2 Correct answers
#target photoshop
removeXMP();
function removeXMP(){
if(!documents.length) return;
if (ExternalObject.AdobeXMPScript == undefined) ExternalObject.AdobeXMPScript = new ExternalObject("lib:AdobeXMPScript");
var xmp = new XMPMeta( activeDocument.xmpMetadata.rawData);
XMPUtils.removeProperties(xmp, "", "", XMPConst.REMOVE_ALL_PROPERTIES);
app.activeDocument.xmpMetadata.rawData = xmp.serialize();
}
As previously mentioned, this can (mostly) be performed using an action, duplicating the layers to a new file. With conditional actions it can gracefully handle a flattened file.
This is performed by duplicating the layers to a new file. NOTE: Paths, alpha channels, guides, colour samplers and other document-level objects will not carry over to the new file (which may be a good thing if this is for a client, they usually don’t require your intermediate “workings”, you are just supplying a la
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Save for web can strip metadata like that. Adobe Photoshop scripting may treat EXIF metadata as read only. I never tried to change any Camera metadata its easy to strip. I think I may have tried to change some EXIF Date taken information one ti,e because the date was set wrong in my Camera. I believe I was not able to or I found an EXIF utility that could change the date a relative number of days so I did not have to script that. The Script I have that process EXIF metadata only read the data. I found lens information was in Adobe Aux metadata I believe the was create by ACR use RAW Files camera maker metadata, the Actual lens was not in EXIF data just the focal length used was. Save For web can strip all metadata or preserve some metadata like copyright information.
Hello Stephen!
Now THIS is really what I was looking for!
It's been about 2 years since all my Indesign files suddenly got HUGE, even if my PSDs were small. One thing I realized after reading this topic is that most of the problems came from files I got from other clients, generally on PCs (I'm on a Mac). So, as a former programmer, I imagined that the Metadata inserted on the files via PC got scrambled OR were misread by Indesign on my Mac, resulting in this massive increase in size. For example, my INDD files used to be around 5 to 10Mb... since the problem started, they went up to 80, 100, 140Mb each! And since I use Google Drive for automated sync, that became a major PAIN!
So, after investigating ExifTool with a programmer friend, we came to the following result - which is PERFECT for me:
Using Automator on my Mac, I started creating a new QUICK ACTION - which is a command that is accessible through the finder itself, right clicking on the files/folders you choose (yes, you can select several, even a folder - in which only the supported files will be processed).
Then, we came to the following configuration for the QUICK ACTION:
- First, select the "Files or Folders" in "Finder.app" (please ignore the "Mail.app", that was included by mistake hahaha)
- Next, search and add the "Run Shell Script" step.
- Now here comes the MAIN THING: you MUST change the "Pass input" to "as arguments" - that way it's possible to have all files/folders come in after the exiftool command, or else an error would happen. Observe that the only part you have to worry about is the third line in the code, where I defined the location of exiftool (I did try using without a path, but got errors also!), then "-all= -CommonIFD0=". I didn't include the "--icc_profile:all" part since I DO work with images that have color profiles applied - don't wanna lose that, right? And the INTERESTING part here is the "$f" that comes at the end - which means "put in the names of the files and folders HERE, please!". YES!
- Last but not least, not shown on the image above, I also included the parameter "-overwrite_original”, after I tested this throughly. As it was, I'd get a copy of the files I selected, always... and after doing a lot of checking, I finally decided to use the Overwrite parameter. Now I'm really happy!
So just save the file and you'll automatically have it in your right-click menu, under "services".
WHAM!
DONE!
PS.: Since you have all those bloated INDD files, remember to do THIS: after you use the exiftool on all the IMAGES placed in your INDD, do a SAVE AS in Indesign and overwrite it. That way, all the information is freshly saved, no trash AT ALL. It was beautiful to see 140Mb Indesign files come down to 5Mb. What a JOY! 😄
Thanks again Stephen! Fantastic TIP!
I hope my collaboration helps people also!
As previously mentioned, this can (mostly) be performed using an action, duplicating the layers to a new file. With conditional actions it can gracefully handle a flattened file.
This is performed by duplicating the layers to a new file. NOTE: Paths, alpha channels, guides, colour samplers and other document-level objects will not carry over to the new file (which may be a good thing if this is for a client, they usually don’t require your intermediate “workings”, you are just supplying a layered file if that is the requirement over a flattened file).
I have used “relative” keyboard shortcuts to navigate and select the layers rather than “absolute” recordings.
NOTE: The updated script code has been removed for reworking...
It's a bit inconvenient to generate new documents. We still need to save it separately.
Duplicating all layers to a new file is a hack, but a very good one, if one wishes to remove all document-level metadata using Photoshop.
Can we not generate a new document?
I want to keep operating on the original document.
By @dublove
No. You appear to have missed the point of why the layers are duped to a new doc.
If the document is the same, then the metadata is the same, so you have to find a way to remove the document-level metadata! This is why the layers are duped, layers don't contain document-level metadata.
It would be best for you to work out and script what metadata you can safely remove using Adobe's XMP (I'm pretty sure the EXIF and possibly others can't be removed, therefore all metadata can't be removed, which is why this can't be performed solely with metadata scripting)... Or you can use a 3rd party tool such as ExifTool which can remove all metadata at the document-level.
Perhaps with the new UXP scripting environment, there is a way to remove more metadata that isn't available to ExtendScript based scripts.
There are legacy scripts for Photoshop and Bridge to allow you to run ExifTool code if you don't want to use the command line or another operating system-based method to call ExifTool.
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