Better IPTC Support

[Fraenzken]

I like XnView very much - it is by far the best image browser I know. The only feature I really miss is the assignment of IPTC keywords by drag and drop (I think this feature has been suggested before).

I'd prefer the way PicaJet does it: When new pictures with IPTC keywords are opened by XnView, the keywords should be added to the category tree on the left-hand side of the XnView browser window. On the other hand, if you assign a picture (or a whole bunch) to a category in this tree via drag and drop, this category and all its parents should be written to the IPTC keywords of the selected files. If that takes too long, XnView could wait until the user wants to quit the program and save the newly assigned categories then (i.e. all categories assigned in the session).

The hierarchy of the categories needn't be saved in the IPTC data (I think the IPTC standard doesn't support hierarchies in keywords). It would be very handy though if the categories in the category tree could be moved by drag and drop (also to another hierarchical level). I hope it is clear what I mean

Another thing which would be nice is if it was possible to do complex searches for the categories in the category tree, i.e. if you could combine them by "and" or "or". E.g., in this way, it would be possible to find all pictures taken in Rome with family members or friends on them - I hope you get what I want to say

Thanks again for the great program!
Frank

[xnview]

I'd prefer the way PicaJet does it: When new pictures with IPTC keywords are opened by XnView, the keywords should be added to the category tree on the left-hand side of the XnView browser window.

"opened" means that you open the picture file or view it, right? Not only browse it?

The hierarchy of the categories needn't be saved in the IPTC data (I think the IPTC standard doesn't support hierarchies in keywords). It would be very handy though if the categories in the category tree could be moved by drag and drop (also to another hierarchical level). I hope it is clear what I mean

Yes

Another thing which would be nice is if it was possible to do complex searches for the categories in the category tree, i.e. if you could combine them by "and" or "or". E.g., in this way, it would be possible to find all pictures taken in Rome with family members or friends on them - I hope you get what I want to say

Yes will be interested...

[Fraenzken]

Thanks for the reply, Pierre.
In fact I think it would be useful if IPTC keywords would already be added (if they aren't already in the category list) while browsing a folder. Do you think it's possible, or would it be too slow?
Cheers,
Frank

[Sebastian]

Hi everybody!

With this being my first post in this forum, I hope I don't make to many mistakes.

Within the last week I started searching for a software that enables me to efficiently set IPTC headers on my photos. After looking into ten different applications so far, I've narrowed my choice down to Xnview, iView MediaPro (commercial software) and maybe MaPiVi. Although these three candidates come close to my preferences, none of them does fit my needs exactly so far.
So I'd like to know how chances are that Xnview will do some day. (Since my wishes and suggestions will only deal with IPTC aspects, I decided to put my posting into this existent thread.

But now for the wishes and suggestions themselves:

1. IPTC time header
The first thing I've stumbled across is something I'd regard more of a bug or an error than a feature request: When setting the IPTC time header based on EXIF information, Xnview seems to just copy the EXIF timestamp into the IPTC header with the proper formatting. As a matter of convenience, I've set the clock in my camera to local time, which is CET/CEST, in other words UTC +1/+2 hours. But according to the IIM standard, the time should be given in UTC plus a "time zone offset", so an EXIF timestamp like "12:34:56" should be translated into an IPTC header "113456+0100" for CET or "103456+0200" for CEST.
I'm not much into application programming, but may be the operating system could deliver a good preset for this offset based on the user's system time zone setting.

2. Organisation of input form
My personal opinion on operating an application really efficiently is using the keyboard a lot and the mouse only seldomly. Considering that data fields I'd like to set individually for small groups or single images are "Headline", "Caption", "Keywords" and "Supplemental categories", I'm actually not very happy with the splitting of these input fields into three different "sub forms" since I need one more mouseclick (or a lot of key-hitting ) to get for example to the "Keyword" sub-from after hitting Ctrl+i.
Actually, I do like the layout of MaPiVi's IPTC input form rather well, a screenshot of which I've put here.

So these are two things that are of the most importance to me. (Although some minor issues might come up when I'd start using Xnview intensively. )
Are there any chances that I'll these two things implemented? I would be glad to do so, since Xnview looks like a really good software to me.


Bye,

Sebastian

[Sebastian]

Hi again!

After some more testing and working with XnView (and liking the software more and more ), I've come across another issue:

3. Save rating to IPTC
Both Adobe Lightroom and iView MediaPro seem to write their Rating to an IPTC header numbered "2:242" (although I haven't found this in the IPTC standard so far...). I would really like to see XnView writing and reading its own rating value into and from that field.
(Using Xnview for most of the work and buying a software worth a hundred bucks or more just for applying persistent ratings to the pictures doesn't make much sense, does it? )


Bye,

Sebastian