EXIF, iPhoto and image titles

[David Bovill]

Images that come off digital cameras usually have long numeric file names,
an interface will usually want to present a human readable title, a
description and some basic metadata. Previously I have organised media in
folders and given them file names that map to the image title - renaming the
file if necessary. However starting to consider using metadata more
seriously this is no longer necessary and not really possible if I want to
use the folder and file naming conventions of another application - iPhoto
for instance.

The question I have is therefore how best to store the minimal metadata for
an image - in particular its displayed title. I'm looking for an EXIF header
for this.... maybe there is one but not in the basic output and there are a
large number of tag names in the full output. Spotlight is an alternative
option - but clearly not a cross-platform option. Is there an appropriate
EXIF header?