How can I add portable metadata to scanned family photos?
Asked 7/2/2020
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I’ve scanned about 600 family photos and want to record notes from the original albums: people, places, approximate dates, and other context. I’d like to avoid locking that information into a proprietary library or database, since I may want to move the collection between Mac, Windows, or web-based tools later.
For scanned images, what metadata approach is most portable and widely supported: EXIF, IPTC, XMP, sidecar files, or an app-specific database? If possible, I’d also like suggestions for software that can write standards-based metadata in a way other photo tools can read later.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
6y ago
2 Answers
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EXIF is mostly for technical details from the camera that created the picture, though there are some items such as GPS coordinates and date/time stamps that are appropriate to add such as in your case. IPTC is an older standard and XMP is the newest, most flexible standard for adding metadata.
A good place to start would be something like Adobe Bridge, which is free but closed source, or Digikam which is FOSS. Both will give you a nice gui to fill out information and will save it into the file following all three of the above standards, so as to be most compatible with future software. Digikam is also a Digital Asset Manager, so in addition to saving data in the file, it will also have a database so you can quickly search for images. Bridge is more like a file browser, allowing you to edit image data easily, but no real searching ability (afaik).
Originally by user37960. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user37960
6y ago
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For this use, XMP is generally the best choice, with IPTC still widely recognized and EXIF used mainly for technical/capture data. In practice, the safest approach is to use software that writes metadata back into the image file using standard fields, rather than relying only on an app’s internal database.
EXIF is mostly intended for camera-generated technical information, though some fields like date/time or GPS can still be useful. IPTC is older but broadly supported for descriptive information. XMP is the newer, more flexible standard and is a strong fit for names, locations, captions, and other notes.
A good workflow is to use a tool such as Adobe Bridge or digiKam. Both can provide a GUI for entering metadata and save it using standard metadata formats for better compatibility with future software. digiKam also keeps a database for fast searching, but the key point is that the metadata can also be written to the files themselves, which improves portability.
So: prefer standards-based embedded metadata, especially XMP/IPTC, and avoid depending solely on a proprietary photo library.
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