What is metadata? Metadata means the information that an image file contains. The metadata we usually come across is the one of digital images saved in a variety of graphic formats.
EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format), IPTC (International Press Telecommunications Council) and XMP (Extensible Metadata Platform) are the main metadata types. They make it possible for some additional information to be added to photos. There exist other types of metadata, but we will only touch upon the ones referring to digital images that ImageConverter Plus can process.
What is EXIF data?
EXIF files store the information about the location, date and time the photo was taken and the camera model used. EXIF may also contain geotags – metadata pointing out the GPS coordinates of the place where the photo was taken. Digital technology advancement leads to the expansion of metadata support describing all the conditions under which the photo was taken. The main purpose of the EXIF data is to copyright your images since it also stores the information about the photographer.
What is IPTC data?
IPTC data is a method of storing more detailed textual information in images. In comparison with EXIF which is more technically oriented, IPTC contains a lot of text: meta keywords or more detailed description of the location, time and the conditions under which the image was taken. One can edit IPTC information and add the one the photographer finds important and even divide the information into categories and subcategories.
What is XMP?
XMP is the “youngest” type of metadata. What makes it different from the two previous metadata types described is that with some specific image formats (i.e. PSD) this data is saved in a separate *.xmp file. The original image file meanwhile remains unchanged. To see the results of photo editing one has to open the file using special software that includes XMP support.
Some image formats though allow the XMP information to be included inside the image file (i.e. TIFF and JPEG). If this is the case then it becomes similar to IPTC data rather than EXIF that mostly contains technical information.
How to change metadata?
Situations when metadata should be changed are rather frequent. Sometimes you need to remove metadata.
Use ImageConverter Plus to edit metadata. ImageConverter Plus can act as metadata editor for a single image or image folders.
Example of changing EXIF data.
Here is a metadata example. Let’s imagine that you forgot to set the date in your camera, or the settings turned to be wrong. If that happened the metadata will store the wrong date when the photo was taken. For example the photos taken on October 20, 2001 were mistakenly recorded as if taken on January 1, 2000. If you are more concerned about the actual date, but not that much about the exact time, you can change the date for all the photos at once. In other words, you edit EXIF metadata. You can edit the date not changing the time, but in this case you should process your images one by one instead of doing this in batch mode.
Example of changing IPTC data.
Another example refers to changing IPTC data. This information can be filled in with the help of ImageConverter Plus. Include the information about the location of the photo, its description (for instance, Mothers’ Day celebration). This information may become useful some time later, for example if you search a particular shot in your computer. Besides you can copyright your images.
You can modify any type of metadata depending on your preferences. This can be done on a single image or lots of images at once.
Other metadata processing types ImageConverter Plus offers.
ImageConverter Plus makes it possible not only to edit metadata that the image contains, but to remove metadata and receive the information about the metadata standards of EXIF and IPTC. This function is utilized via MyViewPad – image viewer that is supplied together with ImageConverter Plus.