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- edjpgcom is a free Windows application that allows you to change (or
- add) a JPEG commment in a JPEG file. That's all it does. All other
- fields in a JFIF or Exif file are left untouched. It even keeps the
- filesystem timestamp! It's based on the rdjpgcom and wrjpgcom
- utilities from the Independent JPEG Group's 6b distribution. (Heck,
- it's essentially these two programs combined with a basic dialog
- control.)
-
- Installation:
- -------------
-
- Copy the executable egjpgcom.exe someplace convenient. It's
- completely self contained and uses no registry entries.
-
- Usage:
- ------
- edjpgcom "filename.jpg"
-
- The quotes around the filename are *required* (Don't ask.)
-
- A dialog will popup. The text area will contain any existing comment
- text. You can cut and paste using the usual Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V,
- Ctrl-X. If you press OK, this text will be added to your file and a
- backup file will be created with the same name as your file but with a
- ".bak" added. If you don't want this backup file, check the 'Delete
- Backup?' checkbox. Of course pressing Cancel will exit without doing
- anything.
-
- If you want to delete a comment, just delete all the comment text.
- Edjpgcom will then delete the comment section.
-
- Now I don't really expect this program to be used from the command
- line. Instead, I assume that you will add it to either the external
- programs list of another editing/managment program OR add it to the
- context menu for JPEG files in windows.
-
- NOTE: Changing file associations akin to editing your registry.
- Be careful and be sure you know how to undo anything you might
- have done.
-
- For example, in Windows 98:
- * open Windows Explorer
- * View -> Folder Options
- * select the "File Types" tab
- * Find and select the JPG file type(s)
- NOTE: Sometimes you may not be able to find the JPG File types
- If this happens see below.
- * press the "Edit" button
- * press the "New" button
- * for the "Action:" enter
- Comment
- * for the "Application used..." enter
- "c:\full\path\to\edjpgcom.exe" "%1"
- where the quotes are important (if you do not use quotes around the
- program path name, Windows may assume only short filenames can be
- passed to the program) and replacing c:\full\path\to with the correct
- directory path where you put the executable.
-
- Now "Comment" should appear when you right-click on a JPEG file. This
- works well in combination with "View as webpage" or "Thumbnails".
-
- In Win2k, the procedure is the same except you get to the
- add action dialog this way:
- * Open "Windows NT Explorer"
- * Tools -> Folder Options
- * select the "File Types" tab
- * Find and select the JPG file type(s)
- * press the "Advanced" button
-
-
- NOTE: Sometimes you may not be able to find the file type associated
- with .jpg files. This usually happens after several programs have reset
- your file associations. I use an utility from PC Mag called
- "Freedom of Association" to reassign the .jpg extension to a registered type.
-
- Another alternative is to add a shortcut to egjpgcom.exe to your Windows
- "Send To" directory. You can then send a file to edjpgcom. It will politely
- refuse to handle a non-jpeg file.
-
- If you use ThumbsPlus to manage your photos (highly recommended), you can add
- edjpgcom as an external program using the following steps:
- * Right-click on the tool bar to bring up the customization window
- * Press the "External Programs" button
- * Enter the full pathname to edjpgcom.exe in the Program box.
- * Make sure the "Short Names", "multiple files" and DDE are NOT checked.
-
- Now you will have an icon on your toolbar and a menu item on the right-click
- popup window for image files.
-
-
- Template File
- -------------
- If the environment variable EDJPGCOM_TEMPLATE exists and points to a readable
- file, then the contents of this file will be used as the default comment when
- adding a comment to a file that does not already have one.
-
-
- License:
- --------
- Permission to use this software for any purpose, without fee, is
- hereby granted. THIS SOFTWARE IS BEING PROVIDED AS IS, without any
- express or implied warranty.
-
- If you like it send me one of your photos (email or a postcard) at:
-
- edjpgcom@yahoo.com
- Erik Magnuson
- 7490 Windover Way
- Titusville, FL 32780
-
- Send comments/bug reports to edjpgcom@yahoo.com.
-
- How it works:
- -------------
- When egjpgcom starts, it opens the file, extracts the comments and
- then closes the file again. When you press OK, it creates a temporary
- file with the same path and filename as the original, but with an
- random 3 digit extension instead of ".jpg". It then copies the header
- data from the original file, the new comment, and the rest of the
- original file to this temporary file. It closes the temp file and
- attempts to rename the original file to ".bak". If this succeeds, it
- will rename the temporary file to have the original filename. Last, it
- deletes the backup file if that options is selected.
-
- What this means is that if egjpgcom should crash for any reason, you
- should still have your original file (unless you deleted it!). You
- might have to clean up a .nnn file but that's it.
-
- It's been tested on Win2k, NT 4.0 SP5, Win95a, Win98, and Win98SE.
-
-
- Limitations:
- ------------
- * The egjpgcom program itself only supports a single filename as
- input. However, if multiple files are selected and "Add Comments"
- context menu is chosen, multiple copies of egjpgcom will be
- started. Hopefully, the filename in the title bar will help you figure
- out which is which.
-
- * While a JPEG comment field can up to 64k chars, edjpegcom is limited
- to 32000 characters by the Win32 edit dialog.
-
- * egjpgcom uses the DOS/Windows CRLF convention for line
- terminators. It will convert any plain CR or LF to a CRLF pair.
-
- * edjpgcom has not been tested with multiple COM sections in a single file.
-
- * edjpgcom does not get any comment data from other comment fields like
- Photoshop FileInfo (IPTC/NAA subset)
- Exif ImageDescription
- Exif UserComment
-
- * Error messages are primitive.
-
- Credits:
- --------
- This software is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group.
- Thanks to Jacob Navia for lcc-win32.
- rec.photo.digital for all the information.
-
- History:
- --------
- 17 Feb 2001 v0.1 foisted upon an indifferent world
- 19 Feb 2001 v0.2 Fixed Win9x file creation timestamp (well, it worked on Win2k!)
- 10 Apr 2001 v0.3 Deletes comment section if empty comment entered
- Does not write file is comment text unchanged and "OK" pressed.
- Added a simple program icon.
- 19 Dec 2001 v0.4 Larger dialog box size
- Defaults to delete backup
- Optional template file if empty comment block.
-