IPTC Data

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NAA/IPTC data is a method of storing textual information in images. It was developed for press photographers who need to attach information to images when they are submitting them electronically but it is useful for all photographers. It provides a standard way of storing information such as captions, keywords, location and captions. Because the information is stored in the image in a standard way this information can be accessed by other IPTC aware applications.

BreezeBrowser can edit IPTC data in the following types of images: JPEG, JPEG 2000, TIFF, Photoshop PSD, Nikon raw files and Canon raw files and AVI (movie) files. Adding or editing IPTC data does not affect the image quality. The IPTC data fields can be extracted from images and used in HTML pages (see HTML Page Generation).

Information about the IPTC standard for data stored in images files can be obtained from the IPTC's web site: http://www.iptc.org/IIM

A list of NAA/IPTC header codes can be found here:
http://www.ap.org/apserver/userguide/codes.htm

Note: IPTC data can only be used with Canon CRW raw files and AVI files if the THM thumbnail images are also present.

Editing IPTC Data

Select a suitable image in main view or thumbnail mode and either right click on the image and select "Edit IPTC Data..." from the menu or select the "Edit IPTC Data..." option from the Edit menu. These options will be grayed out if the image doesn't support IPTC data.

The IPTC Data dialog is divided up into five different sections: Caption, Keywords, Categories, Credits and Origin. Click on the tabs along the top of the dialog to select the required section.

Tokens can be used to insert information from the image properties and shooting data e.g. use @time@ to insert the time the image was token, @iso@ for the IOS setting, @model@ for the camera model name. This is particularly useful if you need to add information from the shooting data to a batch of images. The tokens are the same as used for HTML generation.
Note: Please don't use the tokens for IPTC data (e.g. @IPTC_caption@) as you may get unexpected results

All the data fields under the Caption tab are free text entries. The "Use EXIF comment" button can be used to copy the EXIF user comment to the caption. If the image does not contain an EXIF comment this button will be grayed out.
Note: If IPTC captions are selected in preference to EXIF comments the IPTC caption will be shown in the comment display when viewing images.

Click on the Keywords tab to display the keywords. The keywords are displayed in the order they were entered (as opposed to alphabetical order) and each keyword must be unique. To add a new keyword enter the keyword in the text edit area at the top and either press the Enter key or the Add button. To delete a keyword first select it from the list then press the Delete button.

Click on the Categories tab to display categories. The main category is a free text entry. The supplemental categories are displayed in the order they were entered (as opposed to alphabetical order) and each one must be unique. To add a new supplemental category enter it in the text edit area at the top and either press the Enter key or the Add button. To delete a supplemental category first select it from the list then press the Delete button.

All the data fields under the Credits tab except for priority are free text entries. The priority is a number from 0, meaning "None", through 1 (meaning "High") to 8 (meaning "Low").

All the data fields under the Origin tab are free text entries except for the "Date Created" and "Release Date" fields. These must contain a date in the form YYYYMMDD where YYYY is the year including century (e.g. 2002), MM is the month (e.g. 03 for March) and DD is the day (e.g. 26). An optional : or / character may also be used to separate the year, month and date. Press the ">" button after "Date Created" to display a menu to set the date/time to the EXIF shooting date, the file creation date, the current time, yesterday, two days ago or select any date using the date/time dialog (shown below). Click on the ">" button after "Release Date" to set the release time to now, tomorrow, two days time, one weeks time, two weeks time or select any date using the date/time dialog.

Loading and Saving IPTC Data to file

The IPTC settings can be saved to file for future use. Press the "Save to file..." button to save the current settings. Press the "Load..." button to replace the current IPTC settings with those previously saved to file. BreezeBrowser can read IPTC data from Adobe Photoshop file info files (with a .ffo file extension) and Fotostation IPTC files (with an .ipt file extension).
Please note: Loading IPTC data from a file will replace the existing all the IPTC values for the current image.

Batch Editing IPTC Data

BreezeBrowser can edit IPTC data in individual files or apply changes to several files in one go. When the IPTC editor is selected from BreezeBrowser's main view all the images capable of holding IPTC data are listed in the IPTC dialog. In thumbnail view only the selected images which can hold IPTC data are loaded in the IPTC dialog. When two or more images are loaded in the IPTC dialog the "< Prev" and "Next >" buttons are enabled and an extra button labeled "Apply to All" (or "Apply to Selected in thumbnail mode) is displayed as shown below:

The filename of the current image is displayed in the dialog's title bar and the image number and total number of images are displayed under the "< Prev"and "Next >" buttons. Use the previous and next buttons or the mouse wheel to step through the images. Any changes made to the IPTC data for the current image are saved before displaying the next image. Clicking on the "Apply" button will save the IPTC data in the current image only and will not affect the other images.

Click on the "Apply to Selected" button to apply the IPTC data to all the selected images. The following dialog will be displayed asking how the IPTC data should be added to the images:

You can choose whether to merge or replace entries in the keyword and supplemental categories lists. For example suppose an image already contains the following keywords: "one", "two" and the IPTC dialog contains the keywords: "three", "four". Merging will result in the following keywords: "one", "two", "three", "four" whereas replacing results in: "three", "four".

Select the "Use EXIF date/time for 'Date Created'" checkbox to automatically use the EXIF date and time the photo was taken for the "Date created" and "Time created" IPTC fields.

The "Leave existing entry if new entry is empty" checkbox controls whether empty fields in the IPTC should delete existing entries in the selected images. Most of the time it is probably best to leave this box checked. Uncheck it if you want to write the same IPTC data to all images and discard any existing IPTC.

The "Do not replace existing fields unless they are empty" checkbox controls whether new data entered in the IPTC dialog should overwrite existing IPTC data in the image. For example you may have added individual captions for some of the images and want to add a generic caption to the remaining images. You can do this by selecting this checkbox.

Click on "Cancel" if you do not wish to add the IPTC data to all the selected images.