ExifTool Tag Names

The tables listed below give the names of all tags recognized by ExifTool.

Tag Table Index
JPEG
EXIF
IPTC
XMP
GPS
GeoTiff
ICC_Profile
PrintIM
Photoshop
Canon
CanonCustom
Casio
FujiFilm
HP
JVC
Kodak
Leaf
Minolta
Nikon
NikonCapture
Olympus
Panasonic
Pentax
Ricoh
Sanyo
Sigma
Sony
Unknown
DNG
CanonRaw
MinoltaRaw
KyoceraRaw
SigmaRaw
JFIF
FlashPix
APP12
AFCP
CanonVRD
FotoStation
PhotoMechanic
MIE
ID3
Jpeg2000
BMP
PICT
PNG
MNG
MIFF
PDF
PostScript
Vorbis
FLAC
APE
MPC
MPEG
QuickTime
Flash
Real
RIFF
AIFF
ASF
DICOM
HTML
Extra
Composite
Shortcuts

Tag ID, Index or Sequence is given in the first column of each table. A Tag ID is the computer-readable equivalent of a tag name, and is the identifier that is actually stored in the file. An Index refers to the location of a value when found at a fixed position within a data block, and Sequence gives the order of values for a serial data stream.

A Tag Name is the handle by which the information is accessed in ExifTool. In some instances, more than one name may correspond to a single tag ID. In these cases, the actual name used depends on the context in which the information is found. Case is not significant for tag names. A question mark after a tag name indicates that the information is either not understood, not verified, or not very useful -- these tags are not extracted by ExifTool unless the Unknown (-u) option is enabled. Be aware that some tag names are different than the descriptions printed out by default when extracting information with exiftool. To see the tag names instead of the descriptions, use exiftool -s.

The Writable column indicates whether the tag is writable by ExifTool. Anything but an N in this column means the tag is writable. A Y indicates writable information that is either unformatted or written using the existing format. Other expressions give details about the information format, and vary depending on the general type of information. The format name may be followed by a number in square brackets to indicate the number of values written, or the number of characters in a fixed-length string (including a null terminator which is added if required).

An asterisk (*) after an entry in the Writable column indicates a "protected" tag which is not writable directly, but is set via a Composite tag. A tilde (~) indicates a tag this is only writable when print conversion is disabled (by setting PrintConv to 0, or using the -n option). A slash (/) indicates an "avoided" tag that is not created unless the group is specified (due to name conflicts with other tags). An exclamation point (!) indicates a tag that is considered unsafe to write under normal circumstances. These "unsafe" tags are not set when calling SetNewValuesFromFile() or when using the exiftool -TagsFromFile option unless specified explicitly, and care should be taken when editing them manually since they may affect the way an image is rendered. A plus sign (+) indicates a "list" tag which supports multiple instances.

The HTML version of these tables also list possible Values for discrete-valued tags, as well as Notes for some tags.

Note: If you are familiar with common meta-information tag names, you may find that some ExifTool tag names are different than expected. The usual reason for this is to make the tag names more consistent across different types of meta information. To determine a tag name, either consult this documentation or run exiftool -s on a file containing the information in question.


(This document generated automatically by Image::ExifTool::BuildTagLookup)
Last revised Oct 4, 2007

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