exiftool - Read/write meta information in images
exiftool [OPTIONS] [-TAG[[+-<]=[VALUE]] or --TAG...] FILE ...
A command-line interface to Image::ExifTool used for reading and writing meta information in image 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).
FILE
-
-w
To write information in an image 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.)
-TAG=[VALUE]
-TagsFromFile
FILE_original
Below is a list of meta information formats and file types supported by exiftool (r = read support, w = write support):
Meta Information File Types ------------------ -------------------------- EXIF r/w JPEG r/w NEF r/w GPS r/w JP2 r ORF r IPTC r/w TIFF r/w PEF r/w XMP r/w GIF r/w MakerNotes r/w THM r/w GeoTIFF r CRW r/w ICC Profile r CR2 r/w Photoshop IRB r DNG r/w PrintIM r MRW r
Note: Case is not significant for any command-line option (including tag and group names), except for single-character options where the corresponding upper case option is defined.
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. Use the -group option to list valid group names.) If no tags are specified, all available information is extracted.
-TAG:GROUP
GROUP
-group
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.)
All
*
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.
-x
Writes a new value for the specified tag, or deletes the tag if VALUE is not specified. Use += to add a value to a list without replacing existing values, and -= to delete the specifiied value only. Use <= to set 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.)
VALUE
+=
-=
<=
If a group name is not specified for TAG, then the information is written to the first group in the following list where TAG is valid: 1) EXIF, 2) GPS, 3) IPTC, 4) XMP, 5) MakerNotes.
TAG
The special All tag may be used only if a VALUE is NOT specified. 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:
-GROUP:All=
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.
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.
#
ARGFILE
Allow duplicate tag names in the output (otherwise duplicates are suppressed).
Output requested data in binary format. Mainly used for extracting embedded images. Suppresses output of tag names and descriptions.
Set date/time format (consult strftime man page for FMT syntax).
strftime
Show tag ID number in Decimal.
Print existing tags only -- don't calculate composite tags.
Escape characters in output values for HTML (implied with the -h option).
-h
Force printing of tags even if their values are not found.
Organize output by tag group (-g0 assumed if # not specified).
Same as -g but print Group name for each tag.
-g
Show tag ID number in Hexadecimal.
List all tag groups for family #. Family 0 assumed if # not specified.
Use HTML formatting for output (implies -E option).
-E
Ignore specified directory name. May be multiple -i options.
-i
Use long output format (2-line Canon-style output).
Convert Unicode characters in output to Windows Latin1 (cp1252) instead of the default UTF8.
List all valid tag names.
List all writable tag names.
Ignore minor errors (allows writing if some minor errors occur, or extraction of embedded images that aren't in standard JPG format).
Do not apply the print conversion to displayed tag values, or the inverse print conversion to written tag values.
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).
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)
Preserve date/time of original file when writing.
Recursively scan subdirectories (only meaningful if FILE is a directory name).
Use short output format (add up to 3 -s options for even shorter formats).
-s
Print tag names instead of descriptions (very short format, same as two -s options).
Output a tab-delimited list of description/values (useful for database import).
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 defeated 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 to a specific group. This is done using "'-SRCTAG>DSTTAG'" on the command line after -TagsFromFile. (Note that this argument must be quoted to prevent shell redirection, and there is no = sign since this is a special feature to control extracted information.) Both source and destination tags may be prefixed by a group name, and All may be used as a tag name.
'-SRCTAG>DSTTAG'
=
See "COPYING EXAMPLES" for examples of how to use this option.
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.
--TAG
-TAG=
Note that the maker note information is set as a block, so it isn't effected 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.
-ThumbnailImage=
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 (same as two -u options).
Print verbose messages (# may be 1-4, higher is more verbose). This option suppresses normal console output unless specific tags are being extracted.
Print version number and exit.
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.
EXT
.
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.
Extract information from .gz and .bz2 compressed images.
Print all EXIF information sorted by group (for family 0).
Print common EXIF information for all images in dir.
dir
Print ImageSize and ExposureTime tag names and values.
Print standard Canon information from 2 image files.
Recursively save common EXIF information for files in pictures directory into files with the same names as the images but with a .txt extension.
pictures
.txt
Save thumbnail image from image.jpg to a file called thumbnail.jpg.
image.jpg
thumbnail.jpg
Recursively extract JPG image from all Canon RAW files in the current directory, adding '_JFR.JPG' for the name of the output JPG files.
Extract preview image from JPG file and write it to preview.jpg.
preview.jpg
Print formatted date/time for all JPG files in a directory.
Extract image resolution from IFD1.
Set comment in file (replaces any existing comment).
Remove comment from all JPG files in the current directory, writing the modified files to a new directory.
Replace existing keyword list with two new keywords (EXIF and editor).
EXIF
editor
Copy a source image to a new file, and add a keyword (word) to the current list of keywords.
word
Delete only the specified category (xxx) from all files in directory.
xxx
Delete all meta information from an image.
Delete Photoshop meta information from an image (note that the Photoshop information also includes IPTC).
Set the thumbnail image from specified file (Note: The quotes are neccessary to prevent shell redirection).
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).
City
Set ISO only in the Canon maker notes.
ISO
Delete LightSource tag only if it is unknown with a value of 0.
LightSource
Set WhiteBalance to Tungsten only if it was previously Auto.
WhiteBalance
Tungsten
Auto
Copy the values of all writable tags from src.crw to dst.jpg, writing the information to the preferred groups.
src.crw
dst.jpg
Copy the values of all writable tags from src.crw to dst.jpg, preserving the original tag groups.
Copy all meta information from a.jpg to b.jpg, but do not write the thumbnail image or XMP information.
Copy title from one image to another and set a new author name.
Copy ISO from one image and Comment from another image to a destination image.
Copy only the EXIF information from one image to another, excluding SubIFD tags.
Use the EXIF or XMP modification date to set the same file's filesystem modification date.
Translate all possible information into XMP format, and update dst.jpg with the new information.
Translate IPTC information to XMP with appropriate tag name conversions, and delete the original IPTC information in an image.
Extract information from stdin.
Add an IPTC keyword in a pipeline, saving output to a new file.
Copyright 2003-2005, Phil Harvey
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
Image::ExifTool(3pm), Image::ExifTool::TagNames(3pm), Image::ExifTool::Shortcuts(3pm)
To install Image::ExifTool, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm
cpanm Image::ExifTool
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install Image::ExifTool
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.