Extending IPTC / EXIF / XMP batch editing

Ideas for improvements and requests for new features in XnView Classic

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Jared Guest

Extending IPTC / EXIF / XMP batch editing

Post by Jared Guest »

Myself and some friends need to manage 20,000+ images. Our images grown by about 4,000 per year. We are moving away from folder organization and using IPTC/EXIF/XMP to "organize" our photos.

We use Google Picasa and other tools to search for the photos.

Currently we are using Picasa to create the Keywords and Caption/Description fields for each image.

With 20,000 images this will take a long time. We need a way to batch convert.

Xnveiw has the potential to be the perfect tool to be able to manage this metadata because you already have batch capabilities and some IPTC / Exif functionality. It just needs to be extended and polished.

Specifically, I would like to be able to have XnView run through a directory and subdirectories, grab all JPG's for the first directory, edit (or append) specific IPTC and EXIF data, keep all other IPTC and EXIF data intact, then move on to the next directory.

With each directory, a person could either manually enter in the fields they want to change, our point it to a template batch job file.

The project http://www.exiv2.org/ may help you with many of your Exif and IPTC needs for XnView.



I feel this type of feature will go along way to making XnView more popular. Look at the current state of the web with social bookmarking, tagging, and folksonomy websites. Everyone is tagging their web content with keywords. IPTC.org and Adobe are really pushing with XMP metadata in images.

It will also be important that this functionality can be reached through a GUI. There is already the Exiv2 tool I mentioned as well as the ExifTool Perl Module (http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/). Command line is usable, but not user friendly.



Hopefully Xnview can grow in this area. If not, it's still a great tool.
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GeorgD
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Post by GeorgD »

In 1.90beta2, you can select multiple images, Menu => Edit => Metadata => Edit IPTC data. Enter your desired data (so what you had as dir name). Click "Write all selected". Now all selected files get that data. Is this what you need?
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xnview
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Re: Extending IPTC / EXIF / XMP batch editing

Post by xnview »

Jared Guest wrote:Xnveiw has the potential to be the perfect tool to be able to manage this metadata because you already have batch capabilities and some IPTC / Exif functionality. It just needs to be extended and polished.
So you would like to have IPTC/EXIT functions in batch convert?
Pierre.
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Re: Extending IPTC / EXIF / XMP batch editing

Post by Dreamer »

xnview wrote:So you would like to have IPTC/EXIT functions in batch convert?
Yes Pierre, these features are very imporatnt, not just IPTC/EXIF, but also all JPEG lossless transformations and all metadata options (in menu > Edit > Metadata).

The other similar topics:

http://newsgroup.xnview.com/viewtopic.php?t=10598

http://newsgroup.xnview.com/viewtopic.php?t=5293

http://newsgroup.xnview.com/viewtopic.php?t=4814

All these options (and others) can be done by a trick (useful for many (sub)directories) - search the files, select them and then use a menu - but probably not many users know about this.

If it's not possible to implement (easily), then perhaps a separate batch dialog for lossless operations (JPEG/IPTC/EXIF...) (at least temporary) might be implemented, but I'm not sure if this would be easier to implement, just curious.
Dreamer
Alan
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Post by Alan »

I agree. This would be a very useful facility. In my case I need to change the dates in EXIF & Properties due to an error in setting the date in the camera. This only affects a few dozen images, but it is still a tedious operation doing them one by one. See also my post in General Support: 'Renumbering Images' where such a facility would be useful.
viennot
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tags, keywords and more

Post by viennot »

:D I love XnView. Yet, when it comes to keywords entry, I do nof find it so user friendly. I would love to have a possibility to attach a limited list of key words to each picture with just one or two clics. Sure I can d'rag each picture in categories but then I have no way to automatically put the categories into the EXIF or IPTC content.

Enhanve keywords and that XnView will really be the ultimate program.
gclunsf
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Importing EXIF and IPTC metadata from Exported Copies

Post by gclunsf »

I would like to add two suggestions to this list as they seem to fit here. Those suggestions are the ability to:

a) Copy EXIF and IPTC metadata from one image to another.
b) Import EXIF and IPTC data from previously exported EXIF and IPTC metadata text files.

The need I have for these functions is to essentially transfer this metadata to new images that are derived from those that have this metadata. One example is I had a picture of one of my granddaughters in our backyard. My wife wanted the picture but wanted it cropped. Since I wanted to save both the original and new (cropped) pictures for long-term archival, I want to also have the associated EXIF and IPTC metadata via a copy or import function. I realize some adjustments would have to be made to the "EXIF image width" (ExIFImageWidth field) and "EXIF image height" (ExIFImageHeight field) fields and potentially others to accomplish this. I also realize I could save the IPTC metadata from the old image into an IPTC template and then load it into the new image. It just seems a more direct copy or import function would be a better approach.

If I have to choose priorities on this, I would choose the EXIF info since there is already a method to handle the IPTC stuff. I much prefer not having to use an external app just to do the EXIF metadata transfer.

Thanks for any consideration on this request. And once, again as I've said in the past, XnView, IMO, is by far a superior product in the image editing world.
Regards,
George Lunsford

XnView 1.98.8
Win 7 Home Premium SP1, Win Vista Home Premium SP1, WinXP Pro SP3
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JohnFredC
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Post by JohnFredC »

Until XnView supports all of this, you might try Exifer.

It's older software, and crudely presented (not attractive, I mean), but hugely functional.
John
kufuto
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Post by kufuto »

Another very good tool for extensive IPTC/EXIF-Tagging (single/batch) is Infogucker

Actually it is only in german language available and therefore not always easy to understand, because of its own menu- and naming-structure, but it offers the most ways I know to edit/copy/transfer/secure all tag-data, including info-transfer between tag-fields, from/to filename, different filter conditions and a lot more. It has a outstanding keyword editor for multiple pictures.
pierrederonsard
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Re: Importing EXIF and IPTC metadata from Exported Copies

Post by pierrederonsard »

gclunsf wrote:a) Copy EXIF and IPTC metadata from one image to another.
b) Import EXIF and IPTC data from previously exported EXIF and IPTC metadata text files.
As many software remove the exif data, I do supporte this feature request !

Waiting for it, I use PhotoMe
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oops66
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Re: Importing EXIF and IPTC metadata from Exported Copies

Post by oops66 »

pierrederonsard wrote:
gclunsf wrote:a) Copy EXIF and IPTC metadata from one image to another.
b) Import EXIF and IPTC data from previously exported EXIF and IPTC metadata text files.
As many software remove the exif data, I do supporte this feature request !

Waiting for it, I use PhotoMe
Hello,
For me, in this case the best way is to use MIE files.
http://newsgroup.xnview.com/viewtopic.p ... hlight=mie
XnViewMP Linux X64 - Debian - X64
kostermw
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Post by kostermw »

I fully agree with the poster. EXIF editor is actually missing. Also the renamer should allow smart renaming using a mask that uses EXIF fields.

I always used Exifer, but this is not maintained anymore, and it is not as fast as xnView. That tool has all you want for (ICPT and) Exif editing. Also with multiple images selected (batchwise)!

For me this missing functionality is a showstopper.
mmaes
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Batch-rename when batch-converting

Post by mmaes »

In addition to EXIF-handling, I would also find it very convenient if it was possible to batch-rename files when batchconverting.
I usually copy pictures from my camera to harddisk. I rename all files (using EXIF data) with ReNamer (freeware). Then (using XnView) I select a number of them and copy them to a subfolder (the selection is meant to be mailed to friends) and resize the files in the subfolder. Again using ReNamer, I rename the resized files (usually adding -small). Lastly, I mail the pictures to a default group of people.

Renaming seems a good function to be added to the batchconvert option.
PS: the whole resizing, renaming en mailingactions could perfectly be batchfunctions, thinking of it... :D

Thanks for the wonderful program.
Marc
kewawoman
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Post by kewawoman »

I'm using Exifer to supplement XnView. (Thanks for a wonderful product.) I find Exifer's exporting metadata to a cvs file very useful because I've tabulated in an Excel file (which, of course, can open cvs) my research data to match photos. After editing and adding information to the Excel file, I want to IMPORT my metadata set (as a set of information, not as a single comment) back into the exif or iptc data associated with my photos. In Exifer it appears I could do this if I could convert my Excel file to a "Cumulus" or "descript.ion" file, but I can't. Any suggestions? And/or, this (the ability to import an Excel or even a delimited text file with iptc data) would be a nice feature addition to XnView.
Thanks for the XnView product.
mmacauley
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Re: Extending IPTC / EXIF / XMP batch editing

Post by mmacauley »

It appears to me that XnView now supports this functionality. (I'm using version 1.98.2 for Windows.) If I select several files in a folder and press Ctrl-I to "Edit IPTC data", I can edit whatever attributes I like and then click "Write all selected" to apply my edits to all of the files I've selected. Am I missing something?

I wonder, because both the Facebook description and XnView's Wikipedia page (on which the Facebook description seems to be based) complain that XnView cannot do batch writing of IPTC data, as some users are longing for. Are those claims out of date, or is there still some functionality missing which deserves those complaints?
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