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NAME
exiftool - Read and write meta information in files
RUNNING IN WINDOWS
Drag and drop files or folders onto the exiftool executable to display
meta information, or rename to "exiftool.exe" and run from the command
line to access all exiftool features.
This stand-alone Windows version allows simple command-line options to
be added to the name of the executable (in brackets and separated by
spaces at the end of the name), providing a mechanism to use options
when launched via the mouse. For example, changing the executable name
to "exiftool(-a -u -g1 -w txt).exe" gives a drag-and-drop utility which
generates sidecar ".txt" files with detailed meta information. As
shipped, the -k option is added to cause exiftool to pause before
terminating (keeping the command window open). Options may also be added
to the "Target" property of a Windows shortcut to the executable.
SYNOPSIS
exiftool [*OPTIONS*] [-*TAG*...] [--*TAG*...] *FILE*...
exiftool [*OPTIONS*] -*TAG*[+-<]=[*VALUE*]... *FILE*...
exiftool [*OPTIONS*] -tagsFromFile *SRCFILE* [-*SRCTAG*[>*DSTTAG*]...]
*FILE*...
exiftool [ -ver | -list[w|f|r|wf|g[*NUM*]|d|x] ]
For specific examples, see the EXAMPLES sections below.
This documentation is displayed if exiftool is run without an input
*FILE* when one is expected.
DESCRIPTION
A command-line interface to Image::ExifTool, used for reading and
writing meta information in a variety of file types. *FILE* is one or
more source file names, directory names, or "-" for the standard input.
Information is read from source files and printed in readable form to
the console (or written to output text files with -w).
To write or delete information, tag values are assigned using the
-*TAG*=[*VALUE*] syntax, or the -geotag option. To copy or move
information, the -tagsFromFile feature is used. By default the original
files are preserved with "_original" appended to their names -- be sure
to verify that the new files are OK before erasing the originals. Once
in write mode, exiftool will ignore any read-specific options.
Note: If *FILE* is a directory name then only supported file types in
the directory are processed (in write mode only writable types are
processed). However, files may be specified by name, or the -ext option
may be used to force processing of files with any extension.
Below is a list of file types and meta information formats currently
supported by ExifTool (r = read, w = write, c = create):
File Types
------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+------------
3FR r | EIP r | LNK r | OTF r | RTF r
3G2 r | EPS r/w | M2TS r | PAC r | RW2 r/w
3GP r | ERF r/w | M4A/V r | PAGES r | RWL r/w
ACR r | EXE r | MEF r/w | PBM r/w | RWZ r
AFM r | EXIF r/w/c | MIE r/w/c | PCD r | RM r
AI r/w | EXR r | MIFF r | PDF r/w | SO r
AIFF r | F4A/V r | MKA r | PEF r/w | SR2 r/w
APE r | FFF r/w | MKS r | PFA r | SRF r
ARW r/w | FLA r | MKV r | PFB r | SRW r/w
ASF r | FLAC r | MNG r/w | PFM r | SVG r
AVI r | FLV r | MODD r | PGF r | SWF r
BMP r | FPX r | MOS r/w | PGM r/w | THM r/w
BTF r | GIF r/w | MOV r | PLIST r | TIFF r/w
CHM r | GZ r | MP3 r | PICT r | TTC r
COS r | HDP r/w | MP4 r | PMP r | TTF r
CR2 r/w | HDR r | MPC r | PNG r/w | VRD r/w/c
CRW r/w | HTML r | MPG r | PPM r/w | VSD r
CS1 r/w | ICC r/w/c | MPO r/w | PPT r | WAV r
DCM r | IDML r | MQV r | PPTX r | WDP r/w
DCP r/w | IIQ r/w | MRW r/w | PS r/w | WEBP r
DCR r | IND r/w | MXF r | PSB r/w | WEBM r
DFONT r | INX r | NEF r/w | PSD r/w | WMA r
DIVX r | ITC r | NRW r/w | PSP r | WMV r
DJVU r | J2C r | NUMBERS r | QTIF r | WV r
DLL r | JNG r/w | ODP r | RA r | X3F r/w
DNG r/w | JP2 r/w | ODS r | RAF r/w | XCF r
DOC r | JPEG r/w | ODT r | RAM r | XLS r
DOCX r | K25 r | OFR r | RAR r | XLSX r
DV r | KDC r | OGG r | RAW r/w | XMP r/w/c
DVB r | KEY r | OGV r | RIFF r | ZIP r
DYLIB r | LA r | ORF r/w | RSRC r |
Meta Information
----------------------+----------------------+---------------------
EXIF r/w/c | CIFF r/w | Ricoh RMETA r
GPS r/w/c | AFCP r/w | Picture Info r
IPTC r/w/c | Kodak Meta r/w | Adobe APP14 r
XMP r/w/c | FotoStation r/w | MPF r
MakerNotes r/w/c | PhotoMechanic r/w | Stim r
Photoshop IRB r/w/c | JPEG 2000 r | APE r
ICC Profile r/w/c | DICOM r | Vorbis r
MIE r/w/c | Flash r | SPIFF r
JFIF r/w/c | FlashPix r | DjVu r
Ducky APP12 r/w/c | QuickTime r | M2TS r
PDF r/w/c | Matroska r | PE/COFF r
PNG r/w/c | GeoTIFF r | AVCHD r
Canon VRD r/w/c | PrintIM r | ZIP r
Nikon Capture r/w/c | ID3 r | (and more)
OPTIONS
Case is not significant for any command-line option (including tag and
group names), except for single-character options when the corresponding
upper-case option exists. Many single-character options have equivalent
long-name versions (shown in brackets), and some options have inverses
which are invoked with a leading double-dash. Note that multiple
single-character options may NOT be combined into one argument because
this would be interpreted as a tag name. Contrary to standard practice,
options may appear after source file names on the exiftool command line.
Option Summary
Tag operations
-TAG or --TAG Extract or exclude specified tag
-TAG[+-]=[VALUE] Write new value for tag
-TAG[+-]<=DATFILE Write tag value from contents of file
-TAG[+-]<SRCTAG Copy tag value (see -tagsFromFile)
-tagsFromFile SRCFILE Copy tag values from file
-x TAG (-exclude) Exclude specified tag
Input-output text formatting
-args (-argFormat) Format metadata as exiftool arguments
-b (-binary) Output metadata in binary format
-c FMT (-coordFormat) Set format for GPS coordinates
-charset [[TYPE=]CHARSET] Specify encoding for special characters
-csv[=CSVFILE] Export/import tags in CSV format
-d FMT (-dateFormat) Set format for date/time values
-D (-decimal) Show tag ID numbers in decimal
-E, -ex (-escape(HTML|XML)) Escape values for HTML (-E) or XML (-ex)
-f (-forcePrint) Force printing of all specified tags
-g[NUM...] (-groupHeadings) Organize output by tag group
-G[NUM...] (-groupNames) Print group name for each tag
-h (-htmlFormat) Use HMTL formatting for output
-H (-hex) Show tag ID number in hexadecimal
-htmlDump[OFFSET] Generate HTML-format binary dump
-j[=JSONFILE] (-json) Export/import tags in JSON format
-l (-long) Use long 2-line output format
-L (-latin) Use Windows Latin1 encoding
-lang [LANG] Set current language
-listItem INDEX Extract specific item from a list
-n (--printConv) Read/write numerical tag values
-p FMTFILE (-printFormat) Print output in specified format
-php Export tags as a PHP Array
-s[NUM] (-short) Short output format
-S (-veryShort) Very short output format
-sep STR (-separator) Set separator string for list items
-sort Sort output alphabetically
-struct Enable output of structured information
-t (-tab) Output in tab-delimited list format
-T (-table) Output in tabular format
-v[NUM] (-verbose) Print verbose messages
-w[!] EXT (-textOut) Write (or overwrite!) output text files
-X (-xmlFormat) Use RDF/XML output format
Processing control
-a (-duplicates) Allow duplicate tags to be extracted
-e (--composite) Do not calculate composite tags
-ee (-extractEmbedded) Extract information from embedded files
-ext EXT (-extension) Process files with specified extension
-F[OFFSET] (-fixBase) Fix the base for maker notes offsets
-fast[NUM] Increase speed for slow devices
-fileOrder [-]TAG Set file processing order
-i DIR (-ignore) Ignore specified directory name
-if EXPR Conditionally process files
-m (-ignoreMinorErrors) Ignore minor errors and warnings
-o OUTFILE (-out) Set output file or directory name
-overwrite_original Overwrite original by renaming tmp file
-overwrite_original_in_place Overwrite original by copying tmp file
-P (-preserve) Preserve date/time of original file
-password PASSWD Password for processing protected files
-progress Show file progress count
-q (-quiet) Quiet processing
-r (-recurse) Recursively process subdirectories
-scanForXMP Brute force XMP scan
-u (-unknown) Extract unknown tags
-U (-unknown2) Extract unknown binary tags too
-wm MODE (-writeMode) Set tag write/create mode
-z (-zip) Read/write compressed information
Special features
-geotag TRKFILE Geotag images from specified GPS log
-globalTimeShift SHIFT Shift all formatted date/time values
-use MODULE Add features from plug-in module
Utilities
-delete_original[!] Delete "_original" backups
-restore_original Restore from "_original" backups
Other options
-@ ARGFILE Read command-line arguments from file
-k (-pause) Pause before terminating
-list[w|f|wf|g[NUM]|d|x] List various exiftool capabilities
-ver Print exiftool version number
Advanced options
-common_args Define common arguments
-config CFGFILE Specify configuration file name
-echo[NUM] TEXT Echo text to stdout or stderr
-execute[NUM] Execute multiple commands on one line
-srcfile FMT Set different source file name
-stay_open FLAG Keep reading -@ argfile even after EOF
Option Details
Tag operations
-*TAG*
Extract information for specified tag (ie. "-CreateDate"). A tag
name is the handle by which a piece of information is referenced.
See Image::ExifTool::TagNames for documentation on available tag
names. A tag name may include leading group names separated by
colons (ie. "-EXIF:CreateDate", or "-Doc1:XMP:Creator"), and each
group name may be prefixed by a digit to specify family number (ie.
"-1IPTC:City"). Use the -listg option to list available group names
by family.
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 (but beware that
unless the -a option is also used, some tags in the group may be
suppressed by same-named tags in other groups). The wildcard
characters "?" and "*" may be used in a tag name to match any
single character and zero or more characters respectively. These
may not be used in a group name, with the exception that a group
name of "*" (or "All") may be used to extract all instances of a
tag (as if -a was used). Note that arguments containing wildcards
must be quoted on the command line of most systems to prevent shell
globbing.
A "#" may be appended to the tag name to disable the print
conversion on a per-tag basis (see the -n option). This may also be
used when writing or copying tags.
If no tags are specified, all available information is extracted
(as if "-All" had been specified).
Note: Descriptions, not tag names, are shown by default when
extracting information. Use the -s option to see the tag names
instead.
--*TAG*
Exclude specified tag from extracted information. Same as the -x
option. May also be used following a -tagsFromFile option to
exclude tags from being copied, or to exclude groups from being
deleted when deleting all information (ie. "-all= --exif:all"
deletes all but EXIF information). But note that this will not
exclude individual tags from a group delete. Instead, individual
tags may be recovered using the -tagsFromFile option (ie. "-all=
-tagsfromfile @ -artist"). Wildcards are permitted as described
above for -TAG.
-*TAG*[+-]=[*VALUE*]
Write a new value for the specified tag (ie. "-comment=wow"), or
delete the tag if no *VALUE* is given (ie. "-comment="). "+=" and
"-=" are used to add or remove existing entries from a list, or to
shift date/time values (see Image::ExifTool::Shift.pl for details).
"+=" may also be used to increment numerical values, and "-=" may
be used to conditionally delete or replace a tag (see "WRITING
EXAMPLES" for examples).
*TAG* may contain a leading family 0 or 1 group name separated by a
colon. If no group name is specified, the tag is created in the
preferred group, and updated in any other location where a
same-named tag already exists. The preferred group is the first
group in the following list where *TAG* is valid: 1) EXIF, 2) IPTC,
3) XMP.
The wildcards "*" and "?" may be used in tag names to assign the
same value to multiple tags. When specified with wildcards,
"unsafe" tags are not written. A tag name of "All" is eqivalent to
"*" (except that it doesn't require quoting, while arguments with
wildcards do on systems with shell globbing), and is often used
when deleting all metadata (ie. "-All=") or an entire group (ie.
"-GROUP:All="). Note that not all groups are deletable, and that
the JPEG APP14 "Adobe" group is not removed by default with "-All="
because it may affect the appearance of the image. Use the -listd
option for a complete list of deletable groups. Also, within an
image some groups may be contained within others, and these groups
are removed if the containing group is deleted:
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.
Notes:
1) MakerNotes tags may be edited, but not created or deleted
individually. This avoids many potential problems including the
inevitable compatibility problems with OEM software which may be
very inflexible about the information it expects to find in the
maker notes.
2) Changes to PDF files are reversible because the original
information is never actually deleted from the file. So ExifTool
alone may not be used to securely edit metadata in PDF files.
Special feature: Integer values may be specified in hexadecimal
with a leading "0x", and simple rational values may be specified as
fractions.
-*TAG*<=*DATFILE* or -*TAG*<=*FMT*
Set the value of a tag from the contents of file *DATFILE*. The
file name may also be given by a *FMT* string where %d, %f and %e
represent the directory, file name and extension of the original
*FILE* (see the -w option for more details). Note that quotes are
required around this argument to prevent shell redirection since it
contains a "<" symbol. "+<=" or "-<=" may also be used to add or
delete specific list entries, or to shift date/time values.
-tagsFromFile *SRCFILE* or *FMT*
Copy tag values from *SRCFILE* to *FILE*. Tag names on the command
line after this option specify the tags to be copied, or excluded
from the copy. Wildcards are permitted in these tag names. If no
tags are specified, then all possible tags (see note 1 below) from
the source file are copied to same-named tags in the preferred
location of the output file (the same as specifying "-all"). More
than one -tagsFromFile option may be used to copy tags from
multiple files.
By default, this option will commute information between same-named
tags in different groups and write each tag to the preferred group.
This allows some information to be automatically translated when
copying between images of different formats. However, if a group
name is specified for a tag then the information is written to this
group (unless redirected to another group, see below). If "All" is
used as a group name, then the information is written to the same
family 1 group in the destination file. In this way, "-All:All" is
used to copy all information while preserving the family 1 group
(ie. the specific location in the metadata) of each tag.
*SRCFILE* may be the same as *FILE* to move information around
within a single file. In this case, "@" may be used to represent
the source file (ie. "-tagsFromFile @"), permitting this feature to
be used for batch processing multiple files. Specified tags are
then copied from each file in turn as it is rewritten. For advanced
batch use, the source file name may also be specified using a *FMT*
string in which %d, %f and %e represent the directory, file name
and extension of *FILE*. See -w option for *FMT* string examples.
A powerful redirection feature allows a destination tag to be
specified for each copied tag. With this feature, information may
be written to a tag with a different name or group. This is done
using "-*SRCTAG*>*DSTTAG*" or "-*DSTTAG*<*SRCTAG*" on the command
line after -tagsFromFile, and causes the value of *SRCTAG* to be
copied from *SRCFILE* and written to *DSTTAG* in *FILE*. Note that
this argument must be quoted to prevent shell redirection, and
there is no "=" sign as when assigning new values. Source and/or
destination tags may be prefixed by a group name and/or suffixed by
"#". Wildcards are allowed in both the source and destination tag
names. A destination group and/or tag name of "All" or "*" writes
to the same family 1 group and/or tag name as the source. If no
destination group is specified, the information is written to the
preferred group. Whitespace around the ">" or "<" is ignored. As a
convenience, "-tagsFromFile @" is assumed for any redirected tags
which are specified without a prior -tagsFromFile option. Copied
tags may also be added or deleted from a list with arguments of the
form "-*SRCTAG*+>*DSTTAG*" or "-*SRCTAG*->*DSTTAG*".
An extension of the redirection feature allows strings involving
tag names to be used on the right hand side of the "<" symbol with
the syntax "-*DSTTAG*<*STR*", where tag names in *STR* are prefixed
with a "$" symbol. See the -p option for more details about this
syntax. Strings starting with a "=" sign must insert a single space
after the "<" to avoid confusion with the "<=" operator which sets
the tag value from the contents of a file. A single space at the
start of the string is removed if it exists, but all other
whitespace in the string is preserved.
See "COPYING EXAMPLES" for examples using -tagsFromFile.
Notes:
1) Some tags (generally tags which may affect the appearance of the
image) are considered "unsafe" to write, and are only copied if
specified explicitly (ie. no wildcards). See the tag name
documentation for more details about "unsafe" tags.
2) Be aware of the difference between excluding a tag from being
copied (--*TAG*), and deleting a tag (-*TAG*=). Excluding a tag
prevents it from being copied to the destination image, but
deleting will remove a pre-existing tag from the image.
3) The maker note information is copied as a block, so it isn't
affected like other information by subsequent tag assignments on
the command line. Also, since the PreviewImage referenced from the
maker notes may be rather large, it is not copied, and must be
transferred separately if desired.
4) The order of operations is to copy all specified tags at the
point of the -tagsFromFile option in the command line. Any tag
assignment to the right of the -tagsFromFile option is made after
all tags are copied. For example, new tag values are set in the
order One, Two, Three then Four with this command:
exiftool -One=1 -tagsFromFile s.jpg -Two -Four=4 -Three d.jpg
This is significant in the case where an overlap exists between the
copied and assigned tags because later operations may override
earlier ones.
5) The normal behaviour of copied tags differs subtly from that of
assigned tags for list-type tags. When copying to a list, each
copied tag overrides any previous operations on the list. While
this avoids duplicate list items when copying groups of tags from a
file containing redundant information, it also prevents values of
different tags from being copied into the same list when this is
the intent. So a -addTagsFromFile option is provided which allows
copying of multiple tags into the same list. ie)
exiftool -addtagsfromfile @ "-subject<make" "-subject<model" ...
Other than this difference, the -tagsFromFile and -addTagsFromFile
options are equivalent.
6) The -a option (allow duplicate tags) is always in effect when
reading tags from *SRCFILE*.
7) Structured tags are copied by default when copying tags. See the
-struct option for details.
-x *TAG* (-exclude)
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
copied.
Input-output text formatting
Note that trailing spaces are removed from extracted values for most
output text formats. The exceptions are "-b", "-csv", "-j" and "-X".
-args (-argFormat)
Output information in the form of exiftool arguments, suitable for
use with the -@ option when writing. May be combined with the -G
option to include group names. This feature may be used to
effectively copy tags between images, but allows the metadata to be
altered by editing the intermediate file ("out.args" in this
example):
exiftool -args -G1 --filename --directory src.jpg > out.args
exiftool -@ out.args dst.jpg
Note: Be careful when copying information with this technique since
it is easy to write tags which are normally considered "unsafe".
For instance, the FileName and Directory tags are excluded in the
example above to avoid renaming and moving the destination file.
Also note that the second command above will produce warning
messages for any tags which are not writable.
-b (-binary)
Output requested metadata in binary format without tag names or
descriptions. This option is mainly used for extracting embedded
images or other binary data, but it may also be useful for some
text strings since control characters (such as newlines) are not
replaced by '.' as they are in the default output. List items are
separated by a newline when extracted with the -b option. May be
combined with "-php" or "-X" to extract binary data in PHP or XML
format.
-c *FMT* (-coordFormat)
Set the print format for GPS coordinates. *FMT* uses the same
syntax as the "printf" format string. The specifiers correspond to
degrees, minutes and seconds in that order, but minutes and seconds
are optional. For example, the following table gives the output for
the same coordinate using various formats:
FMT Output
------------------- ------------------
"%d deg %d' %.2f"\" 54 deg 59' 22.80" (default for reading)
"%d %d %.8f" 54 59 22.80000000 (default for copying)
"%d deg %.4f min" 54 deg 59.3800 min
"%.6f degrees" 54.989667 degrees
Notes:
1) To avoid loss of precision, the default coordinate format is
different when copying tags using the -tagsFromFile option.
2) If the hemisphere is known, a reference direction (N, S, E or W)
is appended to each printed coordinate, but adding a "+" to the
format specifier (ie. "%+.6f") prints a signed coordinate instead.
3) This print formatting may be disabled with the -n option to
extract coordinates as signed decimal degrees.
-charset [[*TYPE*=]*CHARSET*]
If *TYPE* is "ExifTool" or not specified, this option sets the
ExifTool character encoding for output tag values when reading and
input values when writing. The default ExifTool encoding is "UTF8".
If no *CHARSET* is given, a list of available character sets is
returned. Valid *CHARSET* values are:
CHARSET Alias(es) Description
---------- --------------- ----------------------------------
UTF8 cp65001, UTF-8 UTF-8 characters (default)
Latin cp1252, Latin1 Windows Latin1 (West European)
Latin2 cp1250 Windows Latin2 (Central European)
Cyrillic cp1251, Russian Windows Cyrillic
Greek cp1253 Windows Greek
Turkish cp1254 Windows Turkish
Hebrew cp1255 Windows Hebrew
Arabic cp1256 Windows Arabic
Baltic cp1257 Windows Baltic
Vietnam cp1258 Windows Vietnamese
Thai cp874 Windows Thai
MacRoman cp10000, Roman Macintosh Roman
MacLatin2 cp10029 Macintosh Latin2 (Central Europe)
MacCyrillic cp10007 Macintosh Cyrillic
MacGreek cp10006 Macintosh Greek
MacTurkish cp10081 Macintosh Turkish
MacRomanian cp10010 Macintosh Romanian
MacIceland cp10079 Macintosh Icelandic
MacCroatian cp10082 Macintosh Croatian
Other values of *TYPE* listed below are used to specify the
internal encoding of various meta information formats.
TYPE Description Default
--------- ------------------------------------------- -------
EXIF Internal encoding of EXIF "ASCII" strings (none)
ID3 Internal encoding of ID3v1 information Latin
IPTC Internal IPTC encoding to assume when Latin
IPTC:CodedCharacterSet is not defined
Photoshop Internal encoding of Photoshop IRB strings Latin
QuickTime Internal encoding of QuickTime strings MacRoman
See <http://owl.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/faq.html#Q10> for
more information about coded character sets.
-csv[=*CSVFILE*]
Export information in as a CSV file, or import information if
*CSVFILE* is specified. When importing, the CSV file must be in
exactly the same format as the exported file. The first row of the
*CSVFILE* must be the ExifTool tag names (with optional group
names) for each column of the file, and values must be separated by
commas. A special "SourceFile" column specifies the files
associated with each row of information (a SourceFile of "*" may be
used to apply the information to all target images). The following
examples demonstrate basic use of this option:
# generate CSV file with common tags from all images in a directory
exiftool -common -csv dir > out.csv
# update metadata for all images in a directory from CSV file
exiftool -csv=a.csv dir
Empty values are ignored when importing. To force a tag to be
deleted, use the -f option and set the value to "-" in the CSV
file. May be combined with the -g or -G option to add group names
to the tags. Note that list-type tags are stored as simple strings
in a CSV file, but the -sep option may be used to split them back
into separate items when importing.
Special feature: -csv+=*CSVFILE* may be used to add items to
existing lists. This affects only list-type tags. Also applies to
the -j option.
Note that this option is fundamentally different than all other
output format options because it requires information from all
input files to be buffered in memory before the output is written.
This may result in excessive memory usage when processing a very
large number of files with a single command.
-d *FMT* (-dateFormat)
Set the format for date/time tag values. The specifics of the *FMT*
syntax are system dependent -- consult the "strftime" man page on
your system for details. The default format is equivalent to
"%Y:%m:%d %H:%M:%S". This option has no effect on date-only or
time-only tags and ignores timezone information if present. Only
one -d option may be used per command. The inverse operation (ie.
un-formatting a date/time value) is currently not applied when
writing a date/time tag.
-D (-decimal)
Show tag ID number in decimal when extracting information.
-E, -ex (-escapeHTML, -escapeXML)
Escape characters in output values for HTML (-E) or XML (-ex). For
HTML, all characters with Unicode code points above U+007F are
escaped as well as the following 5 characters: & (&amp;) ' (&#39;)
" (&quot;) > (&gt;) and < (&lt;). For XML, only these 5 characters
are escaped. The -E option is implied with -h, and -ex is implied
with -X. The inverse conversion is applied when writing tags.
-f (-forcePrint)
Force printing of tags even if their values are not found. This
option only applies when tag names are specified. With this option,
a dash ("-") is printed for the value of any missing tag. May also
be used to add a 'flags' attribute to the -listx output, or to
allow tags to be deleted when writing with the -csv=*CSVFILE*
feature.
-g[*NUM*][:*NUM*...] (-groupHeadings)
Organize output by tag group. *NUM* specifies a group family
number, and may be 0 (general location), 1 (specific location), 2
(category), 3 (document number) or 4 (instance number). Multiple
families may be specified by separating them with colons. By
default the resulting group name is simplified by removing any
leading "Main:" and collapsing adjacent identical group names, but
this can be avoided by placing a colon before the first family
number (ie. -g:3:1). If *NUM* is not specified, -g0 is assumed. Use
the -listg option to list group names for a specified family.
-G[*NUM*][:*NUM*...] (-groupNames)
Same as -g but print group name for each tag.
-h (-htmlFormat)
Use HTML table formatting for output. Implies the -E option. The
formatting options -D, -H, -g, -G, -l and -s may be used in
combination with -h to influence the HTML format.
-H (-hex)
Show tag ID number in hexadecimal when extracting information.
-htmlDump[*OFFSET*]
Generate a dynamic web page containing a hex dump of the EXIF
information. This can be a very powerful tool for low-level
analysis of EXIF information. The -htmlDump option is also invoked
if the -v and -h options are used together. The verbose level
controls the maximum length of the blocks dumped. An *OFFSET* may
be given to specify the base for displayed offsets. If not
provided, the EXIF/TIFF base offset is used. Use -htmlDump0 for
absolute offsets. Currently only EXIF/TIFF and JPEG information is
dumped, but the -u option can be used to give a raw hex dump of
other file formats.
-j[=*JSONFILE*] (-json)
Use JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) formatting for console
output, or import JSON file if *JSONFILE* is specified. This option
may be combined with -g to organize the output into objects by
group, or -G to add group names to each tag. List-type tags with
multiple items are output as JSON arrays unless -sep is used. By
default XMP structures are flattened into individual tags in the
JSON output, but the original structure may be preserved with the
-struct option (this also causes all list-type XMP tags to be
output as JSON arrays, otherwise single-item lists are output as
simple strings). The -a option is implied if the -g or -G options
are used, otherwise it is ignored and duplicate tags are
suppressed. The -b, -L and -charset options have no effect on the
JSON output.
If *JSONFILE* is specified, the file is imported and the tag
definitions from the file are used to set tag values on a per-file
basis. The special "SourceFile" entry in each JSON object
associates the information with a specific target file (see the
-csv option for details). The imported JSON file must have the same
format as the exported JSON files with the exception that the -g
option is not compatible with the import file format (use -G
instead). Additionally, tag names in the input JSON file may be
suffixed with a "#" to disable print conversion.
-l (-long)
Use long 2-line Canon-style output format. Adds a description and
unconverted value to the XML output when -X is used.
-L (-latin)
Use Windows Latin1 encoding (cp1252) for output tag values instead
of the default UTF-8. When writing, -L specifies that input text
values are Latin1 instead of UTF-8. Equivalent to "-charset latin".
-lang [*LANG*]
Set current language for tag descriptions and converted values.
*LANG* is "de", "fr", "ja", etc. Use -lang with no other arguments
to get a list of available languages. The default language is "en"
if -lang is not specified. Note that tag/group names are always
English, independent of the -lang setting, and translation of
warning/error messages has not yet been implemented.
By default, ExifTool uses UTF-8 encoding for special characters,
but the the -L or -charset option may be used to invoke other
encodings.
Currently, the language support is not complete, but users are
welcome to help improve this by submitting their own translations.
To submit a set of translations, first use the -listx option and
redirect the output to a file to generate an XML tag database, then
add entries for other languages, zip this file, and email it to
phil at owl.phy.queensu.ca for inclusion in ExifTool.
-listItem *INDEX*
For list-type tags, this causes only the item with the specified
index to be extracted. *INDEX* is 0 for the first item in the list.
Has no effect when writing or copying tags, in a -if condition, or
in combination with structured output options.
-n (--printConv)
Read and write values as numbers instead of words. By default,
extracted values are converted to a more human-readable format for
printing, but the -n option disables this print conversion for all
tags. For example:
> exiftool -Orientation -S a.jpg
Orientation: Rotate 90 CW
> exiftool -Orientation -S -n a.jpg
Orientation: 6
The print conversion may also be disabled on a per-tag basis by
suffixing the tag name with a "#" character:
> exiftool -Orientation# -Orientation -S a.jpg
Orientation: 6
Orientation: Rotate 90 CW
These techniques may also be used to disable the inverse print
conversion when writing. For example, the following commands all
have the same effect:
> exiftool -Orientation='Rotate 90 CW' a.jpg
> exiftool -Orientation=6 -n a.jpg
> exiftool -Orientation#=6 a.jpg
-p *FMTFILE* or *STR* (-printFormat)
Print output in the format specified by the given file or string
(and ignore other format options). Tag names in the format file or
string begin with a "$" symbol and may contain a leading group name
and/or a trailing "#". Case is not significant. Braces "{}" may be
used around the tag name to separate it from subsequent text. Use
$$ to represent a "$" symbol, and $/ for a newline. Multiple -p
options may be used, each contributing a line of text to the
output. Lines beginning with "#[HEAD]" and "#[TAIL]" are output
only for the first and last processed files respectively. Lines
beginning with "#[BODY]" and lines not beginning with "#" are
output for each processed file. Other lines beginning with "#" are
ignored. For example, this format file:
# this is a comment line
#[HEAD]-- Generated by ExifTool $exifToolVersion --
File: $FileName - $DateTimeOriginal
(f/$Aperture, ${ShutterSpeed}s, ISO $EXIF:ISO)
#[TAIL]-- end --
with this command:
exiftool -p test.fmt a.jpg b.jpg
produces output like this:
-- Generated by ExifTool 9.18 --
File: a.jpg - 2003:10:31 15:44:19
(f/5.6, 1/60s, ISO 100)
File: b.jpg - 2006:05:23 11:57:38
(f/8.0, 1/13s, ISO 100)
-- end --
When -ee (-extractEmbedded) is combined with -p, embedded documents
are effectively processed as separate input files.
If a specified tag does not exist, a minor warning is issued and
the line with the missing tag is not printed. However, the -f
option may be used to set the value of missing tags to '-', or the
-m option may be used to ignore minor warnings and leave the
missing values empty.
An advanced formatting feature allows an arbitrary Perl expression
to be applied to the value of any tag by placing it inside the
braces after a semicolon following the tag name. The expression has
access to the value of this tag through the default input variable
($_), and the full API through the current ExifTool object ($self).
It may contain any valid Perl code, including translation ("tr///")
and substitution ("s///") operations. Braces within the expression
must be balanced. The example below prints the camera Make with
spaces translated to underlines, and multiple consecutive
underlines replaced by a single underline:
exiftool -p "${make;tr/ /_/;s/__+/_/g}" image.jpg
A default expression of "tr(/\\?*:|"<>)()d" is assumed if the
expression is empty, and removes the characters / \ ? * : | < and >
from the printed value.
-php Format output as a PHP Array. The -g, -G, -sep and -struct options
combine with -php in the same way as with -json. As well, the -b
option may be added to output binary data. Here is a simple example
showing how this could be used in a PHP script:
<?php
eval('$array=' . `exiftool -php -q image.jpg`);
print_r($array);
?>
-s[*NUM*] (-short)
Short output format. Prints tag names instead of descriptions. Add
*NUM* or up to 3 -s options for even shorter formats:
-s1 or -s - print tag names instead of descriptions
-s2 or -s -s - no extra spaces to column-align values
-s3 or -s -s -s - print values only (no tag names)
Also effective when combined with -t, -h, -X or -listx options.
-S (-veryShort)
Very short format. The same as -s2 (or two -s options). Tag names
are printed instead of descriptions, and no extra spaces are added
to column-align values.
-sep *STR* (-separator)
Specify separator string for items in list-type tags. When reading,
the default is to join list items with ", ". When writing, this
option causes values assigned to list-type tags to be split into
individual items at each substring matching *STR* (otherwise they
are not split by default). Space characters in *STR* match zero or
more whitespace characters in the value.
-sort
Sort output by tag description, or by tag name if the -s option is
used. Tags are sorted within each group when combined with the -g
or -G option. When sorting by description, the sort order will
depend on the -lang option setting. Without the -sort option, tags
appear in the order they were specified on the command line, or if
not specified, the order they were extracted from the file.
-struct, --struct
Output structured XMP information instead of flattening to
individual tags. This option works well when combined with the XML
(-X) and JSON (-j) output formats. For other output formats, the
structures are serialized into the same format as when writing
structured information (see
<http://owl.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/struct.html> for
details). When copying, structured tags are copied by default
unless --struct is used to disable this feature (although flattened
tags may still be copied by specifying them individually unless
-struct is used). These options have no effect when assigning new
values since both flattened and structured tags may always be used
when writing.
-t (-tab)
Output a tab-delimited list of description/values (useful for
database import). May be combined with -s to print tag names
instead of descriptions, or -S to print tag values only,
tab-delimited on a single line. The -t option may also be used to
add tag table information to the -X option output.
-T (-table)
Output tag values in table form. Equivalent to -t -S -q -f.
-v[*NUM*] (-verbose)
Print verbose messages. *NUM* specifies the level of verbosity in
the range 0-5, with higher numbers being more verbose. If *NUM* is
not given, then each -v option increases the level of verbosity by
1. With any level greater than 0, most other options are ignored
and normal console output is suppressed unless specific tags are
extracted. Using -v0 causes the console output buffer to be flushed
after each line (which may be useful to avoid delays when piping
exiftool output), and prints the name of each processed file when
writing. Also see the -progress option.
-w[!] *EXT* or *FMT* (-textOut)
Write console output to files with names ending in *EXT*, one for
each source file. The output file name is obtained by replacing the
source file extension (including the '.') with the specified
extension (and a '.' is added to the start of *EXT* if it doesn't
already contain one). Alternatively, a *FMT* string may be used to
give more control over the output file name and directory. In the
format string, %d, %f and %e represent the directory, filename and
extension of the source file, and %c represents a copy number which
is automatically incremented if the file already exists. %d
includes the trailing '/' if necessary, but %e does not include the
leading '.'. For example:
-w %d%f.txt # same effect as "-w txt"
-w dir/%f_%e.out # write files to "dir" as "FILE_EXT.out"
-w dir2/%d%f.txt # write to "dir2", keeping dir structure
-w a%c.txt # write to "a.txt" or "a1.txt" or "a2.txt"...
Existing files will not be overwritten unless an exclamation point
is added to the option name (ie. -w! or -textOut!). Output
directories are created automatically if necessary.
Notes:
1) In a Windows BAT file the "%" character is represented by "%%",
so an argument like "%d%f.txt" is written as "%%d%%f.txt".
2) It is not possible to specify a simple filename as an argument
for -w. Instead, this simple case is accomplished using shell
redirection:
exiftool FILE > out.txt
Advanced features:
A substring of the original file name, directory or extension may
be taken by specifying a field width immediately following the '%'
character. If the width is negative, the substring is taken from
the end. The substring position (characters to ignore at the start
or end of the string) may be given by a second optional value after
a decimal point. For example:
Input File Name Format Specifier Output File Name
---------------- ---------------- ----------------
Picture-123.jpg %7f.txt Picture.txt
Picture-123.jpg %-.4f.out Picture.out
Picture-123.jpg %7f.%-3f Picture.123
Picture-123a.jpg Meta%-3.1f.txt Meta123.txt
For %d, the field width/position specifiers may be applied to the
directory levels instead of substring position by using a colon
instead of a decimal point in the format specifier. For example:
Source Dir Format Result Notes
------------ ------ ---------- ------------------
pics/2012/02 %2:d pics/2012/ take top 2 levels
pics/2012/02 %-:1d pics/2012/ up one directory level
pics/2012/02 %:1d 2012/02/ ignore top level
pics/2012/02 %1:1d 2012/ take 1 level after top
/Users/phil %:2d phil/ ignore top 2 levels
(Note that the root directory counts as one level when an absolute
path is used as in the last example above.)
For %c, these modifiers have a different effects. If a field width
is given, the copy number is padded with zeros to the specified
width. A leading '-' adds a dash before the copy number, and a '+'
adds an underline. By default, a copy number of zero is omitted,
but this can be changed by adding a decimal point to the modifier.
For example:
-w A%-cZ.txt # AZ.txt, A-1Z.txt, A-2Z.txt ...
-w B%5c.txt # B.txt, B00001.txt, B00002.txt ...
-w C%.c.txt # C0.txt, C1.txt, C2.txt ...
-w D%-.c.txt # D-0.txt, D-1.txt, D-2.txt ...
-w E%-.4c.txt # E-0000.txt, E-0001.txt, E-0002.txt ...
-w F%-.4nc.txt # F-0001.txt, F-0002.txt, F-0003.txt ...
-w G%+c.txt # G.txt, G_1.txt G_2.txt ...
-w H%-lc.txt # H.txt, H-b.txt, H-c.txt ...
A special feature allows the copy number to be incremented for each
processed file by using %C (upper case) instead of %c. This allows
a sequential number to be added to output file names, even if the
names are different. For %C, a copy number of zero is not omitted
as it is with %c. The number before the decimal place gives the
starting index, the number after the decimal place gives the field
width. The following examples show the output filenames when used
with the command "exiftool rose.jpg star.jpg jet.jpg ...":
-w %C%f.txt # 0rose.txt, 1star.txt, 2jet.txt
-w %f-%10C.txt # rose-10.txt, star-11.txt, jet-12.txt
-w %.3C-%f.txt # 000-rose.txt, 001-star.txt, 002-jet.txt
-w %57.4C%f.txt # 0057rose.txt, 0058star.txt, 0059jet.txt
All format codes may be modified by 'l' or 'u' to specify lower or
upper case respectively (ie. %le for a lower case file extension).
When used to modify %c or %C, the numbers are changed to an
alphabetical base (see example H above). Also, %c may be modified
by 'n' to count using natural numbers starting from 1, instead of 0
(see example F above).
This same *FMT* syntax is used with the -o and -tagsFromFile
options, although %c is only valid for output file names.
-X (-xmlFormat)
Use ExifTool-specific RDF/XML formatting for console output.
Implies the -a option, so duplicate tags are extracted. The
formatting options -b, -D, -H, -l, -s, -sep, -struct and -t may be
used in combination with -X to affect the output, but note that the
tag ID (-D, -H and -t), binary data (-b) and structured output
(-struct) options are not effective for the short output (-s).
Another restriction of -s is that only one tag with a given group
and name may appear in the output. Note that the tag ID options
(-D, -H and -t) will produce non-standard RDF/XML unless the -l
option is also used. By default, list-type tags with multiple
values are formatted as an RDF Bag, but they are combined into a
single string when -s or -sep is used. Using -L changes the XML
encoding from "UTF-8" to "windows-1252". Other -charset settings
change the encoding only if there is a corresponding standard XML
character set. The -b option causes binary data values to be
written, encoded in base64 if necessary. The -t option adds tag
table information to the output (table "name", decimal tag "id",
and "index" for cases where multiple conditional tags exist with
the same ID).
Note: This output is NOT the same as XMP because it uses
dynamically-generated property names corresponding to the ExifTool
tag names, and not the standard XMP properties. To write XMP
instead, use the -o option with an XMP extension for the output
file.
Processing control
-a, --a (-duplicates, --duplicates)
Allow (-a) or suppress (--a) duplicate tag names to be extracted.
By default, duplicate tags are suppressed unless the -ee or -X
options are used or the Duplicates option is enabled in the
configuration file.
-e (--composite)
Extract existing tags only -- don't calculate composite tags.
-ee (-extractEmbedded)
Extract information from embedded documents in EPS and PDF files,
embedded MPF images in JPEG and MPO files, streaming metadata in
AVCHD videos, and the resource fork of Mac OS files. Implies the -a
option. Use -g3 or -G3 to identify the originating document for
extracted information. Embedded documents containing sub-documents
are indicated with dashes in the family 3 group name. (ie. "Doc2-3"
is the 3rd sub-document of the 2nd embedded document.)
-ext *EXT*, --ext *EXT* (-extension)
Process only files with (-ext) or without (--ext) a specified
extension. There may be multiple -ext and --ext options. Extensions
may begin with a leading '.', and case is not significant. For
example:
exiftool -ext .JPG DIR # process only JPG files
exiftool --ext cr2 --ext dng DIR # supported files but CR2/DNG
exiftool --ext . DIR # ignore if no extension
exiftool -ext "*" DIR # process all files
exiftool -ext "*" --ext xml DIR # process all but XML files
The extension may be "*" as in the last two examples above to force
processing files with any extension (not just supported files).
Using this option has two main advantages over specifying "*.*EXT*"
on the command line: 1) It applies to files in subdirectories when
combined with the -r option. 2) The -ext option is
case-insensitive, which is useful when processing files on
case-sensitive filesystems.
-F[*OFFSET*] (-fixBase)
Fix the base for maker notes offsets. A common problem with some
image editors is that offsets in the maker notes are not adjusted
properly when the file is modified. This may cause the wrong values
to be extracted for some maker note entries when reading the edited
file. This option allows an integer *OFFSET* to be specified for
adjusting the maker notes base offset. If no *OFFSET* is given,
ExifTool takes its best guess at the correct base. Note that
exiftool will automatically fix the offsets for images which store
original offset information (ie. newer Canon models). Offsets are
fixed permanently if -F is used when writing EXIF to an image. ie)
exiftool -F -exif:resolutionunit=inches image.jpg
-fast[*NUM*]
Increase speed of extracting information from JPEG images. With
this option, ExifTool will not scan to the end of a JPEG image to
check for an AFCP or PreviewImage trailer, or past the first
comment in GIF images or the audio/video data in WAV/AVI files to
search for additional metadata. These speed benefits are small when
reading images directly from disk, but can be substantial if piping
images through a network connection. For more substantial speed
benefits, -fast2 also causes exiftool to avoid extracting any EXIF
MakerNote information.
-fileOrder [-]*TAG*
Set file processing order according to the sorted value of the
specified *TAG*. For example, to process files in order of date:
exiftool -fileOrder DateTimeOriginal DIR
Additional -fileOrder options may be added for secondary sort keys.
Floating point values are sorted numerically, and all other values
are sorted alphabetically. The sort order may be reversed by
prefixing the tag name with a "-" (ie. "-fileOrder -createdate"). A
"#" may be appended to the tag name to disable print conversion for
the sorted values. Note that the -fileOrder option has a large
performance impact since it involves an additional processing pass
of each file.
-i *DIR* (-ignore)
Ignore specified directory name. Use multiple -i options to ignore
more than one directory name. A special *DIR* value of "SYMLINKS"
(case sensitive) may be specified to ignore symbolic links when the
-r option is used.
-if *EXPR*
Specify a condition to be evaluated before processing each *FILE*.
*EXPR* is a Perl-like expression containing tag names prefixed by
"$" symbols. It is evaluated with the tags from each *FILE* in
turn, and the file is processed only if the expression returns
true. Unlike Perl variable names, tag names are not case sensitive
and may contain a hyphen. As well, tag names may have a leading
group name separated by a colon, and/or a trailing "#" character to
disable print conversion. The expression $GROUP:all evaluates to 1
if any tag exists in the specified "GROUP", or 0 otherwise (see
note 2 below). When multiple -if options are used, all conditions
must be satisfied to process the file. Returns an exit status of 1
if all files fail the condition. Below are a few examples:
# extract shutterspeed from all Canon images in a directory
exiftool -shutterspeed -if "$make eq 'Canon'" dir
# add one hour to all images created on or after Apr. 2, 2006
exiftool -alldates+=1 -if "$CreateDate ge '2006:04:02'" dir
# set EXIF ISO value if possible, unless it is set already
exiftool "-exif:iso<iso" -if "not $exif:iso" dir
# find images containing a specific keyword (case insensitive)
exiftool -if "$keywords =~ /harvey/i" -filename dir
Notes:
1) The -n and -b options also apply to tags used in *EXPR*.
2) Some binary data blocks are not extracted unless specified
explicitly. These tags are not available for use in the -if
condition unless they are also specified on the command line. The
alternative is to use the $GROUP:all syntax. (ie. Use $exif:all
instead of $exif in *EXPR* to test for the existence of EXIF tags.)
3) Tags in the string are interpolated the same way as with -p
before the expression is evaluated. In this interpolation, $/ is
converted to a newline and $$ represents a single "$" symbol (so
Perl variables, if used, require a double "$").
-m (-ignoreMinorErrors)
Ignore minor errors and warnings. This enables writing to files
with minor errors and disables some validation checks which could
result in minor warnings. Generally, minor errors/warnings indicate
a problem which usually won't result in loss of metadata if
ignored. However, there are exceptions, so ExifTool leaves it up to
you to make the final decision. Minor errors and warnings are
indicated by "[minor]" at the start of the message. Warnings which
affect processing when ignored are indicated by "[Minor]" (with a
capital "M").
-o *OUTFILE* or *FMT* (-out)
Set the output file or directory name when writing information.
Without this option, when any "real" tags are written the original
file is renamed to "FILE_original" and output is written to *FILE*.
When writing only FileName and/or Directory "pseudo" tags, -o
causes the file to be copied instead of moved, but directories
specified for either of these tags take precedence over that
specified by the -o option.
*OUTFILE* may be "-" to write to stdout. The output file name may
also be specified using a *FMT* string in which %d, %f and %e
represent the directory, file name and extension of *FILE*. Also,
%c may be used to add a copy number. See the -w option for *FMT*
string examples.
The output file is taken to be a directory name if it already
exists as a directory or if the name ends with '/'. Output
directories are created if necessary. Existing files will not be
overwritten. Combining the -overwrite_original option with -o
causes the original source file to be erased after the output file
is successfully written.
A special feature of this option allows the creation of certain
types of files from scratch, or with the metadata from another type
of file. The following file types may be created using this
technique:
XMP, ICC/ICM, MIE, VRD, EXIF
The output file type is determined by the extension of *OUTFILE*
(specified as "-.EXT" when writing to stdout). The output file is
then created from a combination of information in *FILE* (as if the
-tagsFromFile option was used), and tag values assigned on the
command line. If no *FILE* is specified, the output file may be
created from scratch using only tags assigned on the command line.
-overwrite_original
Overwrite the original *FILE* (instead of preserving it by adding
"_original" to the file name) when writing information to an image.
Caution: This option should only be used if you already have
separate backup copies of your image files. The overwrite is
implemented by renaming a temporary file to replace the original.
This deletes the original file and replaces it with the edited
version in a single operation. When combined with -o, this option
causes the original file to be deleted if the output file was
successfully written.
-overwrite_original_in_place
Similar to -overwrite_original except that an extra step is added
to allow the original file attributes to be preserved. For example,
on a Mac this causes the original file creation date, type,
creator, label color, icon and hard links to the file to be
preserved (but note that the Mac OS resource fork is always
preserved unless specifically deleted with "-rsrc:all="). This is
implemented by opening the original file in update mode and
replacing its data with a copy of a temporary file before deleting
the temporary. The extra step results in slower performance, so the
-overwrite_original option should be used instead unless necessary.
-P (-preserve)
Preserve the filesystem modification date/time of the original file
("FileModifyDate") when writing. Note that some filesystems store a
creation date which is not preserved by this option, with the
exception of Windows systems where Win32API::File::Time is
available. For other systems, the -overwrite_original_in_place
option may be used if necessary to preserve the creation date.
-password *PASSWD*
Specify password to allow processing of password-protected PDF
documents. If a password is required but not given, a warning is
issued and the document is not processed. Ignored if a password is
not required.
-progress
Show file progress count in messages. The progress count appears in
brackets after then name of each processed file, and gives the
current file number and the total number of files to be processed.
Implies the -v0 option, which prints the name of each processed
file when writing. When combined with the [tt]-if[/tt] option, the
total count includes all files before the condition is applied.
-q (-quiet)
Quiet processing. One -q suppresses normal informational messages,
and a second -q suppresses warnings as well. Error messages can not
be suppressed, although minor errors may be downgraded to warnings
with the -m option.
-r (-recurse)
Recursively process files in subdirectories. Only meaningful if
*FILE* is a directory name. By default, exiftool will also follow
symbolic links to directories if supported by the system, but this
may be disabled with "-i SYMLINKS" (see the -i option for details).
-scanForXMP
Scan all files (even unsupported formats) for XMP information
unless found already. When combined with the -fast option, only
unsupported file types are scanned. Warning: It can be time
consuming to scan large files.
-u (-unknown)
Extract values of unknown tags. Add another -u to also extract
unknown information from binary data blocks. This option applies to
tags with numerical tag ID's, and causes tag names like
"Exif_0xc5d9" to be generated for unknown information. It has no
effect on information types which have human-readable tag ID's
(such as XMP), since unknown tags are extracted automatically from
these formats.
-U (-unknown2)
Extract values of unknown tags as well as unknown information from
some binary data blocks. This is the same as two -u options.
-wm *MODE* (-writeMode)
Set mode for writing/creating tags. *MODE* is a string of one or
more characters from the list below. Write mode is "wcg" unless
otherwise specified.
w - Write existing tags
c - Create new tags
g - create new Groups as necessary
-z (-zip)
When reading, causes information to be extracted from .gz and .bz2
compressed images. (Only one image per archive. Requires gzip and
bzip2 to be installed on the system.) When writing, causes
compressed information to be written if supported by the image
format. (ie. The PNG format supports compressed text.) This option
also disables the recommended padding in embedded XMP, saving 2424
bytes when writing XMP in a file.
Special features
-geotag *TRKFILE*
Geotag images from the specified GPS track log file. Using the
-geotag option is equivalent to writing a value to the "Geotag"
tag. After the -geotag option has been specified, the value of the
"Geotime" tag is written to define a date/time for the position
interpolation. If "Geotime" is not specified, the value is copied
from "DateTimeOriginal". For example, the following two commands
are equivalent:
exiftool -geotag track.log image.jpg
exiftool -geotag "-Geotime<DateTimeOriginal" image.jpg
When the "Geotime" value is converted to UTC, the local system
timezone is assumed unless the date/time value contains a timezone.
Writing "Geotime" causes the following tags to be written (provided
they can be calculated from the track log, and they are supported
by the destination metadata format): GPSLatitude, GPSLatitudeRef,
GPSLongitude, GPSLongitudeRef, GPSAltitude, GPSAltitudeRef,
GPSDateStamp, GPSTimeStamp, GPSDateTime, GPSTrack, GPSTrackRef,
GPSSpeed, GPSSpeedRef, GPSImgDirection, GPSImgDirectionRef,
GPSPitch and GPSRoll. By default, tags are created in EXIF, and
updated in XMP only if they already exist. However, "EXIF:Geotime"
or "XMP:Geotime" may be specified to write only EXIF or XMP tags
respectively. Note that GPSPitch and GPSRoll are non-standard, and
require user-defined tags in order to be written.
The "Geosync" tag may be used to specify a time correction which is
applied to each "Geotime" value for synchronization with GPS time.
For example, the following command compensates for image times
which are 1 minute and 20 seconds behind GPS:
exiftool -geosync=+1:20 -geotag a.log DIR
"Geosync" must be set before "Geotime" (if specified) to be
effective. Advanced "Geosync" features allow a linear time drift
correction and synchronization from previously geotagged images.
See "geotag.html" in the full ExifTool distribution for more
information.
Multiple -geotag options may be used to concatinate GPS track log
data. Also, a single -geotag option may be used to load multiple
track log files by using wildcards in the *TRKFILE* name, but note
that in this case *TRKFILE* must be quoted on most systems (with
the notable exception of Windows) to prevent filename expansion.
For example:
exiftool -geotag "TRACKDIR/*.log" IMAGEDIR
Currently supported track file formats are GPX, NMEA RMC/GGA/GLL,
KML, IGC, Garmin XML and TCX, Magellan PMGNTRK, Honeywell PTNTHPR,
and Winplus Beacon text files. See "GEOTAGGING EXAMPLES" for
examples. Also see "geotag.html" in the full ExifTool distribution
and the Image::ExifTool Options for more details and for
information about geotag configuration options.
-globalTimeShift *SHIFT*
Shift all formatted date/time values by the specified amount when
reading. Does not apply to unformatted (-n) output. *SHIFT* takes
the same form as the date/time shift when writing (see
Image::ExifTool::Shift.pl for details), with a negative shift being
indicated with a minus sign ("-") at the start of the *SHIFT*
string. For example:
# return all date/times, shifted back by 1 hour
exiftool -globalTimeShift -1 -time:all a.jpg
# set the file name from the shifted CreateDate (-1 day) for
# all images in a directory
exiftool "-filename<createdate" -globaltimeshift "-0:0:1 0:0:0" \
-d %Y%m%d-%H%M%S.%%e dir
-use *MODULE*
Add features from specified plug-in *MODULE*. Currently, the MWG
module is the only plug-in module distributed with exiftool. This
module adds read/write support for tags as recommended by the
Metadata Working Group. To save typing, "-use MWG" is assumed if
the "MWG" group is specified for any tag on the command line. See
the MWG Tags documentation for more details. (Note that this option
is not reversible, and remains in effect until the application
terminates, even across the "-execute" option.)
Utilities
-restore_original
-delete_original[!]
These utility options automate the maintenance of the "_original"
files created by exiftool. They have no effect on files without an
"_original" copy. The -restore_original option restores the
specified files from their original copies by renaming the
"_original" files to replace the edited versions. For example, the
following command restores the originals of all JPG images in
directory "DIR":
exiftool -restore_original -ext jpg DIR
The -delete_original option deletes the "_original" copies of all
files specified on the command line. Without a trailing "!" this
option prompts for confirmation before continuing. For example, the
following command deletes "a.jpg_original" if it exists, after
asking "Are you sure?":
exiftool -delete_original a.jpg
These options may not be used with other options to read or write
tag values in the same command, but may be combined with options
such -ext, -if, -r, -q and -v.
Other options
-@ *ARGFILE*
Read command-line arguments from the specified file. The file
contains one argument per line (NOT one option per line -- some
options require additional arguments, and all arguments must be
placed on separate lines). Blank lines and lines beginning with "#"
and are ignored. Normal shell processing of arguments is not
performed, which among other things means that arguments should not
be quoted and spaces are treated as any other character. *ARGFILE*
may exist relative to either the current directory or the exiftool
directory unless an absolute pathname is given.
For example, the following *ARGFILE* will set the value of
Copyright to "Copyright YYYY, Phil Harvey", where "YYYY" is the
year of CreateDate:
-d
%Y
-copyright<Copyright $createdate, Phil Harvey
-k (-pause)
Pause with the message "-- press any key --" before terminating.
This option is used to prevent the command window from closing when
run as a Windows drag and drop application.
-list, -listw, -listf, -listr, -listwf, -listg[*NUM*], -listd, -listx
Print a list of all valid tag names (-list), all writable tag names
(-listw), all supported file extensions (-listff), all recognized
file extensions (-listr), all writable file extensions (-listwf),
all tag groups [in a specified family] (-listg[*NUM*]), all
deletable tag groups (-listd), or an XML database of tag details
including language translations (-listx). The -list, -listw and
-listx options may be followed by an additional argument of the
form "-GROUP:All" to list only tags in a specific group, where
"GROUP" is one or more family 0-2 group names (excepting EXIF IFD
groups) separated by colons. With -listg, *NUM* may be given to
specify the group family, otherwise family 0 is assumed. Here are
some examples:
-list # list all tag names
-list -EXIF:All # list all EXIF tags
-list -xmp:time:all # list all XMP tags relating to time
-listw -XMP-dc:All # list all writable XMP-dc tags
-listf # list all supported file extensions
-listr # list all recognized file extensions
-listwf # list all writable file extensions
-listg1 # list all groups in family 1
-listd # list all deletable groups
-listx -EXIF:All # list database of EXIF tags in XML format
-listx -XMP:All -s # list short XML database of XMP tags
When combined with -listx, the -s option shortens the output by
omitting the descriptions and values (as in the last example
above), and -f adds a 'flags' attribute if applicable. The flags
are formatted as a comma-separated list of the following possible
values: Avoid, Binary, List, Mandatory, Permanent, Protected,
Unknown and Unsafe (see the Tag Name documentation). For XMP List
tags, the list type (Alt, Bag or Seq) is added to the flags, and
flattened structure tags are indicated by a Flattened flag.
Note that none of the -list options require an input *FILE*.
-ver Print exiftool version number.
Advanced options
Among other things, the advanced options allow complex processing to be
performed from a single command without the need for additional
scripting. This may be particularly useful for implementations such as
Windows drag-and-drop applications. These options may also be used to
improve performance in multi-pass processing by reducing the overhead
required to load exiftool for each invocation.
-common_args
Specifies that all arguments following this option are common to
all executed commands when -execute is used. This and the -config
option are the only options that may not be used inside a -@
*ARGFILE*. Note that by definition this option and its arguments
MUST come after all other options on the command line.
-config *CFGFILE*
Load specified configuration file instead of the default
".ExifTool_config". If used, this option must come before all other
arguments on the command line. The *CFGFILE* name may contain a
directory specification (otherwise the file must exist in the
current directory), or may be set to an empty string ("") to
disable loading of the config file. See the sample configuration
file and "config.html" in the full ExifTool distribution for more
information about the ExifTool configuration file.
-echo[*NUM*] *TEXT*
Echo text to stdout (-echo or -echo1) or stderr (-echo2). Text is
output as the command line is parsed, before the processing of any
input files. *NUM* may also be 3 or 4 to output text (to stdout or
stderr respectively) after processing is complete.
-execute[*NUM*]
Execute command for all arguments up to this point on the command
line. Allows multiple commands to be executed from a single command
line. *NUM* is an optional number that is echoed in the "{ready}"
message when using the -stay_open feature.
-srcfile *FMT*
Specify a different source file to be processed based on the name
of the original *FILE*. This may be useful in some special
situations for processing related preview images or sidecar files.
See the -w option for a description of the *FMT* syntax. Note that
file name *FMT* strings for all options are based on the original
*FILE* specified from the command line, not the name of the source
file specified by -srcfile. A *FMT* of "@" may be used to represent
the original *FILE*, and may be useful when specifying multiple
-srcfile options (ie. to fall back to processing the original
*FILE* if no sidecar exists).
If than one -srcfile option is specified, the files are tested in
order and the first existing source file is processed. If none of
the source files already exist, then exiftool uses the first
-srcfile specified.
-stay_open *FLAG*
If *FLAG* is 1 or "True", causes exiftool keep reading from the -@
*ARGFILE* even after reaching the end of file. This feature allows
calling applications to pre-load exiftool, thus avoiding the
overhead of loading exiftool for each command. The procedure is as
follows:
1) Execute "exiftool -stay_open True -@ *ARGFILE*", where *ARGFILE*
is the name of an existing (possibly empty) argument file or "-" to
pipe arguments from the standard input.
2) Write exiftool command-line arguments to *ARGFILE*, one argument
per line (see the -@ option for details).
3) Write "-execute\n" to *ARGFILE*, where "\n" represents a newline
sequence. (Note: You may need to flush your write buffers here if
using buffered output.) Exiftool will then execute the command with
the arguments received up to this point, send a "{ready}" message
to stdout when done (unless the -q option is used), and continue
trying to read arguments for the next command from *ARGFILE*. To
aid in command/response synchronization, any number appended to the
"-execute" option is echoed in the "{ready}" message. For example,
"-execute613" results in "{ready613}".
4) Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each command.
5) Write "-stay_open\nFalse\n" to *ARGFILE* when done. This will
cause exiftool to process any remaining command-line arguments then
exit normally.
The input *ARGFILE* may be changed at any time before step 5 above
by writing the following lines to the currently open *ARGFILE*:
-stay_open
True
-@
NEWARGFILE
This causes *ARGFILE* to be closed, and *NEWARGFILE* to be kept
open. (Without the -stay_open here, exiftool would have returned to
reading arguments from *ARGFILE* after reaching the end of
*NEWARGFILE*.)
Note: When writing arguments to a disk file there is a delay of up
to 0.01 seconds after writing "-execute\n" before exiftool starts
processing the command. This delay may be avoided by sending a CONT
signal to the exiftool process immediately after writing
"-execute\n". (There is no associated delay when writing arguments
via a pipe with "-@ -", so the signal is not necessary when using
this technique.)
READING EXAMPLES
exiftool -a -u -g1 a.jpg
Print all meta information in an image, including duplicate and
unknown tags, sorted by group (for family 1).
exiftool -common dir
Print common meta information for all images in "dir".
exiftool -T -createdate -aperture -shutterspeed -iso dir > out.txt
List specified meta information in tab-delimited column form for
all images in "dir" to an output text file named "out.txt".
exiftool -s -ImageSize -ExposureTime b.jpg
Print ImageSize and ExposureTime tag names and values.
exiftool -l -canon c.jpg d.jpg
Print standard Canon information from two image files.
exiftool -r -w .txt -common pictures
Recursively extract common meta information from files in
"pictures" directory, writing text output to ".txt" files with the
same names.
exiftool -b -ThumbnailImage image.jpg > thumbnail.jpg
Save thumbnail image from "image.jpg" to a file called
"thumbnail.jpg".
exiftool -b -JpgFromRaw -w _JFR.JPG -ext NEF -r .
Recursively extract JPG image from all Nikon NEF files in the
current directory, adding "_JFR.JPG" for the name of the output JPG
files.
exiftool -d "%r %a, %B %e, %Y" -DateTimeOriginal -S -s -ext jpg .
Print formatted date/time for all JPG files in the current
directory.
exiftool -IFD1:XResolution -IFD1:YResolution image.jpg
Extract image resolution from EXIF IFD1 information (thumbnail
image IFD).
exiftool "-*resolution*" image.jpg
Extract all tags with names containing the word "Resolution" from
an image.
exiftool -xmp:author:all -a image.jpg
Extract all author-related XMP information from an image.
exiftool -xmp -b a.jpg > out.xmp
Extract complete XMP data record intact from "a.jpg" and write it
to "out.xmp" using the special "XMP" tag (see the Extra tags in
Image::ExifTool::TagNames).
exiftool -p "$filename has date $dateTimeOriginal" -q -f dir
Print one line of output containing the file name and
DateTimeOriginal for each image in directory "dir".
exiftool -ee -p "$gpslatitude, $gpslongitude, $gpstimestamp" a.m2ts
Extract all GPS positions from an AVCHD video.
exiftool -icc_profile -b -w icc image.jpg
Save complete ICC_Profile from an image to an output file with the
same name and an extension of ".icc".
exiftool -htmldump -w tmp/%f_%e.html t/images
Generate HTML pages from a hex dump of EXIF information in all
images from the "t/images" directory. The output HTML files are
written to the "tmp" directory (which is created if it didn't
exist), with names of the form "FILENAME_EXT.html".
WRITING EXAMPLES
Note that quotes are necessary around arguments which contain certain
special characters such as ">", "<" or any white space. These quoting
techniques are shell dependent, but the examples below will work in
the Windows CMD shell.
exiftool -Comment="This is a new comment" dst.jpg
Write new comment to a JPG image (replaces any existing comment).
exiftool -comment= -o newdir -ext jpg .
Remove comment from all JPG images in the current directory,
writing the modified images to a new directory.
exiftool -keywords=EXIF -keywords=editor dst.jpg
Replace existing keyword list with two new keywords ("EXIF" and
"editor").
exiftool -Keywords+=word -o newfile.jpg src.jpg
Copy a source image to a new file, and add a keyword ("word") to
the current list of keywords.
exiftool -exposurecompensation+=-0.5 a.jpg
Decrement the value of ExposureCompensation by 0.5 EV. Note that +=
with a negative value is used for decrementing because the -=
operator is used for conditional deletion (see next example).
exiftool -credit-=xxx dir
Delete Credit information from all files in a directory where the
Credit value was ("xxx").
exiftool -xmp:description-de="k&uuml;hl" -E dst.jpg
Write alternate language for XMP:Description, using HTML character
escaping to input special characters.
exiftool -all= dst.jpg
Delete all meta information from an image. Note: You should NOT do
this to RAW images (except DNG) since proprietary RAW image formats
often contain information in the makernotes that is necessary for
converting the image.
exiftool -all= -comment="lonely" dst.jpg
Delete all meta information from an image and add a comment back
in. (Note that the order is important: -comment="lonely" -all=
would also delete the new comment.)
exiftool -all= --jfif:all dst.jpg
Delete all meta information except JFIF group from an image.
exiftool -Photoshop:All= dst.jpg
Delete Photoshop meta information from an image (note that the
Photoshop information also includes IPTC).
exiftool -r -XMP-crss:all= DIR
Recursively delete all XMP-crss information from images in a
directory.
exiftool "-ThumbnailImage<=thumb.jpg" dst.jpg
Set the thumbnail image from specified file (Note: The quotes are
necessary to prevent shell redirection).
exiftool "-JpgFromRaw<=%d%f_JFR.JPG" -ext NEF -r .
Recursively write JPEG images with filenames ending in "_JFR.JPG"
to the JpgFromRaw tag of like-named files with extension ".NEF" in
the current directory. (This is the inverse of the "-JpgFromRaw"
command of the "READING EXAMPLES" section above.)
exiftool -DateTimeOriginal-="0:0:0 1:30:0" dir
Adjust original date/time of all images in directory "dir" by
subtracting one hour and 30 minutes. (This is equivalent to
"-DateTimeOriginal-=1.5". See Image::ExifTool::Shift.pl for
details.)
exiftool -createdate+=3 -modifydate+=3 a.jpg b.jpg
Add 3 hours to the CreateDate and ModifyDate timestamps of two
images.
exiftool -AllDates+=1:30 -if "$make eq 'Canon'" dir
Shift the values of DateTimeOriginal, CreateDate and ModifyDate
forward by 1 hour and 30 minutes for all Canon images in a
directory. (The AllDates tag is provided as a shortcut for these
three tags, allowing them to be accessed via a single tag.)
exiftool -xmp:city=Kingston image1.jpg image2.nef
Write a tag to the XMP group of two images. (Without the "xmp:"
this tag would get written to the IPTC group since "City" exists in
both, and IPTC is preferred by default.)
exiftool -LightSource-="Unknown (0)" dst.tiff
Delete "LightSource" tag only if it is unknown with a value of 0.
exiftool -whitebalance-=auto -WhiteBalance=tung dst.jpg
Set "WhiteBalance" to "Tungsten" only if it was previously "Auto".
exiftool -comment-= -comment="new comment" a.jpg
Write a new comment only if the image doesn't have one already.
exiftool -o %d%f.xmp dir
Create XMP meta information data files for all images in "dir".
exiftool -o test.xmp -owner=Phil -title="XMP File"
Create an XMP data file only from tags defined on the command line.
exiftool "-ICC_Profile<=%d%f.icc" image.jpg
Write ICC_Profile to an image from a ".icc" file of the same name.
exiftool -hierarchicalkeywords="{keyword=one,children={keyword=B}}"
Write structured XMP information.
exiftool -trailer:all= image.jpg
Delete any trailer found after the end of image (EOI) in a JPEG
file. A number of digital cameras store a large PreviewImage after
the JPEG EOI, and the file size may be reduced significantly by
deleting this trailer. See the JPEG Tags documentation for a list
of recognized JPEG trailers.
COPYING EXAMPLES
These examples demonstrate the ability to copy tag values between files.
exiftool -tagsFromFile src.cr2 dst.jpg
Copy the values of all writable tags from "src.cr2" to "dst.jpg",
writing the information to same-named tags in the preferred groups.
exiftool -TagsFromFile src.jpg -all:all dst.jpg
Copy the values of all writable tags from "src.jpg" to "dst.jpg",
preserving the original tag groups.
exiftool -all= -tagsfromfile src.jpg -exif:all dst.jpg
Erase all meta information from "dst.jpg" image, then copy EXIF
tags from "src.jpg".
exiftool -exif:all= -tagsfromfile @ -all:all -unsafe bad.jpg
Rebuild all EXIF meta information from scratch in an image. This
technique can be used in JPEG images to repair corrupted EXIF
information which otherwise could not be written due to errors. The
"Unsafe" tag is a shortcut for unsafe EXIF tags in JPEG images
which are not normally copied. See the tag name documentation for
more details about unsafe tags.
exiftool -Tagsfromfile a.jpg out.xmp
Copy meta information from "a.jpg" to an XMP data file. If the XMP
data file "out.xmp" already exists, it will be updated with the new
information. Otherwise the XMP data file will be created. Only XMP,
ICC and MIE files may be created like this (other file types may be
edited but not created). See "WRITING EXAMPLES" above for another
technique to generate XMP files.
exiftool -tagsFromFile a.jpg -XMP:All= -ThumbnailImage= -m b.jpg
Copy all meta information from "a.jpg" to "b.jpg", deleting all XMP
information and the thumbnail image from the destination.
exiftool -TagsFromFile src.jpg -title -author=Phil dst.jpg
Copy title from one image to another and set a new author name.
exiftool -TagsFromFile a.jpg -ISO -TagsFromFile b.jpg -comment dst.jpg
Copy ISO from one image and Comment from another image to a
destination image.
exiftool -tagsfromfile src.jpg -exif:all --subifd:all dst.jpg
Copy only the EXIF information from one image to another, excluding
SubIFD tags.
exiftool "-DateTimeOriginal>FileModifyDate" dir
Use the original date from the meta information to set the same
file's filesystem modification date for all images in a directory.
(Note that "-TagsFromFile @" is assumed if no other -TagsFromFile
is specified when redirecting information as in this example.)
exiftool -TagsFromFile src.jpg "-all>xmp:all" dst.jpg
Copy all possible information from "src.jpg" and write in XMP
format to "dst.jpg".
exiftool -@ iptc2xmp.args -iptc:all= a.jpg
Translate IPTC information to XMP with appropriate tag name
conversions, and delete the original IPTC information from an
image. This example uses iptc2xmp.args, which is a file included
with the ExifTool distribution that contains the required arguments
to convert IPTC information to XMP format. Also included with the
distribution are xmp2iptc.args (which performs the inverse
conversion) and a few more .args files for other conversions
between EXIF, IPTC and XMP.
exiftool -tagsfromfile %d%f.CR2 -r -ext JPG dir
Recursively rewrite all "JPG" images in "dir" with information
copied from the corresponding "CR2" images in the same directories.
exiftool "-make+>keywords" image.jpg
Add camera make to list of keywords.
exiftool "-comment<ISO=$exif:iso Exposure=${shutterspeed}" dir
Set the Comment tag of all images in "dir" from the values of the
EXIF:ISO and ShutterSpeed tags. The resulting comment will be in
the form "ISO=100 Exposure=1/60".
exiftool -TagsFromFile src.jpg -icc_profile dst.jpg
Copy ICC_Profile from one image to another.
exiftool -TagsFromFile src.jpg -all:all dst.mie
Copy all meta information in its original form from a JPEG image to
a MIE file. The MIE file will be created if it doesn't exist. This
technique can be used to store the metadata of an image so it can
be inserted back into the image (with the inverse command) later in
a workflow.
exiftool -o dst.mie -all:all src.jpg
This command performs exactly the same task as the command above,
except that the "-o" option will not write to an output file that
already exists.
exiftool -XMP:Flash="{mode=on,fired=true,return=not}" a.jpg
Write a structured tag. See
<http://owl.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/struct.html> for more
details.
exiftool -if $jpgfromraw -b -jpgfromraw -w %d%f_%ue.jpg -execute -if
$previewimage -b -previewimage -w %d%f_%ue.jpg -execute -tagsfromfile @
-srcfile %d%f_%ue.jpg -overwrite_original -common_args --ext jpg DIR
[Advanced] Extract JpgFromRaw or PreviewImage from all but JPG
files in DIR, saving them with file names like "image_EXT.jpg",
then add all meta information from the original files to the
extracted images. Here, the command line is broken into three
sections (separated by -execute options), and each is executed as
if it were a separate command. The -common_args option causes the
"--ext jpg DIR" arguments to be applied to all three commands, and
the -srcfile option allows the extracted JPG image to be the source
file for the third command (whereas the RAW files are the source
files for the other two commands).
RENAMING EXAMPLES
By writing the "FileName" and "Directory" tags, files are renamed and/or
moved to new directories. This can be particularly useful and powerful
for organizing files by date when combined with the -d option. New
directories are created as necessary, but existing files will not be
overwritten. The format codes %d, %f and %e may be used in the new file
name to represent the directory, name and extension of the original
file, and %c may be used to add a copy number if the file already exists
(see the -w option for details). Note that if used within a date format
string, an extra '%' must be added to pass these codes through the
date/time parser. (And further note that in a Windows batch file, all
'%' characters must also be escaped, so in this extreme case "%%%%f" is
necessary to pass a simple "%f" through the two levels of parsing.) See
<http://owl.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/filename.html> for additional
documentation and examples.
exiftool -filename=new.jpg dir/old.jpg
Rename "old.jpg" to "new.jpg" in directory "dir".
exiftool -directory=%e dir
Move all files from directory "dir" into directories named by the
original file extensions.
exiftool "-Directory<DateTimeOriginal" -d %Y/%m/%d dir
Move all files in "dir" into a directory hierarchy based on year,
month and day of "DateTimeOriginal". ie) This command would move
the file "dir/image.jpg" with a "DateTimeOriginal" of "2005:10:12
16:05:56" to "2005/10/12/image.jpg".
exiftool -o . "-Directory<DateTimeOriginal" -d %Y/%m/%d dir
Same effect as above except files are copied instead of moved.
exiftool "-filename<%f_${model;}.%e" dir
Rename all files in "dir" by adding the camera model name to the
file name. The semicolon after the tag name inside the braces
causes characters which are invalid in Windows file names to be
deleted from the tag value (see the -p option documentation for an
explanation).
exiftool "-FileName<CreateDate" -d %Y%m%d_%H%M%S%%-c.%%e dir
Rename all images in "dir" according to the "CreateDate" date and
time, adding a copy number with leading '-' if the file already
exists ("%-c"), and preserving the original file extension (%e).
Note the extra '%' necessary to escape the filename codes (%c and
%e) in the date format string.
exiftool -r "-FileName<CreateDate" -d %Y-%m-%d/%H%M_%%f.%%e dir
Both the directory and the filename may be changed together via the
"FileName" tag if the new "FileName" contains a '/'. The example
above recursively renames all images in a directory by adding a
"CreateDate" timestamp to the start of the filename, then moves
them into new directories named by date.
exiftool "-FileName<${CreateDate}_$filenumber.jpg" -d %Y%m%d -ext jpg .
Set the filename of all JPG images in the current directory from
the CreateDate and FileNumber tags, in the form
"20060507_118-1861.jpg".
GEOTAGGING EXAMPLES
ExifTool implements geotagging via 3 special tags: Geotag (which for
convenience is also implemented as an exiftool option), Geosync and
Geotime. The examples below highlight some geotagging features. See
<http://owl.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/geotag.html> for additional
documentation.
exiftool -geotag track.log a.jpg
Geotag an image ("a.jpg") from position information in a GPS track
log ("track.log"). Since the "Geotime" tag is not specified, the
value of DateTimeOriginal is used for geotagging. Local system time
is assumed unless DateTimeOriginal contains a timezone.
exiftool -geotag t.log -geotime="2009:04:02 13:41:12-05:00" a.jpg
Geotag an image with the GPS position for a specific time. (Note
that the "Geotag" tag must be assigned before "Geotime" for the GPS
data to be available when "Geotime" is set.)
exiftool -geotag log.gpx "-xmp:geotime<createdate" dir
Geotag all images in directory "dir" with XMP tags instead of EXIF
tags, based on the image CreateDate. (In this case, the order of
the arguments doesn't matter because tags with values copied from
other tags are always set after constant values.)
exiftool -geotag a.log -geosync=-20 dir
Geotag images in directory "dir", accounting for image timestamps
which were 20 seconds ahead of GPS.
exiftool -geotag a.log -geosync=1.jpg -geosync=2.jpg dir
Geotag images using time synchronization from two previously
geotagged images (1.jpg and 2.jpg), synchronizing the image and GPS
times using a linear time drift correction.
exiftool -geotag a.log "-geotime<${createdate}+01:00" dir
Geotag images in "dir" using CreateDate with the specified
timezone. If CreateDate already contained a timezone, then the
timezone specified on the command line is ignored.
exiftool -geotag= a.jpg
Delete GPS tags which may have been added by the geotag feature.
Note that this does not remove all GPS tags -- to do this instead
use "-gps:all=".
exiftool -xmp:geotag= a.jpg
Delete XMP GPS tags which were added by the geotag feature.
exiftool -xmp:geotag=track.log a.jpg
Geotag an image with XMP tags, using the time from
DateTimeOriginal.
exiftool -geotag a.log -geotag b.log -r dir
Combine multiple track logs and geotag an entire directory tree of
images.
exiftool -geotag "tracks/*.log" -r dir
Read all track logs from the "tracks" directory.
exiftool -p gpx.fmt -d %Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ dir > out.gpx
Generate a GPX track log from all images in directory "dir". This
example uses the "gpx.fmt" file included in the full ExifTool
distribution package and assumes that the images in "dir" have all
been previously geotagged.
PIPING EXAMPLES
type a.jpg | exiftool -
Extract information from stdin.
exiftool image.jpg -thumbnailimage -b | exiftool -
Extract information from an embedded thumbnail image.
type a.jpg | exiftool -iptc:keywords+=fantastic - > b.jpg
Add an IPTC keyword in a pipeline, saving output to a new file.
wget -qO - http://a.domain.com/bigfile.jpg | exiftool -fast -
Extract information from an image over the internet using the GNU
wget utility. The -fast option prevents exiftool from scanning for
trailer information, so only the meta information header is
transferred.
exiftool a.jpg -thumbnailimage -b | exiftool -comment=wow - | exiftool
a.jpg "-thumbnailimage<=-"
Add a comment to an embedded thumbnail image. (Why anyone would
want to do this I don't know, but I've included this as an example
to illustrate the flexibility of ExifTool.)
DIAGNOSTICS
The exiftool application exits with a status of 0 on success, or 1 if an
error occured or if all files failed the -if condition.
AUTHOR
Copyright 2003-2013, Phil Harvey
This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the same terms as Perl itself.
SEE ALSO
Image::ExifTool(3pm), Image::ExifTool::TagNames(3pm),
Image::ExifTool::Shortcuts(3pm), Image::ExifTool::Shift.pl
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