Add geo tags to TIFF image

Question

Hello ..
I struck with adding geotags such as GTModelType_TAG,GTRasterType_TAG,Projection_TAG etc.to TIFF image.Can i add tags to IIOMetadata or TIFFDirectory or anyother.Please suggest me ,if possible give code snippet also.
Is adding geotags is same as adding our own tag to TIFF image.
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Try this. This code assumes you hava JAI-ImageIO, and consequently have the ImageReader/Writer plugin for tiff files.
public static IIOMetadata addGeoMeta(
        IIOMetadata existingMeta,
        int[] geoKeyDirectory,
        double[] geoDoubleParams,
        String geoAsciiParams) {
    if(geoKeyDirectory.length%4 != 0) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("Keys come in blocks of 4.  The "
                + "geoKeyDirectory needs to have a multiple length of 4.");
    //some declarations from the various specificiations
    final String METADATA_FORMAT =
            "com_sun_media_imageio_plugins_tiff_image_1.0";
    final String GEO_TAGSET =
            "com.sun.media.imageio.plugins.tiff.GeoTIFFTagSet";
    final String GEO_KEY_TAG_NUMBER = "34735";
    final String GEO_KEY_TAG_NAME = "GeoKeyDirectory";
    final String GEO_DOUBLES_TAG_NUMBER = "34736";
    final String GEO_DOUBLES_TAG_NAME = "GeoDoubleParams";
    final String GEO_ASCII_TAG_NUMBER = "34737";
    final String GEO_ASCII_TAG_NAME = "GeoAsciiParams";
    IIOMetadataNode root = 
            (IIOMetadataNode) existingMeta.getAsTree(METADATA_FORMAT);
    IIOMetadataNode ifd =
        (IIOMetadataNode) root.getElementsByTagName("TIFFIFD").item(0);
    //remove old geo data if present
    NodeList children = ifd.getElementsByTagName("TIFFField");
    for(int i = 0; i < children.getLength(); i++) {
        IIOMetadataNode child = (IIOMetadataNode) children.item(i);
        String tagNumber = child.getAttribute("number");
        if(GEO_KEY_TAG_NUMBER.equals(tagNumber) ||
           GEO_DOUBLES_TAG_NUMBER.equals(tagNumber) ||
           GEO_ASCII_TAG_NUMBER.equals(tagNumber)) {
            ifd.removeChild(child);
    /**Metadata tree structure:
     * com_sun_media_imageio_plugins_tiff_image_1.0";
     *   TIFFIFD (attributes: tagSets)
     *     TIFFField (attribues: name & number)
     *     TIFFField (attribues: name & number)
     *     TIFFField (attribues: name & number) <-- GeoKeyDirectory
     *       TIFFShorts
     *         TIFFShort (attribute: value) --
     *         TIFFShort (attribute: value)   | Keys have 4 entries each
     *         TIFFShort (attribute: value)   |
     *         TIFFSshor (attribute: value) --
     *     TIFFField (attributes: name & number) <-- GeoDoubleParams
     *       TIFFDoubles
     *         TIFFDouble (attribute: value)
     *         TIFFDouble (attribute: value)
     *         TIFFDouble (attribute: value)
     *     TIFFField (attributes: name & number) <--GeoAsciiParams
     *       TIFFAsciis
     *         TIFFAscii (atrribute: value) <-- single string containing
     *                                          all ASCII valued GeoKeys
    //construct GeoKeyDirectory
    IIOMetadataNode keyDirectoryTag = new IIOMetadataNode("TIFFField");
    keyDirectoryTag.setAttribute("number",GEO_KEY_TAG_NUMBER);
    keyDirectoryTag.setAttribute("name",GEO_KEY_TAG_NAME);
    IIOMetadataNode keys = new IIOMetadataNode("TIFFShorts");
    for(int i = 0; i < geoKeyDirectory.length; i++) {
        if(geoKeyDirectory[i] < 0 || geoKeyDirectory[i] > 65535)
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Invalide key value: " +
                    geoKeyDirectory[i] + " Must be unsigned short.");
        IIOMetadataNode tiffShort = new IIOMetadataNode("TIFFShort");
        tiffShort.setAttribute("value",""+geoKeyDirectory);
keys.appendChild(tiffShort);
keyDirectoryTag.appendChild(keys);
ifd.appendChild(keyDirectoryTag);
//construct GeoDoubleParams of needed
if(geoDoubleParams != null) {
IIOMetadataNode doubleParamsTag = new IIOMetadataNode("TIFFField");
doubleParamsTag.setAttribute("number",GEO_DOUBLES_TAG_NUMBER);
doubleParamsTag.setAttribute("name",GEO_DOUBLES_TAG_NAME);
IIOMetadataNode doubles = new IIOMetadataNode("TIFFDoubles");
for(int i = 0; i < geoDoubleParams.length; i++) {
IIOMetadataNode tiffDouble = new IIOMetadataNode("TIFFDouble");
tiffDouble.setAttribute("value",""+geoDoubleParams[i]);
doubles.appendChild(tiffDouble);
doubleParamsTag.appendChild(doubles);
ifd.appendChild(doubleParamsTag);
//construct GeoAsciiParams if needed
if(geoAsciiParams != null) {
IIOMetadataNode asciiParamsTag = new IIOMetadataNode("TIFFField");
asciiParamsTag.setAttribute("number",GEO_ASCII_TAG_NUMBER);
asciiParamsTag.setAttribute("name",GEO_ASCII_TAG_NAME);
IIOMetadataNode asciis = new IIOMetadataNode("TIFFAsciis");
IIOMetadataNode tiffAscii = new IIOMetadataNode("TIFFAscii");
tiffAscii.setAttribute("value",geoAsciiParams);
asciis.appendChild(tiffAscii);
asciiParamsTag.appendChild(asciis);
ifd.appendChild(asciiParamsTag);
//append geo tag set to IFD if needed
String tagSets = ifd.getAttribute("tagSets");
if(!tagSets.contains(GEO_TAGSET)) {
tagSets += "," + GEO_TAGSET;
ifd.setAttribute("tagSets",tagSets);
try {
existingMeta.setFromTree(METADATA_FORMAT,root);
}catch(Exception e) {
//failed to add new geo data
e.printStackTrace();
return existingMeta;
It may be a little easier using JAI, but I don't know how you would do it off the top of my head. JAI is build more for image processing than metadata manipulation.