Exiftool

Exiftool is an open-source mobile tool that allows users to freely import and process images, audio, video, and files of various formats. Users can edit files according to their preferences, add geotags to images and identify corresponding cities, restore timestamps in photos, and batch move and delete various information to meet personalized usage needs. The software can also freely read metadata from various videos and files, and freely choose the export format after processing. The software is constantly being updated, and more new features will be launched to bring users a more convenient user experience.

Features of Exiftool:

100% Free: Completely free to use with no hidden costs. No registration required. Start analyzing your files instantly.

Easy File Upload: Simply drag & drop files or paste URLs to instantly analyze metadata from any supported file type. Supports batch uploads.

Deep Analysis: Extract and view comprehensive metadata including EXIF, XMP, IPTC, GPS coordinates, camera settings and more.

Universal Support: Process 100+ file formats including RAW images, HDR, panoramas, documents, audio, video and archives.

Lightning Fast: Advanced processing engine analyzes files in milliseconds. Handle large batches of files with no waiting - get instant results every time.

Changelog:

Version 13.59

Added a new Canon RF lens (thanks Norbert Wasser)

Decode tags from the Sony ILCE-7RM6 (thanks Jos Roost)

Decode a new FujiFilm tag (thanks Iliah Borg)

Decode a few more DJI protobuf tags

Improved error message when reading wrongly encoded CSV or JSON file

Enhanced -config option to allow piped input with "-config -"

Patched Composite SubSec date/time tags to specify the EXIF group for the SubSec and OffsetTime tags upon which they are based (avoids non-standard XMP tags from being incorrectly used here)

Fixed bug in -diff feature when finding differences for specific tags and a specified tag was missing from the source file

Version 13.58

Added a few new Nikon Z lenses (thanks Warren Hatch)

Added a few new QuickTime MajorBrand values (thanks Herb)

Added a new RAFCompression value

Added undocumented -eh option (alias for -E/-escapeHTML)

Decode timed GPS from INNOVV N2 TS videos

Improved decoding of Canon ColorData for some models (thanks Iliah Borg)

Changed the name of the RAFVersion tag to FirmwareVersion

Removed conversion for Garmin FIT DeviceIndex values

Properly parse XML CDATA and comment sections

Fixed issue which could cause failed Garmin test on some systems

FAQs of Exiftool:

What format do I use for writing GPS coordinates?, or How do I change the format of extracted GPS coordinates?

ExifTool is very flexible in the formats allowed for entering GPS coordinates. Any string containing between 1 and 3 floating point numbers is valid. The numbers represent degrees, (and optionally) minutes and seconds with any number of decimal places.

For EXIF GPS coordinates, the reference direction is specified separately with the EXIF:GPSLatitudeRef or EXIF:GPSLongitudeRef tag. GPSLatitudeRef may be written with a string containing "N", "North", "S" or "South", or with a signed coordinate value (positive for the northern hemisphere or negative for the south). GPSLongitudeRef accepts similar values, but for E/East (positive) and W/West (negative).

For XMP GPS coordinates, the reference direction is specified within the XMP:GPSLatitude or XMP:GPSLongitude value, with west longitudes and south latitudes being specified either by negative coordinate values or by ending the string with "W" or "S".

Here are some examples of equivalent ways to specify a GPS latitude in both EXIF and XMP:

exiftool -exif:gpslatitude="42 30 0.00" -exif:gpslatituderef=S a.jpg

exiftool -exif:gpslatitude="42 deg 30.00 min" -exif:gpslatituderef=S a.jpg

exiftool -exif:gpslatitude=42.5 -exif:gpslatituderef=S a.jpg

exiftool -xmp:gpslatitude="42 30 0.00 S" a.jpg

exiftool -xmp:gpslatitude=42.50S a.jpg

exiftool -xmp:gpslatitude=-42.5 a.jpg

exiftool -xmp:gpslatitude="-42 -30" a.jpg

Note the last example: The negative sign must be applied to all components of the coordinate. Similar styles may be used for longitude. ExifTool will convert any of these coordinate styles to the proper format for the specific tag used.

ExifTool 12.22 and later allow combined lat/lon GPSCoordinates values to be written to GPSLatitude and GPSLongitude, and the appropriate latitude or longitude part will be pulled from the input string. Version 12.36 and later make Composite:GPSPosition writable, allowing EXIF GPS coorinates and reference directions to be all writable via a single tag:

# write all 4 EXIF GPS tags (version 12.36 and later)

exiftool -gpsposition="42 30 0.00 S, 33 15 0.00 W"

exiftool -gpsposition="-42.5, -33.25"

Version 12.44 and later make Composite:GPSLatitude/GPSLongitude writable, allowing the separate EXIF coordinate and reference direction tags to be written together. (Note that the Composite group must be specified here because these tags are otherwise avoided when writing due to possible confusion when attempting to write EXIF tags.)

# write EXIF:GPSLatitude and GPSLatitudeRef together (12.44 and later)

exiftool -composite:gpslatitude="42 30 0.00 S" a.jpg

exiftool -composite:gpslatitude="-42.5" a.jpg

When reading, by default ExifTool reports coordinates in the format

DDD deg MM' SS.SS"

where DDD is degrees, MM is minutes, and SS.SS is seconds. The -n option may be used to change this to decimal degrees, or any arbitrary format may be specified with the -c command-line option (see the application documentation), or the API CoordFormat option.

"I get MakerNote warnings or errors when reading or writing information"？

Problems like this may be caused by image editing software which doesn't properly update offsets in the MakerNotes when rewriting an image. These offsets are used as pointers to reference tag values and structures within the metadata, and errors like this may lead to missing or incorrect values for some MakerNotes tags. In many cases, ExifTool will detect this type of problem and issue a warning like this when reading (or an error when writing):

Warning: [minor] Possibly incorrect maker notes offsets (fix by -340?)

[Be aware that if multiple warnings occur, the -a option must be used to see them all, since by default only one warning is displayed per file.]

This is a particularly insidious problem that is sometimes difficult for ExifTool to correct automagically, so it requires some operator intervention. If this warning occurs, you have a few alternatives:

1) Use the -F option to allow ExifTool to attempt to fix the incorrect offsets. If ExifTool was correct in its diagnosis, then this option will fix the incorrect offsets. This is usually the appropriate choice if this problem was caused by editing the image with other software.

2) Use the -m option to ignore the warning (or downgrade the error to a warning when writing). This causes ExifTool to honour the existing maker note offsets, and may be the correct choice if images straight out of the camera have this problem.

Often, the first choice (-F) is the right thing to do, but this depends on many factors, so it is best to try both methods then compare the resulting maker note information to see which works best for your situation.

When writing, -F applies a permanent correction to the maker notes. Note that some MakerNote information may be lost permanently if the proper correction is not applied when writing images with this problem.

3) The third alternative is to adjust the maker note offsets by a specific amount. This is done by appending an integer to the -F option. For example, with the warning above (where ExifTool suggests "fix by -340?"), -F would be equivalent to -F-340. See the -F option documentation for more details. This advanced feature may require some technical knowledge about the structure of EXIF information (and here, ExifTool's -htmlDump feature may be very useful for visualizing this structure).

Other types of MakerNote errors may also prevent the file from being written. However, most MakerNote errors are designated as minor, which allows them to be ignored by using the -m option. For example:

Error: [minor] Bad format (65535) for MakerNotes entry 17

Using -m will downgrade the minor error to a warning, allowing the file to be written, but some MakerNote information may be lost when ignoring errors like this.

You may also get one of these warnings when reading or writing a file containing unknown maker notes:

Warning: [minor] Unrecognized MakerNotes

Warning: [minor] Maker notes could not be parsed

These warnings indicate that ExifTool didn't recognize the maker notes in a file, so it couldn't extract any information from them when reading, or had to copy the maker notes as a block when writing. If the maker notes contain absolute offsets then this could result in corrupted makernote information when writing, but this is very unlikely.

Final Verdict:

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