Image Metadata Extractor
This utility extracts EXIF metadata from images using the Pillow library. It decodes standard EXIF tags (like Camera Model, DateTime, ISO) into human-readable format.
Modules Used:
Installation
pip install PillowThe Code
Save this as metadata.py.
from PIL import Image, ExifTags
import argparse
import sys
def extract_metadata(image_path):
try:
img = Image.open(image_path)
# getexif() returns a dictionary of tag IDs and values
exif_data = img.getexif()
if not exif_data:
print(f"No EXIF metadata found in {image_path}")
return
print(f"Metadata for {image_path}:")
print("-" * 40)
for tag_id in exif_data:
# Get the human-readable tag name from the ID
tag = ExifTags.TAGS.get(tag_id, tag_id)
data = exif_data.get(tag_id)
# Decode bytes to string if possible for cleaner output
if isinstance(data, bytes):
try:
data = data.decode()
except:
pass # Keep as bytes if decode fails
print(f"{tag:25}: {data}")
except IOError:
print(f"Error: Could not open image file {image_path}")
except Exception as e:
print(f"Error: {e}")
if __name__ == "__main__":
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="Image Metadata Extractor")
parser.add_argument("image", help="Path to the image file")
args = parser.parse_args()
extract_metadata(args.image)Usage
python metadata.py photo.jpg