Data Back — how to use it

Your photos already carry the date, the camera and the settings they were shot at.

Data Back reads that out of the file and prints it onto the picture, the way a film camera's date back used to. It runs in your browser — nothing to install, and nothing is uploaded. Your original files are never changed; you get stamped copies.

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Start to finish

Open the page

Go to stamp.pcns.app in Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari. There's no download, no account and no sign-in.

Everything happens inside the page on your own device. Your photos are read and redrawn locally, so nothing is sent anywhere and it keeps working if your connection drops.

Add your photos

Click Choose photos to pick from your files, or drag photos anywhere onto the page. JPEG, PNG and HEIC all work, including HEIC straight out of Apple Photos.

Each photo appears as a thumbnail under the picker. Click one to work on it; click the small × in its corner to drop it.

HEIC is an Apple format. Safari opens it directly. Chrome, Firefox and Edge can't, so the first HEIC you add fetches a converter once and reuses it for the rest of the session — that one moment needs a connection.

See what was found

The Read from the file panel lists everything pulled out of the photo: date and time, camera, lens, exposure, coordinates, pixel size.

This is the panel to check first. If it says Not in this file, the photo simply doesn't carry that information — see the last section for why.

Choose what to stamp

Under What to stamp, click the tags to turn each piece on or off. A tag that's greyed out and struck through means that photo has nothing to put there.

Title puts a larger line at the top of the stamp — a job name, a site, an address.
Details is free text underneath. Type as many lines as you like; long lines wrap to fit the photo.
Date as changes the date format, from 2024-03-15 through to '24 03 15 if you want the old date-back look.

Set the look

Pick one of four styles — they're shown below. The preview redraws as you go, so nothing is committed until you save.

Panel (caption and border styles only) sets the strip behind the text to black or white.
The four-square pad puts the text in a corner, or aligns it left or right on a panel.
Size runs from 50% to 220%. Go larger for anything that will be printed or viewed from a distance.
Colour — amber reads like a film date back; white or black is cleaner for print.
Drop shadow keeps text readable over a busy photo. Squared-off digits gives the blocky LCD look.

Save the stamped copy

Choose JPEG or PNG, then save. JPEG is right for photos; PNG is larger but lossless. Files are named after the original with -stamped on the end.

Download this photo saves the one you're looking at.
Save all photos works through the whole batch, one file at a time.
On iPhone and iPad, Save to Photos opens the share sheet — choose Save Image.

On Android it's the other way round: Download is the one that puts the photo in your gallery. It lands in your Downloads folder, where Gallery and Photos both pick it up. The share sheet only lists apps.

The four styles

Caption below

Adds a strip under the photo and writes the details there. Nothing covers the picture. Panel can be black or white.

Print border

Frames the photo in a margin and sets the details underneath. The one for photos you'll print or hang.

Corner stamp

Text burned into a corner of the picture, the way a date back did it. The least intrusive of the four.

Shaded bar

Fades a shadow behind the text at the top or bottom of the photo. Stays readable over bright or busy pictures.

If something looks wrong

Most of the tags are greyed out, or the date is marked "file date": Photos sent through WhatsApp, iMessage, Messenger or Instagram have their metadata stripped out by the app that sent them, so there's nothing left to read. Use the original file copied straight off the camera or phone. When there's no shooting date, Data Back falls back to the file's own date and labels it, so you always know which one you got.
No coordinates: A camera only records where a photo was taken if location was switched on at the time. Most dedicated cameras never record it at all unless they're paired with a phone.
The first HEIC won't open: On Chrome, Firefox or Edge the converter is fetched the first time you add one, so that moment needs a connection. Safari and iOS don't need it at all. Everything after the first file runs locally either way.
Only part of the batch downloaded: Browsers block repeated downloads from a site until you allow them. Look for a prompt near the address bar, allow it, then run Save all photos again.
Nothing downloaded, but the picture changed: Some mobile browsers won't write a file directly. If that happens the finished image is put on screen — press and hold it and choose Add to Photos or Save Image.
Using it on a phone: Open the same address in Safari or Chrome on the device. On iPhone and iPad, tap Share then Add to Home Screen and it opens full screen like a normal app. It has to be opened from the web address — an HTML file opened from Files or Mail won't run.
Something else: Open Diagnostics at the bottom of the app, copy what's in it, and send it over. It records what the browser did with each file.

Ready when you are

Open the app