ExifTool
Encyclopedia
ExifTool is a free software
program for reading, writing, and manipulating image, audio, and video metadata
. It is platform independent, available as both a Perl
library and command-line
application. ExifTool is commonly incorporated into different types of digital
workflow
s and supports many types of metadata including Exif, IPTC
, XMP
, JFIF, GeoTIFF
, ICC Profile
, Photoshop IRB, FlashPix
, AFCP and ID3
, as well as the manufacturer-specific metadata formats of many digital camera
s.
format. It is designed to encapsulate meta information from many sources, in binary or textual form, and bundle it together with any type of file. It can either be a single file, wrapping existing data, or used as a sidecar file
, carrying for example Exif or XMP
metadata.
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
program for reading, writing, and manipulating image, audio, and video metadata
Metadata
The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...
. It is platform independent, available as both a Perl
Perl
Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall in 1987 as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions and become widely popular...
library and command-line
Command-line interface
A command-line interface is a mechanism for interacting with a computer operating system or software by typing commands to perform specific tasks...
application. ExifTool is commonly incorporated into different types of digital
Digital
A digital system is a data technology that uses discrete values. By contrast, non-digital systems use a continuous range of values to represent information...
workflow
Workflow
A workflow consists of a sequence of connected steps. It is a depiction of a sequence of operations, declared as work of a person, a group of persons, an organization of staff, or one or more simple or complex mechanisms. Workflow may be seen as any abstraction of real work...
s and supports many types of metadata including Exif, IPTC
IPTC Information Interchange Model
The Information Interchange Model is a file structure and set of metadata attributes that can be applied to text, images and other media types...
, XMP
XMP
XMP may refer to:In software and data standards:* Extensible Metadata Platform, Adobe's standard for processing and embedding metadata in various file formats*EXtreme Memory ProfileIn gaming:...
, JFIF, GeoTIFF
GeoTIFF
GeoTIFF is a public domain metadata standard which allows georeferencing information to be embedded within a TIFF file. The potential additional information includes map projection, coordinate systems, ellipsoids, datums, and everything else necessary to establish the exact spatial reference for...
, ICC Profile
ICC profile
In color management, an ICC profile is a set of data that characterizes a color input or output device, or a color space, according to standards promulgated by the International Color Consortium...
, Photoshop IRB, FlashPix
FlashPix
FlashPix is a bitmapped computer graphics file format where the image is saved in more than one resolution. Though this makes it larger even than a TIFF file, when a request is sent for the file by a Web browser only the resolution required for the current screen resolution is sent to the browser;...
, AFCP and ID3
ID3
ID3 is a metadata container most often used in conjunction with the MP3 audio file format. It allows information such as the title, artist, album, track number, and other information about the file to be stored in the file itself....
, as well as the manufacturer-specific metadata formats of many digital camera
Digital camera
A digital camera is a camera that takes video or still photographs, or both, digitally by recording images via an electronic image sensor. It is the main device used in the field of digital photography...
s.
Meta Information Encapsulation
ExifTool implements its own open metadataMetadata
The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...
format. It is designed to encapsulate meta information from many sources, in binary or textual form, and bundle it together with any type of file. It can either be a single file, wrapping existing data, or used as a sidecar file
Sidecar file
Sidecar files, also known as buddy files or connected files, are files which store data which is not supported by the source file format.For each source file one or more sidecar files can be created...
, carrying for example Exif or XMP
Extensible Metadata Platform
The Adobe Extensible Metadata Platform is a standard, created by Adobe Systems Inc., for processing and storing standardized and proprietary information relating to the contents of a file....
metadata.
Supported File Types
ExifTool can , and files in the following formats:| File Type | Support | Description |
| 3FR | R | Hasselblad RAW (TIFF-based) |
| 3G2, 3GP2 | R | 3rd Gen. Partnership Project 2 audio/video (QuickTime-based) |
| 3GP, 3GPP | R | 3rd Gen. Partnership Project audio/video (QuickTime-based) |
| ACR | R | American College of Radiology ACR-NEMA (DICOM-like) |
| AFM, ACFM, AMFM | R | Adobe (Composite/Multiple Master) Font Metrics |
| AI, AIT | R/W | Adobe Illustrator (Template, PS or PDF) |
| AIFF, AIF, AIFC | R | Audio Interchange File Format |
| APE | R | Monkey's Audio |
| ARW | R/W | Sony Alpha RAW (TIFF-based) |
| ASF | R | Microsoft Advanced Systems Format |
| AVI | R | Audio Video Interleaved (RIFF-based) |
| BMP, DIB | R | Windows BitMaP / Device Independent Bitmap |
| BTF, TIFF, TIF | R | BigTIFF (64-bit Tagged Image File Format) |
| COS | R | Capture One Settings (XML-based) |
| CR2 | R/W | Canon RAW 2 (TIFF-based) |
| CRW, CIFF | R/W | Canon RAW Camera Image File Format (CRW specification) |
| CS1 | R/W | Sinar CaptureShop 1-shot RAW (PSD-based) |
| DCM, DC3, DIC, DICM | R | DICOM - Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine |
| DCP | R/W | DNG Camera Profile (DNG-like) |
| DCR | R | Kodak Digital Camera RAW (TIFF-based) |
| DFONT | R | Macintosh Data Fork Font |
| DIVX | R | DivX media format (ASF-based) |
| DJVU, DJV | R | DjVu image (AIFF-like) |
| DNG | R/W | Digital Negative (TIFF-based) |
| DOC, DOT | R | Microsoft Word Document/Template (FPX-like) |
| DOCX, DOCM | R | Office Open XML Document (Macro-enabled) |
| DOTX, DOTM | R | Office Open XML Document Template (Macro-enabled) |
| DYLIB | R | Mac OS X Mach-O executable and library files |
| DV | R | Digital Video |
| DVB | R | Digital Video Broadcasting (QuickTime-based) |
| EIP | R | Capture One Enhanced Image Package (ZIP-based) |
| EPS, EPSF, PS | R/W | (Encapsulated) PostScript Format |
| ERF | R/W | Epson RAW Format (TIFF-based) |
| EXE, DLL | R | DOS/Windows executable and library files |
| EXIF | R/W/C | Exchangable Image File Format metadata (TIFF-based) |
| F4A, F4B, F4P, F4V | R | Adobe Flash Player 9+ Audio/Video (Quicktime-based) |
| FLA | R | Macromedia/Adobe Flash project (FPX-like) |
| FLAC | R | Free Lossless Audio Codec |
| FLV | R | Flash Video |
| FPX | R | FlashPix image |
| GIF | R/W | Compuserve Graphics Interchange Format |
| GZ, GZIP | R | GNU ZIP compressed archive |
| HDP, WDP | R/W | Windows HD Photo / Media Photo (TIFF-based) |
| HTML, HTM, XHTML | R | (Extensible) HyperText Markup Language |
| ICC, ICM | R/W/C | International Color Consortium color profile |
| IIQ | R/W | Phase One Intelligent Image Quality RAW (TIFF-based) |
| IND, INDD, INDT | R/W | Adobe InDesign Document/Template (XMP metadata only) |
| ITC | R | iTunes Cover Flow artwork |
| JP2, JPM, JPX | R/W | JPEG 2000 image |
| JPEG, JPG | R/W | Joint Photographic Experts Group image (see table below) |
| K25 | R | Kodak DC25 RAW (TIFF-based) |
| KDC | R | Kodak Digital Camera RAW (TIFF-based) |
| KEY, KTH | R | Apple iWork '09 Keynote presentation/Theme |
| LNK | R | Microsoft Shell Link (Windows shortcut) |
| M2TS, MTS, M2T, TS | R | MPEG-2 Transport Stream (used for AVCHD video) |
| M4A, M4B, M4P, M4V | R | MPEG-4 Audio/Video (Quicktime-based) |
| MEF | R/W | Mamiya (RAW) Electronic Format (TIFF-based) |
| MIE | R/W/C | Meta Information Encapsulation (MIE specification) |
| MIFF, MIF | R | Magick Image File Format |
| MKA, MKV, MKS | R | Matroska Audio/Video/Subtitle |
| MOS | R/W | Creo Leaf Mosaic (TIFF-based) |
| MOV, QT | R | Apple QuickTime Movie |
| MP3 | R | MPEG-1 layer 3 audio (uses ID3 information) |
| MP4 | R | Motion Picture Experts Group version 4 (Quicktime-based) |
| MPC | R | Musepack Audio |
| MPEG, MPG, M2V | R | Motion Picture Experts Group version 1 or 2 |
| MPO | R/W | Extended Multi-Picture format (JPEG with MPF extensions) |
| MQV | R | Sony Mobile QuickTime Video |
| MRW | R/W | Minolta RAW |
| MXF | R | Material Exchange Format |
| NEF | R/W | Nikon (RAW) Electronic Format (TIFF-based) |
| NMBTEMPLATE | R | Apple iWork '09 Numbers Template |
| NRW | R/W | Nikon RAW (2) (TIFF-based) |
| NUMBERS | R | Apple iWork '09 Numbers spreadsheet |
| ODP, ODS, ODT | R | Open Document Presentation/Spreadsheet/Text (ZIP/XML-based) |
| OGG | R | Ogg Vorbis and Ogg FLAC audio |
| ORF | R/W | Olympus RAW Format (TIFF-based) |
| OTF | R | Open Type Font |
| PAGES | R | Apple iWork '09 Pages document |
| R/W | Adobe Portable Document Format | |
| PEF | R/W | Pentax (RAW) Electronic Format (TIFF-based) |
| PFA, PFB | R | PostScript Font ASCII/Binary |
| PFM | R | Printer Font Metrics |
| PGF | R | Progressive Graphics File |
| PICT, PCT | R | Apple Picture file |
| PMP | R | Sony DSC-F1 Cyber-Shot image |
| PNG, JNG, MNG | R/W | Portable/JPEG/Multiple-image Network Graphics |
| PPM, PBM, PGM | R/W | Portable Pixel/Bit/Gray Map |
| PPT, PPS, POT | R | Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation/Slideshow/Template (FPX-like) |
| POTX, POTM | R | Office Open XML Presentation Template (Macro-enabled) |
| PPSX, PPSM | R | Office Open XML Presentation Slideshow (Macro-enabled) |
| PPTX, PPTM | R | Office Open XML Presentation (Macro-enabled) |
| PSD, PSB | R/W | PhotoShop Drawing / Large Document |
| PSP, PSPIMAGE | R | Paint Shop Pro |
| QTIF, QTI, QIF | R | QuickTime Image File |
| RA | R | Real Audio |
| RAF | R/W | FujiFilm RAW Format |
| RAM, RPM | R | Real Audio/Plug-in Metafile |
| RAW | R | Kyocera Contax N Digital RAW |
| RAR | R | RAR Archive |
| RAW | R/W | Panasonic RAW (TIFF-based) |
| RIFF, RIF | R | Resource Interchange File Format |
| RM, RV, RMVB | R | Real Media/Video (Variable Bitrate) |
| RSRC | R | Mac OS Resource |
| RTF | R | Rich Text Format |
| RW2 | R/W | Panasonic RAW 2 (TIFF-based) |
| RWL | R/W | Leica RAW (TIFF-based) |
| RWZ | R | Rawzor compressed image |
| SO | R | Unix ELF executable and Shared Object files |
| SR2 | R/W | Sony RAW 2 (TIFF-based) |
| SRF | R | Sony RAW Format (TIFF-based) |
| SRW | R/W | Samsung RAW format (TIFF-based) |
| SVG | R | Scalable Vector Graphics (XML-based) |
| SWF | R | Shockwave Flash |
| THM | R/W | Canon Thumbnail (JPEG) |
| THMX | R | Office Open XML Theme |
| TIFF, TIF | R/W | Tagged Image File Format |
| TTF, TTC | R | True Type Font/Collection |
| VOB | R | Video Object (MPEG-based) |
| VRD | R/W/C | Canon DPP Recipe Data |
| VSD | R | Microsoft Visio Drawing (FPX-like) |
| WAV | R | Windows digital audio WAVeform (RIFF-based) |
| WEBM | R | Google Web Movie (MKV-based) |
| WEBP | R | Google Web Picture (RIFF-based) |
| WMA, WMV | R | Windows Media Audio/Video (ASF-based) |
| X3F | R/W | Sigma/Foveon RAW |
| XCF | R | GIMP native image format |
| XLS, XLT | R | Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet/Template (FPX-like) |
| XLSX, XLSM, XLSB | R | Office Open XML Spreadsheet (Macro-enabled/Binary) |
| XLTX, XLTM | R | Office Open XML Spreadsheet Template (Macro-enabled) |
| XMP | R/W/C | Extensible Metadata Platform sidecar file |
| ZIP | R | ZIP archive |
MIE
- MIE file format – specification
- MIE Tags – reference
- Commentary on Meta Information Formats (or "Why this or that Format Sucks"), Phil Harvey, essay on design decisions, created Nov. 15, 2005, last updated July 29, 2010