What is the best metadata field for picture TITLE?

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Kirby Krieger Author

Level 6

12,542 points

What is the best metadata field for picture TITLE?

Hi -- as stated: what is the best metadata field to use to hold the title of a picture?

I've been using the IPTC field "Title", but:

- I think this is actually used for a person's job title, not the title of a picture, and

- I can't get it to show up in BorderFX (though it does show in Images exported and viewed in Preview)

"Caption" and "Headline" seem to be obvious choices. I'm looking for something is widely used, so that the titles I give my pictures will stay with them and be available to other programs and users after I export the Images from Aperture.

Thanks for you advice!

Kirby.

MacBook Pro 13, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 8 G / 500 G internal / 5 TB external / NEC 2490 / ColorMunki Pho

Posted on Sep 20, 2011 4:36 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Frank Caggiano

Level 7

25,899 points

Sep 20, 2011 5:16 PM in response to Kirby Krieger

Have you seen this document: IPTC Core and Extension User Guide?

There is also Metadata are critical to photo business which is where I found the above document. They might have some ideas.

Headline seems to be what they use.

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Answer 2

Sep 20, 2011 5:48 PM in response to Frank Caggiano

Correcting myself. After reading the User Guide it appears that the title does go in the Title field, imagine that.

IPTC Core Status section

Title

This field can be used as a shorthand reference for the image or “photograph” — primarily for identification. The title of an image should be a short, human-readable name — text and/or numeric reference —and may take several forms; for photographers this might be the filename of their original scan or digital camera file, for news organizations it might be the name of the story for which it’s to be used. (Note that there are new terms in the IPTC Extension which can also be used as image ID’s, if you are concerned about this field being overwritten later in the workflow). The Title term should not be confused with the Headline term, which is a short synopsis of the content of the photograph. There is a button in the panel which can be used to add the current file name to the Title field; however this will not work with a selection of images.

IPTC Core Content section

Headline

A headline is a brief publishable synopsis or summary of the contents of the photograph. Like a news story, the Headline should grab attention, and telegraph the content of the image to the audience. Headlines need to be succinct. Leave the supporting narrative for the Description field. Do not, however, confuse the Headline term with the Title term.

(emphasis added)

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Answer 3

Kirby Krieger Author

Level 6

12,542 points

Sep 20, 2011 7:05 PM in response to Frank Caggiano

Frank -- thanks. "Title" it is, then.

Problem is that (for me at least) BorderFX doesn't read the IPTC "Title" field.

Fwiw, I frequently create "cards" from photographs for posting on-line and sending via email. My pictures are watermarked (very lightly), and I use the border of the card to show a copyright notice with year, and a title. It would be helpful to have BorderFX pick up the IPTC "Title" field, or to put my titles in a field that BorderFX reads.

I'll send a comment/request to the developer.

Thanks again for the links and your time. 😉

A sample (and, also fwiw, note the improper kerning of the text taken from a metadata field {I put the title in the "Headline" field and used it}):