jhead – Exif Jpeg header manipulation tool

Last Updated on July 12, 2023

jhead is an open source command line driven utility for extracting digital camera settings from the Exif format files used by many digital cameras. It handles the various confusing ways these can be expressed, and displays them as F-stop, shutter speed, etc.

This tool is also able to reduce the size of digital camera JPEGs without loss of information, by deleting integral thumbnails that digital cameras put into the Exif header.

Many projects, including PHP, have reused code from this utility.

Features include:

  • Extracting camera settings from Exif image files.
  • Able to set and/or adjust the Exif time field.
  • Manipulation (extract, replace, regenerate) of Exif integral thumbnails.
  • Transplant Exif image header from one JPEG to another.
  • Edit JPEG comment fields.
  • Automatically rotate images upright (using jpegtran) according to “orientation” tag.
  • Manage running programs on large batches of Jpegs and restoring Exif header information afterwards.
  • Display embedded GPS info (if present).
  • Extracts the following from an Exif jpeg file:
    • Time and date picture was taken.
    • Camera make and model.
    • Integral low-res Exif thumbnail.
    • Shutter speed.
    • Camera F-stop number.
    • Flash used (yes/no).
    • Distance camera was focused at.
    • Focal length and calculate 35 mm equivalent focal length.
    • Image resolution.
    • GPS info, if stored in image.
    • IPTC header.
    • XMP data.
  • Modifies the following from an Exif jpeg file:
    • Up-right images according to rotation tag using jpegtran.
    • Set or relative adjust internal exif timestamps.
    • Fix date / time offsets in large batches of images.
    • Rename or date stamp files according to exif timestamp.
    • Transfer exif headers between images.
    • Replace thumbnails inside Exif headers.
    • Edit jpeg comments (but not the Exif comments).
    • Delete exif or comment sections from jpeg images.
    • Create new minimal exif header containing date and thumbnail.
  • Options for manipulating Exif files including the date in the header, renaming image files, or coordinating running Jpegtran and Mogrify to manipulate whole directory trees of images.

Website: www.sentex.net
Support: Documentation
Developer: Matthias Wandel
License: Public Domain

jhead is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.

Return to Photo Metadata Editors | Return to Small Image Tools


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