ExifTool - Tool For Reading, Writing and Editing Meta Information In Files

ExifTool

ExifTool is a platform-independent Perl library plus a command-line application for reading, writing and editing meta information in a wide variety of files. 

It supports many different metadata formats including EXIF, GPS, IPTC, XMP, JFIF, GeoTIFF, ICC Profile, Photoshop IRB, FlashPix, AFCP and ID3, as well as the maker notes of many digital cameras by Canon, Casio, DJI, FLIR, FujiFilm, GE, HP, JVC/Victor, Kodak, Leaf, Minolta/Konica-Minolta, Motorola, Nikon, Nintendo, Olympus/Epson, Panasonic/Leica, Pentax/Asahi, Phase One, Reconyx, Ricoh, Samsung, Sanyo, Sigma/Foveon and Sony.

It is available as a stand-alone Windows executable and a Macintosh OS X package.

The stand-alone Windows executable does not require Perl. Just download and un-zip the archive then double-click on "exiftool(-k).exe" to read the application documentation, drag-and-drop files and folders to view meta information, or rename to "exiftool.exe" for command-line use. Runs on all versions of Windows.

The OS X package installs the ExifTool command-line application and libraries in /usr/local/bin. After installing, type "exiftool" in a Terminal window to run exiftool and read the application documentation.

FEATURES:

  • Powerful, fast, flexible and customizable
  • Supports a large number of different file formats
  • Reads EXIF, GPS, IPTC, XMP, JFIF, MakerNotes, GeoTIFF, ICC Profile, Photoshop IRB, FlashPix, AFCP, ID3 and more...
  • Writes EXIF, GPS, IPTC, XMP, JFIF, MakerNotes, GeoTIFF, ICC Profile, Photoshop IRB, AFCP and more...
  • Reads and writes maker notes of many digital cameras
  • Decodes a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma
  • Numerous output formatting options (including tab-delimited, HTML, XML and JSON)
  • Multi-lingual output (cs, de, en, en-ca, en-gb, es, fi, fr, it, ja, ko, nl, pl, ru, sv, tr, zh-cn or zh-tw)
  • Geotags images from GPS track log files (with time drift correction!)
  • Generates track logs from geotagged images
  • Shifts date/time values to fix timestamps in images
  • Renames files and organizes in directories (by date or by any other meta information)
  • Extracts thumbnail images, preview images, and large JPEG images from RAW files
  • Copies meta information between files (even different-format files)
  • Reads/writes structured XMP information
  • Deletes meta information individually, in groups, or altogether
  • Sets the file modification date (and creation date in Mac and Windows) from EXIF information
  • Supports alternate language tags in XMP, PNG, ID3, Font, QuickTime, ICC Profile, MIE and MXF information
  • Processes entire directory trees
  • Creates text output file for each image file
  • Creates binary-format metadata-only (MIE, EXV) files for metadata backup
  • Automatically backs up original image when writing
  • Organizes output into groups
  • Conditionally processes files based on value of any meta information
  • Ability to add custom user-defined tags
  • Support for MWG (Metadata Working Group) recommendations
  • Recognizes thousands of different tags
  • Tested with images from thousands of different camera models
  • Advanced verbose and HTML-based hex dump outputs


LIMITATIONS:

  • ExifTool will not rewrite a file if it detects a significant problem with the file format.
  • ExifTool has been tested with a wide range of different images, but since it is not possible to test it with every known image type, there is the possibility that it will corrupt some files. Be sure to keep backups of your files.
  • Even though ExifTool does some validation of the information written, it is still possible to write illegal values which may cause problems when reading the images with other software. So take care to validate the information you are writing.
  • ExifTool is not guaranteed to remove metadata completely from a file when attempting to delete all metadata. For JPEG images, all APP segments (except Adobe APP14, which is not removed by default) and trailers are removed which effectively removes all metadata, but for other formats the results are less complete:
    • JPEG - APP segments (except Adobe APP14) and trailers are removed.
    • TIFF - XMP, IPTC, ICC_Profile and the ExifIFD are removed, but some EXIF may remain in IFD0.
    • PNG - Only XMP, EXIF, ICC_Profile and native PNG textual data chunks are removed.
    • PDF - The original metadata is never actually removed.
    • PS - Only XMP and some native PostScript tags may be deleted.
    • MOV/MP4 - Only XMP is deleted.
    • RAW formats - It is not recommended to remove all metadata from RAW images because this will likely remove some proprietary information that is necessary for proper rendering of the image.

Source: www.effecthacking.com
ExifTool - Tool For Reading, Writing and Editing Meta Information In Files ExifTool - Tool For Reading, Writing and Editing Meta Information In Files Reviewed by Anonymous on 1:18 AM Rating: 5