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1 <!DOCTYPE html>
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2 <html>
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3 <head>
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4 <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
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5 <title>Introducing ExifWasher</title>
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6 <style>
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7 html { font-family: "TeX Gyre Schola", serif; }
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8 h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 { font-family: "Avenir Next", sans-serif; }
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9 pre, code, kbd, samp { font-family: "Menlo", monospace; font-size: 85%; }
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10 </style>
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11 </head>
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12 <body>
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13 <h1>Indroducing ExifWasher</h1>
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14 <h2>Executive Summary</h2>
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15 <p>This program makes it easy to remove metadata from the digital images you
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16 create.</p>
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17 <h2>What is “Metadata” and Why Would I Want to Remove It?</h2>
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18 <p>You may not realize it, but image files can (and typically do!) contain
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19 more than just image data. These data can include your camera make, model,
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20 and serial number; the location where you took the photo; the software you
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21 used to edit the photo (and what editing steps you did); etc.</p>
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22 <p>One of the most powerful uses of photography is to graphically document
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23 things that the wealthy and powerful might wish to remain concealed. The
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24 evils of slavery, child labor, poverty, war, and imperialism have all been
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25 documented photographically, and such photographs have often proved
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26 instrumental in helping to motivate social change.</p>
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27 <p>Because of the metadata they contain, digital photographs contain data
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28 which has been used to determine who took them, and in some cases to exact
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29 retribution against their photographers. ExifWasher makes it easy to see
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30 and remove the privacy-compromising metadata in your images.</p>
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31 <p>Even if your images are not of such a sensitive nature, that extra data
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32 takes up space. It is not uncommon for a 100 KiB image to contain 20 KiB
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33 of metadata in it; if that image is on a web page, that makes for 20 KiB
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34 of wasted network usage each time the image is sent.</p>
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35 <h2>What Makes ExifWasher Different from Other Metadata Editors?</h2>
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36 <p>Simply put, it is designed to <em>safely</em> remove <em>unimportant</em>
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37 metadata.</p>
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38 <p>There are plenty of general-purpose image metadata editors out there, and
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39 these tools can be employed to remove unimportant metadata. The trouble
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40 is, they are not user-friendly: it is up to you, the user, to know which
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41 metadata are unimportant, and to delete it.</p>
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42 <p>There can be literally <em>hundreds</em> of bits of metadata in an
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43 image, and <em>not all are safe to remove</em>. In particular, if you
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44 accidentally remove color-management metadata, computers that don’t handle
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45 images without color-management metadata properly (I’m talking about <em>you</em>,
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46 Apple Computer, Inc.) will display colors that often look all “washed-out”
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47 or otherwise incorrect.</p>
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48 <p>Likewise, there are already plenty of simple-to-use, user-friendly tools
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49 out there for cleaning the metadata out of image files, but they
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50 inevitably delete <em>all</em> metadata, resulting in files that often
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51 display improperly. Also of concern, many of these “tools” are actually
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52 online services. If you’re concerned about your privacy, why would you
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53 trust the images you’re processing to some unknown third party, who may be
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54 linked somehow to those who might want to retaliate against you.</p>
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55 <p>I wrote this program because I wanted there to be a quick, easy way to
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56 scrub images before they even left a photographer’s computer and made
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57 their way onto the Internet, and for that program to leave vital metadata
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58 alone, so that the resulting images continue to display properly.</p>
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59 <h2>ExifWasher Washes More than Just Exif Metadata</h2>
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60 <p>Exif is the most common type of metadata, but image files commonly
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61 contain compromising XMP or IPTC data, particularly if they have been
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62 edited with a tool like Photoshop. ExifWasher will seamlessly deal with
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63 these kinds of metadata, too. It tries to do as thorough a job as possible
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64 of scrubbing possibly compromising metadata from your images.</p>
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65 <h2>Using ExifWasher</h2>
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66 <p>Just double-click on the ExifWasher icon and a main window should open
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67 up. Either choose the File… Wash from the menu bar, or just drag image
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68 files onto the main ExifWasher image.</p>
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69 <p>When ExifWasher opens an image, it displays all the metadata it finds.
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70 That metadata will be run through an internal whitelist, and any data
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71 whose “key” is not found on the whitelist will be automatically selected
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72 for deletion.</p>
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73 <p>If you disagree with ExifWasher’s decisions, you can check or uncheck the
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74 boxes next to the metadata in question. When you are satisfied with the
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75 choice of metadata to be scrubbed, click “Wash” and all offending metadata
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76 will be removed. A dialog will pop up showing the metadata remaining in
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77 the new, washed file.</p>
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78 <h2>Output Files</h2>
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79 <p>ExifWasher never modifies an existing image file. Instead, it creates a
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80 new file of the same type but with “_washed” appended to its name. For
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81 example, processing <code>foo.jpg</code> will create <code>foo_washed.jpg</code>.
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82 By default, the new file will be created in the same directory as the file
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83 being washed.</p>
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84 <h2>ExifWasher is Configurable</h2>
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85 <p>Both the whitelist and the destination directory for the washed files are
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86 user-configurable in the Preferences menu.</p>
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87 <h3>Configuring the Whitelist</h3>
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88 <p>There are two kinds of whitelist entries: those that match an entire
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89 metadata key, and those that match a key prefix. The latter end in an
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90 asterisk. The whitelist is case-sensitive; i.e. the entry <code>exif.image.colormap</code>
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91 <em>will not</em> match the <code>Exif.Image.ColorMap</code> key.</p>
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92 </body>
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93 </html>
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