notes and digital photos

With physical prints you could keep notes, comments, etc. by writing
on the back of the photo. The information then stayed with that photo
for, essentially, the life of the photo.

Is there a digital equivalent for this?

I've tried adding a border and typing the information, but it is
extremely time consuming and even worse that adds a generation to the
photos and since a lot of them are .jpg format I really don't want to
keep re-compressing them.

I've tried a couple of "cataloging" programs but if I change the
location of the photo files then the links are broken and all my work
is trashed.

I'm getting really close to creating a .txt file to go with each photo
I want to comment on and then just trying to keep them both together
(sigh).

any ideas?


Thanks

Drifter

Drifter

Drifter wrote:

> With physical prints you could keep notes, comments, etc. by writing
> on the back of the photo. The information then stayed with that photo
> for, essentially, the life of the photo.
>
> Is there a digital equivalent for this?

Sure.. JPEG for one allows for including comments in the header of the file..
This can be added with a suitable image editor.. Window XP lets you right
click and do this on the fly.. Right click.. Properties.. Comments. Since it
doesn't open and close the file, it's lossless. You can also enter searchable
stuff like keywords, title, subject and author.


> I've tried adding a border and typing the information, but it is
> extremely time consuming and even worse that adds a generation to the
> photos and since a lot of them are .jpg format I really don't want to
> keep re-compressing them.
>
> I've tried a couple of "cataloging" programs but if I change the
> location of the photo files then the links are broken and all my work
> is trashed.
>
> I'm getting really close to creating a .txt file to go with each photo
> I want to comment on and then just trying to keep them both together
> (sigh).
>
> any ideas?
>
>
> Thanks
>
> Drifter

Jim Townsend

Drifter <> wrote:
> Is there a digital equivalent for this?

The EXIF standard, which pretty much all digicams follow for JPEG
files, includes a comment field. I'm pretty certain many photo
applications allow you to edit this field without recompressing
the image.

> I'm getting really close to creating a .txt file to go with each photo
> I want to comment on and then just trying to keep them both together
> (sigh).

I tend to do that with many things...

Samuel Paik

You can use irfanview (freeware) to do this.
www.irfanview.com

Good luck
H.N.

Herbert Nagler

I've used PixVue for this. See http://www.pixvue.com/index.html.

Drifter wrote:
| With physical prints you could keep notes, comments, etc. by
writing
| on the back of the photo. The information then stayed with that
photo
| for, essentially, the life of the photo.
|
| Is there a digital equivalent for this?
|
| I've tried adding a border and typing the information, but it is
| extremely time consuming and even worse that adds a generation to
the
| photos and since a lot of them are .jpg format I really don't want
to
| keep re-compressing them.
|
| I've tried a couple of "cataloging" programs but if I change the
| location of the photo files then the links are broken and all my
work
| is trashed.
|
| I'm getting really close to creating a .txt file to go with each
photo
| I want to comment on and then just trying to keep them both together
| (sigh).
|
| any ideas?
|
|
| Thanks
|
| Drifter

Don

photoshop, XP and imagewalker (www.imagewalker.com) all allow you to
access teh EXIF info and add comments, copyright and author info, etc.

chris
On Wed, 10 Dec 2003 22:47:11 -0500, Drifter <>
wrote:

>With physical prints you could keep notes, comments, etc. by writing
>on the back of the photo. The information then stayed with that photo
>for, essentially, the life of the photo.
>
>Is there a digital equivalent for this?
>
>I've tried adding a border and typing the information, but it is
>extremely time consuming and even worse that adds a generation to the
>photos and since a lot of them are .jpg format I really don't want to
>keep re-compressing them.
>
>I've tried a couple of "cataloging" programs but if I change the
>location of the photo files then the links are broken and all my work
>is trashed.
>
>I'm getting really close to creating a .txt file to go with each photo
>I want to comment on and then just trying to keep them both together
>(sigh).
>
>any ideas?
>
>
>Thanks
>
>Drifter

Chris P in PA

Thanks everyone for your replies. The problem I've already
encountered is software that strips out the EXIF information with no
warning that it is doing so. As a result I'm more than a little leary
of depending on EXIF. (Which is too bad as it's otherwise ideal).

Drifter

>
>photoshop, XP and imagewalker (www.imagewalker.com) all allow you to
>access teh EXIF info and add comments, copyright and author info, etc.
>
>chris
>On Wed, 10 Dec 2003 22:47:11 -0500, Drifter <>
>wrote:
>
>>With physical prints you could keep notes, comments, etc. by writing
>>on the back of the photo. The information then stayed with that photo
>>for, essentially, the life of the photo.
>>
>>Is there a digital equivalent for this?
>>
>>I've tried adding a border and typing the information, but it is
>>extremely time consuming and even worse that adds a generation to the
>>photos and since a lot of them are .jpg format I really don't want to
>>keep re-compressing them.
>>
>>I've tried a couple of "cataloging" programs but if I change the
>>location of the photo files then the links are broken and all my work
>>is trashed.
>>
>>I'm getting really close to creating a .txt file to go with each photo
>>I want to comment on and then just trying to keep them both together
>>(sigh).
>>
>>any ideas?
>>
>>
>>Thanks
>>
>>Drifter

Drifter

Drifter <> wrote:
> Thanks everyone for your replies. The problem I've already
> encountered is software that strips out the EXIF information with no
> warning that it is doing so. As a result I'm more than a little leary
> of depending on EXIF. (Which is too bad as it's otherwise ideal).

My personal preference is to never edit (modify) an original. You
have two main choices--decentralized, e.g. embedded comments or
text file per image; or centralized, a specialized database.
If a photo indexing app can't deal with moving files, it is
failing to deal with a common occurrance. However, I haven't
looked at photo indexing apps recently so I can't advise you
on them.

Samuel Paik

i use phtoshop 7 and ulead photoimpact 5 and 8. 5 strips it out, 8
does not, and of course, Photoshop leaves it intact.

chris


On Thu, 11 Dec 2003 18:50:00 -0500, Drifter <>
wrote:

>Thanks everyone for your replies. The problem I've already
>encountered is software that strips out the EXIF information with no
>warning that it is doing so. As a result I'm more than a little leary
>of depending on EXIF. (Which is too bad as it's otherwise ideal).
>
>Drifter
>
>>
>>photoshop, XP and imagewalker (www.imagewalker.com) all allow you to
>>access teh EXIF info and add comments, copyright and author info, etc.
>>
>>chris
>>On Wed, 10 Dec 2003 22:47:11 -0500, Drifter <>
>>wrote:
>>
>>>With physical prints you could keep notes, comments, etc. by writing
>>>on the back of the photo. The information then stayed with that photo
>>>for, essentially, the life of the photo.
>>>
>>>Is there a digital equivalent for this?
>>>
>>>I've tried adding a border and typing the information, but it is
>>>extremely time consuming and even worse that adds a generation to the
>>>photos and since a lot of them are .jpg format I really don't want to
>>>keep re-compressing them.
>>>
>>>I've tried a couple of "cataloging" programs but if I change the
>>>location of the photo files then the links are broken and all my work
>>>is trashed.
>>>
>>>I'm getting really close to creating a .txt file to go with each photo
>>>I want to comment on and then just trying to keep them both together
>>>(sigh).
>>>
>>>any ideas?
>>>
>>>
>>>Thanks
>>>
>>>Drifter

Chris P in PA

Drifter <> wrote in
news::

> Thanks everyone for your replies. The problem I've already
> encountered is software that strips out the EXIF information with no
> warning that it is doing so. As a result I'm more than a little leary
> of depending on EXIF. (Which is too bad as it's otherwise ideal).
>
> Drifter

I have been very happy with ThumbsPlus <www.cerious.com>. The only thing
it doesn't do for me is get the EXIF information directly from my camera.
If I download the pictures with the camera software the EXIF information
is there and accessible from ThumbPlus.

>>
>>photoshop, XP and imagewalker (www.imagewalker.com) all allow you to
>>access teh EXIF info and add comments, copyright and author info, etc.
>>
>>chris
>>On Wed, 10 Dec 2003 22:47:11 -0500, Drifter <>
>>wrote:
>>
>>>With physical prints you could keep notes, comments, etc. by writing
>>>on the back of the photo. The information then stayed with that photo
>>>for, essentially, the life of the photo.
>>>
>>>Is there a digital equivalent for this?
>>>
>>>I've tried adding a border and typing the information, but it is
>>>extremely time consuming and even worse that adds a generation to the
>>>photos and since a lot of them are .jpg format I really don't want to
>>>keep re-compressing them.
>>>
>>>I've tried a couple of "cataloging" programs but if I change the
>>>location of the photo files then the links are broken and all my work
>>>is trashed.
>>>
>>>I'm getting really close to creating a .txt file to go with each photo
>>>I want to comment on and then just trying to keep them both together
>>>(sigh).
>>>
>>>any ideas?
>>>
>>>
>>>Thanks
>>>
>>>Drifter
>

Fuzzy Logic