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c#datetimepngexifexiftool

Getting CreationTime from PNG

I'm coding a winForm application that renames images with the datetime taken. e.g. Original image name => Image_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS

I was using GetPropertyItem(36867) which is the Exif Date/Time Origin. But this only works on JPG, not PNG. As far as I know PNG does not have exif until recent versions and the closest thing in PNG is CreationTime. Also, I've come across a discussion thread about calling exiftool in console.

Is it possible to get the date/time without exiftool? Or how can I implement exiftool into my c# GUI program without adding too much complexity?

Solution

  • File.GetCreationTime(file path) from the System.IO namespace is the best you can (reliably) do. Unfortunately PNG metadata doesn't usually contian a creation date so getting the write date is the best you can do. For more information on how to use this, read:

    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.io.file.getcreationtime?view=net-6.0