JPG metadata help?

June 28, 2006 8:30 AM

Does the JPG description information work in Windows XP?

We have a large number of photos in my office of volunteers, and my boss would like a way to keep track of who is in what photo so years down the line we can remember. When I right click on a photo and go the properties, I can enter description data into the "Summary" tab, but it doesn't save the information. Is this just broken in XP? How else can I use the JPG metadata? I did download ExifPro 1.0, but I would be the only person who would know how to use it and I don't know how long I'll be staying at this job.

posted by starvingartist to computers & internet (10 comments total)

It works for me. At least, I can add a description, close the properties window, and it will be there the next time I open it. This is what you were trying to do, right? Maybe the problem only happens with JPEGs from certain programs. What are you using?
posted by teleskiving at 8:47 AM on June 28, 2006

Rather than try and embed this info into (EXIF data would be the way to go, I'd think) the picture, why not create an internal gallery for people to mark these things up with?

Coppermine (FOSS, PHP) is great.
posted by unixrat at 8:51 AM on June 28, 2006

Here's the problem - I don't have access to "real" image processing software in this office. We download the photos from our HP digital camera using the Windows digital camera wizard. Then we use the MS Office Picture Manager to do basic image manipulation. I can see all the detailed Exif info like camera type, data created, etc., but if I type in a title, keyword or description it just disappears the next time I look at the properties. I'm stumped.
posted by starvingartist at 8:52 AM on June 28, 2006

unixrat - Coppermine does look very interesting, but I don't have access to PHP or MySql or any other kind of back-end structure. This is just a general office-type kind of thing.
posted by starvingartist at 8:58 AM on June 28, 2006

ImageMagick can probably do the job for you. Although it's usually used as a backend to other software, you can use it manually as well...
posted by shepd at 9:07 AM on June 28, 2006

This doesn't exactly address your problem, but it might be worth a try. Have you tried it on another workstation?
posted by banshee at 9:12 AM on June 28, 2006

banshee - I tried that first, but it didn't run on my computer.
posted by starvingartist at 9:50 AM on June 28, 2006

Error message?
posted by banshee at 9:54 AM on June 28, 2006

Yes, error code 1 - invalid function, or something to that effect.
posted by starvingartist at 9:55 AM on June 28, 2006

I can't edit the summary info on my work computer either. I guess you could try a freeware exif editor.
posted by JJ86 at 10:37 AM on June 28, 2006