Removing time and date

The date and time (and a lot more) are automatically stored with every picture in its EXIF metadata. Any photo viewing/editing program should be able to display this data. To print this data, please consult the documentation for whatever program you're using to print your pictures. Depending on the program and printer you may print the date on the image, in the margins, or on the back.

The date and time (and a lot more) are automatically stored with every photo in its EXIF metadata. To print this, consult the documentation for whatever program you're using to print your photos. Depending on the program and the printer, you may print this information on the image, in the margins, or on the back.

If the photo was already taken then the date stamp is a part of the photo, exactly like any faces that may be in there. You can remove the date using photo-editing software, but whatever was behind the date is lost forever.

The camera won't deface your photos by scrawling a string of numbers across them, but the date and time (and a lot more) are stored with every photo in what's called the EXIF data. Almost any photo viewing/editing program should be able to show you this metadata.
If you want to print the date with the photo, please consult the documentation for whatever program you're using to print. Depending on the program and printer, you can print the information on the image, in the margins, or on the back.

How do I get the date printed on my photo?

I'm sorry, but very likely you can't. The thing is, this was a useful feature on film photos, but the concept has been overtaken by technology, and is no longer relevant. When you take a photo with a digital camera, the current date and time are automatically stored in the photo file. In some cameras, it will be the same as the file date. Some cameras date the file with the date of download rather than the date of capture, but the date inside the file will always be the capture date. The date of capture is one of the items of EXIF data. You can read about this 'metadata' on wikipedia.

So how does EXIF data fulfill the benefits of the old 'print on film' date? From the point of view of indexing your library and simply not forgetting when the photo was taken, the EXIF data should always be present in the file, unless you choose to erase it. Thus, you will never lose track of the date of capture; if you have the image, you have the date. You can read the date with many tools, and in fact even Windows explorer will tell you the date if you simply hover over the picture. Here's an example; I rotated it so that 'fixya' doesn't scale it. Note that this photo was taken in a different time zone from the one I'm living in. The bubble help shows the time of capture where the picture was taken, windows shows me the time of capture in my own time zone.


What about legal proof of something? Sorry, you can't really do that any more. You couldn't have done it if you'd printed it on the image, either; it's just too easy to fake. The date of capture is editable, so it doesn't prove anything. If you need proof, get legal advice... in the heat of the moment, include a cellphone in-frame showing the date and time; you could fake that too, but it would be much harder.

Oh, you wanted your dates printed on physical pictures? Find a print shop that will print the EXIF capture date on the reverse of your photo; that way the face of your picture won't be spoiled. There is software that will print index sheets of your images and list their capture dates and times, too.

Manual can be downloaded free from here ....

http://safemanuals.com/annexe_POWERSHOT%2020A550%2020CAMERA%2020USER%2020GUIDE%2020ADVANCED%2020_CANON_POWERSHOT%20A550-_E.htm

Basically the date stamp can be turned on / off as an option on the RECORD menu. Page 33 of the manual explains it (with pictures).

Note that if the option is turned on, it states that the date / time is permanently embedded in the picture.

Hope this helps

When you download the pics to your computer and view them, is the date and time on the pics then? If not, then your camera is not including the info on the pic itself.

For already taken photos, you would need photo editing software to remove the date/time stamp. With such software you could either crop the photo to remove it, or apply more labor intensive technques such as cloning to cover it. One good, free, and easy to use photo editing software is Irfanview (www.irfanview.com). With this software you should be able to crop already taken photos to remove the stamp.

While in Postcard Print mode, use the Menu button to navigate to the Date Stamp section in the Rec Menu.
Select [Off], [Date] or [Date & Time] then select 'Off'.
Press the Menu button again to get back to shooting mode.

The photos taken by EOS cameras don't have the date & time overlay. To print your photos with date/time stamp, use Zoombrowser EX software that came with your camera. When you select photos for print, you'll get the option of printing the date/time (and even the choice of font's colour) on the photos.