MetaView

MetaView is a modern, user-friendly application for viewing and editing image metadata. It supports advanced features like geocoding, weather lookup, and 3D Earth visualization, making it a powerful tool for photographers, archivists, and anyone working with digital images.

Table of Contents

• Features
• Installation
• Usage
• Metadata Categories
• Weather & Location Features
• 3D Earth Visualization
• Development & Testing
• License
• Acknowledgements

Features

• Comprehensive Metadata Display: View all metadata embedded in your images, organized by logical categories.
• In-place Metadata Editing: Edit most metadata fields directly with a double-click.
• Geocoding: Automatically converts GPS coordinates to readable city, region, and country names.
• Weather Lookup: Fetches historical or forecast weather for the photo's time and location.
• Image Preview: See a thumbnail of your image alongside its metadata.
• 3D Earth Visualization: Visualize the photo's location on a 3D globe.
• Change Tracking: Only modified values are written back to the image file.
• Cross-platform: Runs on Linux and macOS (Windows support may be limited).
• Modern GUI: Built with PyQt5 for a responsive and intuitive interface.

Installation

Requirements

• Python 3.8–3.14
• ExifTool (must be installed on your system)

Install MetaView

From PyPI:

pip install metaview

Install ExifTool

Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt install exiftool

Fedora:

sudo dnf install perl-Image-ExifTool

macOS (Homebrew):

brew install exiftool

Usage

Launching MetaView

To start the application:

python -m metaview

To open a specific image directly:

python -m metaview /path/to/image.jpg

Using the Interface

1. Open an Image:

   • Use File → Open or press Ctrl+O to select an image.

2. View Metadata:

   • Metadata is organized into tabs by category.
   • Scroll through each tab to explore different fields.

3. Edit Metadata:

   • Double-click on any editable value to modify it.
   • Press Enter to save the change.
   • Read-only fields (e.g., file name, image size) cannot be edited.

4. Save Changes:

   • Use File → Save or press Ctrl+S to write changes to the image.
   • Use File → Save to to save metadata to another file.

5. Delete Metadata:

   • Use File → Delete Metadata to remove all metadata from the image.

Metadata Categories

MetaView organizes metadata into logical groups, including:

• General: File name, type, size, permissions, etc.
• Camera: Manufacturer, model, lens, shooting mode, etc.
• Exposure: ISO, exposure time, aperture, white balance, etc.
• Image Processing: Software, color space, compression, etc.
• Date & Time: Original date/time, modification date, etc.
• Author & Rights: Artist, copyright, source, etc.
• Location: GPS coordinates, altitude, direction, etc.
• Editing History: Software and actions used to edit the image.
• XMP & IPTC: Advanced metadata standards.
• Advanced/Technical: Exif version, orientation, color components, etc.

Weather & Location Features

• Geocoding:
  Converts GPS coordinates to city, region, and country using reverse geocoding.

• Weather Lookup:
  Fetches weather conditions (temperature, description, icon) for the photo's time and location using the Open-Meteo API.

  • If the photo is older than 7 days, historical weather is shown.
  • Otherwise, forecast data is used.

3D Earth Visualization

MetaView can display the photo's location on a 3D globe using VisPy.

• The globe is textured with a realistic Earth map.
• The photo's location is marked in red.
• You can rotate and zoom the globe using mouse controls.

License

MetaView is licensed under the GPL-3.0 License.

Acknowledgements

• ExifTool by Phil Harvey
• Open-Meteo for weather data
• Reverse Geocoder
• VisPy for 3D visualization
• PyQt5
• imageio
• country_converter