Also, if you are familiar with Exiv2, Exiv2 and Exiftool do use slightly different names for the various metadata tags. I will try to always use the phrase "hierarchical keywords" when referring to digiKam "tags". They just use different terminology.įor the sake of clarity, in this article "fields" and "tags" both refer to "individual metadata items" (the vast majority of which are not hierarchically arranged keyword lists). Unfortunately, Exiftool uses the word "tag" to refer to all the individual metadata items, whereas digiKam uses "tag" to refer only to lists of hierarchically arranged keywords. Probably Exiv2 would work as well, but I'm not familiar with the Exiv2 command line syntax. I used Exiftool to clean up my "metadata mess" because I've used Exiftool in the past, I trust that when used properly, Exiftool won't mess up my metadata or destroy my images and I know the Exiftool syntax pretty well. After the metadata is all cleaned up - synchronizing XMP sidecars and the digiKam databaseĮxiftool and metadata: preliminary information.Starting over after cleaning up the metadata.Removing metadata from whole folders of images.Removing entire metadata groups all at once.Exiftool tags for digiKam-written tags, ready for copy-pasting.Example Exiftool command lines for removing selected metadata.Using Exiftool to remove unwanted metadata.Copyright, credit, and contact information.Mystery metadata you might not have asked for and/or didn't know you were getting.Hierarchical keywords and single keywords.Star rating, color label, and pick label.Tags with the same tag name but different groups and group "specific locations".Exiftool and metadata: preliminary information.Steps to clean up messy image metadata, with page links: This doesn't mean that all the exiftool command examples on this page still work exactly the same as they did when I first posted the article. Although this article was written in 2012, Exiftool and the Exiftool syntax seldom change except to add new tags and new capabilities. Please don't assume that digiKam still writes all the odd tags that it wrote in 2012, although in fact it might.Ī word about Exiftool: Exiftool is a mature and reliable metadata reading and writing application. This page should be interpreted as describing an approach to locating and cleaning up unwanted metadata, whether or not you use digiKam. If you allow more than one DAM software to handle your image files, you can pretty much count on each one leaving its own cruft behind. However, if your DAM software has made a hopeless mess of your image metadata, you might find useful some of the individual steps I took to get my own image metadata back into acceptable order. Your approach to digital asset management ("DAM") undoubtedly differs from my own. But fixing the bug doesn't automatically fix whatever mess your metadata might have been left before the bug was fixed. As an important aside, this bug was fixed probably since digiKam 3.5 (it was fixed in August 2013) and certainly by digiKam 4.2. Because of a digiKam bug that prevented image keywords and database keywords from keeping in synchronization with one another, my hierarchical keyword information was a mess. I have used digiKam to manage my photographs since around 2010.
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