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exiftool - A tool for metadata edition

ExifTool is a platform-independent Perl library plus a command-line application 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, Lyrics3, as well as the maker notes of many digital cameras by Canon, Casio, DJI, FLIR, FujiFilm, GE, GoPro, 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.

ExifTool canĀ Read,Ā Write and/orĀ Create files in the following formats. Also listed are the support levels for EXIF, IPTC (IIM), XMP, ICC_Profile, C2PA (JUMBF) and other metadata types for each file format. C2PA metadata is not currentlyĀ Writable, but may beĀ Deleted from some file types by deleting the JUMBF group (ie.Ā -JUMBF:all=).

Installation

Download from https://exiftool.org/index.html.

Basic usage

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# Print metadata of the file brochure.pdf
exiftool -a -u brochure.pdf
# -a to display duplicated tags
# -u to display unknown tags

# Print common meta information for all images in "dir".  "-common" is a shortcut tag representing common EXIF meta information.
exiftool -common dir

# List specified meta information in tab-delimited column form for all images in "dir" to an output text file named "out.txt".
exiftool -T -createdate -aperture -shutterspeed -iso dir > out.txt

# Print ImageSize and ExposureTime tag names and values.
exiftool -s -ImageSize -ExposureTime b.jpg


# Print standard Canon information from two image files.
exiftool -l -canon c.jpg d.jpg

# Recursively extract common meta information from files in "pictures" directory, writing text output to ".txt" files with the same names.
exiftool -r -w .txt -common pictures

# Save thumbnail image from "image.jpg" to a file called "thumbnail.jpg".
exiftool -b -ThumbnailImage image.jpg > thumbnail.jpg

# 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 -b -JpgFromRaw -w _JFR.JPG -ext NEF -r .

# Extract all types of preview images (ThumbnailImage, PreviewImage, JpgFromRaw, etc.) from files in directory "dir", adding the tag name to the output preview image file names.
exiftool -a -b -W %d%f_%t%-c.%s -preview:all dir

# Print formatted date/time for all JPG files in the current directory.
exiftool -d '%r %a, %B %e, %Y' -DateTimeOriginal -S -s -ext jpg 

# Extract image resolution from EXIF IFD1 information (thumbnail image IFD)
exiftool -IFD1:XResolution -IFD1:YResolution image.jpg

# Extract all tags with names containing the word "Resolution" from an image.
exiftool '-*resolution*' image.jpg

# Extract all author-related XMP information from an image.
exiftool -xmp:author:all -a image.jpg

# 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 -xmp -b a.jpg > out.xmp

Tag names

See table with all tag names: https://exiftool.org/TagNames/.

AĀ Tag NameĀ is the handle by which the information is accessed in ExifTool. Tag names are entered on the command line with a leading '-', in the order you want them displayed. Valid characters in a tag name are A-Z (case is not significant), 0-9, hyphen (-) and underline (_). The tag name may be prefixed by aĀ group nameĀ (separated by a colon) to identify a specific information type or location. A special tag name of "All" may be used to represent all tags, or all tags in a specified group. For example:

Tag groups

See all info related to Tag groups

ExifTool classifies tags into groups in various families. Here is a list of the group names in each family:

Family Group Names
0 (InformationĀ Type) AAC, AFCP, AIFF, APE, APP0, APP1, APP11, APP12, APP13, APP14, APP15, APP2, APP3, APP4, APP5, APP6, APP7, APP8, APP9, ASF, Audible, Canon, CanonVRD, Composite, DICOM, DNG, DV, DjVu, Ducky, EXE, EXIF, ExifTool, FITS, FLAC, FLIR, File, Flash, FlashPix, Font, FotoStation, GIF, GIMP, GeoTiff, GoPro, H264, HTML, ICC_Profile, ID3, IPTC, ISO, ITC, JFIF, JPEG, JSON, JUMBF, Jpeg2000, LNK, Leaf, Lytro, M2TS, MIE, MIFF, MISB, MNG, MOI, MPC, MPEG, MPF, MXF, MakerNotes, Matroska, Meta, Ogg, OpenEXR, Opus, PDF, PICT, PLIST, PNG, PSP, Palm, PanasonicRaw, Parrot, PhotoCD, PhotoMechanic, Photoshop, PostScript, PrintIM, QuickTime, RAF, RIFF, RSRC, RTF, Radiance, Rawzor, Real, Red, SVG, SigmaRaw, Sony, Stim, Theora, Torrent, Trailer, VCard, Vorbis, WTV, XML, XMP, ZIP
1Ā (SpecificĀ Location) AAC, AC3, AFCP, AIFF, APE, ASF, AVI1, Adobe, AdobeCM, AdobeDNG, Apple, Audible, CBOR, CIFF, CameraIFD, Canon, CanonCustom, CanonDR4, CanonRaw, CanonVRD, Casio, Chapter#, Composite, DICOM, DJI, DNG, DV, DjVu, DjVu-Meta, Ducky, EPPIM, EXE, EXIF, ExifIFD, ExifTool, FITS, FLAC, FLIR, File, Flash, FlashPix, Font, FotoStation, FujiFilm, FujiIFD, GE, GIF, GIMP, GPS, GSpherical, Garmin, GeoTiff, GlobParamIFD, GoPro, GraphConv, H264, HP, HTC, HTML, HTML-dc, HTML-ncc, HTML-office, HTML-prod, HTML-vw96, HTTP-equiv, ICC-chrm, ICC-clrt, ICC-header, ICC-meas, ICC-meta, ICC-view, ICC_Profile, ICC_Profile#, ID3, ID3v1, ID3v1_Enh, ID3v2_2, ID3v2_3, ID3v2_4, IFD0, IFD1, IPTC, IPTC#, ISO, ITC, InfiRay, Insta360, InteropIFD, ItemList, JFIF, JFXX, JPEG, JPEG-HDR, JPS, JSON, JUMBF, JVC, Jpeg2000, KDC_IFD, Keys, Kodak, KodakBordersIFD, KodakEffectsIFD, KodakIFD, KyoceraRaw, LNK, Leaf, LeafSubIFD, Leica, Lyrics3, Lytro, M-RAW, M2TS, MAC, MIE-Audio, MIE-Camera, MIE-Canon, MIE-Doc, MIE-Extender, MIE-Flash, MIE-GPS, MIE-Geo, MIE-Image, MIE-Lens, MIE-Main, MIE-MakerNotes, MIE-Meta, MIE-Orient, MIE-Preview, MIE-Thumbnail, MIE-UTM, MIE-Unknown, MIE-Video, MIFF, MISB, MNG, MOBI, MOI, MPC, MPEG, MPF0, MPImage, MS-DOC, MXF, MacOS, MakerNotes, MakerUnknown, Matroska, MediaJukebox, Meta, MetaIFD, Microsoft, Minolta, MinoltaRaw, Motorola, NITF, Nikon, NikonCapture, NikonCustom, NikonScan, NikonSettings, NineEdits, Nintendo, Ocad, Ogg, Olympus, OpenEXR, Opus, PDF, PICT, PNG, PNG-cICP, PNG-pHYs, PSP, Palm, Panasonic, PanasonicRaw, Parrot, Pentax, PhaseOne, PhotoCD, PhotoMechanic, Photoshop, PictureInfo, PostScript, PreviewIFD, PrintIM, ProfileIFD, Qualcomm, QuickTime, RAF, RAF2, RIFF, RMETA, RSRC, RTF, Radiance, Rawzor, Real, Real-CONT, Real-MDPR, Real-PROP, Real-RA3, Real-RA4, Real-RA5, Real-RJMD, Reconyx, Red, Ricoh, SPIFF, SR2, SR2DataIFD, SR2SubIFD, SRF#, SVG, Samsung, Sanyo, Scalado, Sigma, SigmaRaw, Sony, SonyIDC, Stim, SubIFD, System, Theora, Torrent, Track#, UserData, VCalendar, VCard, VNote, Version0, Vorbis, WTV, XML, XMP, XMP-DICOM, XMP-Device, XMP-GAudio, XMP-GCamera, XMP-GCreations, XMP-GDepth, XMP-GFocus, XMP-GImage, XMP-GPano, XMP-GSpherical, XMP-LImage, XMP-MP, XMP-MP1, XMP-PixelLive, XMP-aas, XMP-acdsee, XMP-album, XMP-apple-fi, XMP-ast, XMP-aux, XMP-cc, XMP-cell, XMP-crd, XMP-creatorAtom, XMP-crs, XMP-dc, XMP-dex, XMP-digiKam, XMP-drone-dji, XMP-dwc, XMP-et, XMP-exif, XMP-exifEX, XMP-expressionmedia, XMP-extensis, XMP-fpv, XMP-getty, XMP-hdr, XMP-hdrgm, XMP-ics, XMP-iptcCore, XMP-iptcExt, XMP-lr, XMP-mediapro, XMP-microsoft, XMP-mwg-coll, XMP-mwg-kw, XMP-mwg-rs, XMP-nine, XMP-panorama, XMP-pdf, XMP-pdfx, XMP-photomech, XMP-photoshop, XMP-plus, XMP-pmi, XMP-prism, XMP-prl, XMP-prm, XMP-pur, XMP-rdf, XMP-sdc, XMP-swf, XMP-tiff, XMP-x, XMP-xmp, XMP-xmpBJ, XMP-xmpDM, XMP-xmpDSA, XMP-xmpMM, XMP-xmpNote, XMP-xmpPLUS, XMP-xmpRights, XMP-xmpTPg, ZIP, iTunes
2Ā (Category) Audio, Author, Camera, Device, Document, ExifTool, Image, Location, Other, Preview, Printing, Time, Unknown, Video
3Ā (DocumentĀ Number) Doc#, Main
4Ā (InstanceĀ Number) Copy#
5Ā (MetadataĀ Path) eg. JPEG-APP1-IFD0-ExifIFD
6Ā (EXIF/TIFFĀ Format) int8u, string, int16u, int32u, rational64u, int8s, undef, int16s, int32s, rational64s, float, double, ifd, unicode, complex, int64u, int64s, ifd64
7Ā (TagĀ ID) ID-xxx (where xxx is the tag ID. Numerical ID's are given in hex with a leading "0x" if theĀ HexTagIDs API optionĀ is set, as are characters in non-numerical ID's which are not valid in a group name. Note that unlike other group names, family 7 group names are case sensitive.)
8Ā (FileĀ Number) File# (for files loaded viaĀ -file_NUM_Ā option)

The exiftool output can be organized based on these groups using theĀ -gĀ orĀ -GĀ option (ie.Ā -g1Ā to see family 1 groups, orĀ -g3:1Ā to see both family 3 and family 1 group names in the output. See theĀ -gĀ option in the exiftool application documentation for more details, and theĀ GetGroupĀ function in the ExifTool library for a description of the group families. Note that when writing, only family 0, 1, 2 and 7 group names may be used.

Last update: 2025-12-16
Created: January 19, 2023 22:13:19