This section describes the metadata reading and writing process.
Metadata templates
Select files in the files pane, then choose to apply description, headline, keywords, copyright, creator, and credit together. The dialog applies to the selection captured when it was opened.
Choose one action for each field: Leave unchanged, Replace, Append, or Clear. New templates start with every field unchanged. Replace overwrites existing values. Text append adds the value after a newline; applying the template again repeats the appended text. List append adds values without duplicates. Replace and Append ignore blank values. Clear explicitly removes existing metadata. Text entry is available only for Replace and Append. Keywords can be separated by commas or newlines.
Choose to start with blank fields. Enter a name under Save as and choose to store the values and per-field actions. Saving with an existing name replaces that template; use another name to create a copy. Choose a saved template from the list to load it, or choose to remove it. Editing or applying values does not automatically save the template.
Expand Add field to add more metadata fields. Choose a suggested field, or enter a label and a simple XMP metadata key such as Xmp.photoshop.City. Keys can be copied from the Exif window. Select List of values (one per line) for list fields, then choose . Duplicate keys are rejected. Custom fields support the same four actions and blank-value behavior as the standard fields, and their labels, keys, values, list settings, and actions are saved with the template.
removes a custom field from the current template without changing file metadata. Save the template to keep the change. Loading a template restores its own custom fields; starts with the standard fields.
Choose to queue the changes using the same metadata save and grouped-file settings as the info sidebar. Use to write queued changes manually. Templates are stored as readable INI files in the metadata-templates directory inside the Geeqie configuration directory. Filenames use the template name with unsuitable characters replaced by underscores. Numeric suffixes distinguish filenames that collide, including differences only in letter case. Saving an exact existing template name updates that template. Templates saved with the previous hashed filenames remain usable.
Metadata handling
Read algorithm
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Read Exif, IPTC and XMP from the file.
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Display this "raw" data in the Exif Window .
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Read XMP sidecar or Geeqie private metadata file. This data will override the XMP data read from the file.
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Synchronise XMP data with Exif and IPTC data. This process corresponds to the section "Reconciling metadata properties" as described in the XMP Specification .
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detect which of Exif and Xmp.exif is newer and copy the data in the appropriate direction
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detect which of IPTC and XMP is newer and copy the data in the appropriate direction
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Use this "processed" data within Geeqie, with the exception of in the Exif Window
Metadata modification
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Metadata is written to a single file or group of files as specified in the Metadata tab of main Preferences.
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Modifying the keywords, description, orientation, etc. does not ask for confirmation, but immediately modifies the metadata in memory and adds the file to "write queue"
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Writing of the queued changes is triggered either manually or as defined in Metadata. It is possible to review the changes and exclude selected files.
Write algorithm
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Exif and IPTC are updated from XMP (for example Exif.Image.Orientation is updated from Xmp.exif.orientation ). See XMP and IPTC4XMP specifications for the list of corresponding tags.
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Try to write metadata in the order specified in the Metadata writing process section of Preferences.
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After the first successful write attempt delete old metadata files in all possible locations.
Options that influence the process
File types with allowed sidecars are listed in the File Filters Options tab of the main Preferences.