Exif tool

Purchased the upgrade, hoping to access the bulk features. Bulk feature only allows you to delete the date, as per the available options. This was a huge disappointment, but it gets worse. Selecting this feature only deleted the photoshop editing date, and had no effect on the camera date, which are the incorrect ones I needed to change. I can change the date on each picture individually, but the batch mode feature dies not have a useful and flexible interface. If you don't mind changing each picture separately, it seems to work, but is twice the cost of similar apps that do this.

This app works well on my iPad but I can't get it to work on iPhone at all. I do not understand how anyone could not think this is a fantastic app!!!

We extracted ExifTool's executable and double-clicked it to open the program's documentation, which includes an extensive list of file types and meta information formats that ExifTools supports. Right away we knew we were in unfamiliar territory. Following the instructions, we closed the prompt and dragged an image file into ExifTool's executable.

ExifTool popped back up with all of the image's available metadata displayed many spaces were blank. Simple enough. The program's executable file downloads with the -k suffix, which tells the Command Prompt to stay open. We renamed it, as the instructions recommend, but, as we noted before, we were already well outside the lines of the sort of software we were looking for -- or that most users would look for, for that matter.

So who should look at ExifTool's Windows distribution? Windows users with Perl installed on their machines and some basic skills using the language will be well-equipped, but the average user will do better with a more familiar tool.

Adventurous types who like the idea of a super-basic, super-flexible command line tool will find ExifTool easy to learn and educational, too. ExifTool is a platform-independent command-line application for reading, writing, and editing Meta information that is contained by image, audio and video files. It extracts thumbnail images, preview images, and large JPEG images from RAW files, copies meta information between files, reads or writes structured XMP information, deletes meta information individually, in groups, or altogether, and sets the file modification date from EXIF information.

Free YouTube Downloader. IObit Uninstaller. Internet Download Manager. Advanced SystemCare Free. Adding additional -s flags will also affect the output.

Using -s -s or -S will remove the spaces between the tag name and the tag value. Using -s -s -s will remove everything except for the value. Knowing the tag names with the -s option will also make filtering them easier. One of the most common ways to format output in exiftool is by using the -printFormat or -p parameter. This parameter allows you to return custom strings and define tags as variables in the output.

If you were writing code, you could declare a variable and then use variable expansion inside of a string like this:. If you need to format a more complex output like multiple lines, you can also use a format file with the printFormat parameter.

To use a format file:. Copy the below text into it. Notice each of the variables. Exiftool will replace these with real values when run. These lines tell exiftool where the start and end of the format file is. The rest of the syntax is the same as when using a string like the first example. Now run exiftool providing it the format file above.

As with all of the previous commands and flags, printFormat also works with multiple files and directories, so you can make lists of specific tags from entire libraries of images. The below command will recursively -r find all files in the current directory. If you are a photographer, you probably have huge folders of thousands of images on a hard drive somewhere.

Rather than cataloging the metadata in each of these images individually, you can process them all at once. When provided a folder name instead of a file, exiftool will look for all files in a folder and even recursively scan sub-folders within those folders.

Exiftool will scan all files in the folder but not the subfolder. To include subfolders, add the -r or -recurse flag to the command before the folder name. The FileName and Directory parameters are not mandatory.

These parameters are limiting output to only file names and directory paths. You can also ignore specific subdirectories using the -i or -ignore parameters.

When you provide the name of the directory name to ignore, exiftool will skip over those directories. When running exiftool on a folder, you may only want to run it on specific types of files in that directory.

Maybe you want to get the date each of your. This flag filters what files exiftool should process based on what extension they have. In the example below, you can see that exiftool runs on the. You can also exclude file types by adding a dash and using --ext instead -ext. Using - to include something and -- to exclude is a common pattern in exiftool. In code or scripting, you can create code to perform a task only if a certain condition is true.

Different shells allow you to perform conditional logic such as Bash or PowerShell. In the previous sections, you could filter specifically with name, group, and file extension. Using the -if parameter, you can filter on all of those and more in one place. It uses comparison operators to perform matching like equal to eq to compare one value with another and variables.

The below example would do that. The -if parameter syntax uses Perl. In this case, the demo uses two pictures shown below taken with a Google Pixel XL smartphone and the other two were taken by an Olympus E digital camera. In the command below, the -if parameter will only read tags on images where the statement returns true. The -Model tag will be the only tag returned, like on a normal filter, and. You can also use an -if statement with a tag and no operator and it will return true if the tag is present e.

You can specify as many conditions as you like in a command, but it will only return the results for images that meet all of the conditions. If you use double quotes and a dollar sign to represent the variable, PowerShell will interpret that variable as its own.

It will try to replace that variable with its own even before exiftool can see it. You have two options when working with the -if statement in exiftool from PowerShell:. Phew, that was a lot of ground to cover! This operator collects everything you see on the command line and simply writes all of that to a file.

While the typical redirection operator still works with exiftool, you can also use the -w , or -textOut parameters. By default, if you pass in an extension txt in the example below , it will create a text file with the same name as the document containing the output for each file scanned.

When using the -w switch, you will need to learn some print formatting options. Coupled with the -w switch, you can specify many different ways to define file names and directories to store metadata in. Instead of creating a new output file for each processed file, -W creates a new output file for each tag. Otherwise, -W can use the same options as its lower-case counterpart, as well as a few new ones shown here:.

GUI doesn't write anything into registry file or elsewhere. These two files are needed only: for JPG lossless rotation purpose see Various menu in case rotation is needed when embedding JPG image into raw image file. If you think you might need this GUI feature, then copy both files into Windows directory -otherwise, both files can be deleted.

Wish to see thumbnails of raw image files? Of course you do. What you need is a "raw codec", usually available for free from camera manufacturer. The best I've found so far is "FastPictureViewer codec" from here. That's all you need. And when new ExifTool or GUI version is available, you only need to repeat process as described above.

Preferences General settings tab Metadata language Here you can choose the language for displaying metadata tag names and values in Metadata panel. Selected language is also used when working in ExifTool direct mode output to Log window , or when exporting metadata to external TXT files. If checked, GUI will only rotate image in Preview panel -thumbnails aren't rotated.

If you're using some recent version of "FastPictureViewer" codec, then you should not check this option because that codec is capable to deliver properly rotated JPG images. Enabling internet access By default, this option is unchecked and if you are a bit paranoid, then keep it that way. In this case however, you won't be able to use GUI's GoogleMap feature for geotagging your images manually. After changing this option, you'll need to close and reopen GUI, to make this feature available.

Separator character Some metadata tags i. Keep in mind, that this character isn't stored into metadata! Save Filelist Details state on exit If checked, then Details: button state and selected Filelist view Standard filelist, Camera settings,.. Selected Thumbnails size is always saved. Workspace manager Here you define what will be shown in Metadata panel when Workspace is selected.

Tag name column Here you define tag name you prefer to be displayed for particular metadata tag. These tag names don't have any influence on actual tag names and you can write anything here, i. Tag names written here, can have different "behaviour" in case special character is used for their ending. For now, GUI uses following ending characters: -if tag name ends with this character see Flash and Orientation above , then content of this tag will be displayed as usual.

However, when modifying this tag, you need to enter numerical value. In this case, if you right-click on Metadata panel when in Workspace view mode , pop-up menu appears and there's option Fill in default values -you get the idea, I hope. Note: You won't be able to edit such tag in Workspace view. Note: I might use further special ending characters in future, so try to avoid their usage at the end or start of tag names. Tag definition column Here you define tags as recognized by ExifTool.

And if needed, you can also add character at the end of tag name -this will force displaying numerical tag value try with -exif:Orientation to see the difference. Of course, only single tag can be defined per line.

Hint text column Text entered here is your short "private" help, which will be displayed in GUI's status bar when you start modifying tag value: I hope you can recognize the power of Workspace manager : YOU define any metadata tag you wish to change regulary.

For whatever reason, you might wish to save your current Workspace content -to create a backup of your Workspace, so to speak. And when needed, you just load previously saved Workspace definition file again. When you choose Save , you'll be asked where to save the file and you'll need to set the filename.

However, if you're not sure what you're doing, then you better uncheck this option. Preserve Date modified of files -no matter what I think about this, some prefer having this option checked. Ignore minor errors in metadata -by default, this option is unchecked. That is, ExifTool will refuse to write into file in case metadata is not in "perfect" condition, or if there's a danger that you might lose some metadata by modifying it.

If this option is checked and metadata only contain "minor" errors or only "minor" damage can occur , then ExifTool will do his job anyway. Show Exif:GPS in decimal notation -checked by default because i.

GoogleMap uses this notation as well. Show sorted tags not in Workspace -if this option is unchecked default , then metadata tags are shown sorted as defined internally in metadata. Many times however, it's quite hard to find particular tag in listing, so I can imagine, that this option will be checked most of the time. Obviously, this setting has no influence on Workspace view output see Workspace manager above.