[KPhotoAlbum] Importing and Exporting tags

[Ashley J Gittins]

On Monday 19 June 2006 02:21, Dotan Cohen wrote:
> On 18/06/06, Ashley J Gittins <agittins at purple.dropbear.id.au> wrote:
> > On Sunday 18 June 2006 20:35, Rui Malheiro wrote:
> > > I think it would be great to have a standard XML format so that every
> > > image browser/manager could pickup tags when displaying an image.
> >
> > Sounds like a job for IPCT tags (since I think that's what they were
> > invented for) - does anyone know if there is a standardised method/format
> > for placing them in separate files (like a image.jpg.ipct) rather than
> > embedding the info into the image file itself? I am thinking of cases
> > where the original format (raw files) may not support iptc or where
> > people don't want their originals modified at any cost.
>
> No, IPTC is specific to jpg and it must be inside the photo itself.
> Other formats do support it, and XML can be created from it for
> storage outside the photo, but that is not native IPTC.
>
> Dotan Cohen
> http://technology-sleuth.com

(bringing back on-list)

EXIF is, afaik, specific to jpeg, IPTC has traditionally been available in 
jpg, tiff and psd - all done by adobe rather than the IPTC themselves though, 
and as a subset of the original IIM spec.

Actually, it looks like there is a standardised way of storing IPTC headers in 
standalone XML - strictly speaking I think it's actually storing IPTC core 
metadata in the XMP (Extensible Metadata Platform) from Adobe.

The International Press Telecommunications Council has released an rdf-schema 
defining how to store the IPTC Core metadata into an XML file.
http://www.iptc.org/std/Iptc4xmpCore/1.0/specification/IPTCCore_1.0-RFDS_1.xml

The "IPTC Metadata for XMP" homepage includes a download package of technical 
docs etc that would probably be quite useful for anyone looking to implement 
it:
http://www.iptc.org/IPTC4XMP/

The userguide document gives a mapping between the new IPTC Core (xmp) fields 
and those used in photoshop (several versions), irfanview, thumbsplus and 
iView media pro, which would probably also be useful:
http://www.iptc.org/std/Iptc4xmpCore/1.0/documentation/Iptc4xmpCore_1.0-doc-CpanelsUserGuide_13.pdf

If there are other de-facto standards around I'm all ears but I suspect this 
would be the most widely-accepted way at least in commercial circles, so 
unless there are licensing restrictions it looks like it might be a suitable 
"common ground" for importing and exporting image metadata.

-- 
Regards,
	Ashley J Gittins
	web: 	http://www.purple.dropbear.id.au
	jabber: agittins at purple.dropbear.id.au