Note
Archived discussion. This page is a verbatim copy of a thread from
community.ansel.photos, the Ansel community forum, which ran from March 2023
until it was taken offline in June 2025 after the site was compromised — a counterfeit
site had been planted inside the forum software, so the whole thing had to come down.
The original address was https://community.ansel.photos/view-discussion/color-label.
You can check this copy against the snapshot in the Internet Archive.
Answers may refer to older versions of Ansel, and image attachments did not survive the shutdown. Current discussion happens on GitHub Discussions .
Posted by Steve on 2023-12-18.
The XMP specification calls for the <xmp:Label> property.
The XMP file Ansel creates contains only a private <darktable:colorlabels> property.
Is it possible to also add the <xmp:Label>colorXXX</xmp:Label> to the generated XMP file ?
This would allow for any application to be able to read the Color Label.
This would be the same as the currently generated Star Number <xmp:Rating>numberXXX</xmp:Rating> that is already generated by Ansel as per XMP specification.
I think it would be very helpful if there are other properties that could also be generated using the XMP specification, so as to allow any application that reads XMP files, to at least have a fighting chance in pulling as much data as possible.
Replies
Aurélien Pierre — 2024-01-27
I have been told that dt re-implemented standard color labels because the standard ones are mutually-exclusive, while the private dt ones can use more than one label at a time.
I will have to check all that.
Using XMP tags that other applications can understand is a doubled-edged sword, as always, because then other apps can mess up with your data without user knowing it. Again, needs some serious assessment of needs, constraints, requirements and safety.
Translated from English by : Aurélien Pierre, ChatGPT, Claude, Claude (Anthropic). In case of conflict, inconsistency or error, the English version shall prevail.