PENTAX OPTIO M20 - date imprint problem

The M20 screen displays the date OK when I view the photos in the camera. But after I take the SD card to the card reader and save the photos to my computer, the date imprint is not there any more !! I read the instruction manual, but I just cannot make the date imprint to appear on the same photos that I saved on my computer. Is this a fault in the Pentax camera design ? I use a Canon, a Minolta also, but they don't have such problems. Anyone has a solution ? Thanks !

Do you mean you want the date to appear superimposed on the photograph?

The date is never imprinted
The Optio will show the date as an overlay. You see, the JPG file consists of two parts - the image itself and the EXIF data.

The image doesn't have the date in it - it's a real pain to remove it did.
The EXIF data contains date, time, exposure information and a whole lot more.

The Optio just overlays the date/time, as taken from the EXIF file. If you want the same thing on your PC, then you'll have to go modify the image. Applications such as the free Irfanview allow modification of images and the overlay of the date/time etc. This was covered at least once in previous threads... I'll see if I can get the link for you.

Matt

Link is here:
https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3160

Hope that helps!
Matt

I wouldn't call it a fault in the pentax design, I'd call it a feature to keep your picture clear of clutter like a date/time stamp!

These days some picture editing software allows you to place the date/time the picture was taken into a comment and you can display the comment in whitespace or other frame around the picture rather than over the picture, which IMHO looks nicer!

Thanks to you both Matt and Ammonyte for the link and the information. I will try it out and report back my experiment with the software. But for common snap shots, I still think it is just convenient the way Canon does it, for example, to simply have the date/time superimposed or stamped on the post-card size picture anyway.