Hi Andrew, I can read IPTC placed in a file created in Photoshop 7 in version 5.5 of Photoshop as (I think) Photoshop writes the same data to the new XML and older 8BIM IPTC sections. The is a closely related problem though, as I discovered recently.
I'm working on an application to inject IPTC into thousands of existing JPG files using a simple VB program to read a metadata export from an excel spreadsheet and inject it into the files using a Graphics Magic module. I have come across a similar problem to yours and its this. If I inject IPTC using the 8BIMTEXT method in GM into files created with Photoshop 5.5 and 6 then the IPTC is visible in versions of 5.5, 6 and 7 of Photoshop. If I inject IPTC into files created in Photoshop 7 then the IPTC is visible in 5.5 and 6 - but not 7! The reason I believe for this behaviour is that Adobe looks to have transferred the IPTC part to the new XML section of their file structure (added by Photoshop 7 to the image header). If Photoshop 7 finds an XML section in an image file it will only read the IPTC data from this section and ignore the IPTC data in the traditional 8BIM section. If however Photoshop 7 does not find an XML section it will read the IPTC data from the old 8BIM section and display it. Its therefore possible to add IPTC data to a Photoshop 7 file in another application and for Photoshop 7 not to display it if there is separate (and possibly different) data in the XML section - even if the fields are blank!. The standard in use here (IPTC) is the one that's defined in terms of [section] : [contents], how the actual data is placed into the file seems to be open for variation, I would imagine (I don't know for sure) that Adobe worked out how they would do it and then everyone else copied the structure, with Photoshop 7 they have shifted the goal posts a little. If I can find a way of deleting the XML section from version 7 files I could inject the IPTC fine as Photoshop 7 would use the legacy method to display the data, I have tried just deleting the XML in the file but that doesn't work because the data offsets in the file are not updated and the file appears corrupt. If anyone knows how to get round this I would be very grateful. By the way I know a workaround for this is to batch resave in version 6 of Photoshop the files created in version 7 but I don't want to do this as it will re jpeg the files and I want to use the lossless method of IPTC injection GM offers. Stephen Johnson ----- Original Message ----- > Does anyone else have clients who can't read the captions in > Photoshop 7 File Info? I've never experienced it myself because - > well, because I use Photoshop 7. But I'm told newspapers & magazines > using previous versions of Photoshop, or other picture management > software, just can't read it. =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
