Working with Metadata

Metadata is the additional data that an image contains. Such information can be used:

  • to provide better results during printing
  • to get image creation date and time
  • to categorize images
  • to implement advanced image search

Graphics Mill works with the following metadata formats: EXIF, IPTC, XMP, and Adobe® image resource blocks. Let us briefly describe these formats.

When an image is captured, the capturing device writes EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) information about the image into the captured file. EXIF fields may contain such information as camera parameters during capturing, date and time of the capturing, photographer's name, and others. It can even contain GPS information. For full information about EXIF, please, see the EXIF Specification.

IPTC (International Press Telecommunications Council) Information Interchange Model is widely used in journalism to keep such information as byline, subject, location, etc. For full information about the IPTC format, please, see the IPTC Specification.

The EXIF and IPTC Metadata topic describes how to work with EXIF and IPTC metadata in Graphics Mill. It describes how to read and write such data, and how to load thumbnails from EXIF metadata.

XMP (eXtensible Metadata Platform) is a specific type of XML that was first introduced by Adobe Systems. XMP defines a metadata model that can be used with any defined set of metadata items. It also defines some schemas for basic properties for recording the history of image modifications. XMP records metadata in a Resource Description Framework syntax (RDF) that is expressed in XML. XMP can be used in the following graphics formats supported by Graphics Mill: JPEG, TIFF, and PDF.

The XMP Metadata topic describes how to work with XMP metadata in Graphics Mill, namely, how to read and write such data.

Adobe® applications store metadata in a special format called Adobe® image resource blocks. This format is used to store non-pixel data associated with an image, such as image resolution, color management settings, clipping path, and so on. Graphics Mill supports manipulation with Adobe image resource blocks for TIFF and JPEG image formats. The full description of Adobe® image resource blocks is given in the Adobe Photoshop File Formats Specification.

The Adobe Image Resource Blocks topic tells how to work with Adobe® image resource blocks in Graphics Mill.

The last question discussed in this section is copying metadata from a source image to the resulting file. It is important when you handle resulting images using some specific types of software. See the Preserving Metadata while Processing Images topic for more information.

In This Section

EXIF and IPTC Metadata
XMP Metadata
Adobe Image Resource Blocks
Clipping Path
Preserving Metadata while Processing Images