1EXIFTOOL(1) User Contributed Perl Documentation EXIFTOOL(1)
2
6 exiftool - Read and write meta information in files
7
9 exiftool [OPTIONS] [-TAG...] [--TAG...] FILE...
10 exiftool [OPTIONS] -TAG[+-<]=[VALUE]... FILE...
12 exiftool [OPTIONS] -TagsFromFile SRCFILE [-SRCTAG[>DSTTAG]...] FILE...
14 exiftool [ -ver ⎪ -list[w⎪f⎪g[NUM]⎪d] ]
16 For specific examples, see the EXAMPLES sections below.
18
20 A command-line interface to Image::ExifTool, used for reading and writ‐
21 ing meta information in image, audio and video files. FILE is a source
22 file name, directory name, or "-" for the standard input. Information
23 is read from the source file and output in readable form to the console
24 (or written to an output text file with the -w option).
25 To write or copy information, new values are specified with the
27 -TAG=[VALUE] syntax or the -TagsFromFile option. This causes FILE to
28 be rewritten, and by default the original file is preserved with
29 "_original" appended to the file name. (Be sure to verify that the new
30 file is OK before erasing the original.)
31 Below is a list of file types and meta information formats currently
33 supported by ExifTool (r = read, w = write, c = create):
34 File Types ⎪ Meta Information
36 --------------------------------------- ⎪ --------------------
37 ACR r JP2 r/w PPT r ⎪ EXIF r/w/c
38 AI r JPEG r/w PS r/w ⎪ GPS r/w/c
39 AIFF r K25 r PSD r/w ⎪ IPTC r/w/c
40 APE r M4A r QTIF r ⎪ XMP r/w/c
41 ARW r MEF r/w RA r ⎪ MakerNotes r/w/c
42 ASF r MIE r/w/c RAF r ⎪ Photoshop IRB r/w/c
43 AVI r MIFF r RAM r ⎪ ICC Profile r/w/c
44 BMP r MNG r/w RAW r/w ⎪ MIE r/w/c
45 BTF r MOS r/w RIFF r ⎪ JFIF r/w/c
46 CR2 r/w MOV r RM r ⎪ Ducky APP12 r/w/c
47 CRW r/w MP3 r SR2 r ⎪ CIFF r/w
48 CS1 r/w MP4 r SRF r ⎪ AFCP r/w
49 DCM r MPC r SWF r ⎪ DICOM r
50 DCR r MPG r THM r/w ⎪ Flash r
51 DNG r/w MRW r/w TIFF r/w ⎪ FlashPix r
52 DOC r NEF r/w VRD r/w/c ⎪ GeoTIFF r
53 EPS r/w OGG r WAV r ⎪ PrintIM r
54 ERF r/w ORF r/w WDP r/w ⎪ ID3 r
55 FLAC r PBM r/w WMA r ⎪ Kodak Meta r
56 FLV r PDF r WMV r ⎪ Ricoh RMETA r
57 FPX r PEF r/w X3F r ⎪ Picture Info r
58 GIF r/w PGM r/w XLS r ⎪ Adobe APP14 r
59 HTML r PICT r XMP r/w/c ⎪ APE r
60 ICC r/w/c PNG r/w ⎪ Vorbis r
61 JNG r/w PPM r/w ⎪ (and more)
62 Note: If FILE is a directory name, then only file types with recog‐
64 nized extensions are processed when reading, and only writable types
65 are written. However, the -ext option may be used to force processing
66 of files with any extension.
67
69 Case is not significant for any command-line option (including tag and
70 group names), except for single-character options if the corresponding
71 upper case option is defined. Multiple options may NOT be combined
72 into a single argument, because that would be interpreted as a tag
73 name.
74 -TAG Extract information for specified tag (ie. "-CreateDate"). See
76 Image::ExifTool::TagNames for documentation on available tag
77 names. A tag name may include a leading group name separated by a
78 colon (ie. "-XMP:Creator"). Any family 0 or 1 group name may be
79 used, and the group name may be prefixed by a digit to specify
80 family number (ie. "-1IPTC:Keywords"). Use the -listg or -listg1
81 option to list valid family 0 or 1 group names.
82 A special tag name of "All" may be used to indicate all meta
84 information. This is particularly useful when a group name is
85 specified to extract all information in a group. ("*" is a syn‐
86 onym for "All", but must be quoted if used on the command line to
87 prevent shell globbing.)
88 If no tags are specified, all available information is extracted.
90 --TAG
92 Exclude specified tag from extracted information. Same as the -x
93 option. May also be used following a -TagsFromFile option to
94 exclude tags from being copied, or to exclude groups from being
95 deleted when deleting all information (ie. "-all= --exif:all"
96 deletes all but EXIF information).
97 -TAG[+-]=[VALUE]
99 Write a new value for the specified tag (ie. "-comment=wow"), or
100 delete the tag if no VALUE is given (ie. "-comment="). "+=" and
101 "-=" are used to add or remove entries from a list, or to shift
102 date/time values (see Image::ExifTool::Shift.pl for details).
103 If a group name is not specified for TAG, then the information is
105 written to the preferred group, which is the first group in the
106 following list where TAG is valid: 1) EXIF, 2) IPTC, 3) XMP, 4)
107 MakerNotes.
108 The special "All" tag may be used in this syntax only if a VALUE
110 is NOT given. This causes all meta information to be deleted (or
111 all information in a group if "-GROUP:All=" is used). Note that
112 not all groups are deletable. Also, within an image some groups
113 may be contained within others, and these groups are removed if
114 the super group is deleted. Below are lists of these group depen‐
115 dencies:
116 JPEG Image:
118 - Deleting EXIF or IFD0 also deletes ExifIFD, GlobParamIFD,
119 GPS, IFD1, InteropIFD, MakerNotes, PrintIM and SubIFD.
120 - Deleting ExifIFD also deletes InteropIFD and MakerNotes.
121 - Deleting Photoshop also deletes IPTC.
122 TIFF Image:
124 - Deleting EXIF only removes ExifIFD which also deletes
125 InteropIFD and MakerNotes.
126 -TAG<=DATFILE or -TAG<=FMT
128 Set the value of a tag from the contents of file DATFILE. The
129 file name may also be given by a FMT string where %d, %f and %e
130 represent the directory, file name and extension of the original
131 FILE (see the -w option for more details). Note that quotes are
132 required around this argument to prevent shell redirection since
133 it contains a "<" symbol. "+<=" or "-<=" may also be used to add
134 or delete specific list entries, or to shift date/time values.
135 -@ ARGFILE
137 Read command-line arguments from the specified file. The file
138 contains one argument per line (NOT one option per line -- some
139 options require additional arguments which must be placed on sepa‐
140 rate lines). Blank lines and lines beginning with "#" and are
141 ignored. Normal shell processing of arguments is not performed,
142 which among other things means that arguments should not be
143 quoted. ARGFILE may exist relative to either the current direc‐
144 tory or the exiftool directory unless an absolute pathname is
145 given.
146 For example, the following ARGFILE will set the value of Copyright
148 to "Copyright YYYY, Phil Harvey", where "YYYY" is the year of Cre‐
149 ateDate:
150 -d
152 %Y
153 -copyright<Copyright $createdate, Phil Harvey
154 -a Allow duplicate tag names in the output. Without this option,
156 duplicates are suppressed.
157 -b Output requested data in binary format without tag names or
159 descriptions. This option is mainly used for extracting embedded
160 images, but it may also be useful in separating values of list-
161 type tags since a newline is used instead of a comma to separate
162 these values in the -b output.
163 -c FMT
165 Set the print format for GPS coordinates. FMT uses the same syn‐
166 tax as the "printf" format string. The specifiers correspond to
167 degrees, minutes and seconds in that order, but minutes and sec‐
168 onds are optional. For example, the following table gives the
169 output for the same coordinate using various formats:
170 FMT Output
172 ------------------- ------------------
173 "%d deg %d' %.2f"\" 54 deg 59' 22.80" (the default)
174 "%d deg %.4f min" 54 deg 59.3800 min
175 "%.6f degrees" 54.989667 degrees
176 -d FMT
178 Set the format for date/time tag values. Consult "strftime" man
179 page for FMT syntax. The default format is equivalent to "%Y:%m:%d
180 %H:%M:%S". This option has no effect on date-only or time-only
181 tags, and ignores timezone information if present.
182 -D Show tag ID number in Decimal.
184 -e Print existing tags only -- don't calculate composite tags.
186 -E Escape characters in output values for HTML. Implied with the -h
188 option.
189 -ext EXT (or --ext EXT)
191 Process only files with the specified extension, or use --ext to
192 exclude files. There may be multiple -ext and --ext options.
193 Extensions may begin with a leading '.', and case is not signifi‐
194 cant. For example:
195 exiftool -ext .JPG * # process only JPG files
197 exiftool --ext crw --ext dng * # process all but CRW and DNG
198 exiftool --ext . * # ignore if no extension
199 -f Force printing of tags even if their values are not found.
201 -F[OFFSET]
203 Fix the base for maker notes offsets. A common problem with some
204 image editors is that offsets in the maker notes are not adjusted
205 properly when the file is modified. This may cause the wrong val‐
206 ues to be extracted for some maker note entries when reading the
207 edited file. This option allows an integer OFFSET to be specified
208 for adjusting the maker notes base offset. If no OFFSET is given,
209 ExifTool takes its best guess at the correct base.
210 -fast
212 Increase speed of extracting information from JPEG images. With
213 this option, ExifTool will not scan to the end of a JPEG image to
214 check for an AFCP or PreviewImage trailer. The speed benefits are
215 small when reading images directly from disk, but can be substan‐
216 tial if piping images through a network connection.
217 -g[NUM]
219 Organize output by tag group. NUM specifies the group family num‐
220 ber, and may be 0 (general location), 1 (specific location) or 2
221 (category). If not specified, -g0 is assumed. Use the -listg
222 option to list all group names for a specified family.
223 -G[NUM]
225 Same as -g but print Group name for each tag.
226 -h Use HTML formatting for output. Implies -E option.
228 -H Show tag ID number in Hexadecimal.
230 -htmlDump[OFFSET]
232 Generate a dynamic web page containing a hex dump of the EXIF
233 information. This can be a very powerful tool for low-level anal‐
234 ysis of EXIF information. The -htmlDump option is also invoked if
235 the -v and -h options are used together. The verbose level con‐
236 trols the maximum length of the blocks dumped. An OFFSET may be
237 given to specify the base for displayed offsets. If not provided,
238 the EXIF/TIFF base offset is used. Use -htmlDump0 for absolute
239 offsets. Currently only EXIF and TIFF information is dumped, but
240 the -u option can be used to give a raw hex dump of other file
241 formats.
242 -i DIR
244 Ignore specified directory name. May be multiple -i options.
245 -if EXPR
247 Specify a condition to be evaluated before processing each FILE.
248 EXPR is a Perl-like expression containing tag names prefixed by
249 "$" symbols. It is evaluated with the tags from each FILE in
250 turn, and processing proceeds only if the expression returns true.
251 Unlike Perl variable names, tag names are not case sensitive and
252 may contain a hyphen or a leading group name separated by a colon.
253 When multiple -if options are used, all conditions must be satis‐
254 fied to process the file. Below are a few examples:
255 # extract shutterspeed from all Canon images in a directory
257 exiftool -shutterspeed -if '$make eq "Canon"' dir
258 # add one hour to all images created on or after Apr. 2, 2006
260 exiftool -alldates+=1 -if '$CreateDate ge "2006:04:02"' dir
261 # set EXIF ISO value if possible, unless it is set already
263 exiftool '-exif:iso<iso' -if 'not $exif:iso' dir
264 -k Pause with the message "-- press any key --" before terminating.
266 This option is used to prevent the command window from closing
267 when run as a Windows drag and drop application.
268 -l Use long 2-line Canon-style output format.
270 -L Convert 16-bit Unicode characters in output to Windows Latin1
272 (cp1252) instead of the default UTF-8. When writing, -L is used
273 to specify that input text values are Latin1 instead of UTF-8.
274 -list, -listw, -listf, -listg[NUM], -listd
276 Print a list of all valid tag names (-list), all writable tag
277 names (-listw), all recognized file extensions (-listf), all tag
278 groups [in a specified family] (-listg[NUM]), or all deletable tag
279 groups (-listd). The -list and -listw options may be followed by
280 an additional argument of the form "-GROUP:All" to list all tags
281 in a specific group. With -listg, NUM may be given to specify the
282 group family, otherwise family 0 is assumed. For example:
283 -list # list all tag names
285 -list -EXIF:All # list all EXIF tags
286 -listw -XMP-dc:All # list all writable XMP-dc tags
287 -listf # list all recognized file extensions
288 -listg1 # list all groups in family 1
289 -listd # list all deletable groups
290 -m Ignore minor errors. Allows writing if some minor errors occur,
292 or extraction of embedded images that aren't in standard JPG for‐
293 mat.
294 -n Read and write values as numbers instead of words. This option
296 disables the print conversion that is applied when extracting val‐
297 ues to make them more readable, and the inverse print conversion
298 when writing. For example:
299 > exiftool -Orientation -S a.jpg
301 Orientation: Rotate 90 CW
302 > exiftool -Orientation -S -n a.jpg
303 Orientation: 6
304 and the following two writing commands have the same effect
306 > exiftool -Orientation='Rotate 90 CW' a.jpg
308 > exiftool -Orientation=6 -n a.jpg
309 -o OUTFILE or FMT
311 Set the output file or directory name when writing information.
312 (Without this option, the original file is renamed to "FILE_origi‐
313 nal" and output is sent to FILE.) The output file name may also
314 be specified using a FMT string in which %d, %f and %e represent
315 the directory, file name and extension of FILE. Also, %c may be
316 used to add a copy number. See the -w option for FMT string exam‐
317 ples.
318 The output file is taken to be a directory name if it already
320 exists as a directory or if the name ends with '/'. Output direc‐
321 tories are created if necessary. Existing files will not be over‐
322 written. Combining the -overwrite_original option with -o causes
323 the original source file to be erased after the output file is
324 successfully written.
325 A special feature of this option allows it to be used to create
327 certain types of files from scratch. Currently, this can only be
328 done with XMP and ICC/ICM files. The file is created from a com‐
329 bination of information in FILE and tag values assigned on the
330 command line. This is done by specifying a file extension of
331 '.XMP', '.ICC' or '.ICM' for OUTFILE. The output file may be cre‐
332 ated even if no FILE is specified, provided some appropriate tag
333 values are specified on the command line.
334 -overwrite_original
336 Overwrite the original FILE (instead of preserving it by adding
337 "_original" to the file name) when writing information to an
338 image. Caution: This option should only be used if you already
339 have separate backup copies of your image files.
340 -overwrite_original_in_place
342 Similar to the -overwrite_original option except that an extra
343 step is added to allow the original file attributes to be pre‐
344 served. On a Macintosh for example, this preserves the original
345 file type, creator and icon. The extra step results in slower
346 performance, so the -overwrite_original option should be used
347 instead unless necessary.
348 -p FMTFILE or STR
350 Print output in the format specified by the given file or string
351 (and ignore other format options). Tag names in the format file
352 or string begin with a "$" symbol and may contain an optional
353 group name. Case is not significant. Braces "{}" may be used
354 around the tag name to separate it from subsequent text. Use $$
355 to represent a "$" symbol. In the file, lines beginning with "#"
356 are ignored. For example, this format file:
357 # this is a comment line
359 File $FileName was created on $DateTimeOriginal
360 (f/$Aperture, ${ShutterSpeed}s, ISO $EXIF:ISO)
361 produces output like this:
363 File test.jpg was created on 2003:10:31 15:44:19
365 (f/5.6, 1/60s, ISO 100)
366 If a tag does not exist, the output value is set to '-' if the -f
368 option is used. Otherwise a minor warning is issued and the line
369 with the missing tag is not printed. However, if the -m option is
370 used, minor warnings are ignored and the line is printed with an
371 empty tag value.
372 -P Preserve date/time of original file when writing.
374 -q Quiet processing. One -q suppresses normal informational mes‐
376 sages, and a second -q suppresses warnings as well. Error mes‐
377 sages can not be suppressed, although minor errors may be down‐
378 graded to warnings with the -m option.
379 -r Recursively scan subdirectories. Only meaningful if FILE is a
381 directory name.
382 -s Print tag names instead of descriptions. This is the short output
384 format. Add up to 3 -s options for even shorter formats:
385 -s - print tag names instead of descriptions
387 -s -s - no extra spaces to column-align values
388 -s -s -s - print values only
389 Also effective when combined with -t or -h options.
391 -S Very short format. The same as two -s options. Extra spaces used
393 to column-align values are not printed.
394 -ScanForXMP
396 Scan all files (even unrecognized formats) for XMP information
397 unless found already. When combined with the -fast option, only
398 unrecognized file types are scanned. Warning: It can be time con‐
399 suming to scan large files.
400 -t Output a tab-delimited list of description/values (useful for
402 database import). May be combined with -s to print tag names
403 instead of descriptions, or -S to print tag values only, tab-
404 delimited on a single line.
405 -TagsFromFile SRCFILE or FMT
407 Copy tag values from SRCFILE to FILE. Tag names on the command
408 line after this option specify the tags to be copied, or excluded
409 from the copy. If no tags are specified, then all tags from the
410 source file are copied. More than one -TagsFromFile option may be
411 used to copy tags from multiple files.
412 By default, this option will commute information between same-
414 named tags in different groups and write each tag to the preferred
415 group. This allows information to be automatically translated
416 when copying between images of different formats. However, if a
417 group name is specified for a tag then the information is written
418 to the original group (unless redirected to another group, see
419 below). This works even if "All" is used as a group name, so
420 "-All:All" is used to specify that all information be copied to
421 the same group in the destination file.
422 SRCFILE may be the same as FILE to move information around within
424 a file. In this case, "@" may be used to represent the source
425 file (ie. "-TagsFromFile @"), permitting this feature to be used
426 for batch processing multiple files (see note 3 below). Specified
427 tags are then copied from each file in turn as it is rewritten.
428 For advanced batch use, the source file name may also be specified
429 using a FMT string in which %d, %f and %e represent the directory,
430 file name and extension of FILE. See -w option for FMT string
431 examples.
432 A powerful redirection feature allows a destination tag to be
434 specified for each extracted tag. With this feature, information
435 may be written to a tag with a different name or group. This is
436 done using "'-SRCTAG>DSTTAG'" on the command line after -TagsFrom‐
437 File ("'-DSTTAG<SRCTAG'" also works). Note that this argument
438 must be quoted to prevent shell redirection, and there is no "="
439 sign as when setting new values. Both source and destination tags
440 may be prefixed by a group name, and "All" or "*" may be used as a
441 tag or group name. If no destination group is specified, the
442 information is written to the preferred group. As a convenience,
443 "-TagsFromFile @" is assumed for any redirected tags which are
444 specified without a prior -TagsFromFile option. Copied tags may
445 also be added or deleted from a list with arguments of the form
446 "'-SRCTAG+>DSTTAG'" or "'-SRCTAG->DSTTAG'".
447 An extension of the redirection feature allows strings involving
449 tag names to be used on the right hand side of the "<" symbol with
450 the syntax "'-DSTTAG<STR'", where tag names in STR are prefixed
451 with a "$" symbol. See the -p option for more details about this
452 syntax. Strings starting with a "=" sign must insert a single
453 space after the "<" to avoid confusion with the "<=" syntax which
454 would otherwise attempt to set the tag value from the contents of
455 a file. A single space at the start of the string is removed if
456 it exists, but all other whitespace is preserved.
457 See "COPYING EXAMPLES" for examples using -TagsFromFile.
459 Notes:
461 1) Be aware of the difference between excluding a tag from being
463 copied (--TAG), and deleting a tag (-TAG=). Excluding a tag pre‐
464 vents it from being copied to the destination image, but deleting
465 will remove a pre-existing tag from the image.
466 2) The maker note information is copied as a block, so it isn't
468 affected like other information by subsequent tag assignments on
469 the command line. Also, since the PreviewImage referenced from
470 the maker notes may be rather large, it is not copied, and must be
471 transferred separately if desired.
472 3) When performing complex batch processing, it is important to
474 note that the order of operations is different for tags copied in
475 batch mode. In general, tags are copied from batch-mode files
476 after all other command-line arguments have been applied. (The
477 exception is that a group delete is always performed last if there
478 are no subsequent tag assignments on the command line.) For exam‐
479 ple, the following two commands are not equivalent:
480 # (not batch mode): Sets xmp:title to 'NEW'
482 exiftool -tagsfromfile a.jpg -xmp:title -xmp:title=NEW a.jpg
483 # (batch mode): Preserves original title if it exists
485 exiftool -tagsfromfile @ -xmp:title -xmp:title=NEW a.jpg
486 -u Extract values of unknown tags. Add another -u to also extract
488 unknown information from binary data blocks.
489 -U Extract values of unknown tags as well as unknown information from
491 binary data blocks. This is the same as two -u options.
492 -v[NUM]
494 Print verbose messages. NUM specifies the level of verbosity in
495 the range 0-5, with higher numbers being more verbose. If NUM is
496 not given, then each -v option increases the level of verbosity by
497 1. This option suppresses normal console output unless specific
498 tags are being extracted. -v0 is used when writing to print only
499 the processed file names.
500 -ver Print version number and exit.
502 -w EXT or FMT
504 Write console output to a file with name ending in EXT for each
505 source file. The output file name is obtained by replacing the
506 source file extension (including the '.') with the specified
507 extension (and a '.' is added to the start of EXT if it didn't
508 contain one). Alternatively, a FMT string may be used to give
509 more control over the output file name and directory. In the for‐
510 mat string, %d, %f and %e represent the directory, filename and
511 extension of the source file, and %c represents a copy number
512 which is automatically incremented if the file already exists. %d
513 includes the trailing '/' if necessary, but %e does not include
514 the leading '.'. For example:
515 -w %d%f.txt # same effect as "-w txt"
517 -w dir/%f_%e.out # write files to "dir" as "FILE_EXT.out"
518 -w dir2/%d%f.txt # write to "dir2", keeping dir structure
519 -w a%c.txt # write to "a.txt" or "a1.txt" or "a2.txt"...
520 Existing files will not be overwritten, and output directories are
522 created automatically if necessary.
523 Note: In a Windows BAT file the '%' character is represented by
525 "%%", so an argument like "%d%f.txt" is written as "%%d%%f.txt".
526 Advanced features: A substring of the original file name, direc‐
528 tory or extension may be taken by specifying a field width immedi‐
529 ately following the '%' character. If the width is negative, the
530 substring is taken from the end. The substring position (charac‐
531 ters to ignore at the start or end of the string) may be given by
532 a second optional value after a decimal point. For example:
533 Input File Name Format Specifier Output File Name
535 ---------------- ---------------- ----------------
536 Picture-123.jpg %7f.txt Picture.txt
537 Picture-123.jpg %-.4f.out Picture.out
538 Picture-123.jpg %7f.%-3f Picture.123
539 Picture-123a.jpg Meta%-3.1f.txt Meta123.txt
540 For %c, these modifiers have a different effects. If a field
542 width is given, the copy number is padded with zeros to the speci‐
543 fied width. A leading '-' adds a dash before the copy number, and
544 a '+' adds an underline. By default, a copy number of zero is
545 omitted, but this can be changed by adding a decimal point to the
546 modifier. For example:
547 -w A%-cZ.txt # AZ.txt, A-1Z.txt, A-2Z.txt ...
549 -w B%5c.txt # B.txt, B00001.txt, B00002.txt ...
550 -w C%.c.txt # C0.txt, C1.txt, C2.txt ...
551 -w D%-.c.txt # D-0.txt, D-1.txt, D-2.txt ...
552 -w E%-.4c.txt # E-0000.txt, E-0001.txt, E-0002.txt ...
553 -w F%+c.txt # F.txt, F_1.txt F_2.txt ...
554 -w G%-lc.txt # G.txt, G-b.txt, G-c.txt ...
555 All format codes may also be modified by 'l' or 'u' to specify
557 lower or upper case respectively (ie. "%le" for a lower case file
558 extension). When used to modify the copy number, the numbers are
559 changed to an alphabetical base (ie. as with "%lc" in the last
560 example above).
561 This same FMT syntax is used with the -o and -TagsFromFile
563 options, although %c is only valid for output file names.
564 -x TAG
566 Exclude the specified tag. There may be multiple -x options.
567 This has the same effect as --TAG on the command line. May also
568 be used following a -TagsFromFile option to exclude tags from
569 being copied.
570 -z When reading, causes information to be extracted from .gz and .bz2
572 compressed images. (Only one image per archive.) When writing,
573 causes compressed information to be written if supported by the
574 image format. (ie. The PNG format supports compressed text.)
575 Advanced Options
577 The following options allow complex processing to be performed with a
579 single command without the need for additional scripting. This may be
580 particularly useful for implementations such as Windows drag-and-drop
581 applications. These options may also be used to improve performance in
582 multi-pass processing by reducing the overhead required to load
583 exiftool for each invocation.
584 -common_args
586 Specifies that all arguments following this option are common to
587 all executed commands when -execute is used. This is the only
588 option that may not be used inside a -@ ARGFILE.
589 -execute
591 Execute command for all arguments up to this point on the command
592 line. Allows multiple commands to be executed from a single com‐
593 mand line.
594 -srcfile FMT
596 Specify a different source file to be processed based on the name
597 of the original file. This may be useful in some special situa‐
598 tions for processing related preview images or sidecar files. See
599 the -w option for a description of the FMT syntax. Note that file
600 name FMT strings for all options are based on the original file
601 name specified on the command line, not the name of the source
602 file specified by -srcfile.
603
605 exiftool -a -u -g1 a.jpg
606 Print all meta information in an image, including duplicate and
607 unknown tags, sorted by group (for family 1).
608 exiftool -common dir
610 Print common meta information for all images in "dir".
611 exiftool -s -ImageSize -ExposureTime b.jpg
613 Print ImageSize and ExposureTime tag names and values.
614 exiftool -l -canon c.jpg d.jpg
616 Print standard Canon information from two image files.
617 exiftool -r -w .txt -common pictures
619 Recursively extract common meta information from files in "pic‐
620 tures" directory, writing text output into files with the same
621 names but with a ".txt" extension.
622 exiftool -p '$filename has date $dateTimeOriginal' -q -f dir
624 Print one line of output containing the file name and DateTimeO‐
625 riginal for each image in directory "dir".
626 exiftool -b -ThumbnailImage image.jpg > thumbnail.jpg
628 Save thumbnail image from "image.jpg" to a file called "thumb‐
629 nail.jpg".
630 exiftool -b -PreviewImage 118_1834.JPG > preview.jpg
632 Extract preview image from JPG file and write it to "preview.jpg".
633 exiftool -b -JpgFromRaw -w _JFR.JPG -ext CRW -r .
635 Recursively extract JPG image from all Canon CRW files in the cur‐
636 rent directory, adding "_JFR.JPG" for the name of the output JPG
637 files.
638 exiftool -d '%r %a, %B %e, %Y' -DateTimeOriginal -S -s *.jpg
640 Print formatted date/time for all JPG files in a directory.
641 exiftool -IFD1:XResolution -IFD1:YResolution
643 Extract image resolution from EXIF IFD1 information (thumbnail
644 image IFD).
645 exiftool -xmp -b a.jpg > out.xmp
647 Extract complete XMP data record intact from "a.jpg" and write it
648 to "out.xmp" using the special "XMP" tag (see the Extra tags in
649 Image::ExifTool::TagNames).
650 exiftool -icc_profile -b -w icc image.jpg
652 Save complete ICC_Profile from an image to an output file with the
653 same name and an extension of ".icc".
654 exiftool -htmldump -w tmp/%f_%e.html t/images
656 Generate HTML pages from a hex dump of EXIF information in all
657 images from the "t/images" directory. The output HTML files are
658 written to the "tmp" directory (which is created if it didn't
659 exist), with names of the form 'FILENAME_EXT.html'.
660
662 Note that quotes are necessary around arguments which contain certain
663 special characters such as ">", "<" or any white space. These quoting
664 techniques are shell dependent, but the examples below will work for
665 most Unix shells. With the Windows cmd shell however, double quotes
666 should be used (ie. -Comment="This is a new comment").
667 exiftool -Comment='This is a new comment' dst.jpg
669 Write new comment to a JPG image (replaces any existing comment).
670 exiftool -comment= -o newdir *.jpg
672 Remove comment from all JPG images in the current directory, writ‐
673 ing the modified images to a new directory.
674 exiftool -keywords=EXIF -keywords=editor dst.jpg
676 Replace existing keyword list with two new keywords ("EXIF" and
677 "editor").
678 exiftool -Keywords+=word -o newfile.jpg src.jpg
680 Copy a source image to a new file, and add a keyword ("word") to
681 the current list of keywords.
682 exiftool -credit-=xxx dir
684 Delete Credit information from all files in a directory where the
685 Credit value was ("xxx").
686 exiftool -all= dst.jpg
688 Delete all meta information from an image.
689 exiftool -all= -comment='lonely' dst.jpg
691 Delete all meta information from an image and add a comment back
692 in. (Note that the order is important: "-comment='lonely' -all="
693 would also delete the new comment.)
694 exiftool -all= --jfif:all dst.jpg
696 Delete all meta information except JFIF group from an image.
697 exiftool -Photoshop:All= dst.jpg
699 Delete Photoshop meta information from an image (note that the
700 Photoshop information also includes IPTC).
701 exiftool '-ThumbnailImage<=thumb.jpg' dst.jpg
703 Set the thumbnail image from specified file (Note: The quotes are
704 neccessary to prevent shell redirection).
705 exiftool '-JpgFromRaw<=%d%f_JFR.JPG' -ext CRW -r .
707 Recursively write JPEG images with filenames ending in "_JFR.JPG"
708 to the JpgFromRaw tag of like-named files with extension ".CRW" in
709 the current directory. (This is the inverse of the "-JpgFromRaw"
710 command of the "READING EXAMPLES" section above.)
711 exiftool -DateTimeOriginal-='0:0:0 1:30:0' dir
713 Adjust original date/time of all images in directory "dir" by sub‐
714 tracting one hour and 30 minutes. (This is equivalent to "-Date‐
715 TimeOriginal-=1.5". See Image::ExifTool::Shift.pl for details.)
716 exiftool -createdate+=3 -modifydate+=3 a.jpg b.jpg
718 Add 3 hours to the CreateDate and ModifyDate timestamps of two
719 images.
720 exiftool -AllDates+=1:30 -if '$make eq "Canon"' dir
722 Shift the values of DateTimeOriginal, CreateDate and ModifyDate
723 forward by 1 hour and 30 minutes for all Canon images in a direc‐
724 tory. (The AllDates tag is provided as a shortcut for these three
725 tags, allowing them to be accessed via a single tag.)
726 exiftool -xmp:city=Kingston image1.jpg image2.nef
728 Write a tag to the XMP group of two images. (Without the "xmp:"
729 this tag would get written to the IPTC group since "City" exists
730 in both, and IPTC is preferred by default.)
731 exiftool -LightSource-='Unknown (0)' dst.tiff
733 Delete "LightSource" tag only if it is unknown with a value of 0.
734 exiftool -whitebalance-=auto -WhiteBalance=tung dst.jpg
736 Set "WhiteBalance" to "Tungsten" only if it was previously "Auto".
737 exiftool -o %d%f.xmp dir
739 Create XMP meta information data files for all images in "dir".
740 exiftool -o test.xmp -owner=Phil -title='XMP File'
742 Create an XMP data file only from tags defined on the command
743 line.
744 exiftool '-ICC_Profile<=%d%f.icc' image.jpg
746 Write ICC_Profile to an image from a ".icc" file of the same name.
747
749 These examples demonstrate the ability to copy tag values between
750 files.
751 exiftool -TagsFromFile src.crw dst.jpg
753 Copy the values of all writable tags from "src.crw" to "dst.jpg",
754 writing the information to the preferred groups.
755 exiftool -TagsFromFile src.jpg -all:all dst.jpg
757 Copy the values of all writable tags from "src.jpg" to "dst.jpg",
758 preserving the original tag groups.
759 exiftool -all= -tagsfromfile src.jpg -exif:all dst.jpg
761 Erase all meta information from "dst.jpg" image, then copy EXIF
762 tags from "src.jpg".
763 exiftool -tagsfromfile a.jpg out.xmp
765 Copy meta information "a.jpg" to an XMP data file. If the XMP
766 data file "out.xmp" already exists, it will be updated with the
767 new information. Otherwise the XMP data file will be created.
768 Only XMP, ICC and MIE files may be created like this (other file
769 types may be edited but not created). See "WRITING EXAMPLES"
770 above for another technique to generate XMP files.
771 exiftool -tagsFromFile a.jpg -XMP:All= -ThumbnailImage= -m b.jpg
773 Copy all meta information from "a.jpg" to "b.jpg", deleting all
774 XMP information and the thumbnail image from the destination.
775 exiftool -TagsFromFile src.jpg -title -author=Phil dst.jpg
777 Copy title from one image to another and set a new author name.
778 exiftool -TagsFromFile a.jpg -ISO -TagsFromFile b.jpg -comment dst.jpg
780 Copy ISO from one image and Comment from another image to a desti‐
781 nation image.
782 exiftool -tagsfromfile src.jpg -exif:all --subifd:all dst.jpg
784 Copy only the EXIF information from one image to another, exclud‐
785 ing SubIFD tags.
786 exiftool '-DateTimeOriginal>FileModifyDate' dir
788 Use the original date from the meta information to set the same
789 file's filesystem modification date for all images in a directory.
790 (Note that "-TagsFromFile @" is assumed if no other -TagsFromFile
791 is specified when redirecting information as in this example.)
792 exiftool -TagsFromFile src.jpg '-all>xmp:all' dst.jpg
794 Copy all possible information from "src.jpg" and write in XMP for‐
795 mat to "dst.jpg".
796 exiftool -tagsFromFile a.jpg -@ iptc2xmp.args -iptc:all= a.jpg
798 Translate IPTC information to XMP with appropriate tag name con‐
799 versions, and delete the original IPTC information from an image.
800 This example uses iptc2xmp.args, which is a file included with the
801 ExifTool distribution that contains the required arguments to con‐
802 vert IPTC information to XMP format. Also included with the dis‐
803 tribution is xmp2iptc.args, which performs the inverse conversion.
804 exiftool -tagsfromfile %d%f.CRW -r -ext JPG dir
806 Recursively rewrite all "JPG" images in "dir" with information
807 copied from the corresponding "CRW" images in the same directo‐
808 ries.
809 exiftool '-make+>keywords' image.jpg
811 Add camera make to list of keywords.
812 exiftool '-comment<ISO=$exif:iso Exposure=${shutterspeed}' dir
814 Set the Comment tag of all images in "dir" from the values of the
815 EXIF:ISO and ShutterSpeed tags. The resulting comment will be in
816 the form "ISO=100 Exposure=1/60".
817 exiftool -TagsFromFile src.jpg -icc_profile dst.jpg
819 Copy ICC_Profile from one image to another.
820 exiftool -if '$jpgfromraw' -b -jpgfromraw -w %d%f_%ue.jpg -execute -if
822 '$previewimage' -b -previewimage -w %d%f_%ue.jpg -execute -tagsfromfile
823 @ -srcfile %d%f_%ue.jpg -overwrite_original -common_args --ext jpg DIR
824 [Advanced] Extract JpgFromRaw or PreviewImage from all but JPG
825 files in DIR, saving them with file names like "image_EXT.jpg",
826 then add all meta information from the original files to the
827 extracted images. Here, the command line is broken into three
828 sections (separated by -execute options), and each is executed as
829 if it were a separate command. The -common_args option causes the
830 "--ext jpg DIR" arguments to be applied to all three commands, and
831 the -srcfile option allows the extracted JPG image to be the
832 source file for the third command (whereas the RAW files are the
833 source files for the other two commands).
834
836 By writing the "FileName" and "Directory" tags, files are renamed
837 and/or moved to new directories. This can be particularly useful and
838 powerful for organizing files by date when combined with the -d option.
839 New directories are created as necessary, but existing files will not
840 be overwritten. The format codes %d, %f and %e may be used in the new
841 file name to represent the directory, name and extension of the origi‐
842 nal file, and %c may be used to add a copy number if the file already
843 exists (see the -w option for details). Note that if used within a
844 date format string, an extra '%' must be added to pass these codes
845 through the date/time parser. (And further note that in a Windows
846 batch file, all '%' characters must also be escaped, so in this extreme
847 case '%%%%f' is necessary to pass a simple '%f' through the two levels
848 of parsing.)
849 exiftool -filename=new.jpg dir/old.jpg
851 Rename "old.jpg" to "new.jpg" in directory "dir".
852 exiftool -directory=%e dir
854 Move all files from directory "dir" into directories named by the
855 original file extensions.
856 exiftool '-Directory<DateTimeOriginal' -d %Y/%m/%d dir
858 Move all files in "dir" into a directory hierarchy based on year,
859 month and day of "DateTimeOriginal". ie) This command would move
860 the file "dir/image.jpg" with a "DateTimeOriginal" of "2005:10:12
861 16:05:56" to "2005/10/12/image.jpg".
862 exiftool '-filename<%f_${focallength}.%e' dir
864 Rename all files in "dir" by adding FocalLength to the file name.
865 exiftool '-FileName<CreateDate' -d %Y%m%d_%H%M%S%%-c.%%e dir
867 Rename all images in "dir" according to the "CreateDate" date and
868 time, adding a copy number with leading '-' if the file already
869 exists ("%-c"), and preserving the original file extension (%e).
870 Note the extra '%' necessary to escape the filename codes (%c and
871 %e) in the date format string.
872 exiftool -r '-FileName<CreateDate' -d %Y-%m-%d/%H%M_%%f.%%e dir
874 Both the directory and the filename may be changed together via
875 the "FileName" tag if the new "FileName" contains a '/'. The
876 example above recursively renames all images in a directory by
877 adding a "CreateDate" timestamp to the start of the filename, then
878 moves them into new directories named by date.
879 exiftool '-FileName<${CreateDate}_$filenumber.jpg' -d %Y%m%d dir/*.jpg
881 Set the filename of all JPG images in the current directory from
882 the CreateDate and FileNumber tags, in the form
883 "20060507_118-1861.jpg".
884
886 cat a.jpg ⎪ exiftool -
887 Extract information from stdin.
888 exiftool image.jpg -thumbnailimage -b ⎪ exiftool -
890 Extract information from an embedded thumbnail image.
891 cat a.jpg ⎪ exiftool -iptc:keywords+=fantastic - > b.jpg
893 Add an IPTC keyword in a pipeline, saving output to a new file.
894 wget -qO - http://a.domain.com/bigfile.jpg ⎪ exiftool -fast -
896 Extract information from an image over the internet using the GNU
897 wget utility. The -fast option prevents exiftool from scanning
898 for trailer information, so only the meta information header is
899 transferred.
900 exiftool a.jpg -thumbnailimage -b ⎪ exiftool -comment=wow - ⎪ exiftool
902 a.jpg -thumbnailimage'<=-'
903 Add a comment to an embedded thumbnail image. (Why anyone would
904 want to do this I don't know, but I've included this as an example
905 to illustrate the flexibility of ExifTool.)
906
908 ExifTool does not handle information stored in the resource fork on
909 Macintosh filesystems.
910
912 Copyright 2003-2007, Phil Harvey
913 This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
915 the same terms as Perl itself.
916
918 Image::ExifTool(3pm), Image::ExifTool::TagNames(3pm),
919 Image::ExifTool::Shortcuts(3pm), Image::ExifTool::Shift.pl
920perl v5.8.8 2007-10-23 EXIFTOOL(1)
