Writing metatags
 

Some time ago I wanted to implement metatags to my scans (.tif) through my scanners (the late HP5470c (not working with Win7) and my now scanner Epson V500 - much better btw :) ) but failed with both of them.

Was obsessed with the wish to make my scans unique by adding metatags (Exif and/or IPTC, if possible by batch) and make my pics more search- describe- and (re)findable.

Read that SOME scanners (other producers) do write exif or other metatags.
Too bad that I just couldn't find any infos about how to make my Epson write tags to my scans.
Even specialized programs (Exifer, ExifTool (+GUI), PhotoME, Gimp, PS Elements 9) can't write infos to my Masterfile-tifs. No infos or help from the allmighty net. :(

Why could I write exif to some jpg-files and to some pics not (no choice in contextmenu)? Can I change that somehow?

TIFF can be pita if you want to write EXIF data. reasons are described here (jump to "problems/technical" if you don't like to read the whole wiki):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchan...ge_file_format

as for software, i use ACDSee. great software to organize, great software to tag. if you like to try it - they offer a free trial (14 days or so) to test everything you can do with the software. it also offers a bunch of own metatags and a customizable category/keyword system you can add to nearly every file (if the file itself doesn't support metatags at all, ACDSee stores them in a so-called "sidecar" when you embed those tags to your files - just keep in mind that ACDSee doesn't write these things directly when you "tag" them, you need to start the embedding-process manually. at least ACDSee remembers which files need an update).

with ACDSee you can't change (or add) EXIF data in TIFFs, but you can handle the IPTC metadata and all the ACDSee tags without problems.

A tip for windows users :

Exif data can be viewed/edited via the details tab of the file's properties.

In explorer ( that is windows explorer NOT internet explorer ) right click on the file and choose properties (at bottom of context menu).

To change metadata for a group of files (e.g. set the author and subject) just select them all in explorer and right click, choose properties, open details tab and change the fields, click apply and then click OK.

Another tip :
changing a file's metadata also alters its crc so if a picture upload is refused by a file host just alter the metadata and re-upload. No need to recompress the image.