ExifTool - CLI for Read, Write and Edit Meta Information

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rbon
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ExifTool - CLI for Read, Write and Edit Meta Information

#1 Post by rbon »

ExifTool is an instrument for Read, Write and Edit Meta Information!

ExifTool is a platform-independent Perl library plus a command-line application for reading, writing and editing meta information in a wide variety of files.
ExifTool supports many different metadata formats including EXIF, GPS, IPTC, XMP, JFIF, GeoTIFF, ICC Profile, Photoshop IRB, FlashPix, AFCP and ID3, as well as the maker notes of many digital cameras by Canon, Casio, DJI, FLIR, FujiFilm, GE, GoPro, HP, JVC/Victor, Kodak, Leaf, Minolta/Konica-Minolta, Motorola, Nikon, Nintendo, Olympus/Epson, Panasonic/Leica, Pentax/Asahi, Phase One, Reconyx, Ricoh, Samsung, Sanyo, Sigma/Foveon and Sony.

ExifTool is available as a stand-alone Windows executable and does not require Perl.

Features
• Powerful, fast, flexible and customizable
• Supports a large number of different file formats
• Reads EXIF, GPS, IPTC, XMP, JFIF, MakerNotes, GeoTIFF, ICC Profile, Photoshop IRB, FlashPix, AFCP, ID3 and more...
• Writes EXIF, GPS, IPTC, XMP, JFIF, MakerNotes, GeoTIFF, ICC Profile, Photoshop IRB, AFCP and more...
• Reads and writes maker notes of many digital cameras
• Reads timed metadata (eg. GPS track) from MOV/MP4/M2TS/AVI videos
• Numerous output formatting options (including tab-delimited, HTML, XML and JSON)
• Multi-lingual output (cs, de, en, en-ca, en-gb, es, fi, fr, it, ja, ko, nl, pl, ru, sv, tr, zh-cn or zh-tw)
• Geotags images from GPS track log files (with time drift correction!)
• Generates track logs from geotagged images
• Shifts date/time values to fix timestamps in images
• Renames files and organizes in directories (by date or by any other meta information)
• Extracts thumbnail images, preview images, and large JPEG images from RAW files
• Copies meta information between files (even different-format files)
• Reads/writes structured XMP information
• Deletes meta information individually, in groups, or altogether
• Sets the file modification date (and creation date in Mac and Windows) from EXIF information
• Supports alternate language tags in XMP, PNG, ID3, Font, QuickTime, ICC Profile, MIE and MXF information
• Processes entire directory trees
• Creates text output file for each image file
• Creates binary-format metadata-only (MIE, EXV) files for metadata backup
• Automatically backs up original image when writing
• Organizes output into groups
• Conditionally processes files based on value of any meta information
• Ability to add custom user-defined tags
• Support for MWG (Metadata Working Group) recommendations
• Recognizes thousands of different tags
• Tested with images from thousands of different camera models
• Advanced verbose and HTML-based hex dump outputs

Links:
• web site: https://exiftool.org/
• direct download Windows executable: https://exiftool.org/exiftool-12.00.zip
• download size archive: 6.3 MB
• release 12.00 of June 11, 2020
• Softpedia review: https://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedi ... Tool.shtml

ExifToolGUI for Windows v5.xx
• web site: https://exiftool.org/gui/
• download link for version 5.16.0.0: https://exiftool.org/forum/index.php?topic=2750.0
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the universe trying to build bigger and better idiots. So far, the universe is winning." - Rick Cook.

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webfork
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Re: ExifTool - CLI for Read, Write and Edit Meta Information

#2 Post by webfork »

On a related note: the ExifTool GUI program entry: https://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=1450 ... the program still works fine but is somewhat outdated in comparison to the active CLI project.

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webfork
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Re: ExifTool - CLI for Read, Write and Edit Meta Information

#3 Post by webfork »

I'm not really concerned about metadata and can count on one hand the number of times I've needed it, so balancing that against privacy concerns, I usually just try to kill it like a weed. Exiftool is probably the most comprehensive method so here's my process to clear everything in the local folder (and any subfolders).

exiftool -r -all= .

Note that the program will generate a bunch of backup files (e.g. if you have FILE.JPG it will create FILE.JPG_original). To skip the backup step:

exiftool -r -overwrite_original -all= .

Finally, you can verify this at least on image files using a program like nomacs:

Image

This program does not support removal of document metadata e.g. MS Office filetypes - you can view/modify that in LibreOffice using the File - Properties menu

Image
Last edited by webfork on Sun Jun 14, 2020 9:43 am, edited 1 time in total.


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