ExifTool by Phil Harvey

Read, Write and Edit Meta Information!

Also available --> Utility to fix Nikon NEF images corrupted by Nikon software

Note: If exiftool.org goes down, it is because of the crappy DreamHost web hosting which disables an "unlimited traffic" web site if a single bot hammers the site with a moderate load. An alternate ExifTool homepage is available at http://exiftool.sourceforge.net/

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Note: IP's that agressively download multiple copies of the distribution files or access web pages too quickly will be blocked.

Installing	Tag Names	Resources	History	Forum	FAQ

Download Version 13.10 (7.2 MB) - Dec. 20, 2024

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 is also available as a Windows executable and a MacOS package: (Note that these versions contain the executable only, and do not include the HTML documentation or other files of the full distribution above.)

Windows 32-bit: exiftool-13.10_32.zip (10.9 MB)

64-bit: exiftool-13.10_64.zip (10.7 MB)

The Windows executable archives include Perl. Just download and un-zip the appropriate archive then double-click on "exiftool(-k).exe" to read the application documentation, drag-and-drop files and folders to view meta information, or rename to "exiftool.exe" for command-line use. Note that if you move the .exe to another folder, you must also move the "exiftool_files" folder to the same location.

(The Windows packages are based on work by Oliver Betz, and use his launcher. Oliver also provides self-installing versions of these executables. See this forum post if you have any problems/comments with these versions.)

MacOS Package: ExifTool-13.10.pkg (5.2 MB)

The MacOS package installs the ExifTool command-line application and libraries in /usr/local/bin. After installing, type "exiftool" in a Terminal window to run exiftool and read the application documentation.

Read the installation instructions for help installing ExifTool on Windows, MacOS and Unix systems.

Click here for the SHA256 (recommended), SHA1 and MD5 checksums to verify these distribution packages.
The version number of the latest ExifTool release may be found here, and the name of the most recent alternate geolocation database is here.

Features

Powerful, fast, flexible and customizable
Supports a large number of different file formats
Reads EXIF, GPS, IPTC, XMP, JFIF, MakerNotes, C2PA JUMBF, GeoTIFF, ICC Profile, Photoshop IRB, FlashPix, AFCP, ID3, Lyrics3 and more...
Writes EXIF, GPS, IPTC, XMP, JFIF, MakerNotes, GeoTIFF, ICC Profile, Photoshop IRB, AFCP and more...
Reads and writes maker notes of many digital cameras
Reads timed metadata (eg. GPS track) from MOV/MP4/M2TS/AVI videos
Reads GM PDR data from videos written by cars such as Corvette and Camero
Numerous output formatting options (including tab-delimited, HTML, XML and JSON)
Multi-lingual output (cs, de, en, en-ca, en-gb, es, fi, fr, it, ja, ko, nl, pl, ru, sk, sv, tr, zh-cn or zh-tw)
Compares two files for metadata differences
Geotags images from GPS track log files (with time drift correction!)
Generates track logs from geotagged images
Geolocation feature identifies nearest city, state/province, county and country based on GPS position
Reverse Geolocation determines GPS position from city, state/province, country name, etc.
Shifts date/time values to fix timestamps in images
Renames files and organizes in directories (by date or by any other meta information)
Extracts thumbnail images, preview images, and large JPEG images from RAW files
Copies meta information between files (even different-format files)
Reads/writes structured XMP information
Deletes meta information individually, in groups, or altogether
Sets the file modification date (and creation date in Mac and Windows) from EXIF information
Supports alternate language tags in XMP, PNG, ID3, Font, QuickTime, ICC Profile, MIE and MXF information
Processes entire directory trees
Creates text output file for each image file
Creates binary-format metadata-only (MIE, EXV) files for metadata backup
Automatically backs up original image when writing
Organizes output into groups
Conditionally processes files based on value of any meta information
Ability to add custom user-defined tags
Support for MWG (Metadata Working Group) recommendations
Ability to read tags from multiple files simultaneously, allowing metadata to be compared and combined between files
Generates MD5/SHA256/SHA512 hashes of image data only for many file types (for comparison and validation of image data)
Recognizes thousands of different tags
Tested with images from thousands of different camera models
Advanced verbose and HTML-based hex dump outputs

A Note to Unix Power-Users

If you feel the need to use "find" or "awk" in conjunction with ExifTool, then you probably haven't discovered the full power of ExifTool. Read about the -ext, -if, -p and -tagsFromFile options in the application documentation. (This is common mistake number 3.)

What People are Saying about ExifTool

"In my experience, nothing but nothing is as complete, powerful, and flexible as Phil Harvey's exiftool ... I've never seen anything that's in the same ballpark for power." - dpreview forum

"While there are a lot of image tools available, nothing comes close for accessing/updating the metadata like ExifTool" - merg's blog

"Fast, reliable and amazingly comprehensive ..." - CPAN ratings

"... the one piece of free software that gets the most detailed exif data of /any/ tool I've found." - gnome mail archives

"ExifTool makes every other EXIF reader (and writer) than I've seen, including the camera manufacturers' readers, look lame." - photo.net Nikon forum

"Insanely great tool with a long learning curve ..." - Adobe Forums

"ExifTool has been outstanding in our custom used Tesla image gallery build. We are able to aggregate image meta from our user base and incorporate this into development iterations to continually optimize our platform..." - Find My Electric

"... it's super awesome, it's super reliable and after many years of development it's still being updated!" - P_W999 blog

"ExifTool was the first and is (imho) by far the most complete, safe, well-tested, well-documented, and up-to-date software you can use to manipulate metadata" - Nine Degrees Below Photography

"... it is the mother of all EXIF utilities; the BFG of meta-data extraction; the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster of EXIF tools ... This thing will suck the last bit of metadata out of whatever image file you throw at it!" - Open Photography Forums

"... it is total fucking gibberish to me." - Reddit Linux Questions

Supported File Types

ExifTool can Read, Write and/or 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 currently Writable, but may be Deleted from some file types by deleting the JUMBF group (ie. -JUMBF:all=).

File Type Support Description EXIF IPTC XMP ICC1 C2PA Other

3FR R Hasselblad RAW (TIFF-based) R R R R R -

3G2, 3GP2 R/W 3rd Gen. Partnership Project 2 a/v (QuickTime-based) R/W3 R/W3 R/W/C - R/D R/W/C QuickTime

3GP, 3GPP R/W 3rd Gen. Partnership Project a/v (QuickTime-based) R/W3 R/W3 R/W/C - R/D R/W/C QuickTime

7z R 7z Archive - - - - - R ZIP

A R Unix static library code Archive - - - - - R EXE

AA R Audible Audiobook - - - - - R Audible

AAC R Advanced Audio Codec - - - - - R AAC

AAE R Apple edit information (XML PLIST-based) - - - - - R PLIST

AAX R/W Audible Enhanced Audiobook (QuickTime-based) R/W3 R/W3 R/W/C - R/D R/W/C QuickTime

ACR R American College of Radiology ACR-NEMA (DICOM-like) - - - - - R DICOM

AFM, ACFM, AMFM R Adobe [Composite/Multiple Master] Font Metrics - - - - - R Font

AI, AIT R/W Adobe Illustrator [Template] (PS or PDF) R/W/C4 R/W/C4 R/W/C5 R/W/C4 - R/W/C PDF PostScript, R Photoshop

AIFF, AIF, AIFC R Audio Interchange File Format [Compressed] - - - - R R AIFF ID3 Lyrics3

APE R Monkey's Audio - - - - R R APE ID3 Lyrics3

ARQ R/W Sony Alpha Pixel-Shift RAW (TIFF-based) R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/D R/W Sony SonyIDC

ARW R/W Sony Alpha RAW (TIFF-based) R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/D R/W Sony SonyIDC

ASF R Microsoft Advanced Systems Format - - R - - R ASF

AVI R Audio Video Interleaved (RIFF-based) R3 - R - R R RIFF

AVIF R/W AV1 Image File Format (QuickTime-based) R/W/C - R/W/C R/W R/D R/W QuickTime

BMP, DIB R Windows BitMaP / Device Independent Bitmap - - - - - R BMP

BPG R Better Portable Graphics R - R R - R BPG

BTF R BigTIFF (64-bit Tagged Image File Format) R R R R R -

C2PA, JUMBF R C2PA JPEG Universal Metadata Box Format - - - - R R Jpeg2000

CHM R Microsoft Compiled HTML format - - - - - R EXE

COS R Capture One Settings (XML-based) - - - - - R XML

CR2 R/W Canon RAW 2 (TIFF-based) (CR2 spec) R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/D R/W Canon, R/W/C CanonVRD2

CR3 R/W Canon RAW 3 (QuickTime-based) (CR3 spec) R/W/C - R/W/C - R/D R/W Canon QuickTime, R/W/C CanonVRD2

CRM R/W Canon RAW Movie (QuickTime-based) R/W/C - R/W/C - R/D R/W Canon QuickTime

CRW, CIFF R/W Canon RAW Camera Image File Format (CRW spec) - - R/W/C - - R/W CanonRaw, R/W/C CanonVRD2

CS1 R/W Sinar CaptureShop 1-shot RAW (PSD-based) R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C - R Photoshop

CSV R Comma-Separated Values - - - - - R Text

CZI R Zeiss Integrated Software RAW (ZISRAW) - - - - - R ZISRAW, R XML

DCM, DC3, DIC, DICM R DICOM - Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine - - - - - R DICOM

DCP R/W DNG Camera Profile (DNG-like) R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/D -

DCR R Kodak Digital Camera RAW (TIFF-based) R R R R R -

DFONT R Macintosh Data Fork Font - - - - - R Font

DIVX R DivX media format (ASF-based) - - R - - R ASF

DJVU, DJV R DjVu image (AIFF-like) - - R - - R DJVU

DNG R/W Digital Negative (TIFF-based) R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/D -

DOC, DOT R Microsoft Word Document/Template (FPX-like) - - R R - R FlashPix

DOCX, DOCM R Office Open XML Document [Macro-enabled] - - - - - R XML ZIP

DOTX, DOTM R Office Open XML Document Template [Macro-enabled] - - - - - R XML ZIP

DPX R Digital Picture Exchange - - - - - R DPX

DR4 R/W/C2 Canon DPP version 4 Recipe - - - - - R/W/C CanonVRD2

DSS, DS2 R Digital Speech Standard [2] - - - - - R Olympus

DYLIB R MacOS Mach-O executable and library files - - - - - R EXE

DV R Digital Video - - - - - R DV

DVB R/W Digital Video Broadcasting (QuickTime-based) R/W3 R/W3 R/W/C - R/D R/W/C QuickTime

DVR-MS R Microsoft Digital Video Recording (ASF-based) - - R - - R ASF

EIP R Capture One Enhanced Image Package (ZIP-based) R - - - - R XML ZIP

EPS, EPSF, PS R/W [Encapsulated] PostScript Format R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C - R/W/C PostScript, R Photoshop

EPUB R Electronic Publication (ZIP/XML-based) - - - - - R XML ZIP

ERF R/W Epson RAW Format (TIFF-based) R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/D R/W Olympus

EXE, DLL R DOS/Windows executable and library files - - - - - R EXE

EXIF R/W/C Exchangeable Image File Format metadata (TIFF-based) R/W/C - - - R/D -

EXR R Open EXR (Extended Range) R - R - - R OpenEXR

EXV R/W/C Exiv2 metadata file (JPEG-based) R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/D Supported JPEG Meta Information

F4A, F4B, F4P, F4V R/W Adobe Flash Player 9+ Audio/Video (QuickTime-based) R/W3 R/W3 R/W/C - R/D R/W/C QuickTime

FFF R/W6 Hasselblad Flexible File Format (TIFF-based) R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/D -

FFF R FLIR Systems thermal image File Format - - - - - R FLIR

FITS R Flexible Image Transport System - - - - - R FITS

FLA R Macromedia/Adobe Flash project (FPX-like) - - R R - R FlashPix

FLAC R Free Lossless Audio Codec - - - - R R FLAC ID3 Lyrics3

FLIF R/W Free Lossless Image Format R/W/C - R/W/C R/W/C - R FLIF

FLV R Flash Video - - R - - R Flash

FPF R FLIR Public image Format - - - - - R FLIR

FPX R FlashPix image - - R R - R FlashPix

GIF R/W Compuserve Graphics Interchange Format - - R/W/C R/W/C R/D R/W/C GIF

GLV R/W Garmin Low-resolution Video (QuickTime-based) R/W3 R/W3 R/W/C - R/D R/W/C QuickTime

GPR R/W GoPro RAW (DNG-based) R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/D -

GZ, GZIP R GNU ZIP compressed archive - - - - - R ZIP

HDP, WDP, JXR R/W Windows HD Photo / Media Photo / JPEG XR (TIFF-based) R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/D -

HDR R Radiance RGBE High Dynamic-Range - - - - - R Radiance

HEIC, HEIF, HIF R/W High Efficiency Image Format (QuickTime-based) R/W/C - R/W/C R/W R/D R/W QuickTime

HTML, HTM, XHTML R [Extensible] HyperText Markup Language - - - - - R HTML

ICC, ICM R/W/C1 International Color Consortium color profile - - - R/W/C - -

ICO, CUR R Windows Icon / Cursor - - - - - R ICO

ICS, ICAL R iCalendar Schedule - - - - - R VCalendar

IDML R Adobe InDesign Markup Language (ZIP/XML-based) - - - - - R XML ZIP

IIQ R/W Phase One Intelligent Image Quality RAW (TIFF-based) R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/D R/W PhaseOne

IND, INDD, INDT R/W Adobe InDesign Document/Template - - R/W/C - - -

INSP R/W Insta360 Picture (JPEG-based) R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/D Supported JPEG Meta Information

INSV R Insta360 Video (QuickTime-based) - - R - R R QuickTime

INX R Adobe InDesign Interchange (XML-based) - - R - - -

ISO R ISO 9660 disk image - - - - - R ISO

ITC R iTunes Cover Flow artwork - - - - - R ITC

J2C, J2K, JPC R JPEG 2000 codestream R3 R3 R R - R Jpeg2000 Photoshop3

JP2, JPF, JPM,
JPX, JPH R/W JPEG 2000 image [Compound/Extended/High-throughput] R/W/C3 R/W/C3 R/W/C R - R/W/C Jpeg2000, R Photoshop3

JPEG, JPG, JPE R/W Joint Photographic Experts Group image R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/D Supported JPEG Meta Information

JSON R JavaScript Object Notation - - - - - R JSON

JXL R/W JPEG XL (codestream and ISO BMFF) (Jpeg2000-based) R/W/C - R/W/C - - -

K25 R Kodak DC25 RAW (TIFF-based) R R R R R -

KDC R Kodak Digital Camera RAW (TIFF-based) R R R R R R Kodak

KEY, KTH R Apple iWork '09 Keynote presentation/Theme - - - - - R XML ZIP

LA R Lossless Audio (RIFF-based) R3 - R - R R RIFF

LFP, LFR R Lytro Light Field Picture - - - - - R Lytro

LIF R Leica Image File - - - - - R LIF

LNK R Microsoft Shell Link (Windows shortcut) - - - - - R LNK

LRV R/W Low-Resolution Video (QuickTime-based) R/W3 R/W3 R/W/C - - R/W/C QuickTime

M2TS, MTS, M2T, TS R MPEG-2 Transport Stream (used for AVCHD video) - - - - - R M2TS H264 MISB

M4A, M4B, M4P, M4V R/W MPEG-4 Audio/Video (QuickTime-based) R/W3 R/W3 R/W/C - R/D R/W/C QuickTime

MACOS R MacOS "._" sidecar file (may have any extension) - - - - - R XAttr RSRC

MAX R 3D Studio MAX (FPX-like) - - R R - R FlashPix

MEF R/W Mamiya (RAW) Electronic Format (TIFF-based) R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/D -

MIE R/W/C Meta Information Encapsulation (MIE specification) R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/D R/W/C MIE

MIFF, MIF R Magick Image File Format R R R R - R MIFF Photoshop

MKA, MKV, MKS R Matroska Audio/Video/Subtitle - - - - - R Matroska

MOBI, AZW, AZW3 R Mobipocket electronic book (Palm-based) - - - - - R Palm MOBI

MODD R Sony Picture Motion metadata (XML PLIST-based) - - - - - R PLIST

MOI R MOD Information file - - - - - R MOI

MOS R/W Creo Leaf Mosaic (TIFF-based) R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/D R Leaf

MOV, QT R/W Apple QuickTime Movie R/W3 R/W3 R/W/C - R/D R/W/C QuickTime

MP3 R MPEG-1 layer 3 audio - - - - R R MPEG ID3 Lyrics3 APE

MP4 R/W Motion Picture Experts Group version 4 (QuickTime-based) R/W3 R/W3 R/W/C - R/D R/W/C QuickTime

MPC R Musepack Audio - - - - R R MPC ID3 Lyrics3 APE

MPEG, MPG, M2V R Motion Picture Experts Group version 1 or 2 - - - - R R MPEG ID3 Lyrics3

MPO R/W Extended Multi-Picture format (JPEG with MPF extensions) R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/D Supported JPEG Meta Information

MQV R/W Sony Mobile QuickTime Video R/W3 R/W3 R/W/C - R/D R/W/C QuickTime

MRW R/W Minolta RAW R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/D R/W MinoltaRaw Minolta

MRC R Medical Research Council - - - - - R MRC

MXF R Material Exchange Format - - - - - R MXF

NEF R/W Nikon (RAW) Electronic Format (TIFF-based) R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/D R/W Nikon NikonCapture

NKA R Nikon NX Studio Adjustments - - - - - R XML

NKSC R/W Nikon Sidecar (XMP-based) - - R/W/C - - -

NMBTEMPLATE R Apple iWork '09 Numbers Template - - - - - R XML ZIP

NRW R/W Nikon RAW (2) (TIFF-based) R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/D R/W Nikon NikonCapture

NXD R Nikon Capture NX-D adjustments (XMP-based) - - R - - -

NUMBERS R Apple iWork '09 Numbers spreadsheet - - - - - R XML ZIP

O R Unix compiled code Object - - - - - R EXE

ODB, ODC, ODF, ODG,
ODI, ODP, ODS, ODT R Open Document Database/Chart/Formula/Graphics/
Image/Presentation/Spreadsheet/Text (ZIP/XML-based) - - - - - R XML ZIP

OFR R OptimFROG audio (RIFF-based) R3 - R - R R RIFF

OGG, OGV R Ogg bitstream container - - - - R R FLAC ID3 Lyrics3 Theora Vorbis

ONP R ON1 Presets - - - - - R JSON PLIST

OPUS R Ogg Opus audio - - - - R R FLAC ID3 Lyrics3 Opus Vorbis

ORF, ORI R/W Olympus RAW Format (TIFF-based) R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/D R/W Olympus

OTF R Open Type Font - - - - R R Font

PAC R Lossless Predictive Audio Compression (RIFF-based) R3 - R - R R RIFF

PAGES R Apple iWork '09 Pages document - - - - - R XML ZIP

PCD R Kodak Photo CD Image Pac - - - - - R PhotoCD

PCX R PC Paintbrush - - - - - R PCX

PDB, PRC R Palm Database - - - - - R Palm

PDF R/W7 Adobe Portable Document Format R3 R3 R/W/C R3 R R/W/C PDF, R Photoshop

PEF R/W Pentax (RAW) Electronic Format (TIFF-based) R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/D R/W Pentax

PFA, PFB R PostScript Font ASCII/Binary - - - - - R Font

PFM R Printer Font Metrics - - - - - R Font

PFM R Portable FloatMap - - - - - R PFM

PGF R Progressive Graphics File - - - - - R PGF PNG

PICT, PCT R Apple Picture file - - - R - R PICT Photoshop

PLIST R Apple Property List (binary and XML formats) - - - - - R PLIST

PMP R Sony DSC-F1 Cyber-Shot image - - - - - R Sony

PNG, JNG, MNG R/W Portable/JPEG/Multiple-image Network Graphics R/W/C3 R/W/C3 R/W/C R/W/C R/D R/W/C PNG

PPM, PBM, PGM R/W Portable Pixel/Bit/Gray Map - - - - - R PPM, R/W/C Comment

PPT, PPS, POT R PowerPoint Presentation/Slideshow/Template (FPX-like) - - R R - R FlashPix

POTX, POTM R Office Open XML Presentation Template [Macro-enabled] - - - - - R XML ZIP

PPAX, PPAM R Office Open XML Presentation Addin [Macro-enabled] - - - - - R XML ZIP

PPSX, PPSM R Office Open XML Presentation Slideshow [Macro-enabled] - - - - - R XML ZIP

PPTX, PPTM R Office Open XML Presentation [Macro-enabled] - - - - - R XML ZIP

PSD, PSB, PSDT R/W PhotoShop Document / Large Document / Template R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C - R Photoshop

PSP, PSPIMAGE R Paint Shop Pro R - - - - R PSP

QTIF, QTI, QIF R/W QuickTime Image File R/W3 R/W3 R/W/C - R/D R/W/C QuickTime

R3D R Redcode RAW video - - - - - R Red

RA R Real Audio - - - - R R Real ID3 Lyrics3

RAF R/W FujiFilm RAW Format R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/D R/W FujiFilm

RAM, RPM R Real Audio/Plug-in Metafile - - - - - R Real

RAR R RAR Archive - - - - - R ZIP

RAW R Kyocera Contax N Digital RAW - - - - - R KyoceraRaw

RAW R/W Panasonic RAW (TIFF-based) R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/D R/W PanasonicRaw Panasonic

RIFF, RIF R Resource Interchange File Format R3 - R - R R RIFF

RM, RV, RMVB R Real Media/Video [Variable Bitrate] - - - - - R Real

RSRC R Mac OS Resource - - - - - R RSRC Photoshop PostScript Font

RTF R Rich Text Format - - - - - R RTF

RW2 R/W Panasonic RAW 2 (TIFF-based) R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/D R/W PanasonicRaw Panasonic

RWL R/W Leica RAW (TIFF-based) R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/D R/W PanasonicRaw Panasonic

RWZ R Rawzor compressed image R R R R - R Rawzor

SEQ R FLIR Systems image Sequence - - - - - R FLIR

SKETCH R Sketch design file - - - - - R JSON ZIP

SO R Unix ELF executable and Shared Object files - - - - - R EXE

SR2 R/W Sony RAW 2 (TIFF-based) R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/D R/W Sony

SRF R Sony RAW Format (TIFF-based) R R R R R R Sony

SRW R/W Samsung RAW format (TIFF-based) R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/D R/W Samsung

SVG R Scalable Vector Graphics (XML-based) - - - - R R SVG

SWF R Shockwave Flash - - R - - R Flash

THM R/W Thumbnail image (JPEG) R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/D Supported JPEG Meta Information

THMX R Office Open XML Theme - - - - - R XML ZIP

TIFF, TIF R/W Tagged Image File Format R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/D R/W/C GeoTIFF1, R/W Trailers

TTF, TTC R True Type Font/Collection - - - - R R Font

TORRENT R BitTorrent description file - - - - - R Torrent

TXT R Text files - - - - - R Text

VCF, VCARD R Virtual Card - - - - - R VCard

VNT R Scene7 Vignette (FPX-like) - - - R - R FlashPix

VNT R V-Note document - - - - - R VNote

VOB R Video Object (MPEG-based) - - - - - R MPEG

VRD R/W/C2 Canon DPP Recipe Data - - R/W/C - - R/W/C CanonVRD2

VSD R Microsoft Visio Drawing (FPX-like) - - R R - R FlashPix

WAV R Windows digital audio WAVeform (RIFF-based) R3 - R - R R RIFF

WEBM R Google Web Movie (Matroska-based) - - - - - R Matroska

WEBP R/W Google Web Picture (RIFF-based) R/W/C - R/W/C R/W/C R/D R RIFF

WMA, WMV R Windows Media Audio/Video (ASF-based) - - R - - R ASF

WPG R WordPerfect Graphics - - - - - R WPG

WTV R Windows recorded TV show - - - - - R WTV

WV R WavePack lossless audio (RIFF-based) R3 - R - R R RIFF

X3F R/W Sigma/Foveon RAW R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/W/C R/D R/W Sigma, R SigmaRaw

XCF R GIMP native image format R R R R - R GIMP

XISF R Extensible Image Serialization Format - - - - - R XISF

XLS, XLT R Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet/Template (FPX-like) - - R R - R FlashPix

XLSX, XLSM, XLSB R Office Open XML Spreadsheet [Macro-enabled/Binary] - - - - - R XML ZIP

XLTX, XLTM R Office Open XML Spreadsheet Template [Macro-enabled] - - - - - R XML ZIP

XMP R/W/C Extensible Metadata Platform sidecar file - - R/W/C - - -

ZIP R ZIP archive - - - - - R ZIP

1 Block write only, 2 Block create only, 3 Non-standard format, 4 Only writable for PostScript-format file type, 5 Only writable for PDF-format file type, 6 Only writable when ignoring minor errors due to Phocus incompatibility, 7 Old metdata is never actually deleted

File Type	Support	Description	EXIF	IPTC	XMP	ICC1	C2PA	Other
3FR	R	Hasselblad RAW (TIFF-based)	R	R	R	R	R	-
3G2, 3GP2	R/W	3rd Gen. Partnership Project 2 a/v (QuickTime-based)	R/W3	R/W3	R/W/C	-	R/D	R/W/C QuickTime
3GP, 3GPP	R/W	3rd Gen. Partnership Project a/v (QuickTime-based)	R/W3	R/W3	R/W/C	-	R/D	R/W/C QuickTime
7z	R	7z Archive	-	-	-	-	-	R ZIP
A	R	Unix static library code Archive	-	-	-	-	-	R EXE
AA	R	Audible Audiobook	-	-	-	-	-	R Audible
AAC	R	Advanced Audio Codec	-	-	-	-	-	R AAC
AAE	R	Apple edit information (XML PLIST-based)	-	-	-	-	-	R PLIST
AAX	R/W	Audible Enhanced Audiobook (QuickTime-based)	R/W3	R/W3	R/W/C	-	R/D	R/W/C QuickTime
ACR	R	American College of Radiology ACR-NEMA (DICOM-like)	-	-	-	-	-	R DICOM
AFM, ACFM, AMFM	R	Adobe [Composite/Multiple Master] Font Metrics	-	-	-	-	-	R Font
AI, AIT	R/W	Adobe Illustrator [Template] (PS or PDF)	R/W/C4	R/W/C4	R/W/C5	R/W/C4	-	R/W/C PDF PostScript, R Photoshop
AIFF, AIF, AIFC	R	Audio Interchange File Format [Compressed]	-	-	-	-	R	R AIFF ID3 Lyrics3
APE	R	Monkey's Audio	-	-	-	-	R	R APE ID3 Lyrics3
ARQ	R/W	Sony Alpha Pixel-Shift RAW (TIFF-based)	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	R/W Sony SonyIDC
ARW	R/W	Sony Alpha RAW (TIFF-based)	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	R/W Sony SonyIDC
ASF	R	Microsoft Advanced Systems Format	-	-	R	-	-	R ASF
AVI	R	Audio Video Interleaved (RIFF-based)	R3	-	R	-	R	R RIFF
AVIF	R/W	AV1 Image File Format (QuickTime-based)	R/W/C	-	R/W/C	R/W	R/D	R/W QuickTime
BMP, DIB	R	Windows BitMaP / Device Independent Bitmap	-	-	-	-	-	R BMP
BPG	R	Better Portable Graphics	R	-	R	R	-	R BPG
BTF	R	BigTIFF (64-bit Tagged Image File Format)	R	R	R	R	R	-
C2PA, JUMBF	R	C2PA JPEG Universal Metadata Box Format	-	-	-	-	R	R Jpeg2000
CHM	R	Microsoft Compiled HTML format	-	-	-	-	-	R EXE
COS	R	Capture One Settings (XML-based)	-	-	-	-	-	R XML
CR2	R/W	Canon RAW 2 (TIFF-based) (CR2 spec)	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	R/W Canon, R/W/C CanonVRD2
CR3	R/W	Canon RAW 3 (QuickTime-based) (CR3 spec)	R/W/C	-	R/W/C	-	R/D	R/W Canon QuickTime, R/W/C CanonVRD2
CRM	R/W	Canon RAW Movie (QuickTime-based)	R/W/C	-	R/W/C	-	R/D	R/W Canon QuickTime
CRW, CIFF	R/W	Canon RAW Camera Image File Format (CRW spec)	-	-	R/W/C	-	-	R/W CanonRaw, R/W/C CanonVRD2
CS1	R/W	Sinar CaptureShop 1-shot RAW (PSD-based)	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	-	R Photoshop
CSV	R	Comma-Separated Values	-	-	-	-	-	R Text
CZI	R	Zeiss Integrated Software RAW (ZISRAW)	-	-	-	-	-	R ZISRAW, R XML
DCM, DC3, DIC, DICM	R	DICOM - Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine	-	-	-	-	-	R DICOM
DCP	R/W	DNG Camera Profile (DNG-like)	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	-
DCR	R	Kodak Digital Camera RAW (TIFF-based)	R	R	R	R	R	-
DFONT	R	Macintosh Data Fork Font	-	-	-	-	-	R Font
DIVX	R	DivX media format (ASF-based)	-	-	R	-	-	R ASF
DJVU, DJV	R	DjVu image (AIFF-like)	-	-	R	-	-	R DJVU
DNG	R/W	Digital Negative (TIFF-based)	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	-
DOC, DOT	R	Microsoft Word Document/Template (FPX-like)	-	-	R	R	-	R FlashPix
DOCX, DOCM	R	Office Open XML Document [Macro-enabled]	-	-	-	-	-	R XML ZIP
DOTX, DOTM	R	Office Open XML Document Template [Macro-enabled]	-	-	-	-	-	R XML ZIP
DPX	R	Digital Picture Exchange	-	-	-	-	-	R DPX
DR4	R/W/C2	Canon DPP version 4 Recipe	-	-	-	-	-	R/W/C CanonVRD2
DSS, DS2	R	Digital Speech Standard [2]	-	-	-	-	-	R Olympus
DYLIB	R	MacOS Mach-O executable and library files	-	-	-	-	-	R EXE
DV	R	Digital Video	-	-	-	-	-	R DV
DVB	R/W	Digital Video Broadcasting (QuickTime-based)	R/W3	R/W3	R/W/C	-	R/D	R/W/C QuickTime
DVR-MS	R	Microsoft Digital Video Recording (ASF-based)	-	-	R	-	-	R ASF
EIP	R	Capture One Enhanced Image Package (ZIP-based)	R	-	-	-	-	R XML ZIP
EPS, EPSF, PS	R/W	[Encapsulated] PostScript Format	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	-	R/W/C PostScript, R Photoshop
EPUB	R	Electronic Publication (ZIP/XML-based)	-	-	-	-	-	R XML ZIP
ERF	R/W	Epson RAW Format (TIFF-based)	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	R/W Olympus
EXE, DLL	R	DOS/Windows executable and library files	-	-	-	-	-	R EXE
EXIF	R/W/C	Exchangeable Image File Format metadata (TIFF-based)	R/W/C	-	-	-	R/D	-
EXR	R	Open EXR (Extended Range)	R	-	R	-	-	R OpenEXR
EXV	R/W/C	Exiv2 metadata file (JPEG-based)	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	Supported JPEG Meta Information
F4A, F4B, F4P, F4V	R/W	Adobe Flash Player 9+ Audio/Video (QuickTime-based)	R/W3	R/W3	R/W/C	-	R/D	R/W/C QuickTime
FFF	R/W6	Hasselblad Flexible File Format (TIFF-based)	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	-
FFF	R	FLIR Systems thermal image File Format	-	-	-	-	-	R FLIR
FITS	R	Flexible Image Transport System	-	-	-	-	-	R FITS
FLA	R	Macromedia/Adobe Flash project (FPX-like)	-	-	R	R	-	R FlashPix
FLAC	R	Free Lossless Audio Codec	-	-	-	-	R	R FLAC ID3 Lyrics3
FLIF	R/W	Free Lossless Image Format	R/W/C	-	R/W/C	R/W/C	-	R FLIF
FLV	R	Flash Video	-	-	R	-	-	R Flash
FPF	R	FLIR Public image Format	-	-	-	-	-	R FLIR
FPX	R	FlashPix image	-	-	R	R	-	R FlashPix
GIF	R/W	Compuserve Graphics Interchange Format	-	-	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	R/W/C GIF
GLV	R/W	Garmin Low-resolution Video (QuickTime-based)	R/W3	R/W3	R/W/C	-	R/D	R/W/C QuickTime
GPR	R/W	GoPro RAW (DNG-based)	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	-
GZ, GZIP	R	GNU ZIP compressed archive	-	-	-	-	-	R ZIP
HDP, WDP, JXR	R/W	Windows HD Photo / Media Photo / JPEG XR (TIFF-based)	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	-
HDR	R	Radiance RGBE High Dynamic-Range	-	-	-	-	-	R Radiance
HEIC, HEIF, HIF	R/W	High Efficiency Image Format (QuickTime-based)	R/W/C	-	R/W/C	R/W	R/D	R/W QuickTime
HTML, HTM, XHTML	R	[Extensible] HyperText Markup Language	-	-	-	-	-	R HTML
ICC, ICM	R/W/C1	International Color Consortium color profile	-	-	-	R/W/C	-	-
ICO, CUR	R	Windows Icon / Cursor	-	-	-	-	-	R ICO
ICS, ICAL	R	iCalendar Schedule	-	-	-	-	-	R VCalendar
IDML	R	Adobe InDesign Markup Language (ZIP/XML-based)	-	-	-	-	-	R XML ZIP
IIQ	R/W	Phase One Intelligent Image Quality RAW (TIFF-based)	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	R/W PhaseOne
IND, INDD, INDT	R/W	Adobe InDesign Document/Template	-	-	R/W/C	-	-	-
INSP	R/W	Insta360 Picture (JPEG-based)	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	Supported JPEG Meta Information
INSV	R	Insta360 Video (QuickTime-based)	-	-	R	-	R	R QuickTime
INX	R	Adobe InDesign Interchange (XML-based)	-	-	R	-	-	-
ISO	R	ISO 9660 disk image	-	-	-	-	-	R ISO
ITC	R	iTunes Cover Flow artwork	-	-	-	-	-	R ITC
J2C, J2K, JPC	R	JPEG 2000 codestream	R3	R3	R	R	-	R Jpeg2000 Photoshop3
JP2, JPF, JPM, JPX, JPH	R/W	JPEG 2000 image [Compound/Extended/High-throughput]	R/W/C3	R/W/C3	R/W/C	R	-	R/W/C Jpeg2000, R Photoshop3
JPEG, JPG, JPE	R/W	Joint Photographic Experts Group image	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	Supported JPEG Meta Information
JSON	R	JavaScript Object Notation	-	-	-	-	-	R JSON
JXL	R/W	JPEG XL (codestream and ISO BMFF) (Jpeg2000-based)	R/W/C	-	R/W/C	-	-	-
K25	R	Kodak DC25 RAW (TIFF-based)	R	R	R	R	R	-
KDC	R	Kodak Digital Camera RAW (TIFF-based)	R	R	R	R	R	R Kodak
KEY, KTH	R	Apple iWork '09 Keynote presentation/Theme	-	-	-	-	-	R XML ZIP
LA	R	Lossless Audio (RIFF-based)	R3	-	R	-	R	R RIFF
LFP, LFR	R	Lytro Light Field Picture	-	-	-	-	-	R Lytro
LIF	R	Leica Image File	-	-	-	-	-	R LIF
LNK	R	Microsoft Shell Link (Windows shortcut)	-	-	-	-	-	R LNK
LRV	R/W	Low-Resolution Video (QuickTime-based)	R/W3	R/W3	R/W/C	-	-	R/W/C QuickTime
M2TS, MTS, M2T, TS	R	MPEG-2 Transport Stream (used for AVCHD video)	-	-	-	-	-	R M2TS H264 MISB
M4A, M4B, M4P, M4V	R/W	MPEG-4 Audio/Video (QuickTime-based)	R/W3	R/W3	R/W/C	-	R/D	R/W/C QuickTime
MACOS	R	MacOS "._" sidecar file (may have any extension)	-	-	-	-	-	R XAttr RSRC
MAX	R	3D Studio MAX (FPX-like)	-	-	R	R	-	R FlashPix
MEF	R/W	Mamiya (RAW) Electronic Format (TIFF-based)	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	-
MIE	R/W/C	Meta Information Encapsulation (MIE specification)	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	R/W/C MIE
MIFF, MIF	R	Magick Image File Format	R	R	R	R	-	R MIFF Photoshop
MKA, MKV, MKS	R	Matroska Audio/Video/Subtitle	-	-	-	-	-	R Matroska
MOBI, AZW, AZW3	R	Mobipocket electronic book (Palm-based)	-	-	-	-	-	R Palm MOBI
MODD	R	Sony Picture Motion metadata (XML PLIST-based)	-	-	-	-	-	R PLIST
MOI	R	MOD Information file	-	-	-	-	-	R MOI
MOS	R/W	Creo Leaf Mosaic (TIFF-based)	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	R Leaf
MOV, QT	R/W	Apple QuickTime Movie	R/W3	R/W3	R/W/C	-	R/D	R/W/C QuickTime
MP3	R	MPEG-1 layer 3 audio	-	-	-	-	R	R MPEG ID3 Lyrics3 APE
MP4	R/W	Motion Picture Experts Group version 4 (QuickTime-based)	R/W3	R/W3	R/W/C	-	R/D	R/W/C QuickTime
MPC	R	Musepack Audio	-	-	-	-	R	R MPC ID3 Lyrics3 APE
MPEG, MPG, M2V	R	Motion Picture Experts Group version 1 or 2	-	-	-	-	R	R MPEG ID3 Lyrics3
MPO	R/W	Extended Multi-Picture format (JPEG with MPF extensions)	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	Supported JPEG Meta Information
MQV	R/W	Sony Mobile QuickTime Video	R/W3	R/W3	R/W/C	-	R/D	R/W/C QuickTime
MRW	R/W	Minolta RAW	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	R/W MinoltaRaw Minolta
MRC	R	Medical Research Council	-	-	-	-	-	R MRC
MXF	R	Material Exchange Format	-	-	-	-	-	R MXF
NEF	R/W	Nikon (RAW) Electronic Format (TIFF-based)	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	R/W Nikon NikonCapture
NKA	R	Nikon NX Studio Adjustments	-	-	-	-	-	R XML
NKSC	R/W	Nikon Sidecar (XMP-based)	-	-	R/W/C	-	-	-
NMBTEMPLATE	R	Apple iWork '09 Numbers Template	-	-	-	-	-	R XML ZIP
NRW	R/W	Nikon RAW (2) (TIFF-based)	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	R/W Nikon NikonCapture
NXD	R	Nikon Capture NX-D adjustments (XMP-based)	-	-	R	-	-	-
NUMBERS	R	Apple iWork '09 Numbers spreadsheet	-	-	-	-	-	R XML ZIP
O	R	Unix compiled code Object	-	-	-	-	-	R EXE
ODB, ODC, ODF, ODG, ODI, ODP, ODS, ODT	R	Open Document Database/Chart/Formula/Graphics/ Image/Presentation/Spreadsheet/Text (ZIP/XML-based)	-	-	-	-	-	R XML ZIP
OFR	R	OptimFROG audio (RIFF-based)	R3	-	R	-	R	R RIFF
OGG, OGV	R	Ogg bitstream container	-	-	-	-	R	R FLAC ID3 Lyrics3 Theora Vorbis
ONP	R	ON1 Presets	-	-	-	-	-	R JSON PLIST
OPUS	R	Ogg Opus audio	-	-	-	-	R	R FLAC ID3 Lyrics3 Opus Vorbis
ORF, ORI	R/W	Olympus RAW Format (TIFF-based)	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	R/W Olympus
OTF	R	Open Type Font	-	-	-	-	R	R Font
PAC	R	Lossless Predictive Audio Compression (RIFF-based)	R3	-	R	-	R	R RIFF
PAGES	R	Apple iWork '09 Pages document	-	-	-	-	-	R XML ZIP
PCD	R	Kodak Photo CD Image Pac	-	-	-	-	-	R PhotoCD
PCX	R	PC Paintbrush	-	-	-	-	-	R PCX
PDB, PRC	R	Palm Database	-	-	-	-	-	R Palm
PDF	R/W7	Adobe Portable Document Format	R3	R3	R/W/C	R3	R	R/W/C PDF, R Photoshop
PEF	R/W	Pentax (RAW) Electronic Format (TIFF-based)	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	R/W Pentax
PFA, PFB	R	PostScript Font ASCII/Binary	-	-	-	-	-	R Font
PFM	R	Printer Font Metrics	-	-	-	-	-	R Font
PFM	R	Portable FloatMap	-	-	-	-	-	R PFM
PGF	R	Progressive Graphics File	-	-	-	-	-	R PGF PNG
PICT, PCT	R	Apple Picture file	-	-	-	R	-	R PICT Photoshop
PLIST	R	Apple Property List (binary and XML formats)	-	-	-	-	-	R PLIST
PMP	R	Sony DSC-F1 Cyber-Shot image	-	-	-	-	-	R Sony
PNG, JNG, MNG	R/W	Portable/JPEG/Multiple-image Network Graphics	R/W/C3	R/W/C3	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	R/W/C PNG
PPM, PBM, PGM	R/W	Portable Pixel/Bit/Gray Map	-	-	-	-	-	R PPM, R/W/C Comment
PPT, PPS, POT	R	PowerPoint Presentation/Slideshow/Template (FPX-like)	-	-	R	R	-	R FlashPix
POTX, POTM	R	Office Open XML Presentation Template [Macro-enabled]	-	-	-	-	-	R XML ZIP
PPAX, PPAM	R	Office Open XML Presentation Addin [Macro-enabled]	-	-	-	-	-	R XML ZIP
PPSX, PPSM	R	Office Open XML Presentation Slideshow [Macro-enabled]	-	-	-	-	-	R XML ZIP
PPTX, PPTM	R	Office Open XML Presentation [Macro-enabled]	-	-	-	-	-	R XML ZIP
PSD, PSB, PSDT	R/W	PhotoShop Document / Large Document / Template	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	-	R Photoshop
PSP, PSPIMAGE	R	Paint Shop Pro	R	-	-	-	-	R PSP
QTIF, QTI, QIF	R/W	QuickTime Image File	R/W3	R/W3	R/W/C	-	R/D	R/W/C QuickTime
R3D	R	Redcode RAW video	-	-	-	-	-	R Red
RA	R	Real Audio	-	-	-	-	R	R Real ID3 Lyrics3
RAF	R/W	FujiFilm RAW Format	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	R/W FujiFilm
RAM, RPM	R	Real Audio/Plug-in Metafile	-	-	-	-	-	R Real
RAR	R	RAR Archive	-	-	-	-	-	R ZIP
RAW	R	Kyocera Contax N Digital RAW	-	-	-	-	-	R KyoceraRaw
RAW	R/W	Panasonic RAW (TIFF-based)	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	R/W PanasonicRaw Panasonic
RIFF, RIF	R	Resource Interchange File Format	R3	-	R	-	R	R RIFF
RM, RV, RMVB	R	Real Media/Video [Variable Bitrate]	-	-	-	-	-	R Real
RSRC	R	Mac OS Resource	-	-	-	-	-	R RSRC Photoshop PostScript Font
RTF	R	Rich Text Format	-	-	-	-	-	R RTF
RW2	R/W	Panasonic RAW 2 (TIFF-based)	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	R/W PanasonicRaw Panasonic
RWL	R/W	Leica RAW (TIFF-based)	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	R/W PanasonicRaw Panasonic
RWZ	R	Rawzor compressed image	R	R	R	R	-	R Rawzor
SEQ	R	FLIR Systems image Sequence	-	-	-	-	-	R FLIR
SKETCH	R	Sketch design file	-	-	-	-	-	R JSON ZIP
SO	R	Unix ELF executable and Shared Object files	-	-	-	-	-	R EXE
SR2	R/W	Sony RAW 2 (TIFF-based)	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	R/W Sony
SRF	R	Sony RAW Format (TIFF-based)	R	R	R	R	R	R Sony
SRW	R/W	Samsung RAW format (TIFF-based)	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	R/W Samsung
SVG	R	Scalable Vector Graphics (XML-based)	-	-	-	-	R	R SVG
SWF	R	Shockwave Flash	-	-	R	-	-	R Flash
THM	R/W	Thumbnail image (JPEG)	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	Supported JPEG Meta Information
THMX	R	Office Open XML Theme	-	-	-	-	-	R XML ZIP
TIFF, TIF	R/W	Tagged Image File Format	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	R/W/C GeoTIFF1, R/W Trailers
TTF, TTC	R	True Type Font/Collection	-	-	-	-	R	R Font
TORRENT	R	BitTorrent description file	-	-	-	-	-	R Torrent
TXT	R	Text files	-	-	-	-	-	R Text
VCF, VCARD	R	Virtual Card	-	-	-	-	-	R VCard
VNT	R	Scene7 Vignette (FPX-like)	-	-	-	R	-	R FlashPix
VNT	R	V-Note document	-	-	-	-	-	R VNote
VOB	R	Video Object (MPEG-based)	-	-	-	-	-	R MPEG
VRD	R/W/C2	Canon DPP Recipe Data	-	-	R/W/C	-	-	R/W/C CanonVRD2
VSD	R	Microsoft Visio Drawing (FPX-like)	-	-	R	R	-	R FlashPix
WAV	R	Windows digital audio WAVeform (RIFF-based)	R3	-	R	-	R	R RIFF
WEBM	R	Google Web Movie (Matroska-based)	-	-	-	-	-	R Matroska
WEBP	R/W	Google Web Picture (RIFF-based)	R/W/C	-	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	R RIFF
WMA, WMV	R	Windows Media Audio/Video (ASF-based)	-	-	R	-	-	R ASF
WPG	R	WordPerfect Graphics	-	-	-	-	-	R WPG
WTV	R	Windows recorded TV show	-	-	-	-	-	R WTV
WV	R	WavePack lossless audio (RIFF-based)	R3	-	R	-	R	R RIFF
X3F	R/W	Sigma/Foveon RAW	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/W/C	R/D	R/W Sigma, R SigmaRaw
XCF	R	GIMP native image format	R	R	R	R	-	R GIMP
XISF	R	Extensible Image Serialization Format	-	-	-	-	-	R XISF
XLS, XLT	R	Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet/Template (FPX-like)	-	-	R	R	-	R FlashPix
XLSX, XLSM, XLSB	R	Office Open XML Spreadsheet [Macro-enabled/Binary]	-	-	-	-	-	R XML ZIP
XLTX, XLTM	R	Office Open XML Spreadsheet Template [Macro-enabled]	-	-	-	-	-	R XML ZIP
XMP	R/W/C	Extensible Metadata Platform sidecar file	-	-	R/W/C	-	-	-
ZIP	R	ZIP archive	-	-	-	-	-	R ZIP

Supported JPEG Meta Information

ExifTool can Read, Write and/or Create the following types of meta information in JPEG images:

JPEG Meta Information Support Description

APP0 - JFIF R/W/C JPEG File Interchange Format

APP0 - JFXX R Extended JFIF

APP0 - CIFF R/W Camera Image File Format (used by some Canon models)

APP0 - AVI1 R JPEG AVI information

APP0 - Ocad R Photobucket Ocad segment

APP1 - EXIF R/W/C Exchangeable Image File Format (multi-segment)

APP1 - XMP R/W/C Extensible Metadata Platform (multi-segment)

APP1 - QVCI R Casio QV-7000SX QVCI information

APP1 - FLIR R FLIR thermal imaging data (multi-segment)

APP1 - RawThermalImage R Thermal image from Parrot Bebop-Pro Thermal drone

APP2 - ICC R/W/C International Color Consortium (multi-segment)

APP2 - FPXR R FlashPix Ready (multi-segment)

APP2 - MPF R Multi-Picture Format

APP2 - InfiRay Version R InfiRay IJPEG Version header

APP2 - AROT R HDR Gain Curve

APP2 - PreviewImage R Samsung/GE APP2 preview image (multi-segment)

APP3 - Kodak Meta R/W Kodak Meta information (EXIF-like)

APP3 - Stim R Stereo Still Image format

APP3 - JPS R JPEG Stereo image

APP3 - ThermalData R DJI RJPEG thermal data (multi-segment)

APP3 - ImagingData R InfiRay IJPEG IR+thermal+visible data (multi-segment)

APP3 - PreviewImage R Samsung/HP preview image (multi-segment)

APP4 - Scalado R (presumably written by Scalado mobile software)

APP4 - ThermalParams R Thermal parameters from DJI RJPEG file

APP4 - ThermalParams2 R DJI thermal parameters type 2

APP4 - ThermalParams3 R DJI thermal parameters type 3

APP4 - FPXR R FlashPix Ready in non-standard location (multi-segment)

APP4 - InfiRay Factory R InfiRay IJPEG Factory Temperature

APP4 - PreviewImage R (continued from APP3)

APP5 - Ricoh RMETA R Ricoh custom fields

APP5 - Samsung UniqueID R Samsung Unique ID

APP5 - ThermalCalibration R Thermal calibration data from DJI RJPEG file

APP5 - InfiRay Picture R InfiRay IJPEG Picture Temperature

APP5 - PreviewImage R (continued from APP4)

APP6 - EPPIM R Toshiba PrintIM

APP6 - NITF R National Imagery Transmission Format

APP6 - HP TDHD R Hewlett-Packard Photosmart R837 TDHD information

APP6 - GoPro R GoPro Metadata Format (GPMF) information

APP6 - DJI DTAT R DJI Thermal Analysis Tool record (JSON format)

APP6 - InfiRay MixMode R InfiRay IJPEG Mix Mode

APP7 - Pentax R Pentax APP7 maker notes

APP7 - Qualcomm R Qualcomm Camera Attributes

APP7 - Huawei R Huawei APP7 maker notes (extract with Unknown option)

APP7 - InfiRay OpMode R InfiRay IJPEG Operation Mode

APP6 - DJI Info R DJI debug information

APP8 - SPIFF R Still Picture Interchange File Format

APP8 - SEAL R SEAL content authentification

APP8 - InfiRay Isothermal R InfiRay IJPEG Isothermal

APP9 - Media Jukebox R Media Jukebox XML information

APP9 - InfiRay Sensor R InfiRay IJPEG Sensor Information

APP9 - SEAL R SEAL content authentification

APP10 - URN R Uniform Resource Name

APP10 - Comment R PhotoStudio Unicode Comment

APP11 - JPEG-HDR R JPEG-HDR compressed ratio image

APP11 - JUMBF (C2PA) R Jpeg Universal Metadata Box Format (multi-segment)

APP12 - Picture Info R ASCII-based Picture Information

APP12 - Ducky R/W/C Photoshop "Save for Web"

APP13 - Photoshop IRB R/W/C Image Resource Block (multi-segment, includes IPTC)

APP13 - Adobe CM R Adobe Color Management

APP14 - Adobe R/W/C Adobe DCT filter

APP15 - GraphicConverter R GraphicConverter quality

COM R/W/C JPEG Comment (multi-segment)

DQT R (used to calculate the Extra:JPEGDigest tag value)

SOF R JPEG Start Of Frame

JPEG Trailer 1 Support Description

AFCP trailer R/W AXS File Concatenation Protocol (includes IPTC)

CanonVRD trailer R/W/C Canon DPP Recipe Data (includes DR4)

FotoStation trailer R/W FotoWare FotoStation (includes IPTC)

PhotoMechanic trailer R/W Camera Bits Photo Mechanic

MIE trailer R/W Meta Information Encapsulation

Samsung trailer R Samsung Galaxy trailer

Insta360 trailer R Insta360 trailer found in INSP files

NikonApp trailer R Nikon trailer added by NX Studio to NEF/NRW files

Sony HiddenData trailer R Hidden data written by some Sony models

PreviewImage trailer R/W/C (preview image written after JPEG EOI)

EmbeddedVideo trailer R (extracted only with ExtractEmbedded option)

1 All trailers except Samsung, Insta360, PreviewImage and EmbeddedVideo also have R/W support in TIFF images, and the NikonApp trailer is used in NEF/NRW files.

JPEG Meta Information	Support	Description
APP0 - JFIF	R/W/C	JPEG File Interchange Format
APP0 - JFXX	R	Extended JFIF
APP0 - CIFF	R/W	Camera Image File Format (used by some Canon models)
APP0 - AVI1	R	JPEG AVI information
APP0 - Ocad	R	Photobucket Ocad segment
APP1 - EXIF	R/W/C	Exchangeable Image File Format (multi-segment)
APP1 - XMP	R/W/C	Extensible Metadata Platform (multi-segment)
APP1 - QVCI	R	Casio QV-7000SX QVCI information
APP1 - FLIR	R	FLIR thermal imaging data (multi-segment)
APP1 - RawThermalImage	R	Thermal image from Parrot Bebop-Pro Thermal drone
APP2 - ICC	R/W/C	International Color Consortium (multi-segment)
APP2 - FPXR	R	FlashPix Ready (multi-segment)
APP2 - MPF	R	Multi-Picture Format
APP2 - InfiRay Version	R	InfiRay IJPEG Version header
APP2 - AROT	R	HDR Gain Curve
APP2 - PreviewImage	R	Samsung/GE APP2 preview image (multi-segment)
APP3 - Kodak Meta	R/W	Kodak Meta information (EXIF-like)
APP3 - Stim	R	Stereo Still Image format
APP3 - JPS	R	JPEG Stereo image
APP3 - ThermalData	R	DJI RJPEG thermal data (multi-segment)
APP3 - ImagingData	R	InfiRay IJPEG IR+thermal+visible data (multi-segment)
APP3 - PreviewImage	R	Samsung/HP preview image (multi-segment)
APP4 - Scalado	R	(presumably written by Scalado mobile software)
APP4 - ThermalParams	R	Thermal parameters from DJI RJPEG file
APP4 - ThermalParams2	R	DJI thermal parameters type 2
APP4 - ThermalParams3	R	DJI thermal parameters type 3
APP4 - FPXR	R	FlashPix Ready in non-standard location (multi-segment)
APP4 - InfiRay Factory	R	InfiRay IJPEG Factory Temperature
APP4 - PreviewImage	R	(continued from APP3)
APP5 - Ricoh RMETA	R	Ricoh custom fields
APP5 - Samsung UniqueID	R	Samsung Unique ID
APP5 - ThermalCalibration	R	Thermal calibration data from DJI RJPEG file
APP5 - InfiRay Picture	R	InfiRay IJPEG Picture Temperature
APP5 - PreviewImage	R	(continued from APP4)
APP6 - EPPIM	R	Toshiba PrintIM
APP6 - NITF	R	National Imagery Transmission Format
APP6 - HP TDHD	R	Hewlett-Packard Photosmart R837 TDHD information
APP6 - GoPro	R	GoPro Metadata Format (GPMF) information
APP6 - DJI DTAT	R	DJI Thermal Analysis Tool record (JSON format)
APP6 - InfiRay MixMode	R	InfiRay IJPEG Mix Mode
APP7 - Pentax	R	Pentax APP7 maker notes
APP7 - Qualcomm	R	Qualcomm Camera Attributes
APP7 - Huawei	R	Huawei APP7 maker notes (extract with Unknown option)
APP7 - InfiRay OpMode	R	InfiRay IJPEG Operation Mode
APP6 - DJI Info	R	DJI debug information
APP8 - SPIFF	R	Still Picture Interchange File Format
APP8 - SEAL	R	SEAL content authentification
APP8 - InfiRay Isothermal	R	InfiRay IJPEG Isothermal
APP9 - Media Jukebox	R	Media Jukebox XML information
APP9 - InfiRay Sensor	R	InfiRay IJPEG Sensor Information
APP9 - SEAL	R	SEAL content authentification
APP10 - URN	R	Uniform Resource Name
APP10 - Comment	R	PhotoStudio Unicode Comment
APP11 - JPEG-HDR	R	JPEG-HDR compressed ratio image
APP11 - JUMBF (C2PA)	R	Jpeg Universal Metadata Box Format (multi-segment)
APP12 - Picture Info	R	ASCII-based Picture Information
APP12 - Ducky	R/W/C	Photoshop "Save for Web"
APP13 - Photoshop IRB	R/W/C	Image Resource Block (multi-segment, includes IPTC)
APP13 - Adobe CM	R	Adobe Color Management
APP14 - Adobe	R/W/C	Adobe DCT filter
APP15 - GraphicConverter	R	GraphicConverter quality
COM	R/W/C	JPEG Comment (multi-segment)
DQT	R	(used to calculate the Extra:JPEGDigest tag value)
SOF	R	JPEG Start Of Frame
JPEG Trailer 1	Support	Description
AFCP trailer	R/W	AXS File Concatenation Protocol (includes IPTC)
CanonVRD trailer	R/W/C	Canon DPP Recipe Data (includes DR4)
FotoStation trailer	R/W	FotoWare FotoStation (includes IPTC)
PhotoMechanic trailer	R/W	Camera Bits Photo Mechanic
MIE trailer	R/W	Meta Information Encapsulation
Samsung trailer	R	Samsung Galaxy trailer
Insta360 trailer	R	Insta360 trailer found in INSP files
NikonApp trailer	R	Nikon trailer added by NX Studio to NEF/NRW files
Sony HiddenData trailer	R	Hidden data written by some Sony models
PreviewImage trailer	R/W/C	(preview image written after JPEG EOI)
EmbeddedVideo trailer	R	(extracted only with ExtractEmbedded option)

System Requirements

Requires Perl 5.004 or later. No other libraries or software required, but some optional Perl modules may be added to enable certain ExifTool features (for details, see the DEPENDENCIES section of the README file included in the full distribution).

Windows users: A Windows executable version of ExifTool is available which doesn't require Perl. You can also use the pure Perl version if you already have Perl installed. (You can get a good, free Perl interpreter from activeperl.com or strawberryperl.com.)

Everyone else (Mac, Unix, etc): Don't worry, you already have Perl installed.

Running ExifTool

The exiftool application provides a convenient command-line interface for the Image::ExifTool Perl package (both included in the full distribution). Once you have downloaded and extracted the distribution, you can immediately run exiftool (without building or installing) by typing "DIR/exiftool FILE" (or "perl DIR/exiftool FILE" in Windows), where DIR is the exiftool directory and FILE is the name of an image file, including directory name. Read the installation instructions or the README file included in the full distribution for help installing ExifTool.

Many command-line options are available to allow you to access a wide range of features. Run exiftool with no arguments for a complete list of available options with examples.

Running in Windows

i) From the command line:

The Perl application ("exiftool") is run by typing "perl exiftool". Alternately, you may be able to rename it to "exiftool.pl" and type "exiftool.pl", but this requires that the proper Windows associations have been made for the ".pl" extension.

The ExifTool .exe file ("exiftool(-k).exe") should be renamed to "exiftool.exe" to allow it to be run by typing "exiftool" at the command line.

If the exiftool executable ("exiftool.pl" or "exiftool.exe") is not in the current directory or your system PATH, then its directory must be specified on the command line (eg. by typing "c:\path_to_exiftool\exiftool.pl" or "c:\path_to_exiftool\exiftool").

Note that when typing commands in the "cmd.exe" shell, you should use double quotes instead of single quotes as shown in some examples.

ii) Running in the Windows GUI (not from command line):

Double-click on "exiftool(-k).exe" to read the application documentation, or drag-and-drop files and folders to run exiftool on the selected files.

Simple options may be added inside brackets in the name of the .exe file. (But note that the characters /\?*:|"<> may not be used because they are invalid in Windows file names.) In this way, the behaviour of the drag-and-drop application can be customized. For example:

Executable Name Operation
exiftool(-k).exe
Print meta information in window and pause before terminating.
exiftool(-k -a -u -g1 -w txt).exe
Generate output ".txt" files with detailed meta information.
exiftool(-k -o %d%f.xmp).exe
Generate sidecar ".xmp" files.
exiftool(-copyright='Phil Harvey').exe
Add copyright information (and don't pause before terminating).

Executable Name	Operation
exiftool(-k).exe	Print meta information in window and pause before terminating.
exiftool(-k -a -u -g1 -w txt).exe	Generate output "`.txt`" files with detailed meta information.
exiftool(-k -o %d%f.xmp).exe	Generate sidecar "`.xmp`" files.
exiftool(-copyright='Phil Harvey').exe	Add copyright information (and don't pause before terminating).

Hint: Options may also be added to the "Target" property of a Windows shortcut for the executable. Using a shortcut has 3 advantages over adding options in the file name: 1) different shortcuts may be created without requiring multiple copies of the executable, 2) characters which are invalid in file names may be used, and 3) the shortcuts can be given more meaningful (and convenient) file names.

As well, it may be useful to increase the window and buffer sizes to display more information: Right-click on the window's title bar then select "Properties" from the menu and change the window layout settings.

Example Output

> exiftool -h -canon t/images/Canon.jpg

File Name Canon.jpg

Camera Model Name Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL

Date/Time Original 2003:12:04 06:46:52

Shooting Mode Bulb

Shutter Speed 4

Aperture 14.0

Metering Mode Center-weighted average

Exposure Compensation 0

ISO 100

Lens 18.0 - 55.0 mm

Focal Length 34.0 mm

Image Size 8x8

Quality RAW

Flash No Flash

White Balance Auto

Focus Mode Manual Focus (3)

Contrast +1

Sharpness +1

Saturation +1

Color Tone Normal

Color Space sRGB

File Size 2.6 kB

File Number 118-1861

Drive Mode Continuous Shooting

Owner Name Phil Harvey

Serial Number 0560018150

> exiftool -lang de -h -canon t/images/Canon.jpg

Dateiname Canon.jpg

Kameramodell Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL

Erstellungsdatum/-uhrzeit 2003:12:04 06:46:52

Aufnahmemodus Bulb

Belichtungsdauer 4

Blende 14.0

Belichtungsmessmethode Mittenbetont

Belichtungskorrektur 0

ISO-Empfindlichkeit 100

Objektiv 18.0 - 55.0 mm

Brennweite 34.0 mm

Bildgröße 8x8

Qualität RAW

Blitzmodus Blitz wurde nicht ausgelöst

Weißabgleich Automatisch

Fokus-Modus Manueller Fokus (3)

Kontrast +1

Schärfe +1

Farbsättigung +1

Farbton Normal

Farbraum sRGB

Dateigröße 2.6 kB

Dateinummer 118-1861

Aufnahmeart Serienaufnahme

Name des Besitzers Phil Harvey

Seriennummer 0560018150

Verbose and HtmlDump Output

The Verbose (-v) and HtmlDump (-htmlDump) options print additional information that can be very useful for debugging or when decoding new tags.

Compare Two Files for Metadata Differences

The -diff option provides a method to show the metadata differences between two files. For example, here is a comparison of two files excluding System and Composite tags:

> exiftool a.jpg -diff b.jpg --system:all -e

======== diff < a.jpg > b.jpg
< [IFD0]          Modify Date                     : 2024:09:05 14:37:40 
>                                                 : 2024:09:05 14:41:05
< [ExifIFD]       Exposure Time                   : 1/400
>                                                 : 1/1000
< [ExifIFD]       F Number                        : 4.0
>                                                 : 5.6
< [ExifIFD]       Date/Time Original              : 2024:09:05 14:37:40
>                                                 : 2024:09:05 14:41:05
< [ExifIFD]       Create Date                     : 2024:09:05 14:37:40
>                                                 : 2024:09:05 14:41:05
< [ExifIFD]       Brightness Value                : 8.49765625
>                                                 : 10.728125
< [ExifIFD]       Max Aperture Value              : 2.8
>                                                 : 4.0
< [ExifIFD]       Focal Length                    : 9.0 mm
>                                                 : 32.7 mm
< [ExifIFD]       Focal Length In 35mm Format     : 24 mm
>                                                 : 89 mm
< [Sony]          Camera Temperature              : 36 C
>                                                 : 35 C
< [Sony]          Exposure Time                   : 1/400
>                                                 : 1/1000
< [Sony]          Sony Max Aperture Value         : 3.0
>                                                 : 4.1
< [Sony]          Lens Zoom Position              : 0%
>                                                 : 59%
< [Sony]          Brightness Value                : 8.49765625
>                                                 : 10.728125
< [Sony]          WB RGB Levels                   : 578 256 478
>                                                 : 592 256 466
< [Sony]          Focal Length                    : 9.0 mm
>                                                 : 32.7 mm
< [IFD1]          Thumbnail Length                : 12771
>                                                 : 5940
< [MPImage1]      MP Image Length                 : 7696566
>                                                 : 5839721
< [MPImage2]      MP Image Length                 : 1167032
>                                                 : 492263
< [MPImage2]      MP Image Start                  : 7699456
>                                                 : 5840896

Tag Names Explained

A tag name is a "handle" that is used to refer to a specific piece of meta information. 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 a group name (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:

exiftool -filename -imagesize -exif:fnumber -xmp:all image.jpg

A complete list of ExifTool Tag Names accompanies this documentation. As well, current lists of available tag names and writable tag names may be obtained using the exiftool -list and -listw options. But perhaps the easiest way to determine a tag name is to use the -s option to print the tag names instead of descriptions for all information in a file. It may also be helpful to use the -G option to display the group names, and the -H or -D option to print the numerical tag ID's for reference.

Notes:

Tag names sometimes differ from their descriptions. Use the -s command-line option to see the actual tag names instead of the descriptions shown when extracting information.
When extracting information, tags will not appear in the output unless they exist in the file, even if they are specified on the command line. The -f option may be used to force all specified tags to be displayed (not including tags specified with wildcards or by -GROUP:all).
Information for a given tag name may occur in multiple locations within a single file. By default these duplicate tags are suppressed, but the -a option may be used to extract all tags.
Tag names may be suffixed by a '#' character to disable the print conversion on a per-tag basis. See the -n option in the application documentation for more information.

Shortcut Tags

Shortcut tags represent one or more other tags, and are used like any other tag when reading, writing or copying information.

ExifTool defines a few shortcut tags in the Image::ExifTool::Shortcuts module, and allows users to define their own shortcuts in a configuration file called ".ExifTool_config" in their home directory or exiftool application directory. Here is a simple example that defines two shortcuts:

%Image::ExifTool::UserDefined::Shortcuts = (
    MyShortcut => ['createdate','exposuretime','aperture'],
    MyAlias => 'FocalLengthIn35mmFormat',
);

In this example, MyShortcut is a shortcut for the CreateDate, ExposureTime and Aperture tags, and MyAlias is a shortcut for FocalLengthIn35mmFormat.

The current shortcuts may be listed with the -list option.

The ~/.ExifTool_config file may also be used to define new tags. For more information about the configuration file, see the sample configuration file included with the ExifTool distribution.

Windows tip: You may have difficulty generating a filename beginning with a '.' in the Windows GUI, but it can be done with the "rename" command at the cmd.exe prompt.

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 (Information 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, GM, 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, Protobuf, QuickTime, RAF, RIFF, RSRC, RTF, Radiance, Rawzor, Real, Red, SVG, SigmaRaw, Sony, Stim, Theora, Torrent, Trailer, VCard, Vorbis, WTV, XML, XMP, ZIP

1 (Specific 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, GM, 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-cicp, 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, LIGO, 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, Nextbase, 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, SEAL, 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-GContainer, 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-acdsee-rs, 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

2 (Category) Audio, Author, Camera, Device, Document, ExifTool, Image, Location, Other, Preview, Printing, Time, Unknown, Video

3 (Document Number) Doc#, Main

4 (Instance Number) Copy#

5 (Metadata Path) eg. JPEG-APP1-IFD0-ExifIFD

6 (EXIF/TIFF Format) int8u, string, int16u, int32u, rational64u, int8s, undef, int16s, int32s, rational64s, float, double, ifd, unicode, complex, int64u, int64s, ifd64

7 (Tag ID) ID-xxx (where xxx is the tag ID. Numerical ID's are given in hex with a leading "0x" if the HexTagIDs API option is set, as are characters in non-numerical ID's which are not valid in a group name. Either decimal or hexadecimal ID's may be used when writing. Note that unlike other group names, family 7 group names are case sensitive.)

8 (File Number) File# (for files loaded via -fileNUM option)

Family	Group Names
0 (Information 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, GM, 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, Protobuf, QuickTime, RAF, RIFF, RSRC, RTF, Radiance, Rawzor, Real, Red, SVG, SigmaRaw, Sony, Stim, Theora, Torrent, Trailer, VCard, Vorbis, WTV, XML, XMP, ZIP
1 (Specific 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, GM, 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-cicp, 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, LIGO, 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, Nextbase, 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, SEAL, 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-GContainer, 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-acdsee-rs, 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
2 (Category)	Audio, Author, Camera, Device, Document, ExifTool, Image, Location, Other, Preview, Printing, Time, Unknown, Video
3 (Document Number)	Doc#, Main
4 (Instance Number)	Copy#
5 (Metadata Path)	eg. JPEG-APP1-IFD0-ExifIFD
6 (EXIF/TIFF Format)	int8u, string, int16u, int32u, rational64u, int8s, undef, int16s, int32s, rational64s, float, double, ifd, unicode, complex, int64u, int64s, ifd64
7 (Tag ID)	ID-xxx (where xxx is the tag ID. Numerical ID's are given in hex with a leading "0x" if the HexTagIDs API option is set, as are characters in non-numerical ID's which are not valid in a group name. Either decimal or hexadecimal ID's may be used when writing. Note that unlike other group names, family 7 group names are case sensitive.)
8 (File Number)	File# (for files loaded via `-fileNUM` option)

The exiftool output can be organized based on these groups using the -g or -G option (ie. -g1 to see family 1 groups, or -g3:1 to see both family 3 and family 1 group names in the output. See the -g option in the exiftool application documentation for more details, and the GetGroup 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.

Writing Meta Information

When writing information, ExifTool preserves the original file by adding "_original" to the file name. Be sure to keep a copy of the original, or thoroughly validate the new file before erasing the original. (Read here for some ramblings on the subject of writing meta information.)

Syntax

Tag values are written rather than being extracted if any tag name ends with a '=' symbol (or if the -tagsFromFile or -geotag options are used). The '=' may be prefixed by '+', '-' or '<' to add a value, remove a value or set a value from file. The following table outlines the different write syntaxes:

Syntax Result

-TAG= Deletes all occurrences of TAG

-all= Deletes all meta information! ^†

-GROUP:TAG= Deletes TAG only in specified group

-GROUP:all= Deletes all information in specified group

-[GROUP:]TAG=VALUE Sets value of TAG (only in GROUP if specified)

-[GROUP:]TAG+=VALUE Adds item to a list, shifts a date/time, or increments a number

-[GROUP:]TAG-=VALUE Removes item from a list, shifts a date/time, or deletes TAG if it has the specified value

-[GROUP:]TAG<=FILE Sets tag value from contents of specified file

^† See the Writer Limitations for some limitations of this feature.

Syntax	Result
-TAG=	Deletes all occurrences of TAG
-all=	Deletes all meta information! ^†
-GROUP:TAG=	Deletes TAG only in specified group
-GROUP:all=	Deletes all information in specified group
-[GROUP:]TAG=VALUE	Sets value of TAG (only in GROUP if specified)
-[GROUP:]TAG+=VALUE	Adds item to a list, shifts a date/time, or increments a number
-[GROUP:]TAG-=VALUE	Removes item from a list, shifts a date/time, or deletes TAG if it has the specified value
-[GROUP:]TAG<=FILE	Sets tag value from contents of specified file

Quotes are required around VALUE if it contains spaces or other special characters, and around the whole argument if the '<=' syntax is used (to prevent shell redirection).

A special feature allows the print conversion to be disabled on a per-tag basis by suffixing any tag name (including 'all') with the '#' character. This has the same effect as the -n option, but for a single tag. See the -n option in the application documentation for more details.

Note: Changes to PDF files are reversible because the original metadata is never actually deleted from these files. See the PDF Tags documentation for details.

Group Priorities

ExifTool prioritizes the following types of meta information when writing:

1) EXIF, 2) IPTC, 3) XMP

Many tag names are valid for more than one of these groups. If a group name is not specified when writing information, then the information is added only to the highest priority group for which the tag name is valid (however, the information is updated in all groups where the tag already existed). The priority of the groups is given by the list above. Specifically, this means that new information is added preferentially to the EXIF group, or to the IPTC group if no corresponding EXIF tag exists, or finally to the XMP group.

Alternatively, information may be written to a specific group only, bypassing these priorities, by providing a group name for the tag. The "Writing Meta Information" section above gave the syntax rules for exiftool command-line arguments to do this. Any family 0, 1, 2 or 7 group name may be used when writing information, although not all groups are writable.

The "-tagsFromFile" Option

A special ExifTool option allows copying tags from one file to another. The command-line syntax for doing this is "-tagsFromFile SRCFILE". Any tags specified after this option on the command line are extracted from source file and written to the destination file. If no tags are specified, then all writable tags are copied. This option is very simple, yet very powerful. Depending on the formats of the source and destination files, some of tags read may not be valid in the destination file, in which case they aren't written.

This option may also be used to transfer information between different tags within a single image or between different images. See the -tagsFromFile option in the application documentation for more details.

Writer Limitations

ExifTool will not rewrite a file if it detects a significant problem with the file format.
ExifTool has been tested with a wide range of different images, but since it is not possible to test it with every known image type, there is the possibility that it will corrupt some files. Be sure to keep backups of your files.
Even though ExifTool does some validation of the information written, it is still possible to write illegal values which may cause problems when reading the images with other software. So take care to validate the information you are writing.
ExifTool is not guaranteed to remove metadata completely from a file when attempting to delete all metadata. For JPEG images, all APP segments (except Adobe APP14, which is not removed by default) and trailers are removed which effectively removes all metadata, but for other formats the results are less complete:
- JPEG - APP segments (except Adobe APP14) and trailers are removed.
- TIFF - XMP, IPTC, ICC_Profile and the ExifIFD are removed, but some EXIF may remain in IFD0. (The CommonIFD0 Shortcut tag is provided to simplify removal of common metadata tags from IFD0.)
- PNG - Only XMP, EXIF, ICC_Profile and native PNG textual data chunks are removed.
- PDF - The original metadata is never actually removed.
- PS - Only XMP and some native PostScript tags may be deleted.
- MOV/MP4 - Most top-level metadata is removed.
- RAW formats - It is not recommended to remove all metadata from RAW images because this will likely remove some proprietary information that is necessary for proper rendering of the image.

Known Problems

[2024-12-16] HEIC images with an HDR gain map may not show the gain map image in Apple Preview after being edited by ExifTool to add new XMP. [ExifTool 13.09 fixes this by adding the new XMP with an item ID greater than existing items.]
[2024-08-01] ExifTool for Windows supports a maximum path length of 246 characters for files. Longer path lengths give an "Error opening file" message. [ExifTool 13.07 implements the API WindowsLongPath option by default to patch this problem.]
[2023-10-02] Panasonic PHOTOfunSTUDIO 9.5 has problems displaying some ExifTool-edited FZ1000 RW2 images, although other software (such as Adobe Lightroom, Digikam and Windows Explorer) have no problems with these.
[2020-02-18] Hasselblad Phocus software will no longer update the small preview or thumbnail images of FFF files edited by ExifTool. This is perhaps due to some unreferenced preview information in the file that is lost when edited by ExifTool, but this does not seem to have any other effect. [ExifTool 11.88 and later issue a minor error when attempting to write FFF files, but this problem seems to be fixed in Phocus v3.5.4]
[2019-05-29] Canon Digital Photo Professional 4 (DPP4) will destroy a CR3 image when editing if it had previously been edited by DPP4 followed by ExifTool. [ExifTool 11.45 fixes this by structuring the CR3 to make it safe for editing with DPP4, and may be used to restructure files written by older ExifTool versions.]
[2018-09-27] The Sony Imaging Edge applications give an error when trying to open ARW or ARQ images edited by ExifTool, although other RAW image utilities including Sony IDC (Sony's older RAW image converter), Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and DNG Converter, Apple Preview, dcraw, Capture One, Affinity Photo, and LibRaw's SonyPixelShift2DNG have no problems with these.
[2016-08-03] Some antivirus software has been known to cause problems for the Windows version of ExifTool. Norton Antivirus may delete ExifTool when it is run, Windows Defender may slow down launching of ExifTool or hang it altogether, and Bitdefender Antivirus may block ExifTool from writing files. Presumably this is due to the way the ExifTool package for Windows works -- it unpacks executable files into a temporary directory and runs from there, which apparently may be seen as a threat by antivirus software. A work-around is to add ExifTool to the exclusion list of the antivirus software. [This shouldn't be a problem since the changes to the Windows EXE package in ExifTool 12.88]
[2016-05-27] Adobe Camera Raw and DNG Converter 9.5.1 fail to recognize edited Samsung SRW images from some models (NX30, NX300, NX2000 and EK-GN120). [This problem was fixed for the NX models in ExifTool 10.26, and writing of EK-GN120 files was disabled in ExifTool 10.95]
In Windows, ExifTool will not process files with Unicode characters in the file name. This is due to an underlying lack of support for Unicode filenames in the Windows standard C I/O libraries. [This deficiency was addressed in ExifTool 9.79, and ExifTool now supports Windows Unicode file names with some exceptions. See the WINDOWS UNICODE FILE NAMES section of the application documentation for details.]
[2013-11-08] Apple Spotlight and Preview (OS X 10.8.5) and Adobe Photoshop CC (version 14.0) ignore XMP in PNG images if it comes after the image data, which is where ExifTool adds new XMP. This should be considered as a bug in the Apple and Adobe software since XMP is allowed to exist after the image data according to the XMP and PNG specifications. [ExifTool 9.40 provides the PNGEarlyXMP API option to allow writing XMP before the IDAT chunk, but there are caveats associated with its use. ExifTool 11.58 and later remove this option and always write XMP before IDAT, and 11.63 and later write all text chunks before IDAT.]
[2013-04-21] Memory available to ExifTool in the Windows EXE version is limited to a few hundred MB. This limitation has been known to cause unreasonably long processing times (almost 7 minutes) for some large EPS files (> 200 MB) which are processed much faster by the Perl version (< 6 seconds). [These memory issues are alleviated by the new Windows EXE package of ExifTool 12.88 and later.]
[2010-01-12] There is a bug in a number of Adobe utilities which causes some edited Sony ARW images to be displayed with the wrong tone curve. This problem has been observed in Photoshop CS4 Camera Raw 5.6, DNG Converter 5.6 and Lightroom 2.6 with ARW images from the A500, A550, A700, A850 and A900. Other software such as the Sony IDC utility, Apple RAW utilities, dcraw and Capture One have no problems with edited images. [This bug is fixed in Camera Raw 6.3 and LR 3.3]
[2007-07-06] There is a bug in the Apple RAW file support (OS X 10.4.11) which prevents some edited Pentax PEF images from being displayed properly. Other software such as the Pentax Silkypix software and dcraw have no problems with these images. [This bug is fixed in OS X 10.5.4]

Security Issues

Some ExifTool options (-config, -if, -p, -fileNUM, -api filter, -api filterw and copying arguments like "-DSTTAG<STR") have the ability to execute Perl code from external files or within command-line arguments. This may be a security problem if ExifTool is executed from another application that blindly passes untrusted file names on the command line (since they may be interpreted as ExifTool options if they begin with a dash). To be secure the calling application must either place file names after the "--" option, or ensure that input file names do not start with a dash (U+002D) or a Unicode minus sign (U+2212). One way to accomplish this is to prefix input file names with a known directory name, eg.) "./FILENAME".

On startup, ExifTool executes user-defined code from the .ExifTool_config file located in the ExifTool directory, the directory specified by the EXIFTOOL_HOME, HOME or HOMEDRIVE+HOMEPATH environment variables, or the current working directory. So care must be taken to make sure that any such file contains only trusted code.

As well, untrusted window title strings should not be used with the -progress:TITLE option.

Date/Time Shift Feature

Have you ever forgotten to set the date/time on your digital camera before taking a bunch of pictures? ExifTool has a time shift feature that makes it easy to apply a batch fix to the timestamps of the images (eg. change the "Date Picture Taken" reported by Windows Explorer). Say for example that your camera clock was reset to 2000:01:01 00:00:00 when you put in a new battery at 2005:11:03 10:48:00. Then all of the pictures you took subsequently have timestamps that are wrong by 5 years, 10 months, 2 days, 10 hours and 48 minutes. To fix this, put all of the images in the same directory ("DIR") and run exiftool:

exiftool "-DateTimeOriginal+=5:10:2 10:48:0" DIR

The example above changes only the DateTimeOriginal tag, but any writable date or time tag can be shifted, and multiple tags may be written with a single command line. Commonly, in JPEG images, the DateTimeOriginal, CreateDate and ModifyDate values must all be changed. For convenience, a Shortcut tag called AllDates has been defined to represent these three tags. So, for example, if you forgot to set your camera clock back 1 hour at the end of daylight savings time in the fall, you can fix the images with:

exiftool -AllDates-=1 DIR

See Image::ExifTool::Shift.pl (download in PDF format) for details about the syntax of the time shift string.

Note: Not all date/time information is covered by the AllDates shortcut. Specifically, the filesystem date/time tags are not included, and this command will reset FileModifyDate to the current date/time as it should when the file is modified, unless either the -P option is used, or FileModifyDate is set to something else. To shift FileModifyDate along with the other tags, add -FileModifyDate-=1 to the command above.

Renaming and/or Moving Files

By writing a new value to the FileName and/or Directory tags, files can be renamed and/or moved to different directories. This can be a very powerful tool in combination with the -d (date format) option for organizing images by date/time. For example, the following command renames all images in directory "DIR" according to the individual file's creation date in the form "YYYYmmdd_HHMMSS.ext".

exiftool "-FileName<CreateDate" -d "%Y%m%d_%H%M%S.%%e" DIR

Or a new directory can be specified by setting the value of the Directory tag. For example, the following command moves all images originally in directory "DIR" into a directory hierarchy organized by year/month/day:

exiftool "-Directory<DateTimeOriginal" -d "%Y/%m/%d" DIR

Read here for more details about this powerful feature.

Improving Performance

There is a significant overhead in loading ExifTool, so performance may be greatly improved by taking advantage of ExifTool's batch processing capabilities (the ability to process multiple files or entire directories with a single command) to reduce the number of executed commands when performing complex operations or processing multiple files.^† [One exiftool user documented a 60x speed increase by processing a large number of files with a single command instead of running exiftool separately on each file.] Also, the -execute option may be used to perform multiple independent operations with a single invocation of exiftool, and together with the -stay_open option provides a method for calling applications to avoid this startup overhead.

It has also been observed that the loading time of ExifTool for Windows increases significantly when Windows Defender is active. Disabling Windows Defender may speed things up significantly.

The processing speed of ExifTool can be improved when extracting information by reducing the amount of work that it must do. Decrease the number of extracted tags by specifying desired tags individually (-TAG) or by group (-GROUP:all), and disable the composite tags (-e) and the print conversions (-n) if these features aren't required. Note that the exclude options (-x or --TAG) are not very efficient, and may have a negative impact on performance if a large number of tags are excluded individually. The exception is XMP groups, which are bypassed in processing so they are never even extracted -- specifying --XMP-crs:all and -XMP-crd:all may speed processing significantly by avoiding processing of bulky Adobe image-editing information. The API IgnoreTags option (added in ExifTool 12.43) may also be used for significant speed benefits in some cases, especially when memory usage is significant because this may significantly reduced the required memory.

The -fast option can significantly increase speed when extracting information from JPEG images which are piped across a slow network connection. However, with this option any information in a JPEG trailer is not extracted. For more substantial speed benefits, -fast2 may be used to also avoid extracting MakerNote information if this is not required, or -fast4 if only pseudo System tags are required.

When writing, avoid copying tags (with -tagsFromFile) or using the -if or -fileOrder option because these will add the extra step of extracting tags from the file. Without these the write operation is accomplished with a single pass of each file.

^† However, note that when the -csv option is used, information from all files is buffered in memory before the CSV output is written. This may be very memory intensive and result in poor performance when reading a large number of files in a single command.

The Image::ExifTool Perl Library Module

The "exiftool" script provides a command-line interface to the Image::ExifTool Perl library module which is part of the ExifTool distribution. The Image::ExifTool module can be used in any Perl script to provide easy access to meta information. Here is an example of a very simple script that uses Image::ExifTool to print out all recognized meta information in a file:

#!/usr/bin/env perl
use Image::ExifTool ':Public';
my $file = shift or die "Please specify filename";
my $info = ImageInfo($file);
foreach (keys %$info) {
    print "$_ : $info->{$_}\n";
}

Note that some tag values may be returned as SCALAR references indicating binary data. The simple script above does not handle this case.

See the Image::ExifTool Documentation for more details.

Additional Documentation and Resources

ExifTool Home Page
ExifTool FAQ
ExifTool Forum
ExifTool Tag Names (download in PDF format)
ExifTool Revision History (RSS feed)
exiftool Application Documentation (download in PDF format)
Image::ExifTool API Documentation (download in PDF format)
Date/Time Shift Module (download in PDF format)
Sample ExifTool Configuration File (custom user-defined tags)
Working with Metadata Sidecar Files
Reading/Writing Structured Information
Common Mistakes when using ExifTool
Comments on the Subject of Writing Meta Information
Problems with current Metadata Standards
"Under the Hood" of ExifTool
Canon RAW (CRW) File Format Specification
MIE 1.1 File Format Specification (pdf)
ExifTool source code on GitHub
ExifTool SourceForge project page (alternate discussion forum and home page)
JPEG Image Samples (and Table of Makernote Types)
Image::ExifTool at MetaCPAN
ExifTool Bug Reports (ExifTool Forum -- the preferred method)
ExifTool Bug Reports (Github)
ExifTool Bug Reports (CPAN Request Tracker)
ExifTool Test Reports (CPAN Testers)
CPAN Testers Matrix (max version with a PASS)

User-contributed Documentation

ExifTool Tutorial (video in 4 parts by AVP)
Using the ExifTool on Linux to read/write Exif Tags to your photo collection (video by Linux By Example)
Working with jpg Metadata Comments - Exiftool - BASH - Linux Command Line (video by Linux By Example)
Useful one-line ExifTool commands (.txt file)
ExifTool tuto en français

Related Utilities

Below are some free utilities which take advantage of the ExifTool engine:

Windows

Alternate ExifTool Windows Installer and Portable Package by Oliver Betz
wxETI: A wxWidgets-based Windows interface for Exiftool
ExifTool GUI for Windows: [unsupported] GUI for viewing meta information with some editing features
ExifTool GUI v6 for Windows: Updated version of ExifTool GUI (source, documentation)
Metadata++: View, edit, extract, copy metadata metadata
Auto ISO Tool: GUI front-end for ExifTool to patch Canon ISO information
GeoSetter: Utility for showing and changing geo data of image files
GeoTagNinja: Open-source geotagger for Windows
AvPicFaceXmpTagger: Write Picasa 3.5 face recognition information as XMP to your images
FileTagSleuth: MP3, ID3 and EXIF viewer
PhotoMove: Automatically move photos to directories or folders based on Exif date taken
AutoJpegTrunk: Tool to remove all metadata from JPEG images
AdvancedRenamer: Rename files and folders from metadata
Proxel EXIF Tool: Photoshop plugin based on ExifTool
EXIFCopy: Copy all EXIF information between files
Random Photo Screensaver: Photo screensaver with metadata display
PicaGeoTag: Geolocate your photos
PictureTools: Tools for viewing pictures and editing EXIF data or renaming files
PhotoTags-Synchronizer: Windows GUI for tagging and synchronizing metadata
DNG Opcodes Editor: Change DNG opcodes and see the effect on the image in real-time
Photography Toolbox: Organize your digital photographs

MacOS

Download a stand-alone PPC droplet to extract preview images from RAW files (thanks to Brett Gross)
Download three droplets to extract information [exiftool must be installed] (thanks to Rob Lewis)
MacMetaMod: Droplet for adding Keywords to images
GPSPhotoLinker: Geotagging on the Mac
PhotoGPSEditor and PhotoInfoEditor: Geocoding utilities
MetaDataMover (source): GUI-based automator utility for moving/renaming images
CS1ToCR2: Utility that uses Sony GPS-CS1 log files to add GPS information to CR2 images
Geotagger: Droplet for inserting GPS coordinates in your photos
Raw Photo Processor: Raw converter for MacOS
GraphicConverter: Full-featured image editor [noteworthy, but not free]
GeoTag: Geotagging application for iPhone and MacOS
ImageFuser: Fuses multiple exposures of a scene into one image with improved detail/exposure
GeoNamesTagger: Docklet to easily update image metadata with location specific information
SetEXIFData: Add/modify EXIF data in images
GeoTagster: Geotagging from GPX files ($0.99 paid app)
Exif Photoworker: Smart rename and organize your photos and videos in a few clicks
MetaImage: Reads, writes and edits your image metadata in a familiar interface

Linux

rawimage: A kfile plugin and thumbnail image handler for RAW formats
Hugin: Panorama photo stitcher
FotoPreProcessor: PyQt4-based frontend for exiftool to graphically edit metadata
ExZenToo: Script for basic ExifTool GUI using Zenity
PDFMted: A set of bash scripts for easy viewing and editing of PDF metadata
exiftool-zsh-completion: zsh completion for exiftool
Image MetaWriter: Batch processing Linux command-line program for adding metadata to images

Android

ExifTool for Android: View, edit or delete metadata in photo, video and other files
EXIF Pro - ExifTool for Android: View, edit or delete the metadata of files on Android

Multi-Platform

ImageIngester: Windows and MacOS image workflow automator
gpsPhoto: Geotag your images from a GPS (GPX) track log
renrot: Perl utility to perform various processing tasks on images
GPicSync: Windows/Linux utility to geocode photos from a GPX track log and create KML files
FlickFleck: Tool to transfer images from memory card, rotate, rename, and organize by date
Geotag: Open source Java-based geotagging application
PhotoGrok: Java-based GUI front-end for ExifTool to display images organized by any EXIF tag
XnView: View and convert graphic files
Mapivi: Open-source and cross-platform picture manager
ResourceSpace: Open source digital asset management system
fix_corrupted_nef: Utility to fix Nikon D4/D600/D800/D800E NEF images corrupted by Nikon Transfer 1
pyExifToolGUI: Python-based graphical frontend for ExifTool
jExifToolGUI: Java-based graphical frontend for ExifTool
MDQC: AVPreserve tool for metadata quality control across large numbers of digital assets
FastPhotoTagger: Add metadata to images (requires Java runtime engine)
Digi-libris: Metadata centric software for the automatic organization of your own catalogue
FreezeFrame: Photo/video library manager (requires Java 8)
MemoryMate: Maintain photo and video metadata for family collections
Mapillary Desktop Uploader: Upload street-level imagery to an open platform database
Digikam: Open-source digital photo management

Online

Jeffrey's Exif Viewer: Web utility to view meta information in online images
The eXif.er: Web-based EXIF editor
Get-IPTC-Photo-Metadata: Web service showing all IPTC metadata of web and local images (source code)

Lightroom Plugins

Jeffrey's Geoencoding Plugin for Lightroom: Geoencode your photos from within Lightroom
Metadata Wrangler: Strip selected metadata components from images as they are exported
ExifMeta: Make all exif metadata available in Lightroom for lib filtering and smart collections
FullMetaExport: Export JPEG images from Lightroom with full metadata
LensTagger: Add EXIF information like aperture and focal length for manual lenses
DeAspect: Remove aspect ratio information from DNG, CR2 and ORF images to restore full image
PhotoStation-Upload-Lr-Plugin: Export photos from LR directly to a Synology PhotoStation

Programming

C++ ExifTool: Performance-oriented C++ interface for the exiftool application (by Phil Harvey)
Download sample AppleScript to extract tags into AppleScript record (thanks to Rob Lewis)
Download example of a simple Visual C++ wrapper for exiftool (thanks Mark Borg and 黃瑞昌)
Download C# version of simple exiftool wrapper (thanks Willem Semmelink)
Example C# code for running ExifTool with the -stay_open option
Download Visual Basic 6.0 example script v1.01 for reading tags with exiftool (thanks Michael Wandel)
Sample VB.NET subroutine to extract a preview image (thanks Claus Beckmann)
Sample VBA for Mac code to extract start timecode from a WAV file (thanks Adam Newns)
tagInfoSql: SQLite database of ExifTool tag repository, including Perl script (thanks Wernfried)
ExifToolIO: .NET wrapper for ExifTool, optimized for speed (using VB.NET)
ExifToolWrapper: .NET wrapper for ExifTool (using C#)
MiniExiftool: Ruby library wrapper for ExifTool
exiftoolr: Ruby wrapper for ExifTool
pyexiftool: Python wrapper for ExifTool
PyExifInfo: Another Python wrapper for ExifTool
PHPExiftool: PHP wrapper for ExifTool (in development)
ExifTool_PHP_StayOpen: ExifTool PHP fast processing script using -stayOpen and Gearman
Moss: Collection of Java utilities which includes an exiftool interface
im4java: Java interface to ImageMagick, ExifTool, and other image utilities
Java ExifTool: Enhanced Java Integration for ExifTool
J-ExifTool: Open-source, cross platform Java7 library to read/write Exif tags in images
exiftool-vendored: Blazing-fast, cross-platform Node.js access to ExifTool
How to call ExifTool from Delphi, by Bogdan Hrastnik
Qt5 and Qt6 interface for ExifTool, by Philippe Vianney-Liaud
exiftoolr: ExifTool functionality from R

Boldly Go where No Man has Gone Before...

There is still much unknown information in the maker notes for many camera models. (To see this information, run exiftool with the -U option.) In this area, ExifTool is very much a collaborative effort, and development relies heavily on the input from camera owners to help decode new meta information. If you manage to figure out what any of it means, send me an e-mail (philharvey66 at gmail.com) and I'll add your new discoveries to ExifTool. Many thanks to all who have helped so far...

Acknowledgements

Thanks to everyone who has sent in bug reports, comments, or suggestions, and special thanks to the following people for their valuable input and/or additions to the code:

Malcolm Wotton for his help with the D30 Custom Functions
David Anson for his help sorting out binary file problems on Windows
Leon Booyens for his suggestions
Dan Heller for his bug reports, detailed suggestions and guidance
Wayne Smith for his help figuring out the Pentax maker notes
Michael Rommel for his bug fixes and additions to the Canon maker notes
Joseph Heled for help figuring out some of the Nikon D70 maker notes
Joachim Loehr for adding the Casio type 2 maker notes
Greg Troxel for his suggestions and for adding ExifTool to pkgsrc
Thomas Walter for figuring out some Nikon tags
Brian Ristuccia for more information about some Nikon tags
Christian Koller for decoding the 20D custom functions
Matt Madrid for his testing and feedback
Tom Christiansen for his help decoding some Nikon tags
Markku Hänninen for help decoding tags for the Olympus E-1
Frank Ledwon for decoding many new Olympus tags
Robert Rottmerhusen for decoding many tricky Nikon lens data tags
Michael Tiemann for decoding a number of new Canon tags
Albert Bogner for his image samples, testing and useful suggestions
Rainer Hönle for decoding a number of new Canon 5D tags
Nilesh Patel for his help with the web page layout
Jens Duttke for his suggestions, bug reports and help decoding new tags
Dave Nicholson for decoding new tags in Pentax and Canon maker notes
Bogdan Hrastnik for his feedback, decoding efforts, user support and ExifTool GUI
Igal Milchtaich for decoding many Sony A100 tags
Laurent Clévy for his work analyzing Canon RAW images
Warren Hatch for decoding many Nikon tags
Jos Roost for decoding many Sony tags for various models
Iliah Borg and LibRaw for decoding many raw development tags
Bryan K. Williams and Hayo Baan for their help with the ExifTool Forum

License

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

Donate

ExifTool is free, but due to popular request I am providing a way for those who feel the need to send me some money. It is really not necessary, but thank you very much if you decide to make a contribution:

$

(Your generous donations have provided the funds used to register exiftool.org and pay for web site hosting, and for the Mac Mini used to generate distribution files, run the necessary Windows virtual machine, and maintain source-code and forum backups.)

Phil's Background

Phil has a master's degree in nuclear physics and is now officially retired from his position at Queen's University where he worked with the Nobel-prize-winning Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) team and other SNOLab experiments from 1990 to 2020. For SNO he wrote the software to aquire, format, store and display all of the hundreds of terabytes of data generated by the detector; software that continues to be used by SNO+ for their even greater data volume.

ExifTool started as a simple utility used to display metadata from images hosted on the SNO web site, but quickly expanded in scope as Phil got involved with digital photography beginning in 2001. During retirement Phil continues to enjoy digital photography, a hobby which he now applies to bird watching. A selection of his birding pictures may be found in his recent Birds of Kingston book.

Contact Me

If you have any comments, suggestions or questions, please post to the ExifTool Forum so other people may benefit from your experiences. (I will respond in the forum more quickly than by email.) Otherwise, if you must contact me directly, my e-mail address is on the first line of the README file in the full distribution. Thanks. - Phil Harvey

Installing	Tag Names	Resources	History	Forum	FAQ

Windows	32-bit: exiftool-13.10_32.zip (10.9 MB)
	64-bit: exiftool-13.10_64.zip (10.7 MB)