[Invalid]: Preserving Exif data

[winjeel]

I've done a quick search for this, and the only thing I've found is some evidence that would support my case, seen here.

Anyway, my request is that exif information in photos that have been uploaded to Coppermine, not be removed, but preserved. Most of my images have exif information, but when I go to review it at a later time, I've found that it's no longer embedded in the image, and so I've got to go looking deep in my files and records. Also, for other photographers, it's extremely useful, especially for learning more about how a photo was taken, and the equipment used. Whilst others are asking to view and add to this exif information, I'd rather preserve it, especially so I don't have to add keywords twice (some images can have upto 20 keywords, a description, title, copyright information and so forth), and I can upload many images at a time.

So, if Coppermine could use the exif data, and not delete it, it would be of great benefit to photographers, and perhaps keeping Coppermine competitive against the likes of Flickr for the average photographer.

That's the only request I've got. I've used coppermine for about four years, and that's the only consistent annoyance that I've had with it. Otherwise, thanks for building it stable and reliable.

[Joachim Müller]

The image libraries used by Coppermine (GD or ImageMagic) both don't support the preservation of exif tags. Therefor, if you resize your pics (this includes creation of intermediate sized images and thumbnails), the exif data embedded into the original will be lost - it will not remain inside the resized image. That's not the fault of coppermine, but the fault of the image libraries that coppermine is using. Therefor, your request is sort-of invalid, since we can not add features that we don't have control over. You'd have to request those feature to the maintainers of the libraries GD or ImageMagick, not to us.
As a workaround, you can resize your images on your client (that includes the intermediate and thumbnail, respecting the prefixes set in in coppermine's config) with a client application that is capable to preserve exif information (like IrfanView and several other apps). Then upload the whole enchilada using your favorite FTP app and then just perform a batch-add. This will result in all of your images containing your exif data, as Coppermine (or rather: the image libraries used by coppermine) did not touch them.

Marking your thread as invalid, as the feature you request can not be performed by the coppermine devs; it's like requesting from Microsoft to enable computers to brew coffee: Microsoft can't accomplish this: you'd have to ask the computer manufacturers to built coffee-machines into PCs first. Only if the OEMs did, Microsoft could then (in a next step) add coffee-brewing support to their operating system.

This is clearly not a hen/egg issue: it's quite clear who would need to react first: the maintainers of the image libraries used.

Alternatively, you could point us to another image library that is available for web applications that has the capabilities to preserve or even manipulate exif data.

Joachim

P.S. Professional photographers are not our main target audience. We encourage pro photographers to store their hi-res originals somewhere on their local PC or local network and only use coppermine to show off reduced-quality stuff on the internet. This being said: you're welcome to use coppermine as you see fit, but don't expect features that will only benefit a very small minority of users (like pro photographers) to go into the core soon

[winjeel]

Thanks for taking the time to explain it all. I never trust any website (not even my own) to preserve all my originals for prosperity, but have found Coppermine usefull for showing off with. Again, thanks for your info.