exiv2 - Image metadata manipulation tool
exiv2 [options] [action] file ...
exiv2 is a program to read and write Exif, IPTC, XMP
metadata and image comments and can read many vendor makernote tags. The
program optionally converts between Exif tags, XMP properties and IPTC
datasets as recommended by the Exif Standard, the IPTC Standard, the XMP
specification and Metadata Working Group guidelines.
The following image formats are supported:
| Type |
Exif |
IPTC |
XMP |
Image comments |
| JPEG |
Read/Write |
Read/Write |
Read/Write |
Read/Write |
| EXV |
Read/Write |
Read/Write |
Read/Write |
Read/Write |
| CR2 |
Read/Write |
Read/Write |
Read/Write |
- |
| CRW |
Read/Write |
- |
- |
Read/Write |
| MRW |
Read |
Read |
Read |
- |
| TIFF |
Read/Write |
Read/Write |
Read/Write |
- |
| DNG |
Read/Write |
Read/Write |
Read/Write |
- |
| NEF |
Read/Write |
Read/Write |
Read/Write |
- |
| PEF |
Read/Write |
Read/Write |
Read/Write |
- |
| ARW |
Read |
Read |
Read |
- |
| RW2 |
Read |
Read |
Read |
- |
| SR2 |
Read |
Read |
Read |
- |
| SRW |
Read/Write |
Read/Write |
Read/Write |
- |
| ORF |
Read/Write |
Read/Write |
Read/Write |
- |
| PNG |
Read/Write |
Read/Write |
Read/Write |
Read/Write |
| PGF |
Read/Write |
Read/Write |
Read/Write |
Read/Write |
| RAF |
Read |
Read |
Read |
- |
| EPS |
- |
- |
Read/Write |
- |
| XMP |
- |
- |
Read/Write |
- |
| GIF |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| PSD |
Read/Write |
Read/Write |
Read/Write |
- |
| TGA |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| BMP |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| JP2 |
Read/Write |
Read/Write |
Read/Write |
- |
- Support for GIF, TGA and BMP images is minimal: the image format is
recognized, a MIME type assigned to it and the height and width of the
image are determined.
- Reading other TIFF-like RAW image formats, which are not listed in the
table, may also work.
The action argument is only required if it is not clear
from the options which action is implied.
- pr | print
- Print image metadata. This is the default action, i.e., the command
exiv2 image.jpg will print a summary of the image Exif
metadata.
- ex | extract
- Extract metadata to *.exv, XMP sidecar (*.xmp) and thumbnail image files.
Modification commands can be applied on-the-fly.
- in | insert
- Insert metadata from corresponding *.exv, XMP sidecar (*.xmp) and
thumbnail files. Use option -S .suf to change the suffix of
the input files. Since files of any supported format can be used as input
files, this command can be used to copy the metadata between files of
different formats. Modification commands can be applied on-the-fly.
- rm | delete
- Delete image metadata from the files.
- ad | adjust
- Adjust Exif timestamps by the given time. Requires at least one of the
options -a time, -Y yrs, -O mon
or -D day.
- mo | modify
- Apply commands to modify (add, set, delete) the Exif, IPTC and XMP
metadata of image files. Requires option -c, -m or
-M.
- mv | rename
- Rename files and/or set file timestamps according to the Exif create
timestamp. Uses the value of tag Exif.Photo.DateTimeOriginal or, if not
present, Exif.Image.DateTime to determine the timestamp. The filename
format can be set with -r fmt, timestamp options are
-t and -T.
- fi | fixiso
- Copy the ISO setting from one of the proprietary Nikon or Canon makernote
ISO tags to the regular Exif ISO tag, Exif.Photo.ISOSpeedRatings. Does not
overwrite an existing standard Exif ISO tag.
- fc | fixcom
- Fix the character encoding of Exif Unicode user comments. Decodes the
comment using the auto-detected or specified character encoding and writes
it back in UCS-2. Use option -n to specify the current encoding of
the comment if necessary.
exiv2 [ opt [arg] ]+ [ act ] file ...
option [arg] long option description
-a tim --adjust Modify time stamps. [+|-]HH[:MM[:SS[.mmm]]]
-b --binary Show large binary values (default is to suppress them).
-c txt --comment JPEG comment string to set in the image ('modify' action). ...
-d tgt --delete Delete target(s) for the 'delete' action. ...
-D +-n --days Time adjustment by a positive or negative number of days ...
-e tgt --extract Extract target(s) for the 'extract' action.
-f --force Do not prompt before overwriting existing files ...
-F --Force Do not prompt before renaming files (Force rename) ...
-g key --grep Only output info for this Exiv2 key (grep).
-h --help Display help and exit.
-i tgt --insert Insert target(s) for the 'insert' action. ...
-k --keep Preserve file timestamps when updating files (keep)
-K Key --key Report key. Similar to -g (grep) however key must match exactly.
-l dir --location Location (directory) for files to be inserted or extracted.
-m file --modify read commands from cmd-file
-M cmd --Modify Command line for the 'modify' action. ...
-n enc --encode Charset to decode Exif Unicode user comments. See: man 3 iconv_open
-O +-n --months Time adjustment by a positive or negative number of months, ...
-p mod --print Print report (common reports)
-P flg --Print Print report (fine grained control)
-q --quiet Silence warnings and error messages from the Exiv2 library ...
-Q lvl --log Set the log-level to 'd'(ebug), 'i'(nfo), 'w'(arning), 'e'(rror)
-r fmt --rename Filename format for the 'rename' action. ...
-S suf --suffix Use suffix .suf for source files for insert command.
-t --timestamp Set the file timestamp according to the Exif create timestamp ...
-T --Timestamp Only set the file timestamp according to Exif create timestamp ...
-u --unknown Show unknown tags ...
-v --verbose verbose
-V --version Show the program version and exit.
-Y +-n --years Time adjustment by a positive or negative number of years ...
act pr | ex | in | rm | ad | mo | mv | fi | fc
print, extract, insert, delete, adjust, modify, rename, fixiso,fixcom
cmd See "Commands" below.
flg E | I | X | x | g | k | l | n | y | c | s | v | t | h
Exif , IPTC, XMP, num, grp, key, label, name , type, count, size, vanilla, translated, hex
fmt Default format is %Y%m%d_%H%M%S.
lvl d | i | i | w | e
debug, info, warning, error
mod s | a | t | v | h | i | x | c | p | i | S | X :
summary, add, translated, vanilla, hex ...
iptc ,xmp, comment, preview, Structure,XMP raw
tgt a | c | e | i | t | x
all, comment, exif, iptc, thumb, xmp
- -h
- Display help and exit.
- -V
- Show the program version and exit.
When -V is combined with -v (Verbose version), build
information is printed to standard output along with a list of shared
libraries which have been loaded into memory. Verbose version is supported
on Windows (MSVC, Cygwin and MinGW builds), MacOSX and Linux and is
provided for test and debugging.
- -v
- Be verbose during the program run.
- -q
- Silence warnings and error messages from the Exiv2 library during the
program run (quiet). Note that options -v and -q can be used
at the same time.
- -Q lvl
- Set the log-level to 'd'(ebug), 'i'(nfo), 'w'(arning), 'e'(rror) or
'm'(ute). The default log-level is 'w'. -Qm is equivalent to
-q. All log messages are written to standard error.
- -b
- Show large binary values (default is to suppress them).
- -u
- Show unknown tags (default is to suppress tags which don't have a
name).
- -g key
- Only keys which match the given key (grep).
Multiple -g options can be used to grep info for several keys. This
option uses the system regular expression engine: see man 3 regex.
Platforms which do not support regex use key for a substring match. You
can determine the availability of regex using the command: exiv2 -v -V -g
have_regex
exiv2 -g Date -pt R.jpg
Exif.Image.DateTime Ascii 20 2012:08:07 16:01:05
Exif.Photo.DateTimeOriginal Ascii 20 2011:09:18 16:25:48
Exif.Photo.DateTimeDigitized Ascii 20 2011:09:18 16:25:48
- -K key
- Only report data for given key.
Multiple -K options can be used to report more than a single key.
exiv2 -K Exif.Photo.DateTimeDigitized -K Exif.Photo.DateTimeOriginal -pt R.jpg
Exif.Photo.DateTimeOriginal Ascii 20 2011:09:18 16:25:48
Exif.Photo.DateTimeDigitized Ascii 20 2011:09:18 16:25:48
- -n enc
- Charset to use to decode Exif Unicode user comments. enc is a name
understood by iconv_open(3), e.g., 'UTF-8'.
- -k
- Preserve file timestamps when updating files (keep). Can be used with all
options which update files. The flag is ignored by read-only options.
- -t
- Set the file timestamp according to the Exif create timestamp in addition
to renaming the file (overrides -k). This option is only used with
the 'rename' action.
- -T
- Only set the file timestamp according to the Exif create timestamp, do not
rename the file (overrides -k). This option is only used with the
'rename' action. Note: On Windows you may have to set the TZ environment
variable for this option to work correctly.
- -f
- Do not prompt before overwriting existing files (force overwrite).
- -F
- Do not prompt before renaming files (Force rename). Appends '_1' ('_2',
...) to the name of the new file.
- -a time
- Time adjustment in the format [-]HH[:MM[:SS]]. This option is only used
with the 'adjust' action. Examples: 1 adds one hour, 1:01 adds one hour
and one minute, -0:00:30 subtracts 30 seconds.
- -Y yrs
- Time adjustment by a positive or negative number of years, for the
'adjust' action.
- -O mon
- Time adjustment by a positive or negative number of months, for the
'adjust' action.
- -D day
- Time adjustment by a positive or negative number of days, for the 'adjust'
action.
- -p mode
- Print mode for the 'print' action. Possible modes are:
s : print a summary of the Exif metadata (the default)
a : print Exif, IPTC and XMP metadata (shortcut for -Pkyct)
t : interpreted (translated) Exif tags (-PEkyct)
v : plain Exif tag values (-PExgnycv)
h : hexdump of the Exif data (-PExgnycsh)
i : IPTC datasets (-PIkyct)
x : XMP properties (-PXkyct)
c : JPEG comment
p : list available image previews, sorted by preview image size in pixels
S : print image structure information (jpg, png and tiff only)
X : print "raw" XMP (jpg, png and tiff only)
- -P flgs
- Print flags for fine control of the tag list ('print' action). Allows
control of the type of metadata as well as data columns included in the
print output. Valid flags are:
E : include Exif tags in the list
I : IPTC datasets
X : XMP properties
x : print a column with the tag number
g : group name
k : key
l : tag label
n : tag name
y : type
c : number of components (count)
s : size in bytes
v : plain data value
t : interpreted (translated) data
h : hexdump of the data
- -d tgt
- Delete target(s) for the 'delete' action. Possible targets are:
a : all supported metadata (the default)
e : Exif section
t : Exif thumbnail only
i : IPTC data
x : XMP packet
c : JPEG comment
- -i tgt
- Insert target(s) for the 'insert' action. Possible targets are the same as
those for the -d option, plus an optional modifier:
X : Insert metadata from an XMP sidecar file <file>.xmp.
The remaining insert targets determine what metadata to insert from the
sidecar file. Possible are Exif, IPTC and XMP and the default is all of
these. Note that the inserted XMP properties include those converted to
Exif and IPTC.
This is option is intended for "filter" operations on the XMP
such as:
$ exiv2 -e{tgt}- filename | xmllint .... | exiv2 -i{tgt}-
filename
Only JPEG thumbnails can be inserted (not TIFF thumbnails),
they need to be named file-thumb.jpg.
- -e tgt
- Extract target(s) for the 'extract' action. Possible targets are the same
as those for the -d option, plus a target to extract preview images
and a modifier to generate an XMP sidecar file:
p[<n>[,<m> ...]] : Extract preview images. The optional comma
separated list of preview image numbers is used to determine which preview
images to extract. The available preview images and their numbers are
displayed with the 'print' option -pp.
X : Extract metadata to an XMP sidecar file <file>.xmp.
The remaining extract targets determine what metadata to extract to the
sidecar file. Possible are Exif, IPTC and XMP and the default is all of
these.
- : Output sidecar file to stdout (see -i tgt for example)
- -r fmt
- Filename format for the 'rename' action. The format string follows
strftime(3) and supports the following keywords:
:basename: - original filename without extension
:dirname: - name of the directory holding the original file
:parentname: - name of parent directory
Default filename format is %Y%m%d_%H%M%S.
- -c txt
- JPEG comment string to set in the image ('modify' action). This option can
also be used with the 'extract' and 'insert' actions to modify metadata
on-the-fly.
- -m file
- Command file for the 'modify' action. This option can also be used with
the 'extract' and 'insert' actions to modify metadata on-the-fly.
- -M cmd
- Command line for the 'modify' action. This option can also be used with
the 'extract' and 'insert' actions to modify metadata on-the-fly. The
format for the commands is the same as that of the lines of a command
file.
- -l dir
- Location (directory) for files to be inserted or extracted.
- -S .suf
- Use suffix .suf for source files in 'insert' action.
Commands for the 'modify' action can be read from a command file,
e.g.,
exiv2 -m cmd.txt image.jpg
or given on the command line, as in
exiv2 -M"add Iptc.Application2.Credit String Mr. Smith" image.jpg
Note the quotes. Multiple -m and -M options can be
combined, and a non-standard XMP namespace registered.
exiv2 -M"reg myprefix http://ns.myprefix.me/" -M"add Xmp.myprefix.Whom Mr. Smith" -M"set Exif.Image.Artist Mr. Smith" image.jpg
When writing Exif, IPTC and XMP metadata, exiv2 enforces
only a correct metadata structure. It is possible to write tags with types
and values different from those specified in the standards, duplicate Exif
tags, undefined tags, or incomplete metadata. While exiv2 is able to
read all metadata that it can write, other programs may have difficulties
with images that contain non standard-conforming metadata.
The format of a command is
set | add | del key [[type] value]
- set
- Set the value of an existing tag with a matching key or add
the tag.
- add
- Add a tag (unless key is a non-repeatable IPTC key; nothing
prevents you from adding duplicate Exif tags).
- del
- Delete all occurrences of a tag (requires only a key).
- key
- Exiv2 Exif, IPTC or XMP key.
- type
- Byte | Ascii | Short | Long | Rational | Undefined | SShort | SLong |
SRational | Comment for Exif keys,
String | Date | Time | Short | Undefined for IPTC keys, and
XmpText | XmpAlt | XmpBag | XmpSeq | LangAlt for XMP keys.
A default type is used if none is explicitly given. The
default is determined based on key.
- value
- The remaining text on the line is the value. It can optionally be enclosed
in single quotes ('value') or double quotes
("value").
The value is optional. Not providing any value is equivalent
to an empty value ("") and is mainly useful to create an XMP
array property, e.g., a bag.
The format of Exif Comment values includes an optional
charset specification at the beginning:
[charset=Ascii|Jis|Unicode|Undefined ]comment
Undefined is used by default if the value doesn't start
with a charset definition.
The format for an IPTC Date value is:
YYYY-MM-DD (year, month, day)
The format for an IPTC Time value is:
HH:MM:SS (hours, minutes, seconds)
and may optionally be followed by:
-HH:MM or +HH:MM (hours, minutes ahead/behind UTC)
The format of Rational (and SRational) is one
of:
integer
integer-numerator/integer-denominator
Fnumber
fnumber
Rational Examples:
exiv2 "-Mset Exif.Photo.MaxApertureValue 557429/62500" X.jpg
exiv2 "-Mset Exif.Photo.MaxApertureValue F5.6" X.jpg
The Rational format Fnumber (or fnumber) is for the
convenience of setting aperture values. Aperture values are stored in
Exif is an APEX value which can be evaluated by the
expression:
apex-value = log(Fnumber) * 2.0 / log(2.0)
Fnumber = exp(apex-value * log(2.0) / 2.0)
The Rational format Fnumber is valid for any Rational,
even when the key is not an Aperture. More information about APEX
value is available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APEX_system
The format of XMP LangAlt values includes an optional
language qualifier:
lang="language-code" text
lang="x-default" is used if the value doesn't start
with a language qualifier.
exiv2 -M'set Xmp.dc.title lang="de-DE" Euros' X.jpg
exiv2 -M'set Xmp.dc.title lang="en-GB" Pounds' X.jpg
exiv2 -M'set Xmp.dc.title lang="en-US" In God We Trust' X.jpg
exiv2 -M'set Xmp.dc.title All others pay cash' X.jpg
To remove a language specification, set the value to '' (empty
string)
exiv2 -M'set Xmp.dc.title lang="en-US"' X.jpg
To remove all language specifications, delete the key:
exiv2 -M'del Xmp.dc.title' X.jpg
- To register additional XMP
namespaces, combine the command with:
- reg prefix namespace
-
Empty lines and lines starting with # in a command file are
ignored (comments). Remaining lines are commands as described above.
- exiv2 *.jpg
- Prints a summary of the Exif information for all JPEG files in the
directory.
- exiv2 -pi
image.jpg
- Prints the IPTC metadata of the image.
- exiv2 rename
img_1234.jpg
- Renames img_1234.jpg (taken on 13-Nov-05 at 22:58:31) to
20051113_225831.jpg
- exiv2
-r':basename:_%Y%m' rename img_1234.jpg
- Renames img_1234.jpg to img_1234_200511.jpg
- exiv2 -et img1.jpg
img2.jpg
- Extracts the Exif thumbnails from the two files into img1-thumb.jpg and
img2-thumb.jpg.
- exiv2 -it img1.jpg
img2.jpg
- Inserts (copies) metadata from img1.exv to img1.jpg and from img2.exv to
img2.jpg.
- exiv2 -ep1,2
image.jpg
- Extracts previews 1 and 2 from the image to the files image-preview1.jpg
and image-preview2.jpg.
- exiv2 -eiX
image.jpg
- Extracts IPTC datasets into an XMP sidecar file image.xmp and in the
process converts them to "IPTC Core" XMP schema.
- exiv2 -iixX
image.jpg
- Inserts IPTC and XMP metadata from an XMP sidecar file image.xmp into
image.jpg. The resulting IPTC datasets are converted from the "IPTC
Core" XMP schema properties in the sidecar file to the older IPTC
IIM4 format. The inserted XMP properties include those in the "IPTC
Core" XMP schema.
- exiv2 -M"set Exif.Photo.UserComment charset=Ascii New Exif
comment" image.jpg
-
Sets the Exif comment to an ASCII string.
- exiv2 -M"set Exif.GPSInfo.GPSLatitude 4/1 15/1 33/1" \
-
-M"set Exif.GPSInfo.GPSLatitudeRef N" image.jpg
Sets the latitude to 4 degrees, 15 minutes and 33 seconds north. The Exif
standard stipulates that the GPSLatitude tag consists of three Rational
numbers for the degrees, minutes and seconds of the latitude and
GPSLatitudeRef contains either 'N' or 'S' for north or south latitude
respectively.
- exiv2 insert -l/tmp -S.CRW /data/*.JPG
-
Copy all metadata from CRW files in the /tmp directory to JPG files with
corresponding basenames in the /data directory. Note that this copies
metadata as is, without any modifications to adapt it to the requirements
of the target format. Some tags copied like this may not make sense in the
target image.
exiv2 was written by Andreas Huggel and others. The Exiv2
project web site is http://exiv2.org
This manual page was originally created for the Debian project by
KELEMEN Peter <fuji@debian.org>.