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1. Re: Problems with InDesign CS5 reading EXIF data
John Hawkinson Apr 13, 2011 2:14 AM (in response to gorak43634645)Hi, Simon.
I think I recall hearing a similar complaint over in the scripting forum, though I can't seem to find it now.
There are several different ways that metadata (including EXIF) data can be stored in a JPEG (or a JFIF...) file, and it may not be stored where InDesign is reading the XMP data. (It's my recollection that the EXIF data can be stored in the XMP data but it doesn't have to be). If you rewrite the metadata with a tool that rewrites the EXIF data into the XMP data when it is writing the XMP data, as presumably Bridge does, then InDesign will be able to read it.
So what's the solution?
Well, I think probably the answer is to preprocess all your JPEG files before you use them in InDesign. What OS are you using? There are probably some easy batch tools you can use. Maybe even Bridge...
Another solution would be to use a script to set the captions. I kind of had the feeling that the Live Caption feature was one of those things that looked cool, but wasn't quite ready for prime time...happy to hear people are using it successfully.
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2. Re: Problems with InDesign CS5 reading EXIF data
gorak43634645 Apr 14, 2011 12:22 AM (in response to John Hawkinson)Thanks John - I think you're right about the EXIF info needing to be imported into XMP.
To make matters worse though, it gets more complicated. Preprocessing in Bridge seemed like the way to go but I found that this still does not work for all photos. It turns out that after some really dull testing, if I add a tag to a photo in Picasa, then delete the tag, Bridge will still process the photo but InDesign will not read the EXIF data.
If I preprocess them before doing anything in Picasa then all is good, it seems that some operations in Picasa have strange effects with InDesign's photo reading.
Back to the drawing board with this one - will have to find some reliable workaround... thanks
Live Caption seems to me to be no more than a fancy name for quickly adding metadata text variables. Either way, no matter how 'Live' Adobe would like to call it, if you update the image captions or tags in an application the preserves the file timestamp (Picasa), Adobe will not let you update the 'link' as it does not think the images has changed, and there is no way to force it.
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3. Re: Problems with InDesign CS5 reading EXIF data
John Hawkinson Apr 14, 2011 12:42 AM (in response to gorak43634645)Simon:
Earlier, I asked you some questions, you should answer them and we might make progress to a solution:
> What OS are you using?
OK, I guess that was just one question...Tell us more about your workflow. You initially talked about "loaded in direct from many cameras," but clearly Picasa is involved and sometimes Bridge is.
The CS4 link architecture allows for checksums of links instead of just timetamps, if the link provider chooses to do so...that is probably not a helpful statement though. Certainly you could just type "touch *.jpg" under OS X and then update all links (option/alt-click).
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4. Re: Problems with InDesign CS5 reading EXIF data
gorak43634645 Apr 15, 2011 7:49 PM (in response to John Hawkinson)I am using Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit, InDesign CS5.
The photos are from a couple of cameras. Although imported into Picasa, they are largely untouched as Picasa does not modify them unless a caption or tag is added or removed, or an edit is performed. I want to add captions and tags in Picasa so these are imported into the InDesign book, as well as being saved into the photos. The captions etc. are working, it's just the EXIF data that isn't (want to show exposure etc. alongside the caption).
Bridge has only been involved to remedy this situation and copy the EXIF data to XMP - I'd rather not have to use it at all.
A further update to this: EXIFTool GUI reveals that Bridge does copy the EXIF data to XMP - and then all is good in InDesign. However, Bridge fails to do this if the image has been tagged then untagged in Picasa - it still writes XMP data but only a few entries. I think this is a fault in Bridge, not Picasa, but cannot be sure.
I'm looking for a relible app to copy the EXIF over to XMP, regardless of what state the image caption/tag is. Once I've found one I reckon it'll all be solved.
If anyone has any pointers for a good app I would most appreciate it. Thanks.
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5. Re: Problems with InDesign CS5 reading EXIF data
gorak43634645 Apr 15, 2011 7:53 PM (in response to gorak43634645)Btw. If CS5 can be set to check for a change in checksum for the linked files (rather than timestamp), it would be great. If I can do this on Win7 I'd love to know how.
Thanks.
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6. Re: Problems with InDesign CS5 reading EXIF data
John Hawkinson Apr 15, 2011 9:51 PM (in response to gorak43634645)Indeed, I was going to suggest Exiftool. Though I doubt you can (or would want to!) do it with the GUI version.
Looks like you should be able to use:
exiftool -@ exif2xmp.args -overwrite_original *.jpg
though I'm not 100% on the wildcards. This isn't really an InDesign question...
Note that you need to get the full exiftool distribution (the .tar.gz file) and take the exif2xmp.args file from it. I guess you could also download it here.
As for checksums, it doesn't really look there's any practical way to do that, I think I gave you false hope. Just change the time of the file. Under Unix or OS X you'd use the touch command: "touch filename.jpg". Under Windows I don't know what you'd do.
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7. Re: Problems with InDesign CS5 reading EXIF data
gorak43634645 Apr 15, 2011 10:22 PM (in response to John Hawkinson)Been looking at this today - exiftool works a treat. As you pointed out, you have to use the args file. Using EXIF:All>XMP didn't seem to copy everything over.
Thanks
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8. Re: Problems with InDesign CS5 reading EXIF data
Tom0678 Jul 4, 2011 3:01 PM (in response to gorak43634645)Hello,
did you solve your problem? I am not sure if I am right here in this treat. I have images with GPS coordinates in my exif metadata. I would like to add the gps coordinates as a image description in indesign cs5. But indesign only reads the xmp. So I used the command lines you write, but nothing changed. I dont know exiftool, I only copied from here. you have an idea?
thanks
Thomas
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9. Re: Problems with InDesign CS5 reading EXIF data
gorak43634645 Jul 5, 2011 5:45 AM (in response to Tom0678)It's been a long time since I looked at this. While I was able to solve the problem using EXIFTOOL to process that JPEG files (and write XMP) I decided against including the metadata into the InDesign book as it would mean processing all my images, and having to remember to process any new photos I take. Book is behind schedule so I cut it all out.
I changed the code that was submitted by John, and made the following .bat file that sits in the same folder as EXIFTOOL. The .bat files contains:
****************************************
%0\..\exiftool.exe -overwrite_original -TagsFromFile %* -@ exif2xmp.args %*
pause
****************************************
In order for this to work, you need the exif2xmp.args file. I didn't know where it was supposed to be located but put it in the same dir as EXIFTOOL and the bat file above and it worked. I got the file somewhere from the EXIFTOOL website - think its in the full archive that they provide.
To use it, you can drag multiple files onto the .bat file in Windows and they are processed. N.B. this overwrites the original photos, so make a backup if you are unsure.
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10. Re: Problems with InDesign CS5 reading EXIF data
Tom0678 Jul 5, 2011 8:05 AM (in response to gorak43634645)Thank you for your answer. I did it as you told me and it seems to work. But now I have GPS coordinates in my pictures. They are also listet in the xmp data as:
<exif:GPSLatitude>21,56.6770S</exif:GPSLatitude>
<exif:GPSLongitude>15,51.05E</exif:GPSLongitude>
<exif:GPSTimeStamp>2009-10-13T05:58:26Z</exif:GPSTimeStamp>
<exif:GPSAltitude>1180/1</exif:GPSAltitude>
<exif:GPSAltitudeRef>0</exif:GPSAltitudeRef>In the End I need the coordinates as the description for the image. So it should be listed in the metadata dropdown field in the setup of the image description. You have an idea?
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11. Re: Problems with InDesign CS5 reading EXIF data
Steve Werner Jul 5, 2011 8:11 AM (in response to Tom0678)Tom,
In that you might be disappointed. I don't think there's any way to get other XMP information to show up in the Caption Setup menu or the Links panel settings. I think those choices are hard-wired in the UI.
Unless it could be revealed through scripting. Sometimes there are options in InDesign which can only be used by scripting. You might ask in the InDesign Scripting forum.
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12. Re: Problems with InDesign CS5 reading EXIF data
John Hawkinson Jul 5, 2011 9:39 AM (in response to Steve Werner)There are no hooks or APIs in the Scripting DOM that allow scripts to add additional metadata variables, no.
But what you can do with scripting is read the XMP metadata and do {whatever} with it. Such as create a global text variable for it (probably only helps if you have one image), or create a static caption frame beneath the photo, or...
I suspect, though, the best solution is what when you copy EXIF data, you copy it to a particular XMP field that InDesign knows how to read. Since there aren't really generic fields, I would probably use Location for this purpose.
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13. Re: Problems with InDesign CS5 reading EXIF data
gorak43634645 Jul 6, 2011 2:22 AM (in response to Tom0678)My solution enabled me to access basic camera settings such as Aperature etc using Metadata Captions in Text Variables, but unless you get busy with scripting then I think you're limited to what InDesign has to offer through text variables. I unfortuantely don't have any scripting knowledge for InDesign...
Maybe Steve and John can point you in the right direction a bit more...
Simon
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14. Re: Problems with InDesign CS5 reading EXIF data
Steve Werner Jul 6, 2011 6:52 AM (in response to gorak43634645)I don't do scripting. Unless you're a scripter yourself, you'd have to get some scripter interested in what you're doing, and they might throw something together. You might ask in the InDesign Scripting forum.
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15. Re: Problems with InDesign CS5 reading EXIF data
John Hawkinson Jul 6, 2011 7:21 AM (in response to Steve Werner)Maybe I wasn't quite clear enough in post #12.
You're not going to get a better answer in the scripting forum, I'm afraid. InDesign doesn't usually give scripting access to choices that it doesn't present in the UI. There are a handful of places where it does so, but this isn't one of them.
You could write a script to look up the XMP data of the image and then do something with it, true. But it wouldn't be a live caption. It would be whatever you wrote the script to do.
And, i think clearly the best solution is to just copy the location data to the XMP metadata location field. This doesn't even add an extra step to the workflow we just discussed, you just edit exif2xmp.args and instruct it to copy the GPS tags over the Location tags. It should be real simple. Then live captions will just work.
It does look like the CPAN URL I gave doesn't work any more. An up to date version for eixtool 8.60 is http://cpansearch.perl.org/src/EXIFTOOL/Image-ExifTool-8.60/exif2xmp.args.
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16. Re: Problems with InDesign CS5 reading EXIF data
nz_geographic Mar 14, 2012 7:20 PM (in response to gorak43634645)I was having a similar problem, which was that InDesign CS5.5 wasn't importing the EXIF camera data (it wasn't showing in the Links window, nor was it importing into the Live Caption). It seemed to be doing this with some files, while others imported the data just fine. It seems that this is a flaw with CS5, because when I opened an image in Photoshop CS4, then made a small amend to the editable metadata and saved over the file and updated it in InDesign, the camera data suddenly showed up. It was the same with Bridge - fine when opened with an earlier version, but not the CS5 version. I see your post is dated April 2011, so it's been almost a full year and Adobe seems not to be interested in fixing this bug. So, a new feature in CS5, like Live Captions, will only work properly if used with old software. Nice. Maybe it will be a "new feature" in CS6...
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17. Re: Problems with InDesign CS5 reading EXIF data
John Hawkinson Mar 14, 2012 8:40 PM (in response to nz_geographic)nz_geographic, did you read this thread?
InDesign is behaving as it is designed. If you want it to do something else, you should tell Adobe -- posting on this forum does not reach Adobe. If you want to do that, fill out a feature request at http://adobe.com/go/wish. If you don't do that, you cannot say anything about Adobe's interest in changing this behavior (which would not, I think, qualify as a bug); if you want to tell Adobe something, the best way is to open a support case (http://adobe.com/go/support), but you can also use the first link above.
In brief, InDesign doesn't read EXIF data. It reads XMP data. It doesn't try to read EXIF data.
Editing your image in Photoshop causes Photoshop to save the EXIF data in the XMP metadata section. This is irrespective of the Photoshop version (or should be).
I'm not sure what is going on with Bridge.
Maybe that is a bug.
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18. Re: Problems with InDesign CS5 reading EXIF data
nz_geographic Mar 14, 2012 8:55 PM (in response to John Hawkinson)Thanks John, I had already filled out the feature request/bug report form earlier.
My post was mostly to offer Simon a workaround that I'd found, which is that editing the image metadata in Photoshop CS4 fixed the problem of the camera data not importing into InDesign CS5.5. For some reason, saving the file in Photoshop CS5 results in this data not being imported into InDesign. So, a CS5 feature works - but only if you use CS4 (Photoshop that is).


