IPTC/XMP Editor does not save metadata in PNG files

[Android the Andrew]

I'm using XnViewMP v0.68, Libformat version 6.58, on Fedora Linux 20 x64.

I've checked in Help > About > Formats to make sure Portable Network Graphics files were supported, and it says there that XnViewMP can both read and write that format. However, it does not actually save save any metadata to PNG files for me.

Steps to reproduce:

1. I select a number of images, some JPG and some PNG.
2. I right-click to Edit IPTC/XMP.
3. I write metadata to various fields in the dialog.
4. I click "Save All".
5. Result: JPG metadata is saved, but PNG metadata is not.

[m.Th.]

I confirm this, with a correction: The keywords/categories are saved. However we use the Categories and Categories Sets pane in order to enter the keywords.

[xnview]

you need to use XMP instead of IPTC only supported in PNG

[m.Th.]

In Ctrl+I dialog I have on the Options tab the Mode drop down box set to IPTC-IIM, update or create XMP.

Shouldn't it work?

[xnview]

In Ctrl+I dialog I have on the Options tab the Mode drop down box set to IPTC-IIM, update or create XMP.

Shouldn't it work?

yes it works

[m.Th.]

In Ctrl+I dialog I have on the Options tab the Mode drop down box set to IPTC-IIM, update or create XMP.

Shouldn't it work?

yes it works

Not for me. Take the steps written by the OP.

[xnview]

Not for me. Take the steps written by the OP.

i've tried, and it works correctly, i have XMP in PNG too

[Android the Andrew]

I don't know what else to say, except that I followed steps which we apparently agree should work, and yet for me it does not work. I tried downloading XnViewMP again, but that didn't help either. Maybe it's a bug in the Linux release?

What I ended up having to do was use exiv2 instead. It's a terminal application, and I'd generally prefer something with a nice GUI like XnView, but with exiv2 you can create a file that stores all the commands and metadata you want to apply to an image. I had to read through the documentation a little about the different metadata formats, but once I figured things out once, it was pretty easy to use that command file as a template, changing any metadata as necessary when I applied it to other images. And it works, until we can figure out what's up with XnView.

[m.Th.]

Maybe it's a bug in the Linux release?

I'm on Windows.

Perhaps is better to send to Pierre a "non-working" PNG?

[xnview]

please send me a PNG file?

[Android the Andrew]

Thanks for continuing to take a look at this with me.

There doesn't seem to be a way to upload images in the forum, and I didn't immediately see your email anywhere, Pierre, so I uploaded a test PNG I created to Flickr.

I created this new test PNG image file. I opened its directory in XnView. I right click test.png > Edit IPTC/XMP. I filled out all metadata fields with dummy text, so Headline should say "Headline," Byline should say "byline," etc. I clicked save. I examined the image metadata.

I should correct my original issue; apparently the metadata isn't entirely empty. I can see the metadata I entered in the bottom left "Info" pane in XnView. Normally, reopening the Edit IPTC/XMP dialog repopulates the fields with previously entered metadata; but for PNG files, if I go to Edit IPTC/XMP again, the fields show up in the dialog as empty. You will notice that Flickr detects some metadata in test.png, but not all of it -- for instance it does not detect the keywords (which should read "list, of, keywords") added using XnView. And the GNOME Image Viewer does not detect any metadata at all.

[xnview]

i've tried and XMP is changed correctly, could you send me a screenshot where you see some metadata?

[cday]

There doesn't seem to be a way to upload images in the forum ...

Please see this post:

http://newsgroup.xnview.com/viewtopic.p ... 28#p120077

The max attachment file size is currently 1MB; file formats that can't be uploaded direcrly can be uploaded in a zip archive.

I intended to post an expanded attachment guide in FAQs but haven't done so yet, and realistically I doubt if many people who need help would find it there anyway!

[Android the Andrew]

Please see this post:

Oh, hah. That's sort of a weird design choice on the part of the developers of the forum software: I think I would normally expect a file attachment menu to be up with the message composer, if anything, instead of down with the signature and BBCode options.

i've tried and XMP is changed correctly, could you send me a screenshot where you see some metadata?

I don't know what screenshots are going to prove, unless you just think I'm just not noticing the metadata.

Caption and Byline and such show up under the XMP tab of the "Info" pane in the bottom-left of XnView, but the corresponding fields are blank when you reopen the IPTC/XMP Editor dialog.

In the "Info" pane, under the Exiftool tab, under the XMP heading, you can see Byline and Rights/Copyright information filled out, but the fields are all blank in the XnView IPTC/XMP Editor.

GNOME Image Viewer does not detect or display any metadata either in the side panel or the Image Properties window. Normally the most important metadata (creator name, copyright statement, keywords...) appears in the side pane, and pretty much *all* metadata can normally be seen in the Image Properties window. There is none here.

And again, Flickr only detects some of the metadata.


While looking at this, I noticed in the Info pane, under the Exiftool tab, under the Exiftool heading, there's a warning:

Warning Bad Photoshop IRB resource "\x20Cap"

[XnTriq]

Extracted from 14584184510_0e8e56a51d_o_d.png with TweakPNG:

Code: Select all

Chunk | Length | CRC      | Attributes                | Contents
——————+————————+——————————+———————————————————————————+—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
IHDR  |     13 | e2c59e60 | critical                  | PNG image header: 111x111, 8 bits/sample, truecolor+alpha, noninterlaced
sBIT  |      4 | 7c086488 | ancillary, unsafe to copy | significant bits/sample: R:8,G:8,B:8,A:8
pHYs  |      9 | 3d6683c7 | ancillary, safe to copy   | pixel size = 787x787 pixels per meter (20.0x20.0 dpi)
tEXt  |     25 | 9bee3c1a | ancillary, safe to copy   | standard text: [Software]=[www.inkscape.org]
tEXt  |    496 | 9076c43d | ancillary, safe to copy   | nonstandard text: [Raw profile type iptc]=[…]
tEXt  |   3674 | 7fd4a41d | ancillary, safe to copy   | nonstandard text: [XML:com.adobe.xmp]=[…]
IDAT  |   3867 | 20a7ea0a | critical                  | PNG image data
IEND  |      0 | ae426082 | critical                  | end-of-image marker

Code: Select all

IPTC profile
     222
4e616d651c0250000642796c696e651c0255000c42796c696e65207469746c651c025a00
04436974791c025c00084c6f636174696f6e1c025f000553746174651c02640003555341
1c02650007436f756e7472791c0267001f4f726967696e616c207472616e736d69737369
6f6e207265666572656e63651c02690009486561646c696e652e1c026e00076372656469
74731c02730006536f757263651c02740009436f707972696768741c0278001a43617074
696f6e2c2063617074696f6e2c2063617074696f6e2e1c027a000e43617074696f6e2077
726974657200

Code: Select all

<?xpacket begin="" id="W5M0MpCehiHzreSzNTczkc9d"?>
<x:xmpmeta xmlns:x="adobe:ns:meta/" x:xmptk="XMP Core 5.1.2">
   <rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#">
      <rdf:Description rdf:about=""
            xmlns:Iptc4xmpCore="http://iptc.org/std/Iptc4xmpCore/1.0/xmlns/">
         <Iptc4xmpCore:CountryCode>USA</Iptc4xmpCore:CountryCode>
         <Iptc4xmpCore:Location>Location</Iptc4xmpCore:Location>
      </rdf:Description>
      <rdf:Description rdf:about=""
            xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
         <dc:creator>
            <rdf:Seq>
               <rdf:li>Byline</rdf:li>
            </rdf:Seq>
         </dc:creator>
         <dc:description>Caption, caption, caption.</dc:description>
         <dc:rights>Copyright</dc:rights>
         <dc:title>Object Name</dc:title>
      </rdf:Description>
      <rdf:Description rdf:about=""
            xmlns:photoshop="http://ns.adobe.com/photoshop/1.0/">
         <photoshop:AuthorsPosition>Byline title</photoshop:AuthorsPosition>
         <photoshop:CaptionWriter>Caption writer</photoshop:CaptionWriter>
         <photoshop:City>City</photoshop:City>
         <photoshop:Country>Country</photoshop:Country>
         <photoshop:Credit>credits</photoshop:Credit>
         <photoshop:Headline>Headline.</photoshop:Headline>
         <photoshop:Source>Source</photoshop:Source>
         <photoshop:State>State</photoshop:State>
         <photoshop:TransmissionReference>Original transmission reference</photoshop:TransmissionReference>
      </rdf:Description>
   </rdf:RDF>
</x:xmpmeta>
                                                                                                    
                                                                                                    
                                                                                                    
                                                                                                    
                                                                                                    
                                                                                                    
                                                                                                    
                                                                                                    
                                                                                                    
                                                                                                    
                                                                                                    
                                                                                                    
                                                                                                    
                                                                                                    
                                                                                                    
                                                                                                    
                                                                                                    
                                                                                                    
                                                                                                    
                                                                                                    
                           
<?xpacket end="w"?>

While looking at this, I noticed in the Info pane, under the Exiftool tab, under the Exiftool heading, there's a warning:

Warning Bad Photoshop IRB resource "\x20Cap"

• XnView Forum: Iptc tags from tiff to jpg badly written
• MetaCPAN: Image::ExifTool::Photoshop (Read/write Photoshop IRB meta information)

I hope this information is somehow helpful in identifying the problem.