About tagging...
Two days ago, I was starting to tag my photos. I tried in the past, but I had diffiulties to find the correct keywords. I was fighting with several problems :
- where do I find a vocabulary of "official", "recognized" terms I could use. Any therausii outside ?
- Is there a defined format to save the keywords (tags) in the picture ? As I'm working on windows, and linux, it's important for me that software can read and write to the same format.
Last tuesday then I decided to give one more try to F-spot. F-spot has nothing related to the same spot but with another letter ;) It's the Gnome image browser, with light editing tools. Tagging is possible, but what format is it using and will it be compatible with Adobe Lightroom, Google Picasa ?
Powncing and Jaikuing more and more I told what as was doing, and Yoggel could refrain her instinct and wanted to know all and everything about it :) I then did a quick search and found out that 3 protocols are used to handle metadatas. Here is a copy of what I told Yoggel :)
First answer I gave :
I'm trying to use F-spot (on linux) to tag my photos. From the IRC channel I learned that f-spot is using the XMP method. XMP has been developped by Adobe several years ago (2001 I guess). XMP's goal is to remove most restrictions of the EXIF format. Mostly longer field size, and more flexible format, as it's based on XML.
Now, I don't know what "dictionnary", "thesaurus" of word I can use. can invent my own terms, but if someone is looking for an image...
All Adobe products are using XMP for metadatas (and are still exif compatible I guess). I don't know yet other windows-based product to be compatible with XMP. F-spot on linux is :)
Second answer after some thinkings :)
Honestly, I don't know eiter what to choose from EXIF, IPTC, XMP... After reading some web page about it, IPTC is an organisation to develop and promote standard exchange in the press. They defined the IPTC header we currently know.
Adobe uses a sub part of the format to extend it, use it in their own software. This Adobe extension is called XMP, based on XML. XMP fields are more global and not related to any work as it's also based on the Dublin core Metadata Initiative (simply put : Dublin core, well know in RSS feeds, XML, etc...) (I mean it's not done for the press or photograph, in particular).
Now the IPTC group "evoluates" the IPTC headers, to a "version2" of it, named IPTC Core. IPTC Core is based on XMP. But.... IPTC group modified the field name in accordance to the press vocabulary, so a photograph for example won't find suiting fields
About EXIF, it's like IPTC headers, but only for photography. It's supposed to contain only datas of how the picture has been taken (aperture, speed, flash, zoom, etc...). Some fields of EXIF and IPTC are the same (unfortunately). EXIF datas are not supposed to be modified as the camera create them to have more info of the condition of the shot.
Sooooo... in the end, who is winning ? :D
EXIF : is just for information, not to be modified. so no EXIF tag.
IPTC header : considered as legacy format. Not to be use. However, the target public is the press, not photograph.
IPTC core : is the new current version of the format. Again, it's for the press first, not photographers.
XMP : a format open to put informations. It's based on a open recognized international format (Dublin core), and developped primarly by Adobe.
So... I would say : try to find apps using XMP format or check if your current apps are using XMP ;) On linux, I know that f-spot (gnome) uses XMP, I don't know for KDE...
I hope this is clear now. at last it is for me finally. any comments is welcome, I think there are much to say :p
The original post can be found on Jaiku's Presence : 8762869
