John, thanks so much for this! It does sound as if I need to upgrade to "full fledged" photo shop. My stock agency wants jpg files that are labeled to start with - then wants uncompressed TIFFS for those that interest them - or original transparancies, which are still very acceptable for them.
Pardon me for leaving all of John's text here - mo "out" index is my lazy way of keeping things I need - I never delete there :) annsan the now very sleepy. John Poirier wrote: > Greetings. > > IPTC stands for International Press Telecommunications Council. The info > embedding being discussed is basically IPTC captioning, which is an > international standard for embedding info in image files for professional > use. You can do it using Photoshop full versions, but I can't comment on > the LE versions or Photodeluxe- don't use 'em. > > The tools most used for dealing with IPTC captioning are called IPTC > editors. I am using a couple of image management programs with IPTC editors > built in. There are probably also freeware/shareware IPTC editors available > for very affordable prices. > > I think IPTC captioning forms an excellent basis for image management when > used in conjunction with compatible image manage software. One of the great > things about it is that information is embedded in image files in a widely > readable format, so even if your image management database blows up > completely you can salvage your data entry from the images themselves. A > good editor will allow you to do things like batch data entry and dropdown > lists of frequently used terms such as place names or subject categories. > > I've been using IPTC captioning for about a year. The main image management > software I use is IMatch, which may seem a bit intimidating at first but is > a wonderful tool for data entry for large numbers of images. One minor > glitch with Imatch is that, while it works with many image formats, it will > only handle uncompressed rather than compressed TIFF format. I believe this > is supposed to change fairly soon. Doesn't matter to me as my main storage > format is uncompressed TIFF. > > I also use ThumbsPlus which has a great simple tool for generating Web > pages that display thumbnails with IPTC information pulled from the image > files. The ThumbsPlus IPTC editor is inferior to that in IMatch, however. > > I selected these products about a year ago when the selection of IPTC > capable image manage products was very thin. I believe that has changed > considerably, but can't comment in detail because the two products mentioned > have been doing the job nicely and I've been too busy cranking out product > to do more research. > > An example of a product generated using IPTC captioning and image management > software is at > > www.pwnhc.ca/photogallery > > This gallery is a first draft of a major project I have been working on at > the Northwest Territories Archives, which is where I work. It is not > officially public yet. Much "help" information is missing from the opening > page, and many images are yet to be added. The gallery is intended mainly > to give people, especially school children in our smaller communities, > access to high res JPEG files of historic photos from our jurisdiction. We > are an area twice the size of France with a population of 42,000. > > Anyhow, the gallery consists of thumbnails linked to high res JPEG files. > Selected IPTC info embedded in the files (file name, location, caption, > credit) was pulled up by a script and displayed with thumbnails linked to > high res JPEG files that are available for free download for non-profit use. > Only the opening page had to be written by a Web designer. The balance of > the pages were generated automatically by image management software. > > The product is fairly crude in some ways but was also very inexpensive in > terms of production costs. It is complemented by a searchable > quasi-database of approximately 40,000 low-res images. > > The combination of IPTC caption and image management software appears to me > to have a great deal of potential for photographers wanting to manage large > numbers of images and display them online. Obviously there are options > other than than posting high res files. > > Hope you find this useful. > > John Poirier > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Ann Sanfedele" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: September 29, 2003 8:19 PM > Subject: Re: OT embedding info in image in Photoshop 5.0 LE or photodeluxe > > > Herb Chong wrote: > > > > > what file information are they refering to? if IPTC, then you can't do > it in > > > Photoshop. > > > > > > Herb.... > > > > Well, I know you _can_ do it in photoshop because she was using photoshop > even > > as we spoke > > and was telling me where to go on the tool bar - but that was 6.0 and I > only > > have 5.0 LE. > > I scribbled down some notes and canot read them all - thinking I could bop > > around and find it somehow > > I don't know what IPTC stands for, Herb. What they want is name, date, > species > > of animal, location, etc, > > etc - all the stuff we used to stick on the frame of a slide. Apparently > this > > is retrievable but doesn't > > show up when you just want to look at the image as such. The idea is you > enter > > text, of course :) > > > > ann > > > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > > From: "Ann Sanfedele" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > Sent: Monday, September 29, 2003 2:38 PM > > > Subject: OT embedding info in image in Photoshop 5.0 LE or photodeluxe > > > > > > > I can't seem to find the icon or whathave you to > > > > put the file info into my image > > > > (requirement for stock submissions) I'm hoping it > > > > is just because I cant find it > > > > (I cant find my keys either), and not that it > > > > isn't there in this edition. > >
