Displaying and editing XMP metadata
XMP metadata can be displayed and edited in the File Info or Document Properties panel in Acrobat (File, Properties..., Additional metadata...), Photoshop, InDesign, and other Adobe applications. This panel displays predefined properties in a user-friendly way and provides editable fields where users can add or modify property values.
XMP metadata from schemas outside the set of predefined XMP schemas will be displayed in a tree-like structure (in the Advanced section) which is inconvenient to read (users must deal with cryptic namespaces, etc.), and does not allow any user input or editing.
In order to improve metadata display and editing, Adobe applications support a concept called »Custom File Info Panel«. Using a description language which is supported in several Adobe applications, a custom user interface can be tailored to match one or more metadata schemas. Custom File Info Panels and the panel description language are detailed on the Adobe Web site. Custom XMP panels can be used in Acrobat, Adobe Bridge, and other Creative Suite applications.
Free XMP Panel for PDF-related ISO standards
As an example for Custom File Info Panels, PDFlib GmbH makes available a panel description for free download. This panel provides a user-friendly display for several published and planned PDF-related ISO standards which require standard conformance identification in XMP. If the XMP metadata stream in a PDF document contains an identification entry for PDF/A (ISO 19005), PDF/X-4 (ISO 15930-7), PDF/X-5 (ISO 15930-8), or the forthcoming ISO standard PDF/E (ISO 24517-1), the panel will display the relevant standard identification(s) in cleartext. These fields are not editable since the standards conformance of a document cannot be changed by simply modifying the identification entry. Note that the standards are compatible to each other, so more than one entry can be filled, e.g. for a document which conforms to PDF/A and PDF/E at the same time.
How to use it: download the ISO panel description file and copy it to one of the locations below to make it usable with Acrobat 7 or 8 Standard and Professional (note that XMP display is not supported in Adobe Reader).
To make the panel available to all users on a computer:
Mac OS X: {Root Volume}/Library/Application Support/Adobe/XMP/Custom File Info Panel
Windows: \Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\XMP\Custom File Info Panels
This path must be adjusted on non-English Windows systems, e.g. on a German system:
\Programme\Gemeinsame Dateien\Adobe\XMP\Custom File Info Panels
To make the panel available to a particular user account:
Mac OS X: {Home Directory}/Library/Preferences/Adobe/Custom File Info Panels
Windows: \Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Adobe\XMP\Custom File Info Panels
This path must be adjusted on non-English Windows systems, e.g. on a German system:
\Dokumente und Einstellungen\<user>\Anwendungsdaten\Adobe\XMP\Custom File Info Panels
The screenshot below shows the panel for a PDF document which conforms to the PDF/A-1b standard.
Other free XMP panels
In order to get some ideas what custom XMP panels can be used for, and to get you jump-started with your own custom panel description we provide several examples of custom XMP panels. They have been published by various organizations and vendors who deal with digital documents.
PDFlib GmbH makes available a sample XMP panel for a ficticious Engineering schema. This schema contains entries which are supposed to describe scanned engineering documents. The corresponding PDF/A extension schema container schema is also available.
Microsoft Expression Media is an asset management tool. Microsoft provides an XMP panel with fields describing the event and people related to a digital image, as well as other fields useful for cataloging digital images.
Extensis Portfolio is a digital asset management software package. It supports customizable metadata fields which can be viewed and edited by a set of custom XMP panels containing metadata fields for digital photography, stock photography, and general production/workflow information.
IPTC, a news industry consortium, makes available the IPTC Core for XMP. This XMP panel describes content and scene information for an image, photographer contact, as well as workflow and copyright information.
BAPLA, the British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies, provides the BAPLA/pic4press panel for image description, publishing and licensing information.
The Ghent PDF Workgroup (GWG), an industry association which establishes best practises in the graphic arts industry, published the Ghent PDF Workgroup Ad Ticket which can be used to insert advertisement metadata in PDF documents.
Creative Commons, a non-profit organization which provides licensing alternatives somewhere in the middle between full copyright and public domain, publishes an XMP panel for adding licensing and copyright information to digital documents.
Getty Images, "the world’s leading creator and distributor of visual content and other digital media", publishes an XMP panel for adding image and photographer information to digital media.