Robin,

The question is clear :

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=338753#c3

For me this Exif tag is a "Comment", not a "Title".

But i can be wrong here, this is why i ask to metadata specialists

Also, if somebody can report how Photoshop play with this tag to see if it's considerated as comment or title using image properties dialog, this will help.

Gilles Caulier

Yes he is!

The spec states clearly that the tag is to be used for the title of the image. They made the unfortunate mistake of calling that tag "ImageDescription", but reading the spec clearly shows what it's intended for, and I believe Exiv2 should stick to this, as other software does, otherwise a mess is made. If you don't, how do I convince devs of other software who do stick to the spec to start misusing the tag? "Please treat this tag as the image caption even though the spec tells you not to because Exiv2 does that"? That won't fly. :)

Foo,

If you considerate Exif ImageDescription as a "title", i would to be sure that tags is used as well as a title by... Photoshop.

It's clear that photo world is dominated by Adobe currently. This is the reality. If Photoshop store comment and not title in this tag, it's clear that interroperability will the heel in the future, and i will receive a lots of bug reports about in digiKam area (and i don't want (:=)))).

Also the interpretation of this tag by other close source software will help a lots :

- AfterShot
- LightRoom
- Aperture
- Nikon NX
- Etc...

To resume : if you think that changing the vision of this tag by open source team will be difficult, changing the vision of this tag to close source company will be... impossible.

Gilles Caulier

Gentlemen:

I have (legal) access to Adobe: Lightroom, PhotoShop, Elements, Bridge. Apple: iPhoto, Aperture. Nikon: NX. Google: Picasa. I'll see how this is handled by those applications.

I have recently retired to England and awaiting our shipment from California. The iMac and DVDs with the software are in the consignment. The stuff has arrived in England, however we don't have a delivery date.

I'm still puzzled as to why this is being considered a bug in Exiv2. We read/write tags on demand. The relationship between an application user interface element labeled "Title" and the tag(s) updated are not the concern of Exiv2. However you're welcome to persuade me that I have mis-understood this topic.

Robin,

Consider this entry not as an Exiv2 bug. It's more a technical question which can have big incidence for the future with Exiv2 client application.

Gilles

Sure, Gilles. This is a "how do applications represent "Title" in meta-data?" Interesting question. And of course, now that I'm retired I have time to spend on this kind of thing.

Alison and I are very happy to be home in England. We have a lot of work to get our home back into perfect shape. We're both enjoying working together.

I'm very happy to be working on Exiv2 again. I don't feel I'm retired and out of the software world. I'm stimulated by contributing to Exiv2 and enjoying working with everybody on Team Exiv2.

I have to say, so far my involvement with Exiv2 devs consists of two issue reports, this one included, and straight away I felt that you are great people :)

Gilles (or Caulier? Sorry, I can't tell which one is your name :P ) yes you have a very good point there! I'm holding my thumbs that Lightroom/Photoshop go by the spec, as that would make life easier :)

I worked at Adobe for 16 years. I will not be surprised to learn that every application (even the Adobe applications) do something a little different. However, when my kit arrives from California, we'll find the answer.

Thanks for being so complimentary about Team Exiv2. We are a happy band. Andreas, Gilles and Brad have created a very nice library of good quality C++ code. And we've added engineers in Build (Robin) / Test (Nehal) / EPS (Volker) / Video (Abhinav and Mahesh) / Internet (Tuan) / Metadata (Niels) / Release (Shawn). And Phil often speaks up on the Forum. We aim to please and I believe we do.

Thanks for saying something so nice. It's very motivating.

Good News. Our stuff from California is to be delivered next Wednesday 10 September. We're having a garden party on September 13 for friends, family and neighbours. So once that's over, I'll deal with this. All Exiv2 users are welcome at the party of course. The garden has had a huge makeover and we've built a summer house.
Artist's Impression (PhotoShop):

Today (still to be painted)

Seems that I actually lived some 20km from you in Kingston until last year :) Now I'm in Sweden. Enjoy the party :]

@Robin: When you do tests with the above mentioned tools please use some Arabic/Hebrew/Kyrillic title name and comment/description to also check how tools perform on Unicode data. Thanks.

This is a really tough area for me. Because I'm a native English speaker, I am puzzled by the whole Unicode business. I appreciate its importance, however I find it almost impossible to design tests for this. There have been several topics about this raised on the forum. As the majority of Team Exiv2 live in Asia, maybe I can persuade one of them to take responsibility for this part of our code and test suite. http://dev.exiv2.org/issues/848

According to MWG (Metadata Working Group) Guidelines

Description
defines the textual description of a resource's content. 
Also known as "user comment”, "caption”, "abstract” or "description”. 
Exif ImageDescription, IPTC Caption, and XMP (dc:description) are mapped together.

From section 5.2 of http://www.metadataworkinggroup.com/pdf/mwg_guidance.pdf

I don't see any guidelines on "Title".

This MWG spec is in direct conflict with the JEITA and CIPA specs. What do we do?

Hello

Sorry, I didn't get notified of the update to this issue.

I'm not clear on what the conclusion is. Should programs treat Exif.ImageDescription as the image description or as the title? I need this worded clearly when I forward the link to multiple other projects which use Exiv2.

Thank you.