Loss of metada in PSP vX4

[DigPeter]

In another application I apply Caption, Title and Keywords to my image files. This is held as both IPTC and XMP data integral to the file. After editing in vX4, this data vanishes. (Exif remains.) Is this normal?

[DigPeter]

Can any one throw some ligth on this? Are there any special settings that should be applied? In X1 there was not a problem with this.

[ToreB]

I have similar problems in PSP 2019. Metadata handling is very uncertain. When resaving a picture (jpg or png) after editing, some or all metadata often (but not always) are lost for good. This is very unfortunate to a degree that make PSP unusable for my purposes, and apparently this is a very old problem. When will this be fixed?

[ehume]

In the File > Save As... dialog, there is a button in the lower right corner marked 'Options...' Press that. In the window that pops up, in the top right there is a checkbox for Save EXIF Information. Make sure that is checked. Other than that, maybe a true expert knows.

[ToreB]

In the File > Save As... dialog, there is a button in the lower right corner marked 'Options...' Press that. In the window that pops up, in the top right there is a checkbox for Save EXIF Information. Make sure that is checked. Other than that, maybe a true expert knows.

Thanks for the advice
Unfortunately there is not such a checkbox in my PSP 2019??

[LeviFiction]

Not all file formats support the same options. The checkbox ehume is referring to is under JPG. PNG files do not have an EXIF area in their file format, they do have a TEXT area in the file format. And Adobe XMP is meant to assist with that. It's just plaintext XML so it can be placed inside PNG's TEXT field.

It's kind of a whole big thing, each file format has different ways of holding meta data (some, not at all) and it all depends on PSP's own support of each file format's options.

I don't personally know what all PSP does and does not support.

[ehume]

Now I am puzzled. Perhaps it is because I am using PSP 2018, but I cannot find a text storage area in PNG format.

[LeviFiction]

PNG supports it, but PSP doesn't directly support it. For example, if you are working with a PSPImage file that has been saving edit history, that edit history will be saved to a if you use SaveAs. However, If you create a new image and save directly to PNG or use PNG Optmiziation, then the history will not be saved to the TEXT area.

So, while PNG does support TEXT. PSP does not support the TEXT feature of PNG. Lots of fun.

[ehume]

PNG supports it, but PSP doesn't directly support it. For example, if you are working with a PSPImage file that has been saving edit history, that edit history will be saved to a if you use SaveAs. However, If you create a new image and save directly to PNG or use PNG Optmiziation, then the history will not be saved to the TEXT area.

So, while PNG does support TEXT. PSP does not support the TEXT feature of PNG. Lots of fun.

Thanks. It's a crazy situation, and you have explained it succinctly.
I used to put my chart images in png's because with Arial font they reproduced more readable text than jpg's. I published product pictures as jpg's because they took up the least room. Nice to know that PNG specs contain provisions for text. Now I'll go rooting through my other image editors to find one that saves PNG text directly.

[ToreB]

This must be a bug in PSP 2019. Software like ACDSee and ITag (freeware) both support the standard metadata formats EXIF (camera data) and IPTC (user data eg keywords, copyright etc). These programs, as well as other photo software like Affinity Photo also allow for the user to input data into the IPTC fields. PSP will SHOW this data, but does not allow the user to EDIT or INPUT data. That is all okay, if it were not that Paintshop Pro actually DELETES the data upon edit and resave.
Thus I loose all data that I have stored in my picture files, making PSP impossible to use for editing. Very sad!

[ToreB]

Having done some more testing, I can say that:

For jpg format pictures PSP both read and save EXIF data.
For png format pictures on the other hand, ALL exif data is stripped just by loading the picture into PSP. Aditionally PSP strips any EXIF data that has been entered when saving to PNG. In short PSP doesn't handle EXIF data for PNG files.

This means that loading a jpg with say cameradata written in its EXIF into PSP and then saving it as a png will erase all EXIF data, including camera info.
That must be considered a serious bug in a pro photo-handling program.

What is the procedure to report bugs in PSP?

[LeviFiction]

Not a bug in the sense of unintended consequence. This would be a feature request.

Can you upload one of your PNGs that supposedly have EXIF information? Again, PNG does not itself support EXIF data. It supports a "Text" field that can hold anything you tell it to. So I am curious how your other programs deal with the EXIF information.

[JoeB]

Having done some more testing, I can say that:

For jpg format pictures PSP both read and save EXIF data.
For png format pictures on the other hand, ALL exif data is stripped just by loading the picture into PSP. Aditionally PSP strips any EXIF data that has been entered when saving to PNG. In short PSP doesn't handle EXIF data for PNG files.

This means that loading a jpg with say cameradata written in its EXIF into PSP and then saving it as a png will erase all EXIF data, including camera info.
That must be considered a serious bug in a pro photo-handling program.

What is the procedure to report bugs in PSP?

Did you not read Levifiction's earlier post? He specifically told you that PNG format does NOT support EXIF data at all. The only way to save that data is to enter it as a text field with PNG save images. So why are you posting about the fact that PNG saves in PSP loses your EXIF data? You already know that because Levifiction told you that. Assuming, of course, that you have read all of the posts that have replied to your original post prior to this last post of yours, which doesn't appear - to me at least - to be the case.

[LeviFiction]

I have a potential solution, read to the bottom to see it.

I would assume because they are able to identify EXIF information in their PNGs using one of their other softwares. Which is why I wanted to see one of these PNGs. I want to understand what they are seeing. They believe their EXIF information is in the PNG for a reason. As I don't know anything about ACDSee, I would be fumbling around trying to get it to produce what I needed to test with. And they mentioned iTag.

Looking up iTAG it specifically mentions saving information in the XMP header of PNG files. XMP is just plain text XML. So XMP data can be stored in the tEXt field of a PNG file. And if it's this data that is removed from the PNG that would explain it. XMP stores IPTC/EXIF style information. So PNGs don't have an EXIF chunk, but EXIF data could be stored in the XMP.

The important thing here, is that PSP is not purposely deleting EXIF data from PNG. As PNGs do not have a dedicated chunk for EXIF data. Corel would need to add the functionality to recognize XMP data inside the PNG and support writing XMP data to PNGs. Which it kind of does and doesn't all at the same time.

Now. I have written PNG importing scripts in PSP before. So I have all of the base code necessary to save XMP data to a separate file when loading a PNG in. And then writing the XMP data back to the PNG after saving the file in PSP. It's a few extra clicks to get it to work. But, in order to test it. I need to see how your software is saving the data to the PNG to prove my theory correct.

[ToreB]

Screenshots of how "test_photo.png" looks in ACDSee and in Affinity Photo. The test photo itself is attached.
I store ALL my photos/pictures in .png as it is lossless and broadly recognized, so it is quite a setback for my to se all my picture info being corrupted/stripped, as I have begun to use PSP.