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Parergon 1.7.1 (Build 60)

Every field of the IPTC Photo Metadata Standard 2025.1, Core and Extension, now editable and written back exactly, with Image Regions, pickers for the IPTC codes and a save that tells you what it did.

minor

New

  • Image Regions. When a photo carries IPTC Image Regions, the Info Panel shows how many and opens them in their own window, with every region drawn on the image, rotated photos included. Draw rectangles, circles and polygons; move and reshape them with the mouse or the arrow keys; click again to select a region under another. Edit each region's coordinates, ID, name, description, persons, organisations, content types and roles, add and delete regions, and save them to JPEG, TIFF and directly writable RAW such as DNG, with undo. Anything else a region carries is written back exactly, and a file whose regions hold data Parergon can't keep stays read-only.
  • Add the first Image Region to an image that has none. Every image Parergon can write metadata into shows the Image Regions row with "No regions" and Open…, so you can open the window and draw the first region.
  • Batch Geolocation (Pro) has a place search in the Map Selection view. Search for a place or address, click a result, and the map and pin move there, ready to confirm.
  • Contributor is a list in the Editor tab: add, edit and remove contributors, each with a name, identifiers and roles. The Info Panel shows the count and the first name, templates (Pro) can set or clear the list, and a file whose entries hold data Parergon can't write back shows them read-only with the reason.
  • Licensor, Copyright Owner, Image Supplier and the new Image Creator are lists of parties with their details. Each Licensor carries its ID, address, phones with their types, email and URL; each Copyright Owner, Image Supplier and Image Creator its ID. Every detail stays on its own party, as in the IPTC 2025.1 reference image. Templates saved with names keep working, and Metadata Profiles still set these fields by name.
  • Artwork or Object gains five sub-fields you can edit and use in templates: Creator ID, Copyright Owner ID, Licensor Name, Licensor ID and Contribution Description.
  • Person Shown with Details and Product Shown are lists in the Editor tab and in templates. Each person has a name, identifiers, a description and any number of characteristics; each product has a name, GTIN, identifier and description. A GTIN stays exactly as typed, and the plain Person Shown list of names stays a separate field.
  • About (CV Term) and Genre (CV Term) are lists in the Editor tab and templates. Each entry names a controlled-vocabulary term by its name, term ID, vocabulary ID and refined "about". Genre (CV Term) is separate from Intellectual Genre, and editing one never changes the other.
  • Registry Entry, Linked Encoded Rights Expression and Embedded Encoded Rights Expression are lists in the Editor tab's Rights section and in templates. An embedded expression gets a multi-line box and keeps its XML or JSON exactly, and the Data Mining values that say "see … Encoded Rights Expression" now point at fields you can fill in.
  • Five more IPTC Extension fields in the editor, the Info Panel and templates: Digital Image GUID, Max Available Width and Height (whole numbers only), Organisation Code and Image Creator Image ID.
  • Intellectual Genre has a picker. Click the list button beside the field to choose one of the 51 current IPTC Genre NewsCodes, or type your own term, since any vocabulary is allowed. A picked term is stored as its IPTC code and shown with its name, and a file holding a retired term shows it marked "(retired)". It works in the Editor tab, the Info Panel, Favorites, templates and Metadata Profiles.
  • Subject Code and Scene Code have pickers. Type a code or a name and press Return, or browse the list. Subject Code offers every IPTC Subject NewsCode, down to the finest detail, and searching a subject's name also finds the codes under it. Each code shows with its name, for example "011800 · close-up". A code another app wrote that isn't an IPTC code stays on the file, marked "(non-standard)", until you remove it. It works in the Editor tab, the Info Panel, Favorites, templates and Metadata Profiles.
  • Exif 3.0: seven new fields in the editor, the Info Panel and templates (Image Title, Photographer, Image Editor, Camera Firmware, RAW Developing Software, Image Editing Software and Metadata Editing Software), stored in EXIF only. Parergon records itself in Metadata Editing Software ("Parergon 1.7.1") each time you save metadata, from the editor, Info Panel, templates, profiles and batch edits. It writes only that tag, never the camera's Software tag, and undo puts the previous value back. Turn it off in Settings ▸ General ▸ Record Parergon as Metadata Editor. Parergon never changes a photo's Image Unique ID when you edit its metadata.

Improved

  • Subject Code and Scene Code are editable IPTC Core fields in the Editor tab under Descriptive, in templates, and as targets for Keyword Workbench rules (Pro). Subject Code is also written to the IIM Subject Reference. Before, the rules suggested from the IPTC vocabularies wrote nothing for these two fields, even though the save reported success.
  • The built-in IPTC Scene and Subject vocabularies now carry IPTC's own codes and labels. The Scene list holds the 24 IPTC Scene codes; the Subject list, now called "IPTC Subject NewsCodes", holds IPTC's 17 subjects and all their subject matters, in IPTC's wording ("Headshot", "Close-up"). From 011300 on, the old Scene list had shifted codes (its "Close-Up" was 011700; IPTC's close-up is 011800). Codes already in your files are not changed.
  • Fields with a fixed list of values are pickers. Model Release Status, Property Release Status and Minor Model Age Disclosure offer the PLUS standard terms, in the editor, the Info Panel, Favorites, profiles and templates. Exposure Program, Metering Mode, Flash, White Balance, Exposure Mode, Scene Capture Type, Subject Distance Range, Color Space, Orientation, Urgency and Location GPS Altitude Ref offer named choices, such as "Aperture-priority AE", and show the name rather than a raw code. Typing a name used to save nothing. Template fields with a fixed list, Data Mining included, are pickers too, and a template that holds a value its field does not accept is flagged in the template editor.
  • ISO, Focal Length (35mm eq.), Exposure Program, Metering Mode, Exposure Mode, Scene Capture Type, Subject Distance Range and Flash are also saved to the XMP copy other photo apps read. Until now only the EXIF copy was written.
  • Aperture shows as f/1.8, not f/1.7799999, in Favorites, Essentials, the editor's Essentials panel, the popout toolbars and exported documents (PDF, HTML, Markdown, text, CSV, JSON, YAML and XML). Raw values and XMP keep the exact number.
  • Country Code accepts two-letter ISO 3166 codes such as NL as well as three-letter codes such as NLD, in the editor, Favorites, templates and the EXIF edit dialog. XMP keeps the code as typed; the legacy IIM copy, which holds exactly three letters, gets the three-letter equivalent.
  • Date Created and Intellectual Genre stay in sync between XMP and IIM. Saving Date Created also writes the IIM Time Created, with its time zone, and a date-only edit removes an old IIM time. Intellectual Genre is now also written to IIM, in the form IPTC specifies.
  • Artwork Circa Date Created is free text, so "ca. 1850" is kept as written, and catalog search and Compare (both Pro) show it that way instead of "Circa" or "Exact".
  • Catalog search and Compare (both Pro) show every artwork, location shown, Licensor and Copyright Owner on a file, including files with several of each and values that look like numbers. Existing catalogs re-read the files concerned after the update; nothing in your files changes. Compare's "Image Supplier ID" row is now labelled "Image Supplier Image ID", the tag it has always shown.
  • Filter, sort and preset menus across the app show a real checkmark on the current choice, and the Subject Code and Scene Code browse menus mark the codes you have already picked.
  • A solid sidebar background that matches the rest of the window, disabled buttons that look disabled (including Save & Close and Create in the template editor), and a taller Libraries list in Settings ▸ Search ▸ Library Auto-Index.

Fixed

  • No silent refusals. When a save writes most fields but ExifTool refuses one, or can't write a tag or convert a value, Parergon says which field was not saved instead of reporting plain success. Applying a template says, per file, which field was not set and why, and still writes the template's other fields. Undo, Duplicate Merge and copying metadata between files (Pro) treat such a file as saved, refresh it, and name the field.
  • The metadata editor no longer drops a field that is over its limit. Save Changes and Save and Close stay off while any field holds a value it can't save, and the footer names the field and the reason, for example a Title longer than 256 characters. Such a value counts as an unsaved change: choosing another file asks first, the editor shows Unsaved changes and Revert Changes, and switching tabs keeps it.
  • Editing a field on a file with two or more Location Shown, Location Created or Artwork entries no longer erases the other entries. Those fields are read-only on such a file, and the editor says why; templates and Metadata Profiles leave them unchanged and say so; undo skips them instead of showing a second alert. Editing several entries is planned for a later release.
  • Long text is kept in full. Where IPTC-IIM limits a field to a number of bytes, XMP keeps the full text and only the IIM copy is shortened, between whole characters, with a note under the field. Long Category, Creator, City, Credit Line, Headline, Description, Copyright Notice, Special Instructions, Keywords and other IPTC values no longer block saving; Title keeps its 256-character limit. Every IIM value is written as UTF-8, so a city such as Zürich is no longer turned into "Zürich".
  • A keyword longer than 64 bytes no longer gains a shortened twin from its IIM copy, whether Parergon, ExifTool or Adobe software shortened it.
  • Lists stay lists. Saving an Artwork with several Creators or Style Periods keeps them separate, one value per line, and editing only the Title leaves them untouched. Editing a Location field no longer merges several Location Ids. A keyword rule that appends or removes a keyword keeps IPTC-only keywords and no longer splits a keyword such as "Washington, D.C.", and a rule that appends to Creator or Person Shown adds each name separately.
  • Editing a field's default text (Title, Description, Copyright Notice, Usage Terms, Alt Text, Artwork fields and others) no longer deletes its text in other languages. Clearing the field still removes it in every language.
  • Templates honour their "Overwrite existing values" and "Append keywords" settings, Yes/No template fields are written, and applying a metadata profile no longer overwrites a lens make held only in XMP or drops IPTC-only keywords when appending.
  • Undo restores instead of deleting. After a save in the metadata editor, undo restores each field's previous value exactly (Model and Property Release Status, Minor Model Age Disclosure, Data Mining, Digital Source Type, the Artwork and Location fields, Usage Terms, Urgency and others), including values outside the standard list. Undoing a Flash edit keeps the XMP Flash, and undo after applying an event name, merging duplicates or copying keywords in the Compare Tray also restores the previous Metadata Editing Software value.
  • Undo works again in iCloud Drive folders on the Desktop and in Documents, after a save and after Remove Location Data or Strip All. Parergon checks the file's contents and accepts iCloud's touch; a real outside edit is still refused.
  • Undo in the Keyword Rule Activity Log puts list fields back as separate items in XMP and IPTC, and can undo a rule that filled an empty field. Log entries from before 1.7.1 that changed a list field can't be undone from the log, and the row says why.
  • Other apps' edits are respected. When exiftool, Lightroom or Bridge changes a file, the Info Panel, the Editor tab, the Metadata Editor window, search, the catalog and the star badges show the new values within a couple of seconds, and your unsaved edits are kept. A catalog rescan also picks up such an edit made while Parergon was closed.
  • Saving never overwrites another app's change. If another app or a sync service changes, replaces or deletes a photo while Parergon is saving it, Parergon keeps the other version and tells you. If it had made a copy from before the save, that copy stays next to the photo as "name (Parergon recovery date)".
  • Info Panel: editing a Location Created, Location Shown or Artwork or Object field saves once when you click Save instead of on every keystroke, Cancel discards it, and Save no longer clears the Location Name or Artwork Title. The Metadata Editor window shows list values one per line and saves each Artwork field to its own tag, and clearing an Artwork field then undoing the clear puts the value back. Location Created, Location Shown and Artwork sub-fields always appear together, in the same order.
  • Template editor: a template's stored dates show as stored, with their format kept when you edit them, and the apply preview lists them. Discarded edits no longer linger after Cancel ▸ Discard, a field that blocks saving is named in the footer (click it to scroll there), and the templates window reopens on the template you last selected.
  • Search shows the real index size and time as soon as it opens, and Clean Stale always reports what it did: how many entries it removed, or that it found none, and how many entries outside your Libraries it could not check and kept.

Parergon 1.7.1 (Build 60)

October 2026, Build 60

Every field of the IPTC Photo Metadata Standard 2025.1, Core and Extension, including the PLUS licensing fields, can now be read, edited and written back unchanged. Draw Image Regions on your photos, pick IPTC codes from the official lists, and rely on a save that tells you what it did.

Parergon 1.7.1 brings 62 user-facing changes: 13 new features and 49 fixes. Parergon passes IPTC’s own interoperability test with full coverage, and its built-in field list grows to 171 fields. The lists above cover every change.

For the story behind this release, read Parergon 1.7.1: full IPTC coverage, What you save is what ends up in the file and the technical companion, How Parergon edits structured IPTC without losing data, in the Parergon Journal.

Full IPTC coverage

Every field of IPTC Photo Metadata 2025.1, Core and Extension, including the PLUS licensing fields, can be read, edited and written back unchanged. IPTC’s interoperability checker finds every property of its reference image in a file Parergon wrote, with none missing.

  • New IPTC Extension fields: Digital Image GUID, Max Available Width and Height, Organisation Code and Image Creator Image ID.
  • Five more Artwork or Object details: Creator ID, Copyright Owner ID, Licensor Name, Licensor ID and Contribution Description.
  • Artwork Circa Date Created is free text, so “ca. 1850” is kept as written.

Lists of people, parties and rights

Many IPTC fields are a list of entries, each with its own parts. You now add, edit and remove them as a list in the Editor tab, and templates (Pro) can set or clear them. Each detail stays attached to its own entry.

  • Contributor, each with a name, identifiers and roles.
  • Licensor, Copyright Owner, Image Supplier and the new Image Creator as lists of parties, each keeping its own ID and, for a Licensor, its address, phones, email and URL.
  • Person Shown with Details and Product Shown; a GTIN stays exactly as typed.
  • About (CV Term) and Genre (CV Term), separate from Intellectual Genre.
  • Registry Entry and the linked and embedded encoded rights expressions; an embedded expression keeps its XML or JSON exactly.

Every list is written as one unit and checked on a temporary copy before your original is replaced. A list Parergon can’t write back exactly is shown read-only, with the reason.

Image Regions

Regions open in their own window from the Info Panel, drawn on the image, rotated photos included. Draw rectangles, circles and polygons, move and reshape them with the mouse or the arrow keys, and edit each region’s coordinates, ID, name, description, persons, organisations, content types and roles. Add the first region to any image Parergon can write, and save to JPEG, TIFF and directly writable RAW such as DNG, with undo. Anything else a region carries is written back exactly.

Pickers for IPTC codes

  • Intellectual Genre offers the 51 current IPTC Genre NewsCodes, and still takes your own term.
  • Subject Code and Scene Code are editable, with a picker you search by code or name, such as “011800 · close-up”.
  • The built-in Scene and Subject vocabularies now carry IPTC’s own codes and labels.
  • Model Release Status, Property Release Status, Minor Model Age Disclosure and the coded camera fields (Exposure Program, Metering Mode, Flash, White Balance and more) offer named choices instead of free text or numbers.

The pickers work in the Editor tab, the Info Panel, Favorites, templates and Metadata Profiles.

Exif 3.0

  • Seven new fields: Image Title, Photographer, Image Editor, Camera Firmware, RAW Developing Software, Image Editing Software and Metadata Editing Software.
  • Parergon records itself in Metadata Editing Software when you save, never in the camera’s Software tag. Turn it off in Settings ▸ General ▸ Record Parergon as Metadata Editor.
  • A photo’s Image Unique ID never changes when you edit its metadata.

Metadata you can trust

  • A save that writes most fields but has one refused now names that field and says why, in the editor, undo, templates and copying between files.
  • On a file with several Location Shown, Location Created or Artwork entries, those fields are read-only instead of an edit erasing the others.
  • Several Creators or Style Periods, other languages, IPTC-only keywords and keywords containing a comma are kept as they are.
  • Long text is kept in full in XMP; only the legacy IPTC-IIM copy is shortened, between whole characters, and always written as UTF-8.
  • Undo restores fields instead of deleting them, keeps the XMP Flash, and works again in iCloud Drive folders.
  • Changes made by another app appear within a couple of seconds, in the editor, search and the star badges.
  • A save never overwrites a change another app or a sync service made while Parergon was saving.
  • The editor keeps Save off while a field holds a value it can’t save, and treats that value as unsaved work.

And the rest

  • Batch Geolocation (Pro) can search for a place or address and drop the pin there.
  • Aperture shows as f/1.8, not f/1.7799999, everywhere including exports.
  • Date Created and Intellectual Genre stay in sync between XMP and IIM; Country Code accepts two-letter codes.
  • Search and Compare (both Pro) show every artwork, location shown, Licensor and Copyright Owner on a file.
  • The template editor shows stored dates as stored, drops discarded edits, and names the field that blocks saving.
  • Clean Stale always reports what it did; the search panel shows the real index size right away.
  • A solid sidebar background, disabled buttons that look disabled, and real checkmarks in menus.

Requirements

  • macOS 15.4 or later
  • Mac with Apple silicon

Get Parergon

Parergon 1.7.1 is a free update on the Mac App Store. The free tier includes 5 edits per day, and the new list editors, Image Regions and IPTC code pickers are ordinary edits that count toward it. Parergon Pro unlocks unlimited edits and all professional features, including templates, Keyword Rules, Compare and Batch Geolocation.

Download on the Mac App Store

Requirements

  • macOS 15.4 or later
  • Mac with Apple silicon

Get the latest version.

Download on the Mac App Store

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