Provided by: kid3-core_3.5.1-1_amd64 
NAME
kid3, kid3-qt, kid3-cli - Kid3 ID3 Tagger
SYNOPSIS
kid3 [--help | --author | --version | --license | --desktopfile FILE] [FILE...]
kid3-qt [--portable] [Qt-options] [FILE...]
kid3-cli [--portable] [-h | --help] [-c COMMAND1] [-c COMMAND2...] [FILE...]
OPTIONS
--portable
Store configuration in file kid3.ini inside application directory.
FILE
If FILE is the path to a directory, it will be opened. If one or more file paths are given, their
common directory is opened and the files are selected.
kid3
--help
Show help about options.
--author
Show author information.
--version
Show version information.
--license
Show license information.
--desktopfile FILE
The base file name of the desktop entry for this application.
kid3-qt
Qt-options
See qt5options(7).
kid3-cli
-c
Execute a command. Multiple -c options are possible, they are executed in sequence. See the section
about kid3-cli for a description of the available commands.
-h|--help
Show help about options and commands.
INTRODUCTION
Kid3 is an application to edit the ID3v1 and ID3v2 tags in MP3 files in an efficient way. These tags can
be edited by most MP3 players, but not in a very comfortable and efficient way. Moreover the tags in
Ogg/Vorbis, Opus, DSF, FLAC, MPC, APE, MP4/AAC, MP2, Speex, TrueAudio, WavPack, WMA, WAV, AIFF files and
tracker modules (MOD, S3M, IT, XM) are supported too.
Kid3 does not grab nor encode MP3 files, but it is targeted to edit the ID3 tags of all files of an album
in an efficient way, i.e. with as few mouse clicks and key strokes as possible. Where most other programs
can edit either ID3v1 or ID3v2 tags, Kid3 has full control over both versions, can convert tags between
the two formats and has access to all ID3v2 tags. Tags of multiple files can be set to the same value,
e.g. the artist, album, year and genre of all files of an album typically have the same values and can be
set together. If the information for the tags is contained in the file name, the tags can be
automatically set from the file name. It is also possible to set the file name according to the tags
found in the file in arbitrary formats.
The editing task is further supported by automatic replacement of characters or substrings, for instance
to remove illegal characters from filenames. Automatic control of upper and lower case characters makes
it easy to use a consistent naming scheme in all tags.
The tag information for full albums can be taken from gnudb.org[1], TrackType.org[2], MusicBrainz[3],
Discogs[4], Amazon[5] or other sources of track lists. The import format is freely configurable by
regular expressions.
Please report any problems or feature requests to the author.
USING KID3
Kid3 features
• Edit ID3v1.1 tags
• Edit all ID3v2.3 and ID3v2.4 frames
• Edit tags of multiple files
• Convert between ID3v1 and ID3v2 tags
• Edit MP3, Ogg/Vorbis, Opus, DSF, FLAC, MPC, APE, MP4/AAC, MP2, Speex, TrueAudio, WavPack, WMA, WAV
and AIFF tags
• Generate tags from filename
• Generate tags from the contents of tag fields
• Generate filename from tags
• Generate and change directory names from tags
• Generate playlist file
• Automatic case conversion and string translation
• Import from gnudb.org[1], TrackType.org[2], MusicBrainz[3], Discogs[4], Amazon[5] and other data
sources
• Export as CSV, HTML, playlist, Kover XML and other formats. Exported CSV files can be imported again.
Example Usage
This section describes a typical session with Kid3. Let's assume we have a directory containing MP3 files
with the tracks from the album "Let's Tag" from the band "One Hit Wonder". The directory is named in the
"artist - album" format, in our case One Hit Wonder - Let's Tag. The directory contains the tracks in the
"track title.mp3" format, which I think is useful because the filenames are short (important when using
mobile MP3 players with small displays) and in the correct order when sorted alphabetically (important
when using hardware MP3 players which play the tracks in alphabetical order or in the order in which they
are burnt on CD and that order is alphabetical when using mkisofs). Besides this, the artist and album
information is already in the directory name and does not have to be repeated in the filename. But back
to our example, the directory listing looks like this:
01 Intro.mp3
02 We Only Got This One.mp3
03 Outro.mp3
These files have no tags yet and we want to generate them using Kid3. We use Open (File menu or toolbar)
and select one of the files in this directory. All files will be displayed in the file listbox. Lazy as
we are, we want to use the information in the directory and file names to generate tags. Therefore we
select all files, then click the To: Tag 1 button in the File section. This will set the title, artist,
album and track values in all files. To set the year and genre values of all files, we keep all files
selected and type in "2002" for the Year and select "Pop" from the Genre combobox. To set only these two
values, their checkboxes are automatically checked and all other checkboxes are left unchecked. Now we
change the selection by only selecting the first file and we see that all tags contain the correct
values. The tags of the other files can be verified too by selecting them one by one. When we are
satisfied with the tags, we use Save (File menu or toolbar). Selecting Create Playlist from the File menu
will generate a file One Hit Wonder - Let's Tag.m3u in the directory.
COMMAND REFERENCE
The GUI Elements
The Kid3 GUI is separated in five sections: At the left are the file and directory listboxes, the right
side contains the File, Tag 1, Tag 2 and Tag 3 sections.
File List
The file list contains the names of all the files in the opened directory which match the selected
file name filter (typically *.mp3 *.ogg *.opus *.dsf *.flac *.mpc *.aac *.m4a *.m4b *.m4p *.mp4 *.mp2
*.spx *.tta *.wv *.wma *.wav *.aiff *.ape). A single or multiple files can be selected. To select no
file, click into the empty area after the listbox entries. The selection determines the files which
are affected by the operations which are available by using the buttons described below.
Besides Name, also other columns Size, Type, Date Modified with file details can be displayed.
Columns can be hidden by unchecking their name in the context menu of the list header. The order of
the columns can be changed by drag'n'drop. The sort order can be toggled by clicking on the column
header.
At the left of the names an icon can be displayed: a disc to show that the file has been modified or
information about which tags are present (V1, V2, V1V2 or NO TAG, no icon is displayed if the file
has not been read in yet).
Directories are displayed with a folder icon. If a directory is opened, its files are displayed in a
hierarchical tree. By selecting files from subdirectories, operations can be executed on files in
different directories, which is useful if the music collection is organized with a folder for each
artist containing folders for albums of this artist.
Clicking the right mouse button inside the file list opens a context menu with the following
commands:
• Expand all: Expands all folder trees (only the current tree if the shift key is pressed)
• Collapse all: Collapses all folder trees
• Rename: Changes the name of a file
• Move to Trash: Moves a file to the trash
• Play: Plays a file, see Play
• The subsequent entries are user commands, which can be defined in the User Actions tab of
Configure Kid3. The playback on double click can also be activated there.
Directory List
The directory list contains the names of the directories in the opened directory, as well as the
current (.) and the parent (..) directory. It allows one to quickly change the directory without
using the Open... command or drag and drop.
Column visibility, order and sorting can be configured as described in the section about the file
list.
File
Shows information about the encoding (MP3, Ogg, Opus, DSF, FLAC, MPC, APE, MP2, MP4, AAC, Speex,
TrueAudio, WavPack, WMA, WAV, AIFF), bit rate, sample rate, channels and the length of the file.
The Name line edit contains the name of the file (if only a single file is selected). If this name is
changed, the file will be renamed when the Save command is used.
The Format combo box and line edit contains the format to be used when the filename is generated from
the first or the second tag. The filename can contain arbitrary characters, even a directory part
separated by a slash from the file name, but that directory must already exist for the renaming to
succeed. The following special codes are used to insert tag values into the filename:
• %s %{title} Title (Song)
• %a %{artist} Artist
• %l %{album} Album
• %c %{comment} Comment
• %y %{year} Year
• %t %{track} Track (e.g. 01)
• %t %{track.n} Track with field width n (e.g. 001 for %{track.3})
• %T %{tracknumber} Track (without leading zeros, e.g. 1)
• %g %{genre} Genre
• %{ignore} Ignored when generating tags from the file name
The format codes are not restricted to the examples given above. Any frame name can be used, for
instance unified frame names like %{albumartist}, %{discnumber.1}, %{bpm} or format specific names
like %{popm}.
A second Format combo box (with arrow down) is used to generate the tags from the filename. If the
format of the filename does not match this pattern, a few other commonly used formats are tried.
Some commonly used filename formats are already available in the combo box, but it is also possible
to type in some special format into the line edit.
Internally, a regular expression is built from the format codes. If advanced regular expressions are
required, the format to generate the tags from the filenames can be given as a complete regular
expression with captures which are preceded by the format codes, e.g. to extract the track numbers
without removal of leading zeros, a format like "/%{track}(\d+) %{title}(.*)" could be used.
From: Tag 1, Tag 2: Sets the filename using the selected format and the first tag or the second tag,
respectively.
To: Tag 1, Tag 2: The tags are set from the filename. First, the format specified in Format is used.
If the existing filename does not match this format, the following formats are tried:
• Artist - Album/Track Song
• Album/Track - Artist - Song
• /Artist - Album - Track - Song
• Album/Artist - Track - Song
• Album/Artist - Song
• Artist/Album/Track Song
If a single file is selected, the GUI controls are filled with the values extracted from the
filename. If multiple files are selected, the tags of the files are directly set according to the
filenames.
Tag 1
The line edit widgets for Title, Artist, Album, Comment, Year, Track and Genre are used to edit the
corresponding value in the first tag of the selected files. The value will be changed when the file
selection is altered or before operations like Save and Quit and when the corresponding check box at
the left of the field name is checked. This is useful to change only some values and leave the other
values unchanged.
If a single file is selected, all check boxes are checked and the line edit widgets contain the
values found in the tags of this file. If a tag is not found in the file, the corresponding empty
value is displayed, which is an empty string for the Title, Artist, Album and Comment line edits, 0
for the numerical Year and Track edits and an empty selected value for the Genre combo box. The
values can be changed and if the corresponding check box is checked, they will be set for the
selected file after the selection is changed. The file is then marked as modified by a disk symbol in
the file listbox but remains unchanged until the Save command is used.
If multiple files are selected, only the values which are identical in all selected files are
displayed. In all other controls, the empty values as described above are displayed. All check boxes
are unchecked to avoid unwanted changes. If a value has to be set for all selected files, it can be
edited and the checkbox has to be set. The values will be set for all selected files when the
selection is changed and can be saved using the Save command.
The check boxes also control the operation of most commands affecting the tags, such as copy, paste
and transfer between tags 1 and 2. To make it easier to use with multiple files where all check boxes
are unchecked, these commands behave in the same way when all check boxes are checked and when all
check boxes are unchecked.
From Tag 2: The tag 1 fields are set from the corresponding values in tag 2. If a single file is
selected, the GUI controls are filled with the values from tag 2. If multiple files are selected, the
tags of the files are directly set.
Copy: The copy buffer is filled with the Tag 1 values. Only values with checked checkbox will be used
in subsequent Paste commands.
Paste: Pastes the values from the copy buffer into the GUI controls.
Remove: This will set all GUI controls to their empty values which results in removing all values.
The saved file will then contain no tag 1.
Tag 2
The GUI controls function in the same way as described for the Tag 1 section, but the size of the
strings is not limited.
For the tag 2 Genre you can also use your own names besides the genres listed in the combo box, just
type the name into the line edit.
The tag 2 can not only contain the same values as the tag 1, the format is built in a flexible way
from several frames which are themselves composed of several fields. The tag 2 table shows all the
frames which are available in the selected file.
Edit: This will open a window which allows one to edit all fields of the selected frame. If multiple
files are selected, the edited fields are applied to all selected files which contain such a frame.
Add: A requester to select the frame type will appear and a frame of the selected type can be edited
and added to the file. This works also to add a frame to multiple selected files.
Delete: Deletes the selected frame in the selected files.
Drag album artwork here is shown if the file does not contain embedded cover art. A picture can be
added using drag and drop from a browser or file manager and will be displayed here. Picture frames
can be edited or added by double clicking on this control.
Tag 3
Some files can have more than two tags, and a third tag section is visible. The following file types
can have such a Tag 3 section:
• MP3 files can have an ID3v1.1 tag, an ID3v2 (2.3.0 or 2.4.0) tag and in the third section an APE
tag. Such APE tags are used for replay gain information. In the Tag 3 section, this information
is visible, and the APE tag can be removed with the Remove button.
• The RIFF INFO chunk of WAV files is available in the Tag 3 section because the Tag 1 section is
dedicated to ID3v1.1 tags and handles their restrictions. The Tag 2 is still used for ID3v2.4.0
tags, which are also supported for WAV files, but RIFF INFO chunks seem to be supported better.
• FLAC files normally use a Vorbis comment for their meta data. However, there are FLAC files which
have IDv1 and ID3v2 tags, which can be found in the Tag 1 and Tag 3 sections. ID3 tags in FLAC
files are only supported by TagLib, therefore the OggFlacMetadata plugin has to be disabled in
the Plugins tab of the settings.
The GUI controls work in the same way as in the Tag 2 section.
Synchronized Lyrics and Event Timing Codes
For information synchronized with the audio data, a specific editor is available. These frames are
supported for ID3v2.3.0 and ID3v2.4.0 tags. To add such a frame, the specific frame name has to be
selected in the list which appears when the Add button is clicked - Synchronized Lyrics or Event
Timing Codes, respectively. The editor is the same for both types, for the event timing codes, only a
predefined set of events is available whereas for the synchronized lyrics, text has to be entered. In
the following, editing synchronized lyrics is explained.
A file having an ID3v2 tag is selected, the lyrics editor is entered using Add and selecting
Synchronized Lyrics. For an existing Synchronized Lyrics frame, it is selected and Edit is clicked.
The player is automatically opened with the current file so that the file can be played and paused to
synchronize lyrics.
The settings at the top of the SYLT editor normally do not have to be changed. If the lyrics contains
characters which are not present in the Latin 1 character set, changing the text encoding to UTF16
(or UTF8 for ID3v2.4.0) is advisable. For English lyrics and maximum compatibility, ISO-8859-1 should
be used.
The Lyrics section has five buttons at the top. Add will add a new time event in the table. The time
is taken from the position of the player, thus adding an entry while playing the track will add a
line for the currently played position. The events in the table have to be chronologically ordered,
therefore the row will be inserted accordingly. Entries with an invalid time are treated specially:
If the currently selected row has an invalid time, its time stamp will be replaced by the current
time instead of adding a new row. If the current time is not invalid, the first row with an invalid
time will be used if present. This behavior should facilitate adding time stamps if the lyrics text
is already in the table but the time stamps are missing (which is the case when importing
unsynchronized lyrics). Note that the invalid time is represented as 00:00.00, i.e. the same as the
time at the absolute beginning of the track, which is not invalid. To make a time invalid, press the
Delete key, or use Clear from the context menu. New rows inserted using Insert row from the context
menu or created when importing unsynchronized lyrics with From Clipboard or Import also contain
invalid time stamps. Rows in the table can be deleted by clicking the Delete button or using Delete
rows from the context menu.
Synchronized lyrics can be imported from a file using Import. The expected format is simple or
enhanced LRC. If the selected file does not contain a square bracket in the first line, it is
supposed to be a simple text file with unsynchronized lyrics. The lines from such a file are then
imported having invalid time stamps. The time information can be added using the Add button or by
manual entry. It is also possible to import lyrics via copy-paste using From Clipboard. Synchronized
lyrics can be written to LRC files using Export. Note that only entries with valid time stamps will
be exported and that the entries will be sorted by time. Entries with invalid time won't be stored in
the SYLT frame either, so make sure to include all timing information before leaving the dialog.
The ID3 specification[6] suggests a time stamp for each syllable. However most players only support
the granularity of a line or sentence. To support both use cases, Kid3 follows the same conventions
as SYLT Editor[7]. Text which is entered into the table is assumed to start a new line unless it
starts with a space or a hyphen. Exceptions to this rule are possible by starting a line with an
underscore ('_') to force continuation or a hash mark ('#') to force a new line. These escape
characters are not stored inside the SYLT frame. Inside the SYLT frame, new lines start with a line
feed character (hex 0A) whereas continuations do not. When reading SYLT frames, Kid3 checks if the
first entry starts with a line feed. If this is not the case, it is assumed that all entries are new
lines and that no syllable continuations are used.
While the track is played, the row associated with the current playing position is highlighted, so
that the correctness of the synchronization information can be verified. If an offset has to be added
to one or more time stamps, this can be accomplished with the Add offset context menu. Negative
values can be used to reduce the time. Using Seek to position in the context menu, it is possible to
set the playing position to the time of the selected row.
Recommended procedure to add new synchronized lyrics
• Get the unsynchronized lyrics, e.g. using Lyrics → Embed Lyrics from the file list context menu.
• Copy the unsynchronized lyrics to the clipboard, just go to the Lyrics row in the frame table and
press Ctrl+C.
• Add a synchronized lyrics frame (Add..., Synchronized Lyrics, OK), click From Clipboard.
• Now all lines from the unsynchronized lyrics are in the table, all time stamps are invalid
(0:0:0.00). You can delete empty entries beforehand.
• Start playing the song by clicking the play button ► in the play toolbar at the bottom of the
main window.
• When the next lyrics line with invalid timestamp comes, click Add or press Alt+A, the timestamp
will be updated.
• Continue like this until all timestamps are set. If you missed something, stop playback and clear
the timestamps using the Delete key or by selecting them and using Clear from the context menu.
To restart playback from a given timestamp, use Seek to position from the context menu.
The File Menu
File → Open... (Ctrl+O)
Opens a directory. All files matching the selected file name filter will be displayed in the file
listbox and the chosen file is selected.
File → Open Recent
Opens a recently opened directory.
File → Open Directory... (Ctrl+D)
Opens a directory. All files matching the selected file name filter will be displayed in the file
listbox.
File → Save (Ctrl+S)
Saves all changed files in the directory. The changed files are marked with a disk symbol in the
file listbox. If any file names have been changed, those files will be renamed.
File → Revert
Reverts the changes of one or multiple files. If no files are selected in the file listbox, the
changes of all files will be reverted, else only the changes of the selected files are reverted.
File → Import...
The Import dialog can be used to import data directly from a freedb.org server, from a MusicBrainz
server, from Discogs, Amazon or other sources of album track lists in textual format.
Import from a freedb.org server is possible using a dialog which appears when From Server: gnudb.org
or TrackType.org is selected. The artist and album name to search for can be entered in the two
topmost fields, the albums which match the query will be displayed when Find is clicked and the
results from www.gnudb.org[8] are received. Importing the track data for an album is done by
double-clicking the album in the list. The freedb.org server to import from can be selected as well
as the CGI path. The imported data is displayed in the preview table of the import dialog. When
satisfied with the displayed tracks, they can be imported by terminating the import dialog with OK.
A search on the Discogs server can be performed using Discogs. As in the gnudb.org dialog, you can
enter artist and album and then choose from a list of releases. If Standard Tags is marked, the
standard information is imported, e.g. artist, album, and title. If Additional Tags is marked, more
information is imported if available, e.g. performers, arrangers, or the publisher. If Cover Art is
marked, cover art will be downloaded if available.
A search on Amazon can be performed using Amazon. As in the gnudb.org dialog, you can enter artist
and album and then choose from a list of releases. If Additional Tags is marked, more information is
imported if available, e.g. performers, arrangers, or the publisher. If Cover Art is marked, cover
art will be downloaded if available.
You can search in the same way in the release database of MusicBrainz using From MusicBrainz Release.
The workflow is the same as described for From gnudb.org.
Import from a MusicBrainz server is possible using the dialog which appears when From MusicBrainz
Fingerprint is selected. The Server can be selected as in the freedb import dialog. Below is a table
displaying the imported track data. The right column shows the state of the MusicBrainz query, which
starts with "Pending" when the dialog is opened. Then the fingerprint is looked up and if it does not
yield a result, another lookup using the tags in the file is tried. Thus it can be helpful for a
successful MusicBrainz query to store known information (e.g. artist and album) in the tags before
the import. If a result was found, the search ends in the state "Recognized", otherwise nothing was
found or multiple ambiguous results and one of them has to be selected by the user. OK and Apply use
the imported data, Cancel closes the dialog. The closing can take a while since the whole MusicBrainz
machinery has to be shut down.
For the import of textual data, From File/Clipboard opens a subdialog, where several preconfigured
import formats are available. The first two, "CSV unquoted" and "CSV quoted" can be used to import
data which was exported by the Export dialog. The CSV data can be edited with a spreadsheet, and
shall be written using tabs as delimiters. Import should then be possible using "CSV quoted", which
is more flexible than "CSV unquoted". However, its fields cannot contain any double quotes. If you
only export from Kid3 and import later, "CSV unquoted" can be used as a simple format for this
purpose. Note that there are also "Export CSV" and "Import CSV" commands in the context menu of the
file list, which use scripts to export and import CSV data in a more complete, powerful and flexible
way.
The next format, "freedb HTML text", can be used to copy information from an HTML page of
freedb.org[9]. Search an album in freedb and if the desired information is displayed in the web
browser, copy the contents to the clipboard. Then click the From Clipboard button and the imported
tracks will be displayed in the preview table at the top of the dialog. If you are satisfied with the
imported data, terminate the dialog with OK, which will insert the data into the tags of the current
directory. The destination (Tag 1, Tag 2 or Tag 1 and Tag 2) can be selected with a combo box. The
files in the current directory should be in the correct track order to get their tags assigned. This
is the case if they are numbered.
The next preconfigured import format, "freedb HTML source", can be used, if the data is available as
an HTML document. Import is possible using the From File button, which opens a file selector, or
copying its contents from an editor and then importing from clipboard. This format can be useful for
offline import, although the HTML document could also be opened in a browser and then be imported in
the first format via the clipboard.
More preconfigured formats, e.g. "Track Title Time", are available. An empty custom format can be
created with Add to be set by the user. Two lines below the format name can be set with a regular
expression to capture the fields from the import text. The first regular expression will be parsed
once per document to gather per-album data such as artist, album, year and genre. The second line is
tried to match from the start of the document to the end to get track data, usually number and title.
The regular expressions include all the features offered by Qt, which is most of the what Perl
offers. Bracketing constructs "(..)" create capture buffers for the fields to import and are preceded
by Kid3 specific codes to specify which field to capture. The codes are the same as used for the
filename format, besides the codes listed below, any frame name is possible:
• %s %{title} Title (Song)
• %a %{artist} Artist
• %l %{album} Album
• %c %{comment} Comment
• %y %{year} Year
• %t %{track} Track
• %g %{genre} Genre
• %d %{duration} Duration
For example, a track regular expression (second line) to import from an .m3u playlist could be
"%{track}(\d+)\s+%{title}(\S[^\r\n]*)\.mp3[\r\n]". All formats can be changed by editing the regular
expressions and the name and then clicking Save Settings. They will be stored in the kid3rc file in
the configuration directory. This file can be directly edited to have more import formats or it can
be deleted to revert to the default formats. Formats can be deleted using Remove.
Accuracy shows an estimation of how good the imported information matches the given tracks. It uses
track durations or file names to calculate the level of similarity in percent. Cover Art shows the
URL of the album cover image which will be downloaded.
To check whether the imported tracks match the current set of files, the duration of the imported
tracks can be compared with the duration of the files. This option can be enabled with the checkbox
Check maximum allowable time difference and the maximum tolerated difference in time can be set in
seconds. If a mismatch in a length is detected, the length is displayed with a red background in the
preview table.
It the files are ordered differently than the imported tracks, their assigned tracks have to be
changed. This task can be facilitated using the Match with buttons Length, Track, and Title, which
will reorder the tracks according to the corresponding field. To correct the assignments manually, a
track can be dragged with the left mouse button and the Ctrl key hold down, and then dropped at the
new location.
When the import dialog is opened, it contains the actual contents of the tags. The tag type (Tag 1,
Tag 2, Tag 1 and Tag 2) can be selected using the Destination combo box. The button on the right of
this combo box can be used to revert the table to the current contents of the tags. The checkboxes in
the first table column can be used to select the tracks which are imported. This can be useful if a
folder contains the tracks of both CDs of a double CD and only the tracks of the second CD have to be
imported.
To identify the tracks which are imported, it is possible to display the file names or the full paths
to the files using the context menu of the table header. The values in the import table can be
edited. The revert-button to the right of the Destination combo box can be used to restore the
contents of the tags, which can also be useful after changing the Destination.
Almost all dialogs feature a Save Settings button, which can be used to store the dialog specific
settings and the window size persistently.
From Tags leads to a subdialog to set tag frames from the contents of other tag frames. This can be
used to simply copy information between tags or extract a part from one frame and insert it in
another.
As in the import from file/clipboard, there are freely configurable formats to perform different
operations. Already preconfigured are formats to copy the Album value to Album Artist, Composer or
Conductor, and to extract the Track Number from Title fields which contain a number. There is also a
format to extract a Subtitle from a Title field.
The following example explains how to add a custom format, which sets the information from the
Subtitle field also in the Comment field. Create a new format using Add and set a new name, e.g.
"Subtitle to Comment". Then enter "%{subtitle}" in Source and "%{comment}(.*)" for Extraction and
click Save Settings.
The expression in Source can contain format codes for arbitrary tag frames, multiple codes can be
used to combine the contents from different frames. For each track, a text is generated from its tags
using the Source format, and the regular expression from Extraction is applied to this text to set
new values for the tags. Format codes are used before the capturing parentheses to specify the tag
frame where the captured text shall be stored. It works in the same way as for the import from
file/clipboard.
File → Import from gnudb.org...
Import from a freedb.org server using gnudb.org album search. This menu item opens the same import
dialog as Import..., but opens directly the gnudb.org dialog.
File → Import from TrackType.org...
Import from the TrackType.org server. This menu item opens the same import dialog as Import..., but
opens directly the TrackType.org dialog.
File → Import from Discogs...
Import from the Discogs server. This menu item opens the same import dialog as Import..., but opens
directly the From Discogs dialog.
File → Import from Amazon...
Import from Amazon. This menu item opens the same import dialog as Import..., but opens directly the
From Amazon dialog.
File → Import from MusicBrainz Release...
Import from the MusicBrainz release database. This menu item opens the same import dialog as
Import..., but opens directly the From MusicBrainz Release dialog.
File → Import from MusicBrainz Fingerprint...
Import from a MusicBrainz server. This menu item opens the same import dialog as Import..., but
opens directly the From MusicBrainz Fingerprint dialog.
File → Automatic Import...
Automatic Import allows one to import information for multiple albums from various web services. If
directories are selected in the file list, track data for the selected directories will be imported.
If no directory is selected, all directories in the file list will be imported.
The tag type (Tag 1, Tag 2, Tag 1 and Tag 2) can be selected using the Destination combo box.
Profiles determine which servers will be contacted to fetch album information. Some profiles are
predefined (All, MusicBrainz, Discogs, Cover Art), custom profiles can be added using the Add button
at the right of the Profile combo box.
The table below shows the servers which will be used when importing album information using the
selected profile. The import process for an album is finished if all required information has been
found, so the order of the rows in the table is important. It can be changed using the Move Up and
Move Down buttons. Edit can be used to change an existing entry. The Server selection offers the
same servers as can be used in the import functions. Standard Tags, Additional Tags, Cover Art
determine the information which shall be fetched from the server. Finally, Accuracy is the minimum
accuracy which must be achieved to accept the imported data. If the accuracy is insufficient, the
next server in the list will be tried. The same dialog containing the server properties appears when
Add is clicked to add a new server entry. Existing entries can be deleted using Remove.
To launch an automatic batch import with the selected profile, click Start. Details about the running
import are displayed at the top of the dialog. The process can be aborted with the Abort button.
File → Browse Cover Art...
The Browse Cover Art dialog helps to find album cover art. Artist/Album is filled from the tags if
possible. Source offers a variety of websites with album cover art. The URL with artist and album as
parameters can be found beneath the name. URL-encoded values for artist and album can be inserted
using %u{artist} and %u{album}, other values from the tags are possible too, as described in
Configure Kid3, User Actions. More sources can be entered after the entry "Custom Source" by
replacing "Custom Source" with the source's name, pressing Enter, then inserting the URL and finally
pressing Save Settings. The resulting browser command is displayed at the top of the dialog and can
be started by clicking Browse. The browser, which can be configured in the settings, is started with
the selected source. A cover image can then be dragged from the browser into the Kid3 window and will
be set in the picture frame of the selected files.
Because not all browsers support drag'n'drop of images and the pictures on websites often have a URL,
in such cases Kid3 will receive the URL and not the picture. If the URL points to a picture, it will
be downloaded. However, if the URL refers to some other web resource, it has to be translated to the
corresponding picture. Such mappings are defined in the table URL extraction. The left column Match
contains a regular expression which is compared with the URL. If it matches, the captured expressions
in parentheses are inserted into the pattern of the right Picture URL column (at the positions marked
with \1 etc.). The replaced regular expression contains the URL of the picture. By this means cover
art can be imported from Amazon, Google Images, etc. using drag'n'drop. It is also possible to define
your own mappings.
File → Export...
The Export Dialog is used to store data from the tags in a file or the clipboard. The editor at the
top shows a preview of the data to export. If the export data contain tabulator characters, the
export is displayed in a table. The data will be generated from the tags in the current directory
according to the configured format.
The format settings are similar as in the Import dialog: The topmost field contains the title (e.g.
"CSV unquoted"), followed by the header, which will be generated at the begin of the file. The track
data follows; it is used for every track. Finally, the trailer can be used to generate some finishing
text.
The format fields do not contain regular expressions as in the Import dialog, but only output format
expressions with special %-expressions, which will be replaced by values from the tags. The whole
thing works like the file name format, and the same codes are used plus some additional codes. Not
only the codes listed below but all tag frame names can be used.
• %s %{title} Title (Song)
• %a %{artist} Artist
• %l %{album} Album
• %c %{comment} Comment
• %y %{year} Year
• %t %{track} Track (e.g. 01)
• %t %{track.n} Track with field width n (e.g. 001 for %{track.3})
• %T %{tracknumber} Track (without leading zeros, e.g. 1)
• %g %{genre} Genre
• %f %{file} File name
• %p %{filepath} Path
• %u %{url} URL
• %d %{duration} Duration in minutes:seconds
• %D %{seconds} Duration in seconds
• %n %{tracks} Number of tracks of the album
• %e %{extension} File extension
• %O %{tag1} The format of tag 1 (ID3v1.1 or empty if not existing)
• %o %{tag2} The format of tag 2 (ID3v2.3.0, ID3v2.4.0, ID3v2.2.0, ID3v2.2.1, Vorbis, APE, MP4,
ASF, or empty if not existing)
• %b %{bitrate} Bit rate in kbit/s
• %v %{vbr} VBR or empty (only for ID3v2.3 with id3lib)
• %r %{samplerate} Sample rate in Hz
• %m %{mode} Channel mode (Stereo or Joint Stereo)
• %h %{channels} Number of channels (1 or 2)
• %k %{codec} Codec (e.g. MPEG 1 Layer 3, MP4, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, MPC, APE, ASF, AIFF, WAV)
A few formats are predefined. "CSV unquoted" separates the fields by tabs. Data in this format can be
imported again into Kid3 using the import format with the same name. "CSV quoted" additionally
encloses the fields by double quotes, which eases the import into spreadsheet applications. However,
the fields shall not contain any double quotes when this format is used. "Extended M3U" and "Extended
PLS" generate playlists with extended attributes and absolute path names. "HTML" can be used to
generate an HTML page with hyperlinks to the tracks. "Kover XML" creates a file which can be imported
by the cover printing program Kover. "Technical Details" provides information about bit rate, sample
rate, channels, etc. Finally, "Custom Format" is left empty for definition of a custom format. You
can define more formats of your own by adding lines in the file kid3rc in the configuration
directory. The other formats can be adapted to your needs.
The source of the tags to generate the export data (Tag 1 or Tag 2) can be selected with a combo box.
Pushing To File or To Clipboard stores the data in a file or on the clipboard. OK and Cancel close
the dialog, whereas OK accepts the current dialog settings.
File → Create Playlist
Creates a playlist. The format and contents of the playlist can be set by various options.
The name of the playlist can be the Same as directory name or use a Format with values from the tags,
e.g. "%{artist} - %{album}" to have the artist and album name in the playlist file name. The format
codes are the same as for Export. The extension depends on the playlist format.
The location of the generated playlist is determined by the selection of the Create in combo box.
Current directory
The playlist is created in the current directory and contains only files of the current
directory. The current directory is the directory where the current file is located. If multiple
files are selected, the current file is probably the last selected file.
Every directory
A playlist is created in every directory which contains listed files, and each playlist contains
the files of that directory.
Top-level directory
Only one playlist is created in the top-level directory (i.e. the directory of the file list) and
it contains the listed files of the top-level directory and all of its sub-directories.
The Format of the playlist can be M3U, PLS or XSPF.
If Include only the selected files is checked, only the selected files will be included in the
playlist. If a directory is selected, all of its files are selected. If this check box is not
activated, all audio files are included in the playlist.
Sort by file name selects the usual case where the files are ordered by file name. With Sort by tag
field, it is possible to sort by a format string with values from tag fields. For instance,
"%{track.3}" can be used to sort by track number (the ".3" is used to get three digits with leading
zeros because strings are used for sorting). It is also possible to use multiple fields, e.g.
"%{genre}%{year}" to sort using a string composed of genre and year.
The playlist entries will have relative or absolute file paths depending on whether Use relative path
for files in playlist or Use full path for files in playlist is set.
When Write only list of files is set, the playlist will only contain the paths to the files. To
generate an extended playlist with additional information, a format string can be set using the Write
info using control.
File → Quit (Ctrl+Q)
Quits the application.
The Edit Menu
Edit → Select All (Alt+A)
Selects all files.
Edit → Deselect (Ctrl+Shift+A)
Deselects all files.
Edit → Select All in Directory
Selects all files of the current directory.
Edit → Previous File (Alt+Up)
Selects the previous file.
Edit → Next File (Alt+Down)
Selects the next file.
Edit → Find... (Ctrl+F)
Find strings in the file names and the tags. The Find dialog is a subset of the Replace dialog, which
is described below.
Edit → Replace... (Ctrl+R)
This function opens a dialog to find and replace strings in the file names and the tags. The set of
frames where the search is performed can be restricted by deactivating the Select all checkbox and
selecting the frames which shall be searched. There are also search options available to search
backwards, case sensitively, and to use regular expressions.
Depending on the number of files, the search might take some time, therefore it can be aborted by
closing the dialog.
The Tools Menu
Tools → Apply Filename Format
When Automatically apply format is switched off for the filename format in the configuration dialog,
this menu item can be used to apply the configured format to the names of the selected files. This
can also be used to check whether the file names conform with the configured format by applying the
format to all saved files and then checking if any files were changed (and therefore marked with a
disk symbol in the file listbox).
Tools → Apply Tag Format
When Automatically apply format is switched off for the tag format in the configuration dialog, this
menu item can be used to apply the configured format to the tags of the selected files. This can also
be used to check whether the tags conform with the configured format by applying the format to all
saved files and then checking if any files were changed (and therefore marked with a disk symbol in
the file listbox).
Tools → Apply Text Encoding
Sets the Text encoding selected in Settings/Configure Kid3.../Tags/Tag 2 for all selected files. If
UTF8 is selected, UTF16 will be used for ID3v2.3.0 tags because UTF8 is not supported for this
format.
Tools → Rename Directory...
This dialog offers the possibility to automatically rename the currently open directory according to
the tags in the files. Several formats are preconfigured to include information about artist, album
and year in the directory name. It is also possible to set a custom format, the following special
codes are used to insert tag values into the directory name:
• %s %{title} Title (Song)
• %a %{artist} Artist
• %l %{album} Album
• %c %{comment} Comment
• %y %{year} Year
• %t %{track} Track (e.g. 01)
• %t %{track.n} Track with field width n (e.g. 001 for %{track.3})
• %T %{tracknumber} Track (without leading zeros, e.g. 1)
• %g %{genre} Genre
If a directory separator "/" is found in the format, multiple directories are created. If you want to
create a new directory instead of renaming the current directory, select Create Directory instead of
Rename Directory. The source of the tag information can be chosen between From Tag 1 and Tag 2, From
Tag 1 and From Tag 2. A preview for the rename operation performed on the first file can be seen in
the From and To sections of the dialog.
Multiple directories can be renamed by selecting them.
Tools → Number Tracks...
If the track numbers in the tags are not set or have the wrong values, this function can number the
tracks automatically in ascending order. The start number can be set in the dialog. If only part of
the tracks have to be numbered, they must be selected.
When Total number of tracks is checked, the number of tracks will also be set in the tags.
It is possible to number the tracks over multiple directories. The folders have to be expanded and
selected.
If Reset counter for each directory is checked, track numbering is restarted with the given number
for each directory when multiple folders are selected.
The number tracks dialog can also be used to format existing track numbers without changing the
values when the check box left to Start number is deactivated. The total number of tracks will be
added if the corresponding check box is active, which can be used to set the total for all selected
tracks. If only formatting of the existing numbers is desired, this check box has to be deactivated
too.
Tools → Filter...
The filter can be used to display only those files which match certain criteria. This is helpful if
you want to organize a large collection and only edit those files which are not in the desired
scheme. The expression defining which files to display uses the same format codes which are used in
the file name format, import and export.
• %s %{title} Title (Song)
• %a %{artist} Artist
• %l %{album} Album
• %c %{comment} Comment
• %y %{year} Year
• %t %{track} Track (e.g. 01)
• %t %{track.n} Track with field width n (e.g. 001 for %{track.3})
• %T %{tracknumber} Track (without leading zeros, e.g. 1)
• %g %{genre} Genre
• %f %{file} File name
• %p %{filepath} Absolute path to file
• %e %{extension} File extension
• %O %{tag1} The format of tag 1 (ID3v1.1 or empty if not existing)
• %o %{tag2} The format of tag 2 (ID3v2.3.0, ID3v2.4.0, ID3v2.2.0, ID3v2.2.1, Vorbis, APE, MP4,
ASF, or empty if not existing)
• %b %{bitrate} Bit rate in kbit/s
• %v %{vbr} VBR or empty (only for ID3v2.3 with id3lib)
• %r %{samplerate} Sample rate in Hz
• %m %{mode} Channel mode (Stereo or Joint Stereo)
• %h %{channels} Number of channels (1 or 2)
• %k %{codec} Codec (e.g. MPEG 1 Layer 3, MP4, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, MPC, APE, ASF, AIFF, WAV)
• %w %{marked} Marked, is 1 if the file is marked (e.g. because of truncation or standard
violation), empty otherwise
• %1a %1{artist}, ... Use the prefix 1 to get values of tag 1
• %2a %2{artist}, ... Use the prefix 2 to get values of tag 2
These codes are replaced with the values for the file, and the resulting strings can be compared with
the following operations:
• s1 equals s2: true if s1 and s2 are equal.
• s1 contains s2: true if s1 contains s2, i.e. s2 is a substring of s1.
• s matches re: true if s matches the regular expression re.
True expressions are replaced by 1, false by 0. True values are represented by 1, true, on and yes,
false values by 0, false, off and no. Boolean operations are not, and, or (in this order of
precedence) and can be grouped by parentheses.
Some filter rules are predefined and can serve as examples for your own expressions:
All
When the file list is filtered - this is shown by "[filtered]" in the window title - and all
files shall be displayed again, the filtering can be reverted using this filter. It uses an empty
expression, but a true value would have the same effect.
Filename Tag Mismatch
not (%{filepath} contains "%{artist} - %{album}/%{track} %{title}")
Tests if the file path conforms with the file name format. This rule is automatically adapted if
the file name format changes.
No Tag 1
%{tag1} equals ""
Displays only files which do not have a tag 1.
No Tag 2
%{tag2} equals ""
Displays only files which do not have a tag 2.
ID3v2.3.0 Tag
%{tag2} equals "ID3v2.3.0"
Displays only files which have an ID3v2.3.0 tag.
ID3v2.4.0 Tag
%{tag2} equals "ID3v2.4.0"
Displays only files which have an ID3v2.4.0 tag.
Tag 1 != Tag 2
not (%1{title} equals %2{title} and %1{album} equals %2{album} and %1{artist} equals %2{artist}
and %1{comment} equals %2{comment} and %1{year} equals %2{year} and %1{track} equals %2{track}
and %1{genre} equals %2{genre})
Displays files with differences between tag 1 and tag2.
Tag 1 == Tag 2
%1{title} equals %2{title} and %1{album} equals %2{album} and %1{artist} equals %2{artist} and
%1{comment} equals %2{comment} and %1{year} equals %2{year} and %1{track} equals %2{track} and
%1{genre} equals %2{genre}
Displays files with identical tag 1 and tag 2.
Incomplete
%{title} equals "" or %{artist} equals "" or %{album} equals "" or %{year} equals "" or
%{tracknumber} equals "" or %{genre} equals ""
Displays files with empty values in the standard tags (title, artist, album, date, track number,
genre).
No Picture
%{picture} equals ""
Displays only files which do not have a picture.
Marked
not (%{marked} equals "")
Displays only files which are marked because they violate the ID3 standard, are truncated or the
picture is too large.
Custom Filter
To add your own filter, select this entry. For instance, if you want to have a filter for artists
starting with "The", replace "Custom Filter" with the name "The Bands" and press Enter. Then
insert the following expression into the line edit:
%{artist} matches "The.*"
Then click Save Settings. Click Apply to filter the files. All files processed are displayed in
the text view, with a "+" for those who match the filter and a "-" for the others. When finished,
only the files with an artist starting with "The" are displayed, and the window title is marked
with "[filtered]".
Tools → Convert ID3v2.3 to ID3v2.4
If there are any ID3v2.3 tags in the selected files, they will be converted to ID3v2.4 tags. Frames
which are not supported by TagLib will be discarded. Only files without unsaved changes will be
converted.
Tools → Convert ID3v2.4 to ID3v2.3
If there are any ID3v2.4 tags in the selected files, they will be converted to ID3v2.3 tags. Only
files without unsaved changes will be converted.
Tools → Play
This opens a simple toolbar to play audio files. It contains buttons for the basic operations
(Play/Pause, Stop playback, Previous Track, Next Track, Close), sliders for position and volume and a
display of the current position. If multiple files are selected, the selected tracks are played, else
all files will be played.
The Settings Menu
Settings → Show Toolbar
Toggles displaying of the toolbar.
Settings → Show Statusbar
Toggles displaying of the statusbar, which displays longer actions such as opening or saving a
directory.
Settings → Show Picture
Toggles displaying of the album cover art preview picture.
Settings → Auto Hide Tags
Empty tags are automatically hidden if this option is active. The File, Tag 1 and Tag 2 sections can
be manually collapsed and expanded by clicking on the corresponding -/+ buttons.
Settings → Configure Kid3...
Opens the configuration dialog, which consists of pages for tags, files, user actions, and network
settings.
Tag specific options can be found on the Tags page, which is itself separated into four tabs for Tag
1, Tag 2, Tag 3, and All Tags.
If Mark truncated fields is checked, truncated ID3v1.1 fields will be marked red. The text fields of
ID3v1.1 tags can only have 30 characters, the comment only 28 characters. Also the genre and track
numbers are restricted, so that fields can be truncated when imported or transferred from ID3v2.
Truncated fields and the file will be marked red, and the mark will be removed after the field has
been edited.
With Text encoding for ID3v1 it is possible to set the character set used in ID3v1 tags. This
encoding is supposed to be ISO-8859-1, so it is recommended to keep this default value. However,
there are tags around with different encoding, so it can be set here and the ID3v1 tags can then be
copied to ID3v2 which supports Unicode.
The check box Use track/total number of tracks format controls whether the track number field of
ID3v2 tags contains simply the track number or additionally the total number of tracks in the
directory.
When Genre as text instead of numeric string is checked, all ID3v2 genres will be stored as a text
string even if there is a corresponding code for ID3v1 genres. If this option is not set, genres for
which an ID3v1 code exists are stored as the number of the genre code (in parentheses for ID3v2.3).
Thus the genre Metal is stored as "Metal" or "(9)" depending on this option. Genres which are not in
the list of ID3v1 genres are always stored as a text string. The purpose of this option is improved
compatibility with devices which do not correctly interpret genre codes.
When WAV files with lowercase id3 chunk is checked, the RIFF chunk used to store ID3v2 tags in WAV
files will be named "id3 " instead of "ID3 ". By default, Kid3 and other applications using TagLib
accept both the lowercase and the uppercase variant when reading WAV files, but they use "ID3 " when
writing ID3v2 tags to WAV files. As there exist other applications which only accept "id3 " (e.g.
JRiver Media Center and foobar2000), this option can be used to create tags which can be read by such
applications.
When Mark standard violations is checked, ID3v2 fields which violate the standard will be marked red.
Details about the violation are shown in a tooltip:
• Must be unique
• New line is forbidden
• Carriage return is forbidden
• Owner must be non-empty
• Must be numeric
• Must be numeric or number/total
• Format is DDMM
• Format is HHMM
• Format is YYYY
• Must begin with a year and a space character
• Must be ISO 8601 date/time
• Must be musical key, 3 characters, A-G, b, #, m, o
• Must have ISO 639-2 language code, 3 lowercase characters
• Must be ISRC code, 12 characters
• Must be list of strings separated by '|'
• Has excess white space
The ID3 standard documents are available online:
• ID3 tag version 2.3.0[10]
• ID3 tag version 2.4.0 - Main Structure[11]
• ID3 tag version 2.4.0 - Native Frames[6]
Text encoding defines the default encoding used for ID3v2 frames and can be set to ISO-8859-1, UTF16,
or UTF8. UTF8 is not valid for ID3v2.3.0 frames; if it is set, UTF16 will be used instead. For
ID3v2.4.0 frames, all three encodings are possible.
Version used for new tags determines whether new ID3v2 tags are created as version 2.3.0 or 2.4.0. In
the first case, id3lib is used as it was in earlier versions of Kid3 and TagLib is only applied when
an ID3v2.4.0 tag is encountered. In the second case, ID3v2.4.0 (TagLib), TagLib is generally used for
MP3 files; changed or newly created tags will then be saved in version 2.4.0. When ID3v2.3.0 (TagLib)
is selected, TagLib is also used for ID3v2.3.0 tags.
Track number digits is the number of digits in Track Number fields. Leading zeros are used to pad.
For instance, with a value of 2 the track number 5 is set as "05".
The combo box Comment field name is only relevant for Ogg/Vorbis and FLAC files and sets the name of
the field used for comments. Different applications seem to use different names, "COMMENT" for
instance is used by xmms, whereas amaroK uses "DESCRIPTION".
The format of pictures in Ogg/Vorbis files is determined by Picture field name, which can be
METADATA_BLOCK_PICTURE or COVERART. The first is the official standard and uses the same format as
pictures in FLAC tags. COVERART is an earlier unofficial way to include pictures in Vorbis comments.
It can be used for compatibility with legacy players.
If the Mark if larger than check box is activated, files containing embedded album cover art
exceeding the given size in bytes are marked red. This can be used to find files containing oversized
pictures which are not accepted by some applications and players. The default value is 131072 bytes
(128 KB).
Custom Genres can be used to define genres which are not available in the standard genre list, e.g.
"Gothic Metal". Such custom genres will appear in the Genre combo box of Tag 2. For ID3v1.1 tags,
only the predefined genres can be used.
The list of custom genres can also be used to reduce the number of genres available in the Genre
combo box to those typically used. If your collection mostly contains music in the genres Metal,
Gothic Metal, Ancient and Hard Rock, you can enter those genres and mark Show only custom genres. The
Tag 2 Genre combo box will then only contain those four genres and you will not have to search
through the complete genres list for them. In this example, only Metal and Hard Rock will be listed
in the tag 1 genres list, because those two custom genres entries are standard genres. If Show only
custom genres is not active, the custom genres can be found at the end of the genres list.
Quick Access Frames defines which frame types are always shown in the Tag 2 section. Such frames can
then be added without first using the Add button. The order of these quick access frames can be
changed by dragging and dropping items.
The combo box Track number field name is only relevant for RIFF INFO and sets the name of the field
used for track numbers. Track numbers are not specified in the original RIFF standard, there are
applications which use "ITRK", others use "IPRT".
Tag Format contains options for the format of the tags. When Automatically apply format is checked,
the format configuration is automatically used while editing text in the line edits. The Case
conversion can be set to No changes, All lowercase, All uppercase, First letter uppercase or All
first letters uppercase. To use locale-aware conversion between lowercase and uppercase characters, a
locale can be selected in the combobox below. The string replacement list can be set to arbitrary
string mappings. To add a new mapping, select the From cell of a row and insert the text to replace,
then go to the To column and enter the replacement text. To remove a mapping set the From cell to an
empty value (e.g. by first typing space and then backspace). Inserting and deleting rows is also
possible using a context menu which appears when the right mouse button is clicked. Replacement is
only active, if the String replacement checkbox is checked.
On the page Files the check box Load last-opened files can be marked so that Kid3 will open and
select the last selected file when it is started the next time. Preserve file timestamp can be
checked to preserve the file modification time stamp. Filename for cover sets the name which is
suggested when an embedded image is exported to a file. With Text encoding (Export, Playlist) the
encoding used when writing files can be set. The default System can be changed for example if
playlists have to be used on a different device.
If Mark changes is active, changed fields are marked with a light gray label background.
The section File List determines which files are displayed in the file list. A Filter can be used to
restrict the items in this list to files with supported extensions. To explicitly specify which
directories to display in the file list or exclude certain directories, the options Include folders
and Exclude folders can be used. They can contain wildcard expressions, for instance */Music/* to
include only the Music folder, or */iTunes/* to exclude the iTunes folder from the file list. If
multiple such expressions have to be used, they can be separated by spaces or semicolons.
Filename Format contains options for the format of the filenames. The same options as in Tag Format
are available.
The User Actions page contains a table with the commands which are available in the context menu of
the file list. For critical operations such as deleting files, it is advisable to mark Confirm to pop
up a confirmation dialog before executing the command. Output can be marked to see the output
written by console commands (standard output and standard error). Name is the name displayed in the
context menu. Command is the command line to be executed. Arguments can be passed using the
following codes:
• %F %{files} File paths (a list if multiple files selected)
• %f %{file} File path to single file
• %uF %{urls} URLs (a list if multiple files selected)
• %uf %{url} URL to single file
• %d %{directory} Directory
• %s %{title} Title (Song)
• %a %{artist} Artist
• %l %{album} Album
• %c %{comment} Comment
• %y %{year} Year
• %t %{track} Track (e.g. 01)
• %t %{track.n} Track with field width n (e.g. 001 for %{track.3})
• %T %{tracknumber} Track (without leading zeros, e.g. 1)
• %g %{genre} Genre
• %b %{browser} Command to start the web browser
• %q %{qmlpath} Base directory of provided QML files
The special code @separator can be set as a command to insert a separator into the user actions
context menu. Menu items can be put into a submenu by enclosing them with @beginmenu and @endmenu
commands. The name of the submenu is determined by the Name column of the @beginmenu command.
To execute QML scripts, @qml is used as a command name. The path to the QML script is passed as a
parameter. The provided scripts can be found in the folder %{qmlpath}/script/ (on Linux typically
/usr/share/kid3/qml/script/, on Windows qml/script/ inside the installation directory, and on OS X in
the app folder kid3.app/Contents/Resources/qml/script/). Custom scripts can be stored in any
directory. If the QML code uses GUI components, @qmlview shall be used instead of @qml. Additional
parameters are passed to the QML script where they will be available via the getArguments() function.
An overview of some functions and properties which are available in QML can be found in the appendix
QML Interface.
The command which will be inserted with %{browser} can be defined in the Web browser line edit above.
Commands starting with %{browser} can be used to fetch information about the audio files from the
web, for instance
%{browser} http://lyricwiki.org/%u{artist}:%u{title}
will query the lyrics for the current song in LyricWiki[12]. The "u" in %u{artist} and %u{title} is
used to URL-encode the artist %{artist} and song %{title} information. It is easy to define your own
queries in the same way, e.g. an image search with Google[13]:
%{browser} http://images.google.com/images?q=%u{artist}%20%u{album}
To add album cover art to tag 2, you can search for images with Google or Amazon using the commands
described above. The picture can be added to the tag with drag and drop. You can also add an image
with Add, then select the Picture frame and import an image file or paste from the clipboard. Picture
frames are supported for ID3v2, MP4, FLAC, Ogg and ASF tags.
To add and delete entries in the table, a context menu can be used.
The Network page contains only a field to insert the proxy address and optionally the port, separated
by a colon. The proxy will be used when importing from an Internet server when the checkbox is
checked.
In the Plugins page, available plugins can be enabled or disabled. The plugins are separated into two
sections. The Metadata Plugins & Priority list contains plugins which support audio file formats. The
order of the plugins is important because they are tried from top to bottom. Some formats are
supported by multiple plugins, so files will be opened with the first plugin supporting them. The
TaglibMetadata supports most formats, if it is at the top of the list, it will open most of the
files. If you want to use a different plugin for a file format, make sure that it is listed before
the TaglibMetadata plugin. Details about the metadata plugin and why you may want to use them instead
of TagLib are listed below.
• Id3libMetadata: Uses id3lib[14] for ID3v1.1 and ID3v2.3 tags in MP3, MP2, AAC files. Supports a
few more frame types than TagLib. Another reason to use it is that TagLib only supports ID3v2.3
since version 1.8.
• OggFlacMetadata: Uses libogg[15], libvorbis, libvorbisfile[16] for Ogg files, and additionally
libFLAC++ and libFLAC[17] for FLAC files. Reasons to use them are pictures in Ogg files, which
are not supported by TagLib and that these are the official libraries for these formats.
• TaglibMetadata: Uses TagLib[18] which supports a lot of audio file formats. Since version 1.8, it
also supports ID3v2.3, so it can be used for all audio files supported by Kid3.
• Mp4v2Metadata: mp4v2[19] was originally used by Kid3 to support M4A files. However, newer
versions of TagLib provide good M4A support, so this plugin is not built by default.
The Available Plugins section lists the remaining plugins. Their order is not important, but they can
be enabled or disabled using the check boxes.
• AmazonImport: Used for the Import from Amazon... function.
• DiscogsImport: Used for the Import from Discogs... function.
• FreedbImport: Used for the Import from gnudb.org... and Import from TrackType.org... functions.
• MusicBrainzImport: Used for the Import from MusicBrainz Release... function.
• AcoustidImport: Used for the Import from MusicBrainz Fingerprint... function, which depends on
the Chromaprint[20] and libav[21] libraries.
Plugins which are disabled will not be loaded. This can be used to optimize resource usage and
startup time. The settings on this page take only effect after a restart of Kid3.
Settings → Configure Shortcuts...
Opens a dialog to assign keyboard shortcuts for most of the program functions. There are even
functions without corresponding menu or button available, e.g. next file, previous file, select all.
The Help Menu
Help → Kid3 Handbook
Opens this handbook.
Help → About Kid3
Displays a short information about Kid3;.
KID3-CLI
Commands
kid3-cli offers a command-line-interface for Kid3. If a directory path is used, the directory is opened.
If one or more file paths are given, the common directory is opened and the files are selected.
Subsequent commands will then work on these files. Commands are specified using -c options. If multiple
commands are passed, they are executed in the given order. If files are modified by the commands, they
will be saved at the end. If no command options are passed, kid3-cli starts in interactive mode. Commands
can be entered and will operate on the current selection. The following sections list all available
commands.
Help
help [COMMAND-NAME]
Displays help about the parameters of COMMAND-NAME or about all commands if no command name is given.
Timeout
timeout [default | off | TIME]
Overwrite the default command timeout. The CLI commands abort after a command specific timeout is
expired. This timeout is 10 seconds for ls and albumart, 60 seconds for autoimport and filter, and 3
seconds for all other commands. If a huge number of files has to be processed, this timeouts may be
too restrictive, thus the timeout for all commands can be set to TIME ms, switched off altogether or
be left at the default values.
Quit application
exit [force]
Exit application. If there are modified unsaved files, the force parameter is required.
Change directory
cd [DIRECTORY]
If no DIRECTORY is given, change to the home directory. If a directory is given, change into the
directory. If one or more file paths are given, change to their common directory and select the
files.
Print the current working directory
pwd
Print the filename of the current working directory.
Directory list
ls
List the contents of the current directory. This corresponds to the file list in the Kid3 GUI. Four
characters before the file names show the state of the file.
• > File is selected.
• * File is modified.
• 1 File has a tag 1, otherwise '-' is displayed.
• 2 File has a tag 2, otherwise '-' is displayed.
kid3-cli> ls
1- 01 Intro.mp3
> 12 02 We Only Got This One.mp3
*1- 03 Outro.mp3
In this example, all files have a tag 1, the second file also has a tag 2 and it is selected. The
third file is modified.
Save the changed files
save
Select file
select [all | none | first | previous | next | FILE...]
To select all files, enter select all, to deselect all files, enter select none. To traverse the
files in the current directory start with select first, then go forward using select next or backward
using select previous. Specific files can be added to the current selection by giving their file
names. Wildcards are possible, so select *.mp3 will select all MP3 files in the current directory.
kid3-cli> select first
kid3-cli> ls
> 1- 01 Intro.mp3
12 02 We Only Got This One.mp3
*1- 03 Outro.mp3
kid3-cli> select next
kid3-cli> ls
1- 01 Intro.mp3
> 12 02 We Only Got This One.mp3
*1- 03 Outro.mp3
kid3-cli> select *.mp3
kid3-cli> ls
> 1- 01 Intro.mp3
> 12 02 We Only Got This One.mp3
>*1- 03 Outro.mp3
Select tag
tag [TAG-NUMBERS]
Many commands have an optional TAG-NUMBERS parameter, which specifies whether the command operates on
tag 1, 2, or 3. If this parameter is omitted, the default tag numbers are used, which can be set by
this command. At startup, is is set to 12 which means that information is read from tag 2 if
available, else from tag 1; modifications are done on tag 2. The TAG-NUMBERS can be set to 1, 2, or 3
to operate only on the corresponding tag. If the parameter is omitted, the current setting is
displayed.
Get tag frame
get [all | FRAME-NAME] [TAG-NUMBERS]
This command can be used to read the value of a specific tag frame or get information about all tag
frames (if the argument is omitted or all is used). Modified frames are marked with a '*'.
kid3-cli> get
File: MPEG 1 Layer 3 192 kbps 44100 Hz Joint Stereo
Name: 01 Intro.mp3
Tag 1: ID3v1.1
Title Intro
Artist One Hit Wonder
Album Let's Tag
Date 2013
Track Number 1
Genre Pop
kid3-cli> get title
Intro
To save the contents of a picture frame to a file, use
get picture:"/path/to/folder.jpg"
To save synchronized lyrics to an LRC file, use
get SYLT:"/path/to/lyrics.lrc"
It is possible to get only a specific field from a frame, for example get POPM.Email for the Email
field of a Popularimeter frame. If a file has multiple frames of the same kind, the different frames
can be indexed with brackets, for example the first performer from a Vorbis comment can be retrieved
using get performer[0], the second using get performer[1].
The pseudo field name "selected" can be used to check if a frame is selected, for example get
artist.selected will return 1 if the artist frame is selected, else 0.
Set tag frame
set {FRAME-NAME} {FRAME-VALUE} [TAG-NUMBERS]
This command sets the value of a specific tag frame. If FRAME-VALUE is empty, the frame is deleted.
kid3-cli> set remixer "O.H. Wonder"
To set the contents of a picture frame from a file, use
set picture:"/path/to/folder.jpg" "Picture Description"
To set synchronized lyrics from an LRC file, use
set SYLT:"/path/to/lyrics.lrc" "Lyrics Description"
To set a specific field of a frame, the field name can be given after a dot, e.g. to set the Counter
field of a Popularimeter frame, use
set POPM.Counter 5
To set multiple frames of the same kind, an index can be given in brackets, e.g. to set multiple
performers in a Vorbis comment, use
kid3-cli> set performer[0] 'Liza don Getti (soprano)'
kid3-cli> set performer[1] 'Joe Barr (piano)'
To select certain frames before a copy, paste or remove action, the pseudo field name "selected" can
be used. Normally, all frames are selected, to deselect all, use set '*.selected' 0, then for example
set artist.selected 1 to select the artist frame.
Revert
revert
Revert all modifications in the selected files (or all files if no files are selected).
Import from file or clipboard
import {FILE} {FORMAT-NAME} [TAG-NUMBERS]
Tags are imported from the file FILE (or from the clipboard if clipboard is used for FILE) in the
format with the name FORMAT-NAME (e.g. "CSV unquoted", see Import).
If tags is given for FILE, tags are imported from other tags. Instead of FORMAT-NAME parameters
SOURCE and EXTRACTION are required, see Import from Tags.
Automatic import
autoimport [PROFILE-NAME] [TAG-NUMBERS]
Batch import using profile PROFILE-NAME (see Automatic Import, "All" is used if omitted).
Download album cover artwork
albumart {URL} [all]
Set the album artwork by downloading a picture from URL. The rules defined in the Browse Cover Art
dialog are used to transform general URLs (e.g. from Amazon) to a picture URL. To set the album cover
from a local picture file, use the set command.
kid3-cli> albumart
http://www.amazon.com/Versus-World-Amon-Amarth/dp/B000078DOC
Export to file or clipboard
export {FILE} {FORMAT-NAME} [TAG-NUMBERS]
Tags are exported to file FILE (or to the clipboard if clipboard is used for FILE) in the format with
the name FORMAT-NAME (e.g. "CSV unquoted", see Export).
Create playlist
playlist
Create playlist in the format set in the configuration, see Create Playlist.
Apply filename format
filenameformat
Apply file name format set in the configuration, see Apply Filename Format.
Apply tag format
tagformat
Apply tag name format set in the configuration, see Apply Tag Format.
Apply text encoding
textencoding
Apply text encoding set in the configuration, see Apply Text Encoding.
Rename directory
renamedir [FORMAT] [create | rename | dryrun] [TAG-NUMBERS]
Rename or create directories from the values in the tags according to a given FORMAT (e.g. %{artist}
- %{album}, see Rename Directory), if no format is given, the format defined in the Rename directory
dialog is used. The default mode is rename; to create directories, create must be given explicitly.
The rename actions will be performed immediately, to just see what would be done, use the dryrun
option.
Number tracks
numbertracks [TRACK-NUMBER] [TAG-NUMBERS]
Number the selected tracks starting with TRACK-NUMBER (1 if omitted).
Filter
filter [FILTER-NAME | FILTER-FORMAT]
Filter the files so that only the files matching the FILTER-FORMAT are visible. The name of a
predefined filter expression (e.g. "Filename Tag Mismatch") can be used instead of a filter
expression, see Filter.
kid3-cli> filter '%{title} contains "tro"'
Started
/home/urs/One Hit Wonder - Let's Tag
+ 01 Intro.mp3
- 02 We Only Got This One.mp3
+ 03 Outro.mp3
Finished
kid3-cli> ls
1- 01 Intro.mp3
1- 03 Outro.mp3
kid3-cli> filter All
Started
/home/urs/One Hit Wonder - Let's Tag
+ 01 Intro.mp3
+ 02 We Only Got This One.mp3
+ 03 Outro.mp3
Finished
kid3-cli> ls
1- 01 Intro.mp3
12 02 We Only Got This One.mp3
1- 03 Outro.mp3
Convert ID3v2.3 to ID3v2.4
to24
Convert ID3v2.4 to ID3v2.3
to23
Filename from tag
fromtag [FORMAT] [TAG-NUMBERS]
Set the file names of the selected files from values in the tags, for example fromtag "%{track} -
%{title}" 1. If no format is specified, the format set in the GUI is used.
Tag from filename
totag [FORMAT] [TAG-NUMBERS]
Set the tag frames from the file names, for example totag "%{albumartist} - %{album}/%{track}
%{title}" 2. If no format is specified, the format set in the GUI is used. If the format of the
filename does not match this pattern, a few other commonly used formats are tried.
Tag to other tag
syncto {TAG-NUMBER}
Copy the tag frames from one tag to the other tag, e.g. to set the ID3v2 tag from the ID3v1 tag, use
syncto 2.
Copy
copy [TAG-NUMBER]
Copy the tag frames of the selected file to the internal copy buffer. They can then be set on another
file using the paste command.
To copy only a subset of the frames, use the "selected" pseudo field with the set command. For
example, to copy only the disc number and copyright frames, use
set '*.selected' 0
set discnumber.selected 1
set copyright.selected 1
copy
Paste
paste [TAG-NUMBER]
Set tag frames from the contents of the copy buffer in the selected files.
Remove
remove [TAG-NUMBER]
Remove a tag.
It is possible to remove only a subset of the frames by selecting them as described in the copy
command.
Play
play [pause | stop | previous | next]
Start audio playback. Once it has been started, it can be controlled with the pause (to pause and
resume), stop, previous and next options.
Examples
Set title containing an apostrophe. Commands passed to kid3-cli with -c have to be in quotes if they do
not only consist of a single word. If such a command itself has an argument containing spaces, that
argument has to be quoted too. In UNIX shells single or double quotes can be used, but on the Windows
Command Prompt, it is important that the outer quoting is done using double quotes and inside these
quotes, single quotes are used. If the text inside the single quotes contains a single quote, it has to
be escaped using a backslash character, as shown in the following example:
kid3-cli -c "set title 'I\'ll be there for you'" /path/to/dir
Set album cover in all files of a directory using the batch import function:
kid3-cli -c "autoimport 'Cover Art'" /path/to/dir
Remove comment frames and apply the tag format in both tags of all MP3 files of a directory:
kid3-cli -c "set comment '' 1" -c "set comment '' 2" \
-c "tagformat 1" -c "tagformat 2" /path/to/dir/*.mp3
Automatically import tag 2, synchronize to tag 1, set file names from tag 2 and finally create a
playlist:
kid3-cli -c autoimport -c "syncto 1" -c fromtag -c playlist \
/path/to/dir/*.mp3
For all files with an ID3v2.4.0 tag, convert to ID3v2.3.0 and remove the arranger frame:
kid3-cli -c "filter 'ID3v2.4.0 Tag'" -c "select all" -c to23 \
-c "set arranger ''" /path/to/dir
This Python script uses kid3-cli to generate iTunes Sound Check iTunNORM frames from replay gain
information.
#!/usr/bin/env python
# Generate iTunes Sound Check from ReplayGain.
from __future__ import print_function
import os, sys, subprocess
def rg2sc(dirpath):
for root, dirs, files in os.walk(dirpath):
for name in files:
if name.endswith(('.mp3', '.m4a', '.aiff', '.aif')):
fn = os.path.join(root, name)
rg = subprocess.check_output([
'kid3-cli', '-c', 'get "replaygain_track_gain"',
fn]).strip()
if rg.endswith(b' dB'):
rg = rg[:-3]
try:
rg = float(rg)
except ValueError:
print('Value %s of %s in not a float' % (rg, fn))
continue
sc = (' ' + ('%08X' % int((10 ** (-rg / 10)) * 1000) )) * 10
subprocess.call([
'kid3-cli', '-c', 'set iTunNORM "%s"' % sc, fn])
if __name__ == '__main__':
rg2sc(sys.argv[1])
CREDITS AND LICENSE
Kid3
Program written by Urs Fleisch <ufleisch at users.sourceforge.net>
FDL[22]
GPL[23]
INSTALLATION
How to obtain Kid3
Kid3 can be found at http://kid3.sourceforge.net.
Requirements
Kid3 needs Qt[24]. KDE[25] is recommended but not necessary, as Kid3 can also be compiled as a Qt
application. Kid3 can be compiled for systems where these libraries are available, e.g. for GNU/Linux,
Windows and Mac OS X. To tag Ogg/Vorbis files, libogg[15], libvorbis and libvorbisfile[16] are required,
for FLAC files libFLAC++ and libFLAC[17]. id3lib[14] is used for MP3 files. These four formats are also
supported by TagLib[18], which can also handle Opus, MPC, APE, MP2, Speex, TrueAudio, WavPack, WMA, WAV,
AIFF files and tracker modules. To import from acoustic fingerprints, Chromaprint[20] and libav[21] are
used.
Kid3 is available for most Linux distributions, Windows and Mac OS X. Links can be found on
http://kid3.sourceforge.net.
Compilation and Installation
You can compile Kid3 with or without KDE. Without KDE, Kid3 is a simple Qt application and lacks some
configuration and session features.
For a KDE version, go into the top directory and type
% cmake .
% make
% make install
To compile for different versions of Qt or KDE, set the corresponding cmake options.
If not all libraries are present, Kid3 is built with reduced functionality. So you should take care to
have all desired development packages installed. On the other side, cmake-options control which libraries
are compiled in. The default is -D WITH_TAGLIB:BOOL=ON -D WITH_MP4V2:BOOL=OFF -D WITH_ID3LIB:BOOL=ON -D
WITH_CHROMAPRINT:BOOL=ON -D WITH_VORBIS:BOOL=ON -D WITH_FLAC:BOOL=ON . These options can be disabled
using OFF.
To build Kid3 as a Qt application without KDE, use the cmake option -DWITH_APPS=Qt. To build both a KDE
and a Qt application, set -DWITH_APPS="Qt;KDE".
Qt 4 or Qt 5 can be used. To force the use of Qt 4, set -DWITH_QT4=ON, to force the use of Qt 5, set
-DWITH_QT5=ON, if both these options are OFF (default), Qt 4 is preferred if both versions are installed.
To use a specific Qt installation, set -DQT_QMAKE_EXECUTABLE=/path/to/qmake. If building the KDE
application is enabled, setting Qt 4 will use KDE 4, whereas setting Qt 5 will use KDE 5.
Generation of RPM-Packages is supported by the file kid3.spec, for Debian-Packages, the script
build-deb.shis available.
The Qt application can also be compiled for Windows and Mac OS X. The scripts in the folders win32 and
macosx can be used to build and create packages. The libraries can be installed using buildlibs.sh.
Configuration
With KDE, the file name filter and format, the import formats, the filename and ID3 formats, the toolbar
and statusbar settings as well as the window size will be be saved in the standard location in file
kid3rc. As a Qt application, this file is in .config/Kid3/Kid3.conf. On Windows, the configuration is
stored in the registry.
The environment variable KID3_CONFIG_FILE can be used to set the path of the configuration file.
D-BUS INTERFACE
D-Bus Examples
The Qt 4 and KDE 4 versions on Linux offer a D-Bus-Interface to control Kid3 by scripts. Scripts can be
written in any language with D-Bus-bindings (e.g. in Python) and can be added to the User Actions to
extend the functionality of Kid3.
The artist in tag 2 of the current file can be set to the value "One Hit Wonder" with the following code:
Shell
dbus-send --dest=net.sourceforge.kid3 --print-reply=literal \
/Kid3 net.sourceforge.Kid3.setFrame int32:2 string:'Artist' \
string:'One Hit Wonder'
or easier with Qt's qdbus (qdbusviewer can be used to explore the interface in a GUI):
qdbus net.sourceforge.kid3 /Kid3 setFrame 2 Artist \
'One Hit Wonder'
Python
import dbus
kid3 = dbus.SessionBus().get_object(
'net.sourceforge.kid3', '/Kid3')
kid3.setFrame(2, 'Artist', 'One Hit Wonder')
Perl
use Net::DBus;
$kid3 = Net::DBus->session->get_service(
"net.sourceforge.kid3")->get_object(
"/Kid3", "net.sourceforge.Kid3");
$kid3->setFrame(2, "Artist", "One Hit Wonder");
D-Bus API
The D-Bus API is specified in net.sourceforge.Kid3.xml. The Kid3 interface has the following methods:
Open file or directory
boolean openDirectory(string path);
path
path to file or directory
Returns true if OK.
Save all modified files
boolean save(void);
Returns true if OK.
Get a detailed error message provided by some methods
string getErrorMessage(void);
Returns detailed error message.
Revert changes in the selected files
revert(void);
Start an automatic batch import
boolean batchImport(int32 tagMask, string profileName);
tagMask
tag mask (bit 0 for tag 1, bit 1 for tag 2)
profileName
name of batch import profile to use
Import tags from a file
boolean importFromFile(int32 tagMask, string path, int32 fmtIdx);
tagMask
tag bit (1 for tag 1, 2 for tag 2)
path
path of file
fmtIdx
index of format
Returns true if OK.
Import tags from other tags
importFromTags(int32 tagMask, string source, string extraction);
tagMask
tag bit (1 for tag 1, 2 for tag 2)
source
format to get source text from tags
extraction
regular expression with frame names and captures to extract from source text
Download album cover art
downloadAlbumArt(string url, boolean allFilesInDir);
url
URL of picture file or album art resource
allFilesInDir
true to add the image to all files in the directory
Export tags to a file
boolean exportToFile(int32 tagMask, string path, int32 fmtIdx);
tagMask
tag bit (1 for tag 1, 2 for tag 2)
path
path of file
fmtIdx
index of format
Returns true if OK.
Create a playlist
boolean createPlaylist(void);
Returns true if OK.
Quit the application
quit(void);
Select all files
selectAll(void);
Deselect all files
deselectAll(void);
Set the first file as the current file
boolean firstFile(void);
Returns true if there is a first file.
Set the previous file as the current file
boolean previousFile(void);
Returns true if there is a previous file.
Set the next file as the current file
boolean nextFile(void);
Returns true if there is a next file.
Select the first file
boolean selectFirstFile(void);
Returns true if there is a first file.
Select the previous file
boolean selectPreviousFile(void);
Returns true if there is a previous file.
Select the next file
boolean selectNextFile(void);
Returns true if there is a next file.
Select the current file
boolean selectCurrentFile(void);
Returns true if there is a current file.
Expand or collapse the current file item if it is a directory
boolean expandDirectory(void);
A file list item is a directory if getFileName() returns a name with '/' as the last character.
Returns true if current file item is a directory.
Apply the file name format
applyFilenameFormat(void);
Apply the tag format
applyTagFormat(void);
Apply text encoding
applyTextEncoding(void);
Set the directory name from the tags
boolean setDirNameFromTag(int32 tagMask, string format, boolean create);
tagMask
tag mask (bit 0 for tag 1, bit 1 for tag 2)
format
directory name format
create
true to create, false to rename
Returns true if OK, else the error message is available using getErrorMessage().
Set subsequent track numbers in the selected files
numberTracks(int32 tagMask, int32 firstTrackNr);
tagMask
tag mask (bit 0 for tag 1, bit 1 for tag 2)
firstTrackNr
number to use for first file
Filter the files
filter(string expression);
expression
filter expression
Convert ID3v2.3 tags to ID3v2.4
convertToId3v24(void);
Convert ID3v2.4 tags to ID3v2.3
convertToId3v23(void);
Returns true if OK.
Get path of directory
string getDirectoryName(void);
Returns absolute path of directory.
Get name of current file
string getFileName(void);
Returns true absolute file name, ends with "/" if it is a directory.
Set name of selected file
setFileName(string name);
name
file name
The file will be renamed when the directory is saved.
Set format to use when setting the filename from the tags
setFileNameFormat(string format);
format
file name format
Set the file names of the selected files from the tags
setFileNameFromTag(int32 tagMask);
tagMask
tag bit (1 for tag 1, 2 for tag 2)
Get value of frame
string getFrame(int32 tagMask, string name);
tagMask
tag bit (1 for tag 1, 2 for tag 2)
name
name of frame (e.g. "artist")
To get binary data like a picture, the name of a file to write can be added after the name, e.g.
"Picture:/path/to/file". In the same way, synchronized lyrics can be exported, e.g.
"SYLT:/path/to/file".
Returns value of frame.
Set value of frame
boolean setFrame(int32 tagMask, string name, string value);
tagMask
tag bit (1 for tag 1, 2 for tag 2)
name
name of frame (e.g. "artist")
value
value of frame
For tag 2 (tagMask 2), if no frame with name exists, a new frame is added, if value is empty, the
frame is deleted. To add binary data like a picture, a file can be added after the name, e.g.
"Picture:/path/to/file". "SYLT:/path/to/file" can be used to import synchronized lyrics.
Returns true if OK.
Get all frames of a tag
array of string getTag(int32 tagMask);
tagMask
tag bit (1 for tag 1, 2 for tag 2)
Returns list with alternating frame names and values.
Get technical information about file
array of string getInformation(void);
Properties are Format, Bitrate, Samplerate, Channels, Duration, Channel Mode, VBR, Tag 1, Tag 2.
Properties which are not available are omitted.
Returns list with alternating property names and values.
Set tag from file name
setTagFromFileName(int32 tagMask);
tagMask
tag bit (1 for tag 1, 2 for tag 2)
Set tag from other tag
setTagFromOtherTag(int32 tagMask);
tagMask
tag bit (1 for tag 1, 2 for tag 2)
Copy tag
copyTag(int32 tagMask);
tagMask
tag bit (1 for tag 1, 2 for tag 2)
Paste tag
pasteTag(int32 tagMask);
tagMask
tag bit (1 for tag 1, 2 for tag 2)
Remove tag
removeTag(int32 tagMask);
tagMask
tag bit (1 for tag 1, 2 for tag 2)
Reparse the configuration
reparseConfiguration(void);
Automated configuration changes are possible by modifying the configuration file and then reparsing
the configuration.
Plays the selected files
playAudio(void);
QML INTERFACE
QML Examples
QML scripts can be invoked via the context menu of the file list and can be set in the tab User Actions
of the settings dialog. The scripts which are set there can be used as examples to program custom
scripts. QML uses JavaScript, here is the obligatory "Hello World":
import Kid3 1.0
Kid3Script {
onRun: {
console.log("Hello world, directory is", app.dirName)
Qt.quit()
}
}
If this script is saved as /path/to/Example.qml, the user command can be defined as @qml
/path/to/Example.qml with name QML Test and Output checked. It can then be started using the QML Test
item in the file list context menu, and the output will be visible in the window.
Alternatively, the script could also be started independent of Kid3 using the QML tools.
qmlviewer -I /usr/lib/kid3/plugins/imports /path/to/Example.qml
For Qt 5, the commands
qml -apptype widget -I /usr/lib/kid3/plugins/imports /path/to/Example.qml
or
qmlscene -I /usr/lib/kid3/plugins/imports /path/to/Example.qml
can be used. On Windows and OS X, the import path must be adapted to the imports folder inside the
installation directory. Scripts started outside of Kid3 will use the current directory, so it should be
changed beforehand.
To list the titles in the tags 2 of all files in the current directory, the following script could be
used:
import Kid3 1.0
Kid3Script {
onRun: {
app.firstFile()
do {
if (app.selectionInfo.tag(Frame.Tag_2).tagFormat)
console.log(app.getFrame(tagv2, "title"))
} while (app.nextFile())
}
}
If the directory contains many files, such a script might block the user interface for some time. For
longer operations, it should therefore have a break from time to time. The alternative implementation
below has the work for a single file moved out into a function. This function invokes itself with a
timeout of 1 ms at the end, given that more files have to be processed. This will ensure that the GUI
remains responsive while the script is running.
import Kid3 1.0
Kid3Script {
onRun: {
function doWork() {
if (app.selectionInfo.tag(Frame.Tag_2).tagFormat) {
console.log(app.getFrame(tagv2, "title"))
}
if (!app.nextFile()) {
Qt.quit()
} else {
setTimeout(doWork, 1)
}
}
app.firstFile()
doWork()
}
}
When using app.firstFile() with app.nextFile(), all files of the current directory will be processed. If
only the selected files shall be affected, use firstFile() and nextFile() instead, these are convenience
functions of the Kid3Script component. The following example is a script which copies only the disc
number and copyright frames of the selected file.
import Kid3 1.1
Kid3Script {
onRun: {
function doWork() {
if (app.selectionInfo.tag(Frame.Tag_2).tagFormat) {
app.setFrame(tagv2, "*.selected", false)
app.setFrame(tagv2, "discnumber.selected", true)
app.setFrame(tagv2, "copyright.selected", true)
app.copyTags(tagv2)
}
if (!nextFile()) {
Qt.quit()
} else {
setTimeout(doWork, 1)
}
}
firstFile()
doWork()
}
}
More example scripts come with Kid3 and are already registered as user commands.
• ReplayGain to SoundCheck (ReplayGain2SoundCheck.qml): Create iTunNORM SoundCheck information from
replay gain frames.
• Resize Album Art (ResizeAlbumArt.qml): Resize embedded cover art images which are larger than 500x500
pixels.
• Extract Album Art (ExtractAlbumArt.qml): Extract all embedded cover art pictures avoiding duplicates.
• Embed Album Art (EmbedAlbumArt.qml): Embed cover art found in image files into audio files in the
same folder.
• Embed Lyrics (EmbedLyrics.qml): Fetch unsynchronized lyrics from web service.
• Text Encoding ID3v1 (ShowTextEncodingV1.qml): Helps to find the encoding of ID3v1 tags by showing the
tags of the current file in all available character encodings.
• Export CSV (ExportCsv.qml): Export recursively all tags of all files to a CSV file.
• QML Console (QmlConsole.qml): Simple console to play with Kid3's QML API.
QML API
The API can be easily explored using the QML Console, which is available as an example script with a user
interface.
Kid3Script
Kid3Script is a regular QML component located inside the plugin directory. You could use another QML
component just as well. Using Kid3Script makes it easy to start the script function using the onRun
signal handler. It also hides the differences between the QtQuick versions, so as to make scripts
compatible with both Qt 4 and Qt 5. Moreover it offers some functions:
onRun: Signal handler which is invoked when the script is started
tagv1, tagv2, tagv2v1: Constants for tag parameters
script: Access to scripting functions
configs: Access to configuration objects
getArguments(): List of script arguments
isStandalone(): true if the script was not started from within Kid3
setTimeout(callback, delay): Starts callback after delay ms
Scripting Functions
As JavaScript and therefore QML too has only a limited set of functions for scripting, the script
object has some additional methods, for instance:
script.properties(obj): String with Qt properties
script.writeFile(filePath, data): Write data to file, true if OK
script.readFile(filePath): Read data from file
script.removeFile(filePath): Delete file, true if OK
script.fileExists(filePath): true if file exists
script.renameFile(oldName, newName): rename file, true if OK
script.tempPath(): path to temporary directory
script.listDir(path, [nameFilters], [classify]): List directory entries
script.system(program, [args], [msecs]): Synchronously start a system command,
[exit code, standard output, standard error] if not timeout
script.getEnv(varName): Get value of environment variable
script.setEnv(varName, value): Set value of environment variable
script.getQtVersion(): Qt version string, e.g. "5.4.1"
script.getDataMd5(data): Get hex string of the MD5 hash of data
script.getDataSize(data): Get size of byte array
script.dataToImage(data, [format]): Create an image from data bytes
script.dataFromImage(img, [format]): Get data bytes from image
script.loadImage(filePath): Load an image from a file
script.saveImage(img, filePath, [format]): Save an image to a file, true if OK
script.imageProperties(img): Get properties of an image, map containing
"width", "height", "depth" and "colorCount", empty if invalid image
script.scaleImage(img, width, [height]): Scale an image, returns scaled image
script.selectFileName(caption, dir, filter, saveFile): Open file dialog to
select a file
Application Context
Using QML, a large part of the Kid3 functions are accessible. The API is similar to the one used for
D-Bus. For details, refer to the respective notes.
app.openDirectory(path): Open directory
app.saveDirectory(): Save directory
app.revertFileModifications(): Revert
app.importTags(tag, path, fmtIdx): Import file
app.importFromTags(tag, source, extraction): Import from tags
app.downloadImage(url, allFilesInDir): Download image
app.exportTags(tag, path, fmtIdx): Export file
app.writePlaylist(): Write playlist
app.selectAllFiles(): Select all
app.deselectAllFiles(): Deselect
app.firstFile([select], [onlyTaggedFiles]): To first file
app.nextFile([select], [onlyTaggedFiles]): To next file
app.previousFile([select], [onlyTaggedFiles]): To previous file
app.selectCurrentFile([select]): Select current file
app.selectFile(path, [select]): Select a specific file
app.getSelectedFilePaths([onlyTaggedFiles]): Get paths of selected files
app.requestExpandFileList(): Expand all
app.applyFilenameFormat(): Apply filename format
app.applyTagFormat(): Apply tag format
app.applyTextEncoding(): Apply text encoding
app.numberTracks(nr, total, tag, [options]): Number tracks
app.applyFilter(expr): Filter
app.convertToId3v23(): Convert ID3v2.4.0 to ID3v2.3.0
app.convertToId3v24(): Convert ID3v2.3.0 to ID3v2.4.0
app.getFilenameFromTags(tag): Filename from tags
app.getTagsFromFilename(tag): Filename to tags
app.getAllFrames(tag): Get object with all frames
app.getFrame(tag, name): Get frame
app.setFrame(tag, name, value): Set frame
app.getPictureData(): Get data from picture frame
app.setPictureData(data): Set data in picture frame
app.copyToOtherTag(tag): Tags to other tags
app.copyTags(tag): Copy
app.pasteTags(tag): Paste
app.removeTags(tag): Remove
app.playAudio(): Play
app.readConfig(): Read configuration
app.applyChangedConfiguration(): Apply configuration
app.dirName: Directory name
app.selectionInfo.fileName: File name
app.selectionInfo.filePath: Absolute file path
app.selectionInfo.detailInfo: Format details
app.selectionInfo.tag(Frame.Tag_1).tagFormat: Tag 1 format
app.selectionInfo.tag(Frame.Tag_2).tagFormat: Tag 2 format
app.selectionInfo.formatString(tag, format): Substitute codes in format string
For asynchronous operations, callbacks can be connected to signals.
function automaticImport(profile) {
function onAutomaticImportFinished() {
app.batchImporter.finished.disconnect(onAutomaticImportFinished)
}
app.batchImporter.finished.connect(onAutomaticImportFinished)
app.batchImport(profile, tagv2)
}
function renameDirectory(format) {
function onRenameActionsScheduled() {
app.renameActionsScheduled.disconnect(onRenameActionsScheduled)
app.performRenameActions()
}
app.renameActionsScheduled.connect(onRenameActionsScheduled)
app.renameDirectory(tagv2v1, format, false)
}
Configuration Objects
The different configuration sections are accessible via methods of configs. Their properties can be
listed in the QML console.
script.properties(configs.networkConfig())
Properties can be set:
configs.networkConfig().useProxy = false
configs.batchImportConfig()
configs.exportConfig()
configs.fileConfig()
configs.filenameFormatConfig()
configs.filterConfig()
configs.findReplaceConfig()
configs.guiConfig()
configs.importConfig()
configs.mainWindowConfig()
configs.networkConfig()
configs.numberTracksConfig()
configs.playlistConfig()
configs.renDirConfig()
configs.tagConfig()
configs.tagFormatConfig()
configs.userActionsConfig()
AUTHOR
Urs Fleisch <ufleisch at users.sourceforge.net>
Software development
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2017 Urs Fleisch
FDL
NOTES
1. gnudb.org
http://gnudb.org
2. TrackType.org
http://tracktype.org
3. MusicBrainz
http://musicbrainz.org
4. Discogs
http://discogs.com
5. Amazon
http://www.amazon.com
6. ID3 specification
http://id3.org/id3v2.4.0-frames
7. SYLT Editor
http://www.compuphase.com/software_sylteditor.htm
8. www.gnudb.org
http://www.gnudb.org
9. freedb.org
http://freedb.org
10. ID3 tag version 2.3.0
http://id3.org/id3v2.3.0
11. ID3 tag version 2.4.0 - Main Structure
http://id3.org/id3v2.4.0-structure
12. LyricWiki
http://www.lyricwiki.org
13. Google
http://www.google.com
14. id3lib
http://id3lib.sourceforge.net
15. libogg
http://xiph.org/ogg/
16. libvorbis, libvorbisfile
http://xiph.org/vorbis/
17. libFLAC++ and libFLAC
http://flac.sourceforge.net
18. TagLib
http://taglib.github.io/
19. mp4v2
http://code.google.com/p/mp4v2
20. Chromaprint
http://acoustid.org/chromaprint
21. libav
http://libav.org/
22. FDL
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html#FDL
23. GPL
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html#GPL
24. Qt
http://qt-project.org/
25. KDE
http://www.kde.org