Last Updated on July 12, 2023
ExifTool is a library and program to read and write meta information in multimedia files.
ExifTool is a customizable set of Perl modules with an included command-line application for reading and writing meta information in image, audio and video files. The software implements its own open metadata format. It is designed to encapsulate meta information from many sources, in binary or textual form, and bundle it together with any type of file.
It recognizes EXIF, GPS, IPTC, XMP, JFIF, GeoTIFF, ICC Profile, Photoshop IRB, FlashPix, AFCP and ID3 meta information as well as the maker note information of many digital cameras by various manufacturers including Canon, Casio, FujiFilm, JVC/Victor, Kodak, Leaf, Minolta/Konica-Minolta, Nikon, Olympus/Epson, Panasonic/Leica, Pentax/Asahi, Ricoh, Sanyo and Sigma/Foveon.
Features include:
- 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, ICC Profile, Photoshop IRB, AFCP and more.
- Reads and writes maker notes of many digital cameras.
- Decodes a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
- Numerous output formatting options (including tab-delimited, HTML, XML and JSON).
- Multi-lingual output (cs, de, en, en_ca, en_gb, es, 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).
- Deletes meta information individually, in groups, or altogether.
- Sets the file modification date from EXIF information.
- Supports alternate language tags in XMP, PNG, ID3, Font, QuickTime, ICC Profile and MIE information.
- Processes entire directory trees.
- Creates text output file for each image file.
- Creates binary-format metadata-only (MIE) 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 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.
Website: exiftool.org
Support: Documentation
Developer: Phil Harvey
License: GNU GPL 1+ or Artistic License
ExifTool is written in Perl. Learn Perl with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
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