Provided by: exiv2_0.23-1ubuntu2.2_amd64 
NAME
exiv2 - Image metadata manipulation tool
SYNOPSIS
exiv2 [options] [action] file ...
DESCRIPTION
exiv2 is a program to read and write Exif, IPTC and XMP image metadata and image comments. The following
image formats are supported:
Type Exif IPTC XMP Image comments
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
JPEG Read/Write Read/Write Read/Write Read/Write
EXV Read/Write Read/Write Read/Write Read/Write
CR2 Read/Write Read/Write Read/Write -
CRW Read/Write - - Read/Write
MRW Read Read Read -
TIFF Read/Write Read/Write Read/Write -
DNG Read/Write Read/Write Read/Write -
NEF Read/Write Read/Write Read/Write -
PEF Read/Write Read/Write Read/Write -
ARW Read Read Read -
RW2 Read Read Read -
SR2 Read Read Read -
SRW Read/Write Read/Write Read/Write -
ORF Read/Write Read/Write Read/Write -
PNG Read/Write Read/Write Read/Write Read/Write
PGF Read/Write Read/Write Read/Write Read/Write
RAF Read Read Read -
EPS - - Read/Write -
XMP - - Read/Write -
GIF - - - -
PSD Read/Write Read/Write Read/Write -
TGA - - - -
BMP - - - -
JP2 Read/Write Read/Write Read/Write -
• Support for GIF, TGA and BMP images is minimal: the image format is recognized, a MIME type assigned to
it and the height and width of the image are determined.
• Reading other TIFF-like RAW image formats, which are not listed in the table, may also work.
ACTIONS
The action argument is only required if it is not clear from the options which action is implied.
pr | print
Print image metadata. This is the default action, i.e., the command exiv2 image.jpg will print a
summary of the image Exif metadata.
ex | extract
Extract metadata to *.exv, XMP sidecar (*.xmp) and thumbnail image files. Modification commands
can be applied on-the-fly.
in | insert
Insert metadata from corresponding *.exv, XMP sidecar (*.xmp) and thumbnail files. Use option -S
.suf to change the suffix of the input files. Since files of any supported format can be used as
input files, this command can be used to copy the metadata between files of different formats.
Modification commands can be applied on-the-fly.
rm | delete
Delete image metadata from the files.
ad | adjust
Adjust Exif timestamps by the given time. Requires at least one of the options -a time, -Y yrs, -O
mon or -D day.
mo | modify
Apply commands to modify (add, set, delete) the Exif, IPTC and XMP metadata of image files.
Requires option -c, -m or -M.
mv | rename
Rename files and/or set file timestamps according to the Exif create timestamp. Uses the value of
tag Exif.Photo.DateTimeOriginal or, if not present, Exif.Image.DateTime to determine the
timestamp. The filename format can be set with -r fmt, timestamp options are -t and -T.
fi | fixiso
Copy the ISO setting from one of the proprietary Nikon or Canon makernote ISO tags to the regular
Exif ISO tag, Exif.Photo.ISOSpeedRatings. Does not overwrite an existing standard Exif ISO tag.
fc | fixcom
Fix the character encoding of Exif Unicode user comments. Decodes the comment using the auto-
detected or specified character encoding and writes it back in UCS-2. Use option -n to specify the
current encoding of the comment if necessary.
OPTIONS
-h Display help and exit.
-V Show the program version and exit.
-v Be verbose during the program run.
-q Silence warnings and error messages from the Exiv2 library during the program run (quiet). Note
that options -v and -q can be used at the same time.
-Q lvl Set the log-level to 'd'(ebug), 'i'(nfo), 'w'(arning), 'e'(rror) or 'm'(ute). The default log-
level is 'w'. -Qm is equivalent to -q. All log messages are written to standard error.
-b Show large binary values (default is to suppress them).
-u Show unknown tags (default is to suppress tags which don't have a name).
-g key Only output info for this Exiv2 key (grep). Multiple -g options can be used to grep info for
several keys.
-n enc Charset to use to decode Exif Unicode user comments. enc is a name understood by iconv_open(3),
e.g., 'UTF-8'.
-k Preserve file timestamps when updating files (keep). Can be used with all options which update
files. The flag is ignored by read-only options.
-t Set the file timestamp according to the Exif create timestamp in addition to renaming the file
(overrides -k). This option is only used with the 'rename' action.
-T Only set the file timestamp according to the Exif create timestamp, do not rename the file
(overrides -k). This option is only used with the 'rename' action. Note: On Windows you may have
to set the TZ environment variable for this option to work correctly.
-f Do not prompt before overwriting existing files (force overwrite).
-F Do not prompt before renaming files (Force rename). Appends '_1' ('_2', ...) to the name of the
new file.
-a time
Time adjustment in the format [-]HH[:MM[:SS]]. This option is only used with the 'adjust' action.
Examples: 1 adds one hour, 1:01 adds one hour and one minute, -0:00:30 subtracts 30 seconds.
-Y yrs Time adjustment by a positive or negative number of years, for the 'adjust' action.
-O mon Time adjustment by a positive or negative number of months, for the 'adjust' action.
-D day Time adjustment by a positive or negative number of days, for the 'adjust' action.
-p mode
Print mode for the 'print' action. Possible modes are:
s : print a summary of the Exif metadata (the default)
a : print Exif, IPTC and XMP metadata (shortcut for -Pkyct)
t : interpreted (translated) Exif tags (-PEkyct)
v : plain Exif tag values (-PExgnycv)
h : hexdump of the Exif data (-PExgnycsh)
i : IPTC datasets (-PIkyct)
x : XMP properties (-PXkyct)
c : JPEG comment
p : list available image previews, sorted by preview image size in pixels
-P flgs
Print flags for fine control of the tag list ('print' action). Allows control of the type of
metadata as well as data columns included in the print output. Valid flags are:
E : include Exif tags in the list
I : IPTC datasets
X : XMP properties
x : print a column with the tag number
g : group name
k : key
l : tag label
n : tag name
y : type
c : number of components (count)
s : size in bytes
v : plain data value
t : interpreted (translated) data
h : hexdump of the data
-d tgt Delete target(s) for the 'delete' action. Possible targets are:
a : all supported metadata (the default)
e : Exif section
t : Exif thumbnail only
i : IPTC data
x : XMP packet
c : JPEG comment
-i tgt Insert target(s) for the 'insert' action. Possible targets are the same as those for the -d
option, plus a modifier:
X : Insert metadata from an XMP sidecar file <file>.xmp. The remaining insert targets determine
what metadata to insert from the sidecar file. Possible are Exif, IPTC and XMP and the default is
all of these. Note that the inserted XMP properties include those converted to Exif and IPTC.
Only JPEG thumbnails can be inserted (not TIFF thumbnails), they need to be named file-thumb.jpg.
-e tgt Extract target(s) for the 'extract' action. Possible targets are the same as those for the -d
option, plus a target to extract preview images and a modifier to generate an XMP sidecar file:
p[<n>[,<m> ...]] : Extract preview images. The optional comma separated list of preview image
numbers is used to determine which preview images to extract. The available preview images and
their numbers are displayed with the 'print' option -pp.
X : Extract metadata to an XMP sidecar file <file>.xmp. The remaining extract targets determine
what metadata to extract to the sidecar file. Possible are Exif, IPTC and XMP and the default is
all of these.
-r fmt Filename format for the 'rename' action. The format string follows strftime(3) and supports the
following keywords:
:basename: - original filename without extension
:dirname: - name of the directory holding the original file
:parentname: - name of parent directory
Default filename format is %Y%m%d_%H%M%S.
-c txt JPEG comment string to set in the image ('modify' action). This option can also be used with the
'extract' and 'insert' actions to modify metadata on-the-fly.
-m file
Command file for the 'modify' action. This option can also be used with the 'extract' and 'insert'
actions to modify metadata on-the-fly.
-M cmd Command line for the 'modify' action. This option can also be used with the 'extract' and 'insert'
actions to modify metadata on-the-fly. The format for the commands is the same as that of the
lines of a command file.
-l dir Location (directory) for files to be inserted or extracted.
-S .suf
Use suffix .suf for source files in 'insert' action.
COMMANDS
Commands for the 'modify' action can be read from a command file, e.g.,
exiv2 -m cmd.txt image.jpg
or given on the command line, as in
exiv2 -M"add Iptc.Application2.Credit String Mr. Smith" image.jpg
Note the quotes. Multiple -m and -M options can be combined.
When writing Exif, IPTC and XMP metadata, exiv2 enforces only a correct metadata structure. It is
possible to write tags with types and values different from those specified in the standards, duplicate
Exif tags, undefined tags, or incomplete metadata. While exiv2 is able to read all metadata that it can
write, other programs may have difficulties with images that contain non standard-conforming metadata.
Command format
The format of a command is
set | add | del key [[type] value]
set Set the value of an existing tag with a matching key or add the tag.
add Add a tag (unless key is a non-repeatable IPTC key; nothing prevents you from adding duplicate
Exif tags).
del Delete all occurrences of a tag (requires only a key).
key Exiv2 Exif, IPTC or XMP key.
type Byte | Ascii | Short | Long | Rational | Undefined | SShort | SLong | SRational | Comment for Exif
keys,
String | Date | Time | Short | Undefined for IPTC keys, and
XmpText | XmpAlt | XmpBag | XmpSeq | LangAlt for XMP keys.
A default type is used if none is explicitly given. The default is determined based on key.
value The remaining text on the line is the value. It can optionally be enclosed in single quotes
('value') or double quotes ("value").
The value is optional. Not providing any value is equivalent to an empty value ("") and is mainly
useful to create an XMP array property, e.g., a bag.
The format of Exif Comment values includes an optional charset specification at the beginning:
[charset=Ascii|Jis|Unicode|Undefined ]comment
Undefined is used by default if the value doesn't start with a charset definition.
The format for IPTC Date values is YYYY-MM-DD (year, month, day), that for IPTC Time values is
HH:MM:SS+|-HH:MM, where HH:MM:SS refers to local hour, minute and seconds and +|-HH:MM refers to
hours and minutes ahead or behind Universal Coordinated Time (+|- means either a + or a - sign is
required).
The format of XMP LangAlt values includes an optional language qualifier:
[lang=language-code ]text
x-default is used by default if the value doesn't start with a language qualifier.
An additional command is available to register XMP namespaces:
reg prefix namespace
Command file format
Empty lines and lines starting with # in a command file are ignored (comments). Remaining lines are
commands as described above.
EXAMPLES
exiv2 *.jpg
Prints a summary of the Exif information for all JPEG files in the directory.
exiv2 -pi image.jpg
Prints the IPTC metadata of the image.
exiv2 rename img_1234.jpg
Renames img_1234.jpg (taken on 13-Nov-05 at 22:58:31) to 20051113_225831.jpg
exiv2 -r':basename:_%Y%m' rename img_1234.jpg
Renames img_1234.jpg to img_1234_200511.jpg
exiv2 -et img1.jpg img2.jpg
Extracts the Exif thumbnails from the two files into img1-thumb.jpg and img2-thumb.jpg.
exiv2 -it img1.jpg img2.jpg
Inserts (copies) metadata from img1.exv to img1.jpg and from img2.exv to img2.jpg.
exiv2 -ep1,2 image.jpg
Extracts previews 1 and 2 from the image to the files image-preview1.jpg and image-preview2.jpg.
exiv2 -eiX image.jpg
Extracts IPTC datasets into an XMP sidecar file image.xmp and in the process converts them to
"IPTC Core" XMP schema.
exiv2 -iixX image.jpg
Inserts IPTC and XMP metadata from an XMP sidecar file image.xmp into image.jpg. The resulting
IPTC datasets are converted from the "IPTC Core" XMP schema properties in the sidecar file to the
older IPTC IIM4 format. The inserted XMP properties include those in the "IPTC Core" XMP schema.
exiv2 -M"set Exif.Photo.UserComment charset=Ascii New Exif comment" image.jpg
Sets the Exif comment to an ASCII string.
exiv2 -M"set Exif.GPSInfo.GPSLatitude 4/1 15/1 33/1" \
-M"set Exif.GPSInfo.GPSLatitudeRef N" image.jpg
Sets the latitude to 4 degrees, 15 minutes and 33 seconds north. The Exif standard stipulates that
the GPSLatitude tag consists of three Rational numbers for the degrees, minutes and seconds of the
latitude and GPSLatitudeRef contains either 'N' or 'S' for north or south latitude respectively.
exiv2 insert -l/tmp -S.CRW /data/*.JPG
Copy all metadata from CRW files in the /tmp directory to JPG files with corresponding basenames
in the /data directory. Note that this copies metadata as is, without any modifications to adapt
it to the requirements of the target format. Some tags copied like this may not make sense in the
target image.
SEE ALSO
http://www.exiv2.org/sample.html#modify
Sample command files.
http://www.exiv2.org/metadata.html
Taglists with key and default type values.
AUTHORS
exiv2 was written by Andreas Huggel <ahuggel@gmx.net>.
This manual page was originally written by KELEMEN Peter <fuji@debian.org>, for the Debian project.
Mar 23, 2012 EXIV2(1)