Geeqie Data Overlay Customisation

Geeqie is a great application for viewing photos.

 

Its easy to display photo data (e.g. EXIF) and even chose how & what you want to display.

So this post explains how to do it!

Overlay Screen Display (OSD)

This feature is enabled via menu View > Image Overlay > Image Overlay (enable)

When this feature is enabled, a viewed photo will display certain data about camera settings.

This example shows the Geeqie default configuration.

I don't find this layout very clear. I would prefer the data in a column, and I don't need the stuff in front of the file name.

Editing OSD Data

Start by editing the Image Overlay Template via menu Edit > Preferences... > OSD

First I removed everything from the first line except:-

<b>%name%</b>

I also put every data element on its own line:-

<b>%name%</b>
%Exif.Image.Make:15%
%Exif.Image.Model%
%formatted.ISOSpeedRating:ISO *%
%formatted.ShutterSpeed%
%formatted.Aperture%
%formatted.ExposureBias:* Ev%

I decided to restrict the "Make" of the camera to 15 characters, as some cameras have a very long name!

For the ISO setting, I wanted to add the text "ISO" at the start. This is achieved simply by adding "*" after "ISO "

For Ev I wanted the text after the setting, so the "*" goes in front of " Ev".

I don't need to know the actual lens type/model, but I would like to know the focal length:-

%formatted.FocalLength:Focal Length *%

Note that if a zoom lens is set to (say) 123mm, that will be the figure displayed.

As I find that depth of focus can be tricky when using a macro lens, I also add the focus distance (i.e. lens to subject ...if I got the focusing right!):-

%Exif.OlympusFi.FocusDistance:Focus Dist *%

Note that this is camera specific, so you will need to look at the full list of Exif, XMP & IPTC  tags supported by your camera. If any tags are not supported, the associated lines will not be included in the overlay display.

Finally I add White Balance, Exposure Mode and Metering Mode to my list of useful stuff.

So my template now looks like this:-

<b>%name%</b>
%Exif.Image.Make:15%
%Exif.Image.Model%
%formatted.ISOSpeedRating:ISO *%
%formatted.ShutterSpeed%
%formatted.Aperture%
%formatted.ExposureBias:* Ev%
%formatted.FocalLength:Focal Length *%
%Exif.OlympusFi.FocusDistance:Focus Dist *%
%Exif.Photo.WhiteBalance:* WB%
%Exif.Photo.ExposureMode:* Exposure%
%Exif.Photo.MeteringMode:* Metering%

...and my OSD now looks like this:-

 

Note: you may need to reload a photo for any changes to the Image Overlay Template to take affect.

I have also done a copy/paste into a text file to save these setting for future use.