Specifications

• Locate the primary embedded XMP packet and parse it into an XMP object model; if there is
no XMP packet start with an empty XMP object model.
• Read the appropriate binary EXIF and IPTC tags, if present and merge their values into the
XMP object model as the equivalent XMP properties.
• Offer access to the resulting unified XMP object model.
For supported file formats, when saving changes for a writable embedded dataset, Switch performs
these steps:
• If any changes were made to the dataset as compared to the original XMP packet, save the
complete unified XMP information in an updated or inserted XMP packet.
• If changes were made to one or more synchronized properties that are "user-editable",
update or insert the corresponding binary EXIF or IPTC tags. Properties that reflect characteristics
of the image (and thus should never be edited by a user) are not updated in the binary tags.
Image data synchronization
As indicated in the table, for some file formats Switch retrieves basic information about the
image from the image data itself and writes this information to the appropriate fields in the
XMP packet. This ensures that the following fields are always present for these formats:
XMP location pathVariable name
photoshop:ColorModeImage.ColorMode
photoshop:ICCProfileImage.ICCProfile
tiff:SamplesPerPixelImage.SamplesPerPixel
exif:ColorSpacePhoto.ColorSpace
exif:PixelXDimensionPhoto.PixelXDimension
exif:PixelYDimensionPhoto.PixelYDimension
Locating the backing file
The backing file for an embedded dataset is determined as follows:
• If the job is an individual file, use it as the backing file.
• Otherwise if the job folder immediately contains a single Adobe InDesign file (that is, at the
uppermost level), use that InDesign file as the backing file.
• Otherwise use the job folder path for the backing file and return an empty read-only dataset.
External metadata
Switch offers substantial support for importing, exporting, transforming and using metadata
through a combination of:
• Standard tools for picking up and exporting metadata associated with a job.
• Complete access to metadata from the Switch scripting environment.
For example, using simple script expressions you can route a job and set its processing parameters
based on metadata provided with the job.
Also see metadata overview.
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