The ExifWorks class

• Download source files, incl. demo project - 23.9 Kb

What is EXIF

EXIF stands for Exchangeable Image File Format. This format is used for storing various metadata in images, and is widely used mainly in digital still cameras. More information about EXIF can be found here, or in the document Description of the EXIF file format by TsuruZoh Tachibanaya.

When I was trying to find any sources regarding comfort access from .NET environment to these data, I was not successful. So I wrote this class and gave it freely available as open source.

What is ExifWorks

ExifWorks is a class written in 100% pure managed VB.NET, which allows comfort reading and writing of embedded EXIF metadata. It has the following features:

• Provides the TagNames Enum, which contains user-friendly constant names for all known EXIF parameter IDs.
• Provides generic functions for reading EXIF parameters: GetInt16, GetInt32, GetString, and GetRational, as well as GetPropertyInt16, GetPropertyInt32, GetPropertyString, and GetPropertyRational. They may be used to simplify the access to all EXIF data from your custom application.
• Provides a user-friendly abstraction layer for most of the common parameters, allowing easy work with EXIF data and their presentation to end users. The abstraction layer has been developed for presentation, so even if a value is not present, some data (in valid syntax) are provided. Either default values or values computed from other sources (i.e. shutter speed vs. exposure time) are provided. If you need exact data, use the generic functions instead.

The provided test application exread.exe shows working with the ExifWorks class.

Licensing

ExifReader/ExifWorks .NET library

Copyright (c) Michal A. Valášek - Altair Communícations, 2003-2006

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Lesser General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA.

The text of the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) is available online here.