EXIFinfo
Program Manual
Contents 1
Colophon 1
Program limitations and capabilities 5
Cameras known to work with EXIFinfo 5
Document: !EXIFinfo.help/ewr
Description: Help file for EXIFinfo application version 0.59beta
Version: 1.31 (Wed, Feb 12, 2003)
Author: © Chris Terran/Lee Montgomerie/Vermilion Sands 2003
Format: EasiWriter/HTML/text
Email: chris@photodesk.iconbar.com
Web: http://www.photodesk.iconbar.com
Important Note
EXIFinfo is a beta program. It is in development and may contain bugs. Feedback is needed, especially if you come across problems or you have suggestions for improving the program.
If a particular image causes difficulties, please send it to the email address above. (Please write first if it's over 1Mb in size.)
**** Remember ****
If you don't tell us about problems, they can't be fixed!
Please take note
This program is only useful for EXIF images produced by digital cameras, not for ordinary JPEGs or any other kind of images. Editing an EXIF image will almost certainly destroy the EXIF data. Always keep copies of your originals!
EXIFinfo is a small application which gives access to the non-graphic data stored in the EXIF files produced by digital cameras. EXIF files appear as normal JPEGs, but also contain information about the camera settings used for the photograph - exposure time, focal length, aperture, whether the flash was used, and much more.
EXIFinfo can also understand the so-called 'MakerNote' manufacturer-specific information in images from Canon, Casio, Fuji, Nikon, Olympus and Sanyo cameras.
EXIFinfo reads a directory of images and converts all this information into various formats, including:
Each output format is completely configurable, and you can define new ones.
This manual only describes the use of EXIFinfo on the desktop. The program is however highly configurable by means of script files, and if you want to know how to create or alter these you'll need to obtain the EXIFinfo Reference Manual, available from the same site as the program. This comes with a StrongEd editing mode for script files.
EXIFinfo has a command-line interface so it can be called by external programs. See the reference manual for details.
EXIFinfo should run on RISC OS 3.10 or higher, including RISC OS 5; this application works on both 26- and 32-bit machines. No additional resources are required.
EXIF is an extension to the standard JFIF format much used to store photographic images (more commonly known as JPEG). JFIF uses lossy compression to reduce the size of images - there's a trade-off between file size and image quality - and works particularly well with photographs.
The EXIF format has been agreed upon by most camera manufacturers as the storage method for digital photographs. It is (theoretically) backwards-compatible with existing JFIF viewers, although some programs have problems reading the files. In particular, the JFIF renderer built in to RISC OS cannot display them.
Why extend the format? Simply so that camera settings can be stored with an image. Nearly all JFIF readers on RISC OS ignore this extended information, and will in fact discard it if the image is resaved. Thus it is very important to keep your original image files if you want to access all the information stored in them. We recommend making them read-only, either by using the Filer to lock the files or by burning them straight on to CD.
Double click on EXIFinfo in a Filer directory display, and a window will open; the program does not have an iconbar icon.
Now drag a single JPEG file or a directory containing JPEG images produced by a digital camera on to this window. If you hold down a shift key and drag a file, the parent directory will be used (necessary if the root directory contains the images). Note that if you have done any processing on the images at all - including rotation and resizing - you will almost certainly have lost the EXIF data; EXIFinfo will then produce no output. Always keep your originals!
Next, select the type of output you want from the pull-down menu. Some more information on the output format may appear in the display. The default destination of the output is specified in the format template file (normally the same as the images directory), and appears in the lower icon. You can edit this name if you wish.
The icon to the right of the output filename will also change to reflect the filetype of the output. You can drag this to a new destination, which must however be a Filer window - you cannot save directly to another application, as some types of output generate multiple files. For instance, the web page output creates a directory of thumbnail images as well as an HTML file.
If you want to look at images on a non-writeable filing system (on a CD-ROM, for example), you'll have to change the output destination. If you do this a lot, you can edit the appropriate output definition file (see the reference manual for details).
Click on Go to start the operation. A file will be created containing the details of any images found, in the format specified. All other graphics files (including standard JPEGs) are ignored.
If you select the Run on completion option, the file will be displayed in an appropriate manner - a web page in a browser, text files in your preferred editor. Some output formats may not be suitable for running; in these cases the icon is greyed out.
Selecting Show warnings will open an alert box if there are any problems with the image, such as unknown tags. This is meant as a debugging aid only, and should normally be left switched off. The 'Complete information' output format will also list any warnings for each image.
Note there are no checks for overwriting files, so be careful.
Clicking on Help will open this file, and Web site will attempt to open the program's home site. Edit shows the text file that defines the current output format.
To stop the program, just close the window.
Clicking on the menu button will open a list of the available output formats; select one to make it current.
The example formats currently supplied include:
Clicking on this icon will load the definition of the currently selected output format into a text editor. For more information on these files see the EXIFinfo Reference Manual, available from the same site as the program.
If you edit one of these files (read the documentation first!) and save it, you will need to reselect the output format for any changes to take effect.
If you add a new format (simply save a file into the Formats directory inside the program), the program must be restarted for it to be seen.
Selecting this option will Filer_Run the output file after it has been created. This should display the output in whatever program you have configured to run that particular filetype - for example, HTML in a web browser, text files in your preferred editor.
At least one image tested from the following cameras:
Many thanks to all those who have sent in reports. If you can add to either list, let us know.
The RISC OS application EXIFinfo is free to download for personal use from the Vermilion Sands Photodesk Resources web site (http://www.photodesk.iconbar.com), but you use it at your own risk.
EXIFinfo and all associated files are copyright: © Chris Terran / Lee Montgomerie / Vermilion Sands 2002. EXIFinfo may not be distributed or made available in any form unless express permission in writing is given by the copyright holder.
Send any comments and bug reports to chris@photodesk.iconbar.com
Our warmest thanks to users who have provided support, criticism and invaluable bug reports:
All trademarks acknowledged.
Thump is a superb image browser:
http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/rhudson/software/thump.html
Jcut is an essential toolkit for JPEGs, and can manipulate EXIF files without losing data:
StrongEd is a very powerful text editor (as is Zap):
StrongBS is a powerful tool for program compression and speed improvements (location unknown).
EasiWriter is a product of Icon Technology Ltd.:
http://www.iconsupport.demon.co.uk
Photodesk is a (rather wonderful) product of Photodesk Ltd.:
Thanks to the Iconbar for hosting the Vermilion Sands Photodesk Resources web site
(http://www.photodesk.iconbar.com), where any updates to EXIFinfo will appear.
Thanks to the sterling work of the RISC OS community and its supporters, especially the writers of PD / shareware / freeware software.
Finally, thanks to the many people around the world (far too many to list) who have worked on decoding MakerNotes and made the results available.
{!if...} statements can now be nested
{!else} clauses are now optional in {!if...} statements
{!if "{tag}"} is equivalent to writing {!if "{tag}"<>"unknownstring"}
{!Date} and #!DateFormat
{!Inc Usern} and {!Dec Usern}
{!OutputLeafName} and {!OutputPath} tags
{!User0}...{!User9} tags
#!Usern=value directives; can also do {!Usern=expr}
{!if expr}....{!else}....{!endif} construct
Formats.UserLib)
#!ThumbnailFileName changed to {!OutputPath}.thumbs.{!LeafName}
{!FileDate} tag handler (forgot it!)