exiftool Application Documentation

- NAME
- SYNOPSIS
- DESCRIPTION
- OPTIONS
- READING EXAMPLES
- WRITING EXAMPLES
- COPYING EXAMPLES
- PIPING EXAMPLES
- AUTHOR
- SEE ALSO

# NAME

exiftool - Read/write meta information

# SYNOPSIS

exiftool [OPTIONS] [-TAG[[+-<]=[VALUE]] or --TAG ...] FILE ...

# DESCRIPTION

A command-line interface to Image::ExifTool used for reading and writing meta information in image, audio and video files. `FILE` may be an image file name, a directory name, or `-` for the standard input. Information is read from the specified file and output in readable form to the console (or written to an output text file with the `-w` option).

To write information to a file, specify new values using either the `-TAG=[VALUE]` syntax or the `-TagsFromFile` option. This causes exiftool to rewrite `FILE` with the specified information, preserving the original file by renaming it to `FILE_original`. (Note: Be sure to verify that the new file is OK before erasing the original.)

Below is a list of file types and meta information formats currently supported by exiftool (r = read support, w = write support):

                     File Type                      Meta Information
        -----------------------------------        ------------------
        JPEG  r/w     PPM   r/w     PDF   r        EXIF           r/w
        TIFF  r/w     PGM   r/w     MIFF  r        GPS            r/w
        GIF   r/w     PBM   r/w     PICT  r        IPTC           r/w
        CRW   r/w     JP2   r       QTIF  r        XMP            r/w
        CR2   r/w     BMP   r       RIFF  r        MakerNotes     r/w
        NEF   r/w     ORF   r       AIFF  r        Photoshop IRB  r/w
        PEF   r/w     RAF   r       AVI   r        AFCP           r/w
        MRW   r/w     RAW   r       WAV   r        JFIF           r/w
        MOS   r/w     SRF   r       MP3   r        GeoTIFF        r
        DNG   r/w     SR2   r       MP4   r        ICC Profile    r
        PNG   r/w     X3F   r       MOV   r        PrintIM        r
        MNG   r/w     DCM   r       ASF   r        ID3            r
        JNG   r/w     ACR   r       WMA   r
        XMP   r/w     AI    r       WMV   r
        THM   r/w     PS    r
        PSD   r/w     EPS   r

# OPTIONS

Note: Case is not significant for any command-line option (including tag and group names), except for single-character options if the corresponding upper case option is defined. Multiple options can NOT be combined into a single argument, because that would be interpreted as a tag name.

-TAG
  Extract information for specified tag. See Image::ExifTool::TagNames for documentation on available tag names. The tag name may begin with an optional group name followed by a colon. (ie. `-TAG:GROUP`, where `GROUP` is any valid family 0 or 1 group name optionally prefixed by a family number. Use the `-listg` option to list valid group names.) If no tags are specified, all available information is extracted.

  A special tag name of `All` may be used to indicate all meta information. This is particularly useful when a group name is specified to extract all information in a group. (`*` is a synonym for `All`, but must be quoted if used on the command line to prevent shell globbing.)

--TAG
  Exclude specified tag from extracted information. Same as the `-x` option. May also be used following a `-TagsFromFile` option to exclude tags from being extracted from the source file.

-TAG[+-<]=[VALUE]
  Write a new value for the specified tag (with `-TAG=VALUE`), or delete the tag if `VALUE` is not specified. `+=` and `-=` add or remove `VALUE` from a list, or shift date/time values (see Image::ExifTool::Shift.pl for shift formats). `<=` sets the value of a tag from the contents of a file with name `VALUE`. (Note: Quotes are required around the argument in this case to prevent shell redirection.)

  If a group name is not specified for `TAG`, then the information is written to the preferred group, which is the first group in the following list where `TAG` is valid: 1) EXIF, 2) GPS, 3) IPTC, 4) XMP, 5) MakerNotes.

  The special `All` tag may be used in this syntax only if a `VALUE` is NOT given. This causes all meta information to be deleted (or all information in a group if `-GROUP:All=` is used). Note that not all groups are deletable. Also, within an image some groups may be contained within others, and these groups are removed if the super group is deleted. Below are lists of these group dependencies:

        JPEG Image:
        - Deleting EXIF or IFD0 also deletes ExifIFD, GlobParamIFD,
          GPS, IFD1, InteropIFD, MakerNotes, PrintIM and SubIFD.
        - Deleting ExifIFD also deletes InteropIFD and MakerNotes.
        - Deleting Photoshop also deletes IPTC.

        TIFF Image:
        - Deleting EXIF only removes ExifIFD which also deletes
          InteropIFD and MakerNotes.

-@ ARGFILE
  Read command-line arguments from the specified file. The file contains one argument per line. Blank lines and lines beginning with `#` and are ignored. `ARGFILE` may exist relative to either the current directory or the exiftool directory unless an absolute pathname is given.

-a
  Allow duplicate tag names in the output. Without this option, duplicates are suppressed.

-b
  Output requested data in binary format. Mainly used for extracting embedded images. Suppresses output of tag names and descriptions.

-c FMT
  Set the print format for GPS coordinates. `FMT` uses the same syntax as the `printf` format string. The specifiers correspond to degrees, minutes and seconds in that order, but minutes and seconds are optional. For example, the following table gives the output for the same coordinate using various formats:

                  FMT                  Output
          -------------------    ------------------
          "%d deg %d' %.2f"\"    54 deg 59' 22.80"   (the default)
          "%d deg %.4f min"      54 deg 59.3800 min
          "%.6f degrees"         54.989667 degrees

-d FMT
  Set date/time format. Consult `strftime` man page for `FMT` syntax. The default format is equivalent to ``%Y:%m:%d %H:%M:%S''.

-D
  Show tag ID number in Decimal.

-e
  Print existing tags only -- don't calculate composite tags.

-E
  Escape characters in output values for HTML. Implied with the `-h` option.

-ext EXT (or --ext EXT)
  Process only files with the specified extension, or use `--ext` to exclude files. There may be multiple `-ext` or `--ext` options. Extensions may begin with a leading '.', and case is not significant. For example:

          exiftool -ext .JPG *            # process only JPG files
          exiftool --ext crw --ext dng *  # process all but CRW and DNG
          exiftool --ext . *              # ignore if no extension

-f
  Force printing of tags even if their values are not found.

-F[VALUE]
  Fix the base for maker notes offsets. A common problem with some image editors is that offsets in the maker notes are not adjusted properly when the file is modified. This may cause the wrong values to be extracted for some maker note entries when reading the edited file. This option allows an integer value to be specified for adjusting the maker notes base offset. If no value is given, ExifTool will take its best guess at the correct base.

-g[#]
  Organize output by tag group. `#` specifies the group family number, and may be 0 (general location), 1 (specific location) or 2 (category). If not specified, `-g0` is assumed. Use the `-listg` option to list all group names for a specified family.

-G[#]
  Same as `-g` but print Group name for each tag.

-h
  Use HTML formatting for output. Implies `-E` option.

-H
  Show tag ID number in Hexadecimal.

-htmlDump
  Generates a dynamic web page containing a hex dump of the EXIF information. This can be a very powerful tool for low-level analysis of EXIF information. The `-htmlDump` option is also involked if the `-v` and `-h` options are used together. The verbose level controls the maximum length of the blocks dumped. Currently only works for EXIF and TIFF information.

-i DIR
  Ignore specified directory name. May be multiple `-i` options.

-l
  Use long 2-line Canon-style output format.

-L
  Convert 16-bit Unicode characters in output to Windows Latin1 (cp1252) instead of the default UTF-8.

-list, -listw, -listf, -listg[#]
  Print a list of all valid tag names (`-list`), all writable tag names (`-listw`), all recognized file types (`-listf`), or all tag groups in a specified family (`-listg`). The `-list` and `-listw` options may be followed by an additional argument of the form `-GROUP:All` to list all tags in a specific group. With `-listg`, a number may be given to specify the group family, otherwise family 0 is assumed. For example:

          -list               # list all tag names
          -list -EXIF:All     # list all EXIF tags
          -listw -XMP-dc:All  # list all writable XMP-dc tags
          -listf              # list all recognized file types
          -listg1             # list all groups in family 1

-m
  Ignore minor errors. Allows writing if some minor errors occur, or extraction of embedded images that aren't in standard JPG format.

-n
  Read and write values as numbers instead of words. This option disables the print conversion that is applied when extracting values to make them more readable, and the inverse print conversion when writing. For example:

          > exiftool -Orientation -S a.jpg
          Orientation: Rotate 90 CW
          > exiftool -Orientation -S -n a.jpg
          Orientation: 6

  and the following two writing commands have the same effect

          > exiftool -Orientation='Rotate 90 CW' a.jpg
          > exiftool -Orientation=6 -n a.jpg

-o OUTFILE or FMT
  Set output file or directory name when writing information (otherwise the source file is renamed to `FILE_original` and the output file is `FILE` in the original directory). The output file name may also be specified using a `FMT` string in which %d, %f and %e represent the directory, file name and extension of `FILE`. Existing files will not be overwritten. Output directories are created if necessary. See the `-w` option for `FMT` string examples.

  A special feature of this option allows it to be used to create XMP meta information files from a combination of information in `FILE` and tag values assigned on the command line. This is done by specifying a file extension of '.XMP' for `OUTFILE`. The XMP file will be created even if no `FILE` is specified, provided some tag values are given on the command line.

-overwrite_original
  Overwrite the original file instead of renaming it to `FILE_original` when writing information to an image. Caution: This option should only be used if you already have separate backup copies of your image files.

-p FMTFILE
  Print output in the format specified by the given file (and ignore other format options). Tag names in the format file begin with a `$` symbol and may contain an optional group name. Case is not significant. Lines beginning with `#` are ignored. For example, this format file:

          # this is a comment line
          File $FileName was created on $DateTimeOriginal
          (f/$Aperture, $ShutterSpeed sec, ISO $EXIF:ISO)

  produces output like this:

          File test.jpg was created on 2003:10:31 15:44:19
          (f/5.6, 1/60 sec, ISO 100)

-P
  Preserve date/time of original file when writing.

-q
  Quiet processing. One `-q` suppresses normal informational messages, and a second `-q` suppresses warnings as well. Error messages can not be suppressed, although minor errors may be downgraded to warnings with the `-m` option.

-r
  Recursively scan subdirectories. Only meaningful if `FILE` is a directory name.

-s
  Print tag names instead of descriptions. This is the short output format. Add up to 3 `-s` options for even shorter formats. Also effective when combined with `-t` or `-h` options.

-S
  Very short format. The same as two `-s` options. Extra spaces used to column-align values are not printed.

-t
  Output a tab-delimited list of description/values (useful for database import). May be combined with `-s` to print tag names instead of descriptions, or `-S` to print tag values only, tab-delimited on a single line.

-TagsFromFile SRCFILE or FMT
  Set the value of writable tags from information in the specified source file. Tag names on the command line after this option specify information to be extracted (or excluded) from the source file. If no tags are specified, then all tags found in the source file are used. More than one `-TagsFromFile` option may be specified to set tag values from information in different files.

  By default, this option will commute information between same-named tags in different groups, allowing information to be translated between images with different formats. This behaviour may be modified by specifying a group name for extracted tags (even if `All` is used as a group name), in which case the information is written to the original group, unless redirected to a different group.

  A powerful information redirection feature allows a destination tag to be specified for each extracted tag. With this feature, information may be written to a tag with a different name or group. This is done using "`'-SRCTAG>DSTTAG'`" on the command line after `-TagsFromFile` ("`'-DSTTAG<SRCTAG'`" also works). Note that this argument must be quoted to prevent shell redirection, and there is no `=` sign as there is when setting new values. Both source and destination tags may be prefixed by a group name, and `All` or `*` may be used as a tag or group name. If no destination group is specified, then the information is written to the preferred group.

  `SRCFILE` may be the same as `FILE` to move information around within a file. `@` may be used to represent `FILE` (ie. `-TagsFromFile @`), permitting this feature to be used when batch processing multiple files. Specified tags are then copied from file in turn as it is rewritten. As a convenience, `-TagsFromFile @` is assumed for any redirected tags which are specified without a prior `-TagsFromFile` option.

  See COPYING EXAMPLES for examples using `-TagsFromFile`.

  For advanced batch use, the source file name may also be specified using a `FMT` string in which %d, %f and %e represent the directory, file name and extension of `FILE`. See `-w` option for `FMT` string examples.

  Be aware of the difference between excluding a tag from being copied (`--TAG`), and deleting a tag (`-TAG=`). Excluding a tag will prevent it from being copied to the destination image, but deleting a tag will remove it if it already exists.

  Note that the maker note information is set as a block, so it isn't affected like other information by subsequent tag assignments on the command line. For example, to copy all information but the thumbnail image, use `-ThumbnailImage=` after `-TagsFromFile` on the command line. Since the preview image is referenced from the maker notes and may be rather large, it is not copied. Instead, the preview image must be transferred separately if desired.

-u
  Extract values of unknown tags. Add another `-u` to also extract unknown information from binary data blocks.

-U
  Extract values of unknown tags as well as unknown information from binary data blocks. This is the same as two `-u` options.

-v[#]
  Print verbose messages. A `#` in the range 1-5 may be specified to indicate the level of verbosity -- higher is more verbose. This option suppresses normal console output unless specific tags are being extracted. Verbose output goes to the console, and is not affected by the `-w` option.

-ver
  Print version number and exit.

-w EXT or FMT
  Write console output to a file with name ending in `EXT` for each source file. The output file name is obtained by replacing the source file extension (including the `.`) with the specified extension. Alternatively, a format statement may be used to give more control over the output file name and directory. In this case, `FMT` is a string specifying the output file name. In this string, %d, %f and %e represent the directory, filename and extension of the source file. For example:

          -w %d%f.txt       # same effect as "-w txt"
          -w dir/%f_%e.out  # writes files to "dir" as "FILE_EXT.out"
          -w dir2/%d%f.txt  # writes to "dir2", keeping dir structure

  Existing files will not be overwritten. Output directories are created automatically if necessary.

  Advanced feature: A substring of the original file name, directory or extension may be taken by specifying a string length immediately following the % character. If the length is negative, the substring is taken from the end. The substring position (characters to ignore at the start or end of the string) may be given by a second optional value after a decimal point. For example:

          Input File Name     Format Specifier    Output File Name
          ----------------    ----------------    ----------------
          Picture-123.jpg     %7f.txt             Picture.txt
          Picture-123.jpg     %-.4f.out           Picture.out
          Picture-123.jpg     %7f.%-3f            Picture.123
          Picture-123a.jpg    Meta%-3.1f.txt      Meta123.txt

  This same `FMT` syntax is used with the `-o` and `-TagsFromFile` options.

-x TAG
  Exclude the specified tag. There may be multiple `-x` options. This has the same effect as `--TAG` on the command line. May also be used following a `-TagsFromFile` option to exclude tags from being extracted from the source file.

-z
  Extract information from .gz and .bz2 compressed images. Must be only one image in the compressed archive.

# READING EXAMPLES

exiftool -g a.jpg
  Print all EXIF information sorted by group (for family 0).

exiftool -common dir
  Print common EXIF information for all images in `dir`.

exiftool -s -ImageSize -ExposureTime b.jpg
  Print ImageSize and ExposureTime tag names and values.

exiftool -l -canon c.jpg d.jpg
  Print standard Canon information from 2 image files.

exiftool -r -w .txt -common pictures
  Recursively save common EXIF information for files in `pictures` directory into files with the same names as the images but with a `.txt` extension.

exiftool -b -ThumbnailImage image.jpg > thumbnail.jpg
  Save thumbnail image from `image.jpg` to a file called `thumbnail.jpg`.

exiftool -b -JpgFromRaw -w _JFR.JPG -r .
  Recursively extract JPG image from all Canon RAW files in the current directory, adding `_JFR.JPG` for the name of the output JPG files.

exiftool -b -PreviewImage 118_1834.JPG > preview.jpg
  Extract preview image from JPG file and write it to `preview.jpg`.

exiftool -d '%r %a, %B %e, %Y' -DateTimeOriginal -S -s *.jpg
  Print formatted date/time for all JPG files in a directory.

exiftool -IFD1:XResolution -IFD1:YResolution
  Extract image resolution from IFD1.

exiftool -xmp -b a.jpg > xmp.out
  Extract complete XMP data record intact from `a.jpg` and write it to `xmp.out` using the special `XMP` tag (see the Extra tags in Image::ExifTool::TagNames).

exiftool -htmldump -w tmp/%f_%e.html t/images
  Generate HTML pages from a hex dump of EXIF information in all images from the `t/images` directory. The output HTML files are written to the `tmp` directory (which is created if it didn't exist), with names of the form 'FILENAME_EXT.html'.

# WRITING EXAMPLES

Note that quotes are necessary around arguments which contain certain special characters such as >, < or any white space. These quoting techniques are shell dependent, but the examples below will work for most Unix shells. With the Windows cmd shell however, double quotes should be used around the entire argument (ie. ``-Comment=This is a new comment'')

exiftool -Comment='This is a new comment' dst.jpg
  Set comment in file (replaces any existing comment).

exiftool -comment= -o newdir *.jpg
  Remove comment from all JPG files in the current directory, writing the modified files to a new directory.

exiftool -keywords=EXIF -keywords=editor dst.jpg
  Replace existing keyword list with two new keywords (`EXIF` and `editor`).

exiftool -Keywords+=word -o newfile.jpg src.jpg
  Copy a source image to a new file, and add a keyword (`word`) to the current list of keywords.

exiftool -category-=xxx dir
  Delete only the specified category (`xxx`) from all files in directory.

exiftool -all= dst.jpg
  Delete all meta information from an image.

exiftool -DateTimeOriginal-='0:0:0 1:30:0' dir
  Adjust original date/time of all images in directory `dir` by subtracting one hour and 30 minutes. (This is equivalent to `-DateTimeOriginal-=1.5`. See Image::ExifTool::Shift.pl for details.)

exiftool -createdate+=3 -modifydate+=3 a.jpg b.jpg
  Add 3 hours to the CreateDate and ModifyDate timestamps of two images.

exiftool -Photoshop:All= dst.jpg
  Delete Photoshop meta information from an image (note that the Photoshop information also includes IPTC).

exiftool '-ThumbnailImage<=thumb.jpg' dst.jpg
  Set the thumbnail image from specified file (Note: The quotes are neccessary to prevent shell redirection).

exiftool -xmp:city=Kingston dst.jpg
  Write a tag to the XMP group (otherwise in this case the tag would get written to the IPTC group since `City` exists in both, and IPTC has priority).

exiftool -Canon:ISO=100 dst.jpg
  Set `ISO` only in the Canon maker notes.

exiftool -LightSource-='Unknown (0)' dst.tiff
  Delete `LightSource` tag only if it is unknown with a value of 0.

exiftool -whitebalance-=auto -WhiteBalance=tung dst.jpg
  Set `WhiteBalance` to `Tungsten` only if it was previously `Auto`.

exiftool -o %d%f.xmp dir
  Create XMP meta information data files for all images in `dir`.

exiftool -o test.xmp -owner=Phil -title='XMP File'
  Create an XMP data file only from tags defined on the command line.

# COPYING EXAMPLES

exiftool -TagsFromFile src.crw dst.jpg
  Copy the values of all writable tags from `src.crw` to `dst.jpg`, writing the information to the preferred groups.

exiftool -TagsFromFile src.jpg -all:all dst.jpg
  Copy the values of all writable tags from `src.jpg` to `dst.jpg`, preserving the original tag groups.

exiftool -tagsfromfile a.jpg out.xmp
  Copy meta information `a.jpg` to an XMP data file. If the XMP data file `out.xmp` already exists, it will be updated with the new information. Otherwise the XMP data file will be created. Only XMP files may be created like this (other file types may be edited but not created).

exiftool -tagsFromFile a.jpg -XMP:All= -ThumbnailImage= -m b.jpg
  Copy all meta information from `a.jpg` to `b.jpg`, deleting all XMP information and the thumbnail image from the destination.

exiftool -TagsFromFile src.jpg -title -author=Phil dst.jpg
  Copy title from one image to another and set a new author name.

exiftool -TagsFromFile a.jpg -ISO -TagsFromFile b.jpg -comment dst.jpg
  Copy ISO from one image and Comment from another image to a destination image.

exiftool -tagsfromfile src.jpg -exif:all --subifd:all dst.jpg
  Copy only the EXIF information from one image to another, excluding SubIFD tags.

exiftool '-DateTimeOriginal>FileModifyDate' dir
  Use the original date from the meta information to set the same file's filesystem modification date for all images in a directory. (Note that `-TagsFromFile @` is assumed if no other `-TagsFromFile` is specified when redirecting information as in this example.)

exiftool -TagsFromFile src.jpg '-all>xmp:all' dst.jpg
  Translate all possible information into XMP format, and update `dst.jpg` with the new information.

exiftool -tagsFromFile a.jpg -@ iptc2xmp.args -iptc:all= a.jpg
  Translate IPTC information to XMP with appropriate tag name conversions, and delete the original IPTC information from an image. This example uses iptc2xmp.args, which is a file included with the ExifTool distribution that contains the required arguments to convert IPTC information to XMP format. Also included with the distribution is xmp2iptc.args, which performs the inverse conversion.

exiftool -tagsfromfile %d%f.CRW -r -ext JPG dir
  Recursively rewrite all `JPG` images in `dir` with information copied from the corresponding `CRW` images in the same directories.

# PIPING EXAMPLES

cat a.jpg | exiftool -
  Extract information from stdin.

exiftool image.jpg -thumbnailimage -b | exiftool -
  Extract information from an embedded thumbnail image.

cat a.jpg | exiftool -iptc:keywords+=fantastic - > b.jpg
  Add an IPTC keyword in a pipeline, saving output to a new file.

# AUTHOR

Copyright 2003-2006, Phil Harvey

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

# SEE ALSO

Image::ExifTool(3pm), Image::ExifTool::TagNames(3pm), Image::ExifTool::Shortcuts(3pm), Image::ExifTool::Shift.pl

exiftool Application Documentation