Image::...ol::AFCP(3)

📦
version 13.50 · 14 versions
, in fedora 43, fedora 44

✨ NAME ✨

ok so bestie, welcome to the manual page for Image::...ol::AFCP(3) 💖 — aka the module Image::ExifTool::AFCP, which reads and writes the AFCP trailer. yes, trailer. like the lil bonus content at the end of the file. we love an afterparty 🎉

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

This module is used by Image::ExifTool. that's it, that's the whole vibe — it's a helper, not a standalone main character 👑

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Okay so this module is literally just the definitions Image::ExifTool needs to pull info out of the AFCP trailer. no cap.

And here's the thing — even though the AFCP spec says it plays nice with all sorts of file formats, ExifTool currently only processes AFCP in JPEG images. just JPEG. that's the whole roster rn. 🫶

💅 NOTES 💅

AFCP is a specification that lets meta information — including IPTC — get appended to the end of a file. slay, extra data, we love to see it ✨

BUT. and this is a big but 😭 — it is a poorly designed protocol, because (like TIFF) it uses absolute offsets to say where the data lives. this is, and I quote, "a huge blunder" 💀 because it makes the AFCP information dependent on the file length. so any image editing software that doesn't recognize the AFCP trailer and doesn't fix up those offsets when the file length changes will just... invalidate your whole AFCP situation. tragic. not iconic. 😭

good news though: ExifTool will attempt to fix these invalid offsets if possible. bestie is trying her best 🫶

Also, scanning for AFCP information may be time consuming — especially when you're reading from a sequential device — because the information is all the way at the end of the file. the way that it's at the end... 🐌

In these instances, you can use the ExifTool FastScan option to disable scanning for AFCP information. problem solved, we move 💅

🎀 AUTHOR 🎀

Copyright 2003-2026, Phil Harvey (philharvey66 at gmail.com)

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. so like, go off, but read the license fr fr 💜

🌈 REFERENCES 🌈

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

and that's the whole page bestie!! this was perl v5.42.1, dated 2026-03-31 — the source/version + date of this manual page, in case you were wondering where all this lore came from 💖✨

📦 where this page comes from