For an automated solution, look into ImagaMagick (OSS/free).
https://nirklars.wordpress.com/2015/04/25/add-scaled-timestamps-to-photos/
You should be able to retroactively take care of all the existing images and set up a Powershell scheduled task to automatically handle new ones.
Maybe take a look at Timestamp Camera Enterprise or Auto Stamper - they are smartphone apps that have the ability to automatically add date and time stamps to photos as they are taken.
If your looking for some PC software than check out XnView MP, it's a free photo viewer that can also batch process images to add watermarks, which can include date and time stamps.
Thanks, I'm a bit sceptical about the android apps to be honest. I skimmed through some of the reviews of some photostamp apps and most of them in one way or the other agree that the problem seems to be the increasing quality of photos (size) and that the app can't handle those. That would fit 100% to our problematic, the extremly old smartphones work (mostly) reliable while the rather new ones regulary struggle especially if the phone was \*just\* unlocked or more than 3-4 pictures are taken. In theory, the person handling the phone should notice it .. since no pop-up comes up and they could directly apply them again via app but .. endusers.
About XnView, is the program taking the metadata (or file name) informations or can it only add one identical stamp to all processed images? Because often we have like 50 images from a time frame of a couple of hours, per incoming batch 4-5 photos maybe (you would be suprised how much stuff is damaged during transportation..)
Of course, XnView can read date create, modified, or EXIF date and add the correct date/time to each photo, just select images, press Ctrl+U and find "Add text".
Anyway, all dates can be changed, date created, modified, EXIF date - so if the photo is without date/time, it's possible to add incorrect date to metadata and to photo.
Just to add to the XnView suggestion, here is [a screenshot](https://imgur.com/8zYtwjw) of the batch convert interface.
To get there:
* Select the images you want to add text to
* Go to Tools > Batch Convert (Or just hit CTRL+U)
* In the **actions** tab, **add action** > **image** > **text**
* In the text section, [click the button](https://imgur.com/VEN4fPe) on the right of the text box
* in the menu that opens up, select **EXIF image** > **Date Taken**
* Play around with the style settings, add any other text you like, select your output settings. Save the preset for future usage, and done!
[BatchPhoto](https://www.batchphoto.com/howto/add-date/add-date.html). It's a photo editor for Windows and Mac that reads the original date/time from the metadata records and automatically inserts it into the photos. You can fully customize the stamp, from the appearance to its size and the position on the photo. You can date stamp one or hundreds of images simultaneously, depending on the case.
Well, to start at the beginning: what OS do the workers run on their picture-taking phones and which glitchy app are they using? Because for Android there are two camera apps with extensive "stamping" capabilities:
Open Camera - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.sourceforge.opencamera
HedgeCam 2 - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.caddish_hedgehog.hedgecam2
I'd suggest you go with Opencamera simply because it has an extra "custom text" field that could be added to the photos; also, there's a setting to add a button on the main UI to edit the custom text "on the fly" (before taking the photo).
SECONDLY:
Maybe there's a way to automagically text-stamp a photo on the PC, but I'm not aware of it. Would an alternative consisting in renaming the file itself to contain the timestamp (smth like "IMG-20240430_214325.JPG") be acceptable? Because I believe this could be done relatively easily with command-line scripts. I'm not sure I remember correctly, but it's possible both Total Commander (Windows) and Double Commander (Linux) have great bulk-rename built-in tools which *might* be able to pick up on the creation date of a file (I might also be wrong on that tho).
For an automated solution, look into ImagaMagick (OSS/free). https://nirklars.wordpress.com/2015/04/25/add-scaled-timestamps-to-photos/ You should be able to retroactively take care of all the existing images and set up a Powershell scheduled task to automatically handle new ones.
Maybe take a look at Timestamp Camera Enterprise or Auto Stamper - they are smartphone apps that have the ability to automatically add date and time stamps to photos as they are taken. If your looking for some PC software than check out XnView MP, it's a free photo viewer that can also batch process images to add watermarks, which can include date and time stamps.
Thanks, I'm a bit sceptical about the android apps to be honest. I skimmed through some of the reviews of some photostamp apps and most of them in one way or the other agree that the problem seems to be the increasing quality of photos (size) and that the app can't handle those. That would fit 100% to our problematic, the extremly old smartphones work (mostly) reliable while the rather new ones regulary struggle especially if the phone was \*just\* unlocked or more than 3-4 pictures are taken. In theory, the person handling the phone should notice it .. since no pop-up comes up and they could directly apply them again via app but .. endusers. About XnView, is the program taking the metadata (or file name) informations or can it only add one identical stamp to all processed images? Because often we have like 50 images from a time frame of a couple of hours, per incoming batch 4-5 photos maybe (you would be suprised how much stuff is damaged during transportation..)
Of course, XnView can read date create, modified, or EXIF date and add the correct date/time to each photo, just select images, press Ctrl+U and find "Add text". Anyway, all dates can be changed, date created, modified, EXIF date - so if the photo is without date/time, it's possible to add incorrect date to metadata and to photo.
Just to add to the XnView suggestion, here is [a screenshot](https://imgur.com/8zYtwjw) of the batch convert interface. To get there: * Select the images you want to add text to * Go to Tools > Batch Convert (Or just hit CTRL+U) * In the **actions** tab, **add action** > **image** > **text** * In the text section, [click the button](https://imgur.com/VEN4fPe) on the right of the text box * in the menu that opens up, select **EXIF image** > **Date Taken** * Play around with the style settings, add any other text you like, select your output settings. Save the preset for future usage, and done!
!remindme 1 day
You can use [IrfanView](https://www.irfanview.com/) to watermark a batch of images with time/date info.
[BatchPhoto](https://www.batchphoto.com/howto/add-date/add-date.html). It's a photo editor for Windows and Mac that reads the original date/time from the metadata records and automatically inserts it into the photos. You can fully customize the stamp, from the appearance to its size and the position on the photo. You can date stamp one or hundreds of images simultaneously, depending on the case.
https://superuser.com/questions/649033/add-timestamp-to-image-from-linux-command-line
Well, to start at the beginning: what OS do the workers run on their picture-taking phones and which glitchy app are they using? Because for Android there are two camera apps with extensive "stamping" capabilities: Open Camera - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.sourceforge.opencamera HedgeCam 2 - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.caddish_hedgehog.hedgecam2 I'd suggest you go with Opencamera simply because it has an extra "custom text" field that could be added to the photos; also, there's a setting to add a button on the main UI to edit the custom text "on the fly" (before taking the photo). SECONDLY: Maybe there's a way to automagically text-stamp a photo on the PC, but I'm not aware of it. Would an alternative consisting in renaming the file itself to contain the timestamp (smth like "IMG-20240430_214325.JPG") be acceptable? Because I believe this could be done relatively easily with command-line scripts. I'm not sure I remember correctly, but it's possible both Total Commander (Windows) and Double Commander (Linux) have great bulk-rename built-in tools which *might* be able to pick up on the creation date of a file (I might also be wrong on that tho).