NAME

Image::ExifTool - Extract meta information from image files

SYNOPSIS

use Image::ExifTool 'ImageInfo';

# ---- Simple procedural usage ----

# Get hash of meta information tag names/values from an image
$info = ImageInfo('a.jpg');

# ---- Object-oriented usage ----

# Create a new Image::ExifTool object
$exifTool = new Image::ExifTool;

# Extract meta information from an image
$exifTool->ExtractInfo($file, \%options);

# Get list of tags in the order they were found in the file
@tagList = $exifTool->GetFoundTags('File');

# Get the value of a specified tag
$value = $exifTool->GetValue($tag, $type);

# Get a tag description
$description = $exifTool->GetDescription($tag);

# Get the group name associated with this tag
$group = $exifTool->GetGroup($tag, $family);

# ...plus a host of other useful methods...

DESCRIPTION

ExifTool provides an extensible set of perl modules to extract and parse EXIF, IPTC, XMP, GPS, GeoTIFF, ICC Profile and Photoshop IRB meta information from JPEG, TIFF, GIF, THM, CRW (Canon RAW), CR2 (Canon 1D Mk II RAW), MRW (Minolta RAW), NEF (Nikon Electronic image Format) and DNG (Digital Negative) images. ExifTool also reads the maker notes of many digital cameras by various manufacturers including Canon, Casio, FujiFilm, Minolta/Konica-Minolta, Nikon, Olympus/Epson, Panasonic/Leica, Pentax/Asahi, Sanyo and Sigma/Foveon.

METHODS

new

Creates a new ExifTool object.

$exifTool = new Image::ExifTool;

ImageInfo

Obtain meta information from image. This is the one step function for obtaining meta information from an image. Internally, ImageInfo calls ExtractInfo to extract the information, GetInfo to generate the information hash, and GetTagList for the returned tag list.

# Return meta information for 2 tags only (procedural)
$info = ImageInfo($filename, $tag1, $tag2)

# Return information about an open image file (object-oriented)
$info = $exifTool->ImageInfo(\*FILE)

# Return information from image data in memory for specified tags
$info = ImageInfo(\$imageData, \@tagList, \%options)

Inputs:

ImageInfo is very flexible about the input arguments, and interprets them based on their type. It may be called with one or more arguments. The one required argument is either a SCALAR (the image file name), a GLOB reference (a reference to the image file) or a SCALAR reference (a reference to the image in memory). Other arguments are optional. The order of the arguments is not significant, except that the first SCALAR is taken to be the file name unless a file reference or scalar reference came earlier in the argument list.

Below is an explanation of how the ImageInfo function arguments are interpreted:

ExifTool ref: ImageInfo may be called with an ExifTool object if desired. The advantage of using the object-oriented form is that the options may be set before calling ImageInfo, and the object may be used afterward to access member functions.
SCALAR: The first scalar argument is taken to be the file name unless an earlier argument specified the image data via a file reference (GLOB ref) or data reference (SCALAR ref). The remaining scalar arguments are names of tags for requested information. If no tags are specified, all possible information is extracted. Tag names may begin with '-' indicating tags to exclude. The tag names are case-insensitive, so note that the returned tags may not be exactly the same as the requested tags. For this reason it is best to use either the keys of the returned hash or the elements of the tag array when accessing the return values
GLOB ref: A reference to an open image file.
SCALAR ref: A reference to image data in memory.
ARRAY ref: Reference to a list of tag names. On entry, any elements in the list are added to the list of requested tags. Tags with names beginning with '-' are excluded. On return, this list is updated to contain a sorted list of tag names in the proper case.
HASH ref: Reference to a hash containing the options settings. See Options documentation below for a list of available options. Options specified as arguments to ImageInfo take precidence over Options settings.

Return Values:

ImageInfo returns a reference to a hash of tag/value pairs. The keys of the hash are the tag identifiers, which are similar to the tag names but my have an embedded copy number if more than one tag with that name was found in the image. Use GetTagName to remove the copy number from the tag. Note that the case of the tags may not be the same as requested. Here is a simple example to print out the information returned by ImageInfo:

foreach (sort keys %$info) {
    print "$_ => $$info{$_}\n";
}

The values of the returned hash are usually simple scalars, but a scalar reference is used to indicate binary data. Note that binary values are not necessarily extracted unless specifically requested or the Binary option is set. If not extracted the value is a reference to a string of the form "Binary data ##### bytes". The code below gives an example of how to handle these return values, as well as illustrating the use of other ExifTool functions:

use Image::ExifTool;
my $exifTool = new Image::ExifTool;
$exifTool->Options(Unknown => 1);
my $info = $exifTool->ImageInfo('a.jpg');
my $group = '';
my $tag;
foreach $tag ($exifTool->GetFoundTags('Group0')) {
    if ($group ne $exifTool->GetGroup($tag)) {
        $group = $exifTool->GetGroup($tag);
        print "---- $group ----\n";
    }
    my $val = $info->{$tag};
    if (ref $val eq 'SCALAR') {
        if ($$val =~ /^Binary data/) {
            $val = "($$val)";
        } else {
            my $len = length($$val);
            $val = "(Binary data $len bytes)";
        }
    }
    printf("%-32s : %s\n", $exifTool->GetDescription($tag), $val);
}

As well as tags representing information extracted from the image, the following tags generated by ExifTool may be returned:

ExifToolVersion - The ExifTool version number.

Error - An error message if the image could not be read.

Warning - A warning message if problems were encountered
          while extracting information from the image.

Options

Get/set ExifTool options. This function can be called to set the default options for an ExifTool object. Options set this way are in effect for all function calls but may be overridden by options passed as arguments to a specific function.

# Exclude the 'OwnerName' tag from returned information
$exifTool->Options( Exclude => 'OwnerName' );

# Only get information in EXIF or MakerNotes groups
$exifTool->Options( Group0 => [ 'EXIF', 'MakerNotes' ] );

# Ignore information from IFD1
$exifTool->Options( Group1 => '-IFD1' );

# Sort by groups in family 2, and extract unknown tags
$exifTool->Options( Sort => 'Group2', Unknown => 1 );

# Do not extract duplicate tag names
$oldSetting = $exifTool->Options( Duplicates => 0 );

Inputs:

0) ExifTool object reference.

1) Option parameter name.

2) [optional] Option parameter value.

3-N) [optional] Additional parameter/value pairs.

Option Parameters:

Binary

Flag to get the value of all binary tags. Unless set, large binary values may only be extracted for specifically requested tags. Default is 0.

Composite

Flag to calculate Composite tags automatically. Default is 1.

DateFormat

Format for printing EXIF date/time. See strftime for details about the format string.

Duplicates

Flag to preserve values of duplicate tags (instead of overwriting existing value). Default is 1.

Group#

Extract tags only for specified groups in family # (Group0 assumed if # not given). The option value may be a single group name or a reference to a list of groups. Case is significant in group names. Specify a group to be excluded by preceeding group name with a '-'. See GetAllGroups for a list of available groups.

Exclude

Exclude specified tags from tags extracted from an image. The option value is either a tag name or reference to a list of tag names to exclude. The case of tag names is not significant. This option is ignored for specifically requested tags. Tags may also be excluded by preceeding their name with a '-' in the arguments to ImageInfo.

PrintConv

Flag to enable automatic print conversion. Default is 1.

Sort

Specifies order to sort tags in returned list:

Alpha  - Sort alphabetically
File   - Sort in order that tags were found in the file
Group# - Sort by tag group, where # is the group family
         number.  If # is not specified, Group0 is assumed.
         See GetGroup for a list of groups.
Input  - Sort in same order as input tag arguments (default)

Unknown

Flag to get the values of unknown tags. If set to 1, unknown tags are extracted from EXIF directories. If set to 2, unknown tags are also extracted from binary data blocks. Default is 0.

Verbose

Flag to print verbose messages. May be set to a value from 0 to 3 to be increasingly verbose. Default is 0.

Return Values:

The original value of the last specified parameter.

ClearOptions

Reset all options to their default values.

$exifTool->ClearOptions();

Inputs:: 0) ExifTool object reference
Return Values:: (none)

ExtractInfo

Extract all meta information from an image.

$success = $exifTool->ExtractInfo('image.jpg', \%options);

Inputs:

ExtractInfo takes exactly the same arguments as ImageInfo. The only difference is that a list of tags is not returned if an ARRAY reference is given. The following options are effective in the call to ExtractInfo:

Binary, Composite, DateFormat, PrintConv, Unknown and Verbose.

Return Value:

1 if image was valid, 0 otherwise (and 'Error' tag set).

GetInfo

GetInfo is called to return meta information after it has been extracted from the image by a previous call to ExtractInfo or ImageInfo. This function may be called repeatedly after a single call to ExtractInfo or ImageInfo.

# Get image width and hieght only
$info = $exifTool->GetInfo('ImageWidth', 'ImageHeight');

# Get information for all tags in list (list updated with tags found)
$info = $exifTool->GetInfo(\@ioTagList);

# Get all information in Author or Location groups
$info = $exifTool->GetInfo({Group2 => ['Author', 'Location']});

Inputs:

Inputs are the same as ExtractInfo and ImageInfo except that an image can not be specified. Options in effect are:

Duplicates, Exclude, Group#, (and Sort if tag list reference is given).

Return Value:

Reference to information hash, the same as with ImageInfo.

CombineInfo

Combine information from more than one information hash into a single hash.

$info = $exifTool->CombineInfo($info1, $info2, $info3);

Inputs:

0) ExifTool object reference

1-N) Information hash references

If the Duplicates option is disabled and duplicate tags exist, the order of the hashes is significant. In this case, the value used is the first value found as the hashes are scanned in order of input. The Duplicates option is the only option that is in effect for this function.

GetTagList

Get a sorted list of tags from the specified information hash or tag list.

@tags = $exifTool->GetTagList($info, 'Group0');

Inputs:

0) ExifTool object reference,

1) [optional] Information hash reference or tag list reference,

2) [optional] Sort order ('File', 'Input', 'Alpha' or 'Group#').

If the information hash or tag list reference is not provided, then the list of found tags from the last call to ImageInfo, ExtractInfo or GetInfo is used instead, and the result is the same as if GetFoundTags was called. If sort order is not specified, the sort order is taken from the current options settings.

Return Values:

A list of tags in the specified order.

GetFoundTags

Get list of found tags in specified sort order. The found tags are the tags for the information obtained from the most recent call to ImageInfo, ExtractInfo or GetInfo for this object.

@tags = $exifTool->GetFoundTags('File');

Inputs:

0) ExifTool object reference

1) [optional] Sort order ('File', 'Input', 'Alpha' or 'Group#')

If sort order is not specified, the sort order from the ExifTool options is used.

Return Values:

A list of tags in the specified order.

GetRequestedTags

Get list of requested tags. These are the tags that were specified in the arguments of the most recent call to ImageInfo, ExtractInfo or GetInfo, including tags specified via a tag list reference. Shortcut tags are expanded in the list.

@tags = $exifTool->GetRequestedTags();

Inputs:: (none)
Return Values:: List of requested tags in the same order that they were specified. Note that this list will be empty if tags were not specifically requested (ie. If extracting all tags).

GetValue

Get the value of specified tag. By default this routine returns the human-readable (PrintConv) value, but optionally returns the machine-readable (ValueConv) value. Note that the PrintConv value will only differ from the ValueConv value if the PrintConv option is enabled (which it is by default), or if the values form a list. In the case of a list of values (as can happen with the 'Keywords' tag for instance), PrintConv returns a comma-separated string of values, while ValueConv returns a reference to an array of values or the array itself in list context. The PrintConv values are the values returned by ImageInfo and GetInfo in the tag/value hash.

# PrintConv example
my $val = $exifTool-&gt;<b>GetValue</b>($tag);
if (ref $val eq 'SCALAR') {
    print "$tag = (unprintable value)\n";
} else {
    print "$tag = $val\n";
}

# ValueConv examples
my $val = $exifTool-&gt;<b>GetValue</b>($tag, 'ValueConv');
if (ref $val eq 'ARRAY') {
    print "got a list reference for $tag\n";
} else {
    print "$tag is a simple scalar\n";
}

my @keywords = $exifTool-&gt;<b>GetValue</b>('Keywords', 'ValueConv');

Inputs:

0) ExifTool object reference

1) Tag key

2) [optional] Value type, 'PrintConv' (default) or 'ValueConv'

Return Values:

The value of the specified tag. If the tag represents a list of values then a comma-separated string of values is returned for PrintConv, or a reference to the list of values (in scalar context) or the list itself (in list context) is returned for ValueConv.

GetTagID

Get the ID for the specified tag. The ID is the IFD tag number in EXIF information, the property name in XMP information, or the data offset in a binary data block. For some tags, such as Composite tags where there is no ID, '' is returned.

$id = $exifTool->GetTagID($tag);

Inputs:

0) ExifTool object reference

1) Tag key

Return Values:

Tag ID or '' of there is no ID for this tag.

GetDescription

Get description for specified tag. This function will always return a defined value. In the case where the description doesn't exist, the tag name is returned.

Inputs:

0) ExifTool object reference

1) Tag key

Return Values:

A description for the specified tag.

GetGroup

Get group name for specified tag.

$group = $exifTool->GetGroup($tag, 0);

Inputs:

0) ExifTool object reference

1) Tag key

2) [optional] Group family number

Return Values:

Group name (or 'Other' if tag has no group). If no group family is specified, GetGroup returns the name of the group in family 0 when called in scalar context, or the names of groups for all families in list context. See GetAllGroups for a list of groups in each famly.

GetGroups

Get list of group names for specified information.

@groups = $exifTool->GetGroups($info, 2);

Inputs:

0) ExifTool object reference

1) [optional] Info hash ref (default is all extracted info)

2) [optional] Group family number (default 0)

Return Values:

List of group names in alphabetical order. If information hash is not specified, the group names are returned for all extracted information.

BuildCompositeTags

Builds composite tags from required tags. The composite tags are convenience tags which are derived from the values of other tags. This routine is called automatically by ImageInfo and ExtractInfo if the Composite option is set.

Inputs:: 0) ExifTool object reference
Return Values:: (none)
Notes:: Tag values are calculated in alphabetical order unless a tag Require's or Desire's another composite tag, in which case the calculation is deferred until after the other tag is calculated. Composite tags may need to read data from the image for their value to be determined, so for these BuildCompositeTags must be called while the image is available. This is only a problem if ImageInfo is called with a filename (as opposed to a file reference or scalar reference) since in this case the file is closed before ImageInfo returns. However if you enable the Composite option, BuildCompositeTags is called from within ImageInfo before the file is closed. (Note: As of ExifTool version 3.10, only the PreviewImage required access to the image data.)

GetTagName [static]

Get name of tag from tag key. This is a convenience function that strips the embedded copy number, if it exists, from the tag key.

Note: "static" in the heading above indicates that the function does not require an ExifTool object reference as the first argument. All functions documented below are also static.

$tagName = Image::ExifTool::GetTagName($tag);

Inputs:: 0) Tag key
Return Value:: Tag name. This is the same as the tag key but has the copy number removed.

GetShortcuts [static]

Get a list of shortcut tags.

Inputs:: (none)
Return Values:: List of shortcut tags (as defined in Image::ExifTool::Shortcuts).

GetAllTags [static]

Get list of all available tag names.

@tagList = Image::ExifTool::GetAllTags();

Inputs:: (none)
Return Values:: A list of all available tags in alphabetical order.

GetAllGroups [static]

Get list of all group names in specified family.

@groupList = Image::ExifTool::GetAllGroups($family);

Inputs:: 0) Group family number (0-2)
Return Values:: A list of all groups in the specified family in alphabetical order.

Three families of groups are currently defined: 0, 1 and 2. Families 0 and 1 are based on the file structure, and family 2 classifies information based on the logical category to which the information refers.

Families 0 and 1 are similar except that family 1 is more specific, and sub-divides the EXIF, MakerNotes, XMP and ICC_Profile groups to give more detail about the specific location where the information was found. The EXIF group is split up based on the specific IFD (Image File Directory), the MakerNotes group is divided into groups for each manufacturer, and the XMP group is separated based on the XMP namespace prefix. Note that only common XMP namespaces are listed below but additional namespaces may be present in some XMP data. Also note that the 'XMP-xmp...' group names may appear in the older form 'XMP-xap...' since these names evolved as the XMP standard was developed. The ICC_Profile group is broken down to give information about the specific ICC_Profile tag from which multiple values were extracted. As well, information extracted from the ICC_Profile header is separated into the ICC-header group.

Here is a complete list of groups for each family:

Family 0 (General Location):: Composite, EXIF, ExifTool, File, GPS, GeoTiff, ICC_Profile, IPTC, MakerNotes, Photoshop, PrintIM, XMP
Family 1 (Detailed Location):: Canon CanonCustom CanonRaw Casio Composite ExifIFD ExifTool File FujiFilm GPS GeoTiff GlobParamIFD ICC-header ICC-meas ICC-view ICC_Profile IFD0 IFD1 IPTC InteropIFD MakerUnknown Minolta Nikon Olympus Panasonic Pentax Photoshop PrintIM Sanyo Sigma Sony SubIFD XMP XMP-aux XMP-crs XMP-dc XMP-exif XMP-photoshop XMP-tiff XMP-xmp XMP-xmpBJ XMP-xmpMM XMP-xmpRights
Family 2 (Category):: Author, Camera, ExifTool, Image, Location, Other, Printing, Time, Unknown

AUTHOR

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

CREDITS

Thanks to the following people for their help:

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.

Jeremy Brown for the 35efl tags.

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-wip.

Jay Al-Saadi for his discoveries with the Minolta white balance tag.

	Global
`s`	Focus search bar
`?`	Bring up this help dialog

	GitHub
`g` `p`	Go to pull requests
`g` `i`	go to github issues (only if github is preferred repository)

	POD
`g` `a`	Go to author
`g` `c`	Go to changes
`g` `i`	Go to issues
`g` `d`	Go to dist
`g` `r`	Go to repository/SCM
`g` `s`	Go to source
`g` `b`	Go to file browse

	Search terms
module: (e.g. module:Plugin)
distribution: (e.g. distribution:Dancer auth)
author: (e.g. author:SONGMU Redis)
version: (e.g. version:1.00)

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

METHODS

new

ImageInfo

Options

ClearOptions

ExtractInfo

GetInfo

CombineInfo

GetTagList

GetFoundTags

GetRequestedTags

GetValue

GetTagID

GetDescription

GetGroup

GetGroups

BuildCompositeTags

GetTagName [static]

GetShortcuts [static]

GetAllTags [static]

GetAllGroups [static]

AUTHOR

CREDITS

SEE ALSO

Module Install Instructions