentation</a>
|
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for more details.</blockquote>
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<hr>
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<i>Last revised Jan. 12, 2015</i>
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<p class='lf'><a href="index.html"><-- Back to ExifTool home page</a></p>
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</body>
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</html>
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