EXIF editor

An EXIF editor is a photo editor or any digital photo software that will allow to edit or modify some of the EXIF infos of your Jpeg image files.

Most image viewers and photo editors that know about EXIF info have only EXIF viewer abilities.

If you want to modify the content of some EXIF fields, you need a software with EXIF editor abilities.

Some programs will let you modify a few EXIF fields like the comment field or the description field.

Many modern digital cameras save EXIF infos in the image file, when saving the photos in the JPEG file format or in the TIFF file format. The EXIF info contains information about the photo and the settings of the camera when the photo was taken.

E.g. the shutter speed or exposure time, the aperture, the focal length, if the flash light has been fired or not etc...

I am still looking for a convenient, easy to use, photo viewer software with extended EXIF editor ability. Not one that let you just modify the comment field only. If I find a "jewel", I will mention it on this page.

Command Line Tools

EXIFutils is a set of tools that will let you modify quite any EXIF field, probably the most complete EXIF editor tools you can find. But they are command line tools and thus it is not very comfortable for most users, especially those who are not used to work in DOS like environments.
EXIFutils for Windows (DOS box) | EXIFutils for Linux | EXIFutils for MacOS X

The most important advantage of EXIFutils is that it comes with a very, very detailed description of all EXIF fields thinkable of (and believe me, they are nearly countless).

Here is a short overview of the EXIF field categories they describe.

The main IFD fields
(comment, size, description, camera make, etc...)

The sub IFD fields
(exposure, aperture, metering, light source, etc...)

The GPS IFD fields
(Satellite Global Positioning System),

The IPTC fields
(essentially used for news photos)

The maker notes
i.e. many digital camera manufacturers specific fields
(Canon, Casio, Fuji, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus)

ExifTool is a free command line tool that is able to read and write EXIF fields and much more. It is accompanied by a very detailed documentation about all kind of metadata that you can find in image files, video files and audio files. it reads EXIF, GPS, IPTC, XMP, JFIF, MakerNotes, GeoTIFF, ICC Profile, Photoshop IRB, FlashPix, AFCP and ID3 and more... It writes EXIF, GPS, IPTC, XMP, JFIF, MakerNotes, ICC Profile, Photoshop IRB, AFCP and more...

ExifTool is able to write to all image files in a given folder (directory) in a batch process, at once.

ExifTool is written in Perl and therefore it is platform independent. You can use it with Linux, Mac and Windblows.

GUI Tools

Exifer, a photo editing center with EXIF editor abilities.

I call it a photo editing center because starting out from Exifer, it is very convenient to backup EXIF data, then to work on photos with your photo editor of choice and to recover the exif data afterwards. This allows you to use the photo editor that you prefer for the image modification you want to perform, whether it keeps the EXIF data or not.

Exifer lets you edit or modify the EXIF fields Description, Author, Copyright and Comment, as well as the 3 dates, Date taken, Date digitized, Date modified even in a batch process. Furthermore, Exifer lets you edit more than 30 IPTC EXIF fields. Of course it has EXIF backup and restore functions, can generate an EXIF preview (thumbnail) and can update the EXIF image size values.
More at my personal pros and cons list.

Zoner Photo Studio, a photo viewer and editor with some good EXIF editor abilities.

It is a user friendly photo viewer, album and photo editor that let you edit or modify the EXIF fields Author, Title, Copyright, Description, Time/date created, Time/date digitized, ISO, Exposure time, Aperture, IPTC fields, even in a batch process. It will also allow you to add keywords to your EXIF metadata and to link your photo to an external audio file. It has very usefull EXIF backup and restore functions, can fix bad EXIF marker positions and generate an EXIF preview (thumbnail).
More at my personal pros and cons list.

PowerExif is an EXIF editor that let you modify any EXIF field.

It is likely the only GUI-tool (graphical user interface tool as opposed to command line tools) that let you edit any EXIF field. It is not the jewel I described above, but could became it if able to be integrated easily in your prefered photo viewer or editor. All EXIF fields can be edited.

As I wrote above, I am regularly searching for the hidden jewel, ideally a super user friendly photo viewer with a really extended EXIF editor ability and that possibly could run a batch. If I find that worthy EXIF editor software, you will read about it on this page.

If you are a hobby photographer who likes to keep track of values like aperture, exposure time, focal length, etc... and would like to add your description, author or copyright mention into the EXIF metadata you will appreciate the benefit of software with EXIF editor abilities.

I recommend you to read the following related pages:
the EXIF viewer page and
the keeping EXIF tags page telling what photo editors really keep when you work on photos.