Author Topic: METADATA INFORMATION  (Read 2894 times)

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Laura Shook

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METADATA INFORMATION
« on: 2015-07-10 10:20:41 »
ThumbsPlus users,

We have written the HELP file for ThumbsPlus v10 Metadata information and I thought that it may be helpful.

NOTE: We are working on all of the reports and suggestions about METADATA that have been discussed in the recent ThumbsPlus BETA thread!

NOTE: This doesn't include all of the METADATA and ThumbsPlus options and there are some changes that haven't been  updated yet in the HELP file.

NOTE: Batch Edit Metadata information is included in another message.

Definition:

Metadata is information stored about a file, usually stored within it. For example, metadata about an image may include such things as:

· Who created it.
· A description of the image.
· When was it created.
· What were the camera settings.
· Who may  use it.

Overview:

Metadata is known as and includes various types of information, including XMP, File Info (Photoshop), EXIF and IPTC.

The most common file metadata formats and names are:

XMP:

An extensive, rich, and extensible standard for storing all kinds of metadata in files of many different formats. It encompasses and effectively supersedes many earlier format-specific metadata standards, including EXIF and IPTC.

EXIF:

Information from a digital camera or scanner when the image is created (or modified manually). EXIF is the name for a metadata standard originally based on tags from the TIFF file format, with extensions, that could be stored in TIFF and other file types. Today EXIF is most often stored as XMP.

IPTC:

Information supplied by a news agency or source and included with the image to make it easy to find who created it, why it was created, how it may be used, and so on. IPTC was originally stored in a block of information with its own format. Because IPTC included many fields applicable to wide use, and because it was the first real codified and supported standard, it was adopted widely for other uses. Today, like EXIF, it is stored as XMP.

Photoshop:

Photoshop has always had a File Info function which allows you to set up metadata. Most of its original fields were based on the original IPTC standard.

Metadata in ThumbsPlus:

ThumbsPlus uses the XMP format, which stores all metadata an an XML tree, and Adobe's XMP library, to store and maintain metadata. ThumbsPlus has its own internal list of "supported" XMP fields, but can display metadata not on that list. ThumbsPlus allows you to modify or add many fields, but for compatibility with other applications, only those on its supported list, and only those which make sense to edit. For example, it doesn't allow you to edit the Exposure Time, since that is static information about how the image was created.

The Metadata panel shows the metadata for the current file. When you have selected a single file, you may edit the supported metadata in that file directly within the panel. To edit the metadata in multiple files, use the Batch Edit Metadata function on the Image menu.

Metadata in the ThumbsPlus database:

ThumbsPlus automatically imports metadata for several items so they may be used to quickly search for images based it.

These database items are handled automatically:

Date Taken:  ThumbsPlus loads the Date Take in the database from the XMP/EXIF field Original Date Time.

Rating:  ThumbsPlus will load Rating from the XMP rating field (xmp:rating) or the Microsoft rating field (MicrosoftPhoto:Rating). The Microsoft rating is converted from its 0-100 range to the standard 0-5.

Keywords:     Database keywords are automatically created from XMP keywords, based on the XMP Keywords setting in Keyword Preferences. (For historical reasons, these are stored in the XMP bag named dc:subject. ThumbsPlus and most other software always refer to them  as keywords.)

Annotations:  Subject to the option in the Metadata Preferences, ThumbsPlus copies the XMP Caption (also known as Description and Comment in some software) to the database Annotation field.

User Fields:  You can also create User Fields for any metadata item, and if it has the exact same name as an XMP field, ThumbsPlus will automatically populate the field from the metadata item. All metadata fields in the database should be stored as Text, rather than numeric or date/time. You may disable this behavior in Metadata Preferences.

I hope this information helps!

Kind regards,
Laura Shook
Cerious Software