Descriptions not showing

Post your questions, bug reports and feature requests here
Post Reply
iain_j
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Jan 08, 2015 8:10 pm

Descriptions not showing

Post by iain_j »

I'm using the trial version of gPhotoShow Pro, and have set it up to display the filename and IPTC description. The filename does display on each picture in the screensaver, but the description only shows on "panoramic" photos, ie. where the photo doesn't reach the top and bottom of the screen - on the "normal" photos which fill the whole screen, the description doesn't show? All the photos in the folder I've selected do have descriptions (added in Picasa, and double-checked in PhotoME), and apart from selecting a folder, and ticking these two boxes for filename and description, I've not altered any settings since installing. If I tick any other details to display (eg. camera name), these are displayed, just not the descriptions.
User avatar
gpb
Site Admin
Posts: 761
Joined: Mon Dec 19, 2011 1:23 am

Re: Descriptions not showing

Post by gpb »

It's hard to say why description is not displayed. When you tick the option Description inside the box Iptc-XMP gPhotoShow tries to find first xmp:dc:description and if not found it tries to get iptc:caption
If xmp:dc:caption is present but empty it is possible you get no description. Another common issue is that sometimes the description is not stored in the iptc:caption field but in exif:description or jpeg comment.
One thing you could try is to switch to Advanced info display and enter in the header (or footer):
[Iptc.Caption]

In this way gPhotoShow only gets that tag and nothing else. If nothing is displayed you could try to add other fields.
Gianpaolo Bottin
gPhotoShow.com
iain_j
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Jan 08, 2015 8:10 pm

Re: Descriptions not showing

Post by iain_j »

Been playing about with it. Still had the same issue using [Iptc.Caption]. Tried adding captions in Windows Photo Gallery and found they would display with [.Description] - but again only on panoramic photos, not on full-screen photos. Other tags - eg. [.ExifCamera] and [.ExifExposure] - displayed regardless.

Then I stumbled on something: I'd done some basic editing (cropping, rotating, curves) on all the photos in that folder in Gimp, so I tried putting captions on photos in a folder I hadn't got round to editing yet. Hey presto, gPhotoShow displayed the descriptions! I wonder if Gimp is corrupting the descriptions or changing them somehow? But the captions on the edited photos still show OK in Picasa and PhotoME.
iain_j
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Jan 08, 2015 8:10 pm

Re: Descriptions not showing

Post by iain_j »

Further to that... I only added the captions / descriptions (in Picasa or Windows Photo Gallery) after editing in Gimp so I don't think Gimp is corrupting them. But un-Gimped photos *do* have their descriptions displayed in gPhotoShow. Confused :/
User avatar
gpb
Site Admin
Posts: 761
Joined: Mon Dec 19, 2011 1:23 am

Re: Descriptions not showing

Post by gpb »

It's not unusual that editing pictures with different programs causes problems with exif/iptc tags. This kind of issue happened rather often several years ago but with new software coming out this kind of report stopped.
The library used by gPhotoShow to read iptc/xmp tags is the same used by Windows Explorer and Windows Photo Gallery so if they can read those tags also gPhotoShow can. Anyway the best thing is you send me one of those problematic pictures via http://www.wetransfer.com or a similar service, I will take a look at the issue.
You can send me the link to you picture with PM or a message from the Contacs Us form
Gianpaolo Bottin
gPhotoShow.com
Post Reply