What software can I use to read png metadata? [closed]

I know that I can create a simple little Qt based application that adds and read png metadata, using the QImage.setText(...) and QImage.text(...). That metadata can then be read with a linux command called pngmeta.

But what other image software can I use to read out the png metadata?

Please note that I'm seeking image programs for the common platforms, so please specify if your application is for Windows or Linux.

To make the question clearer I attached a img with some test metadata attached to it.

Thanks Johan

---

Links:

• - png
• - xmp metadata

1

7 Answers

Using ImageMagick:

identify -verbose image.png

ImageMagick should be cross-platform. I tried it on Linux with your attached image:

[...]
Properties: Author: Hans Müller Date: 2010-12-08 09:45 date:create: 2010-12-08T13:15:43+01:00 date:modify: 2010-12-08T13:15:43+01:00 Desc: A long time ago in a galaxy far far away.... signature: 3b4a54202316a7ae4b4fe0e431d47958181f4bb893493355820d4ba74f9f5ee3
[...]

4

Another option is TweakPNG, on Windows.

I can see that is having problems displaying the Hans Müller name in your image, so maybe it does not work with Unicode metadata.

3

If you are looking for a PNG-only solution, try pngchunks:

$ sudo apt-get install pngtools
$ pngchunks UiagX.png
Chunk: Data Length 13 (max 2147483647), Type 1380206665 [IHDR] Critical, public, PNG 1.2 compliant, unsafe to copy IHDR Width: 800 IHDR Height: 600 IHDR Bitdepth: 8 IHDR Colortype: 2 IHDR Compression: 0 IHDR Filter: 0 IHDR Interlace: 0 IHDR Compression algorithm is Deflate IHDR Filter method is type zero (None, Sub, Up, Average, Paeth) IHDR Interlacing is disabled Chunk CRC: 353637671
Chunk: Data Length 9 (max 2147483647), Type 1935231088 [pHYs] Ancillary, public, PNG 1.2 compliant, safe to copy ... Unknown chunk type Chunk CRC: 10132504
Chunk: Data Length 19 (max 2147483647), Type 1951942004 [tEXt] Ancillary, public, PNG 1.2 compliant, safe to copy ... Unknown chunk type Chunk CRC: -1325924661
Chunk: Data Length 21 (max 2147483647), Type 1951942004 [tEXt] Ancillary, public, PNG 1.2 compliant, safe to copy ... Unknown chunk type Chunk CRC: 134517081
Chunk: Data Length 58 (max 2147483647), Type 1951945850 [zTXt] Ancillary, public, PNG 1.2 compliant, safe to copy ... Unknown chunk type Chunk CRC: 1701487776
Chunk: Data Length 572939 (max 2147483647), Type 1413563465 [IDAT] Critical, public, PNG 1.2 compliant, unsafe to copy IDAT contains image data Chunk CRC: 1174233759
Chunk: Data Length 0 (max 2147483647), Type 1145980233 [IEND] Critical, public, PNG 1.2 compliant, unsafe to copy IEND contains no data Chunk CRC: -1371381630

The output of pnginfo may not verbose enough for your usage:

$ pnginfo UiagX.png
UiagX.png... Image Width: 800 Image Length: 600 Bitdepth (Bits/Sample): 8 Channels (Samples/Pixel): 3 Pixel depth (Pixel Depth): 24 Colour Type (Photometric Interpretation): RGB Image filter: Single row per byte filter Interlacing: No interlacing Compression Scheme: Deflate method 8, 32k window Resolution: 2835, 2835 (pixels per meter) FillOrder: msb-to-lsb Byte Order: Network (Big Endian) Number of text strings: 3 of 9 Author (tEXt uncompressed): Hans Müller Date (tEXt uncompressed): 2010-12-08 09:45 Desc (tEXt uncompressed): A long time ago in a galaxy far far away....

3

I can't see Exiftool mentioned above.
It does many image formats, not just png...
It is a "platform independent perl module", but also an executable (available for several platforms/OS).

More info:

As mentioned in another question, you can use pngcheck:

pngcheck -c -v -t foobar.png

These are the relevant options for showing PNG chunks:

-7 print contents of tEXt chunks, escape chars >=128 (for 7-bit terminals)
-c colorize output (for ANSI terminals)
-p print contents of PLTE, tRNS, hIST, sPLT and PPLT (can be used with -q)
-t print contents of tEXt chunks (can be used with -q)
-v test verbosely (print most chunk data)

1. Using imagemagick for both adding the comment:

   mogrify -comment "your comment" <IMAGE_NAME>

2. Then reading it back:

   identify -verbose <IMAGE_NAME>

Or, if you want to see only the comment:

identify -verbose <IMAGE_NAME> | grep "comment:"

It's a good practice to embed the metadata properly.

2

In case someone is using Magick.NET, you can get those attributes in C# like this:

foreach(string key in image.AttributeNames)
{ string value = image.GetAttribute(key);
}