IPTC Photo Metadata User Guide
IPTC Photo Metadata
User Guide
IPTC Photo Metadata Working Group
office@iptc.org
november 2025 r0
2025-11-26
Table of Contents
Introduction
What IPTC Photo Metadata is Made For
How IPTC Photo Metadata Evolved Over Time
Photo Metadata - Under the Hood
About the IPTC Photo Metadata User Guide
IPTC Photo Metadata Standard version used by this User Guide
Acknowledgements
How to contact IPTC
About IPTC
Field Reference Table
How to Edit Metadata for …​
General Image Content
Natural Language Free Text Descriptions
Persons Depicted in the Image
Locations
Other Things Shown in the Image
Rights Information
Licensing Use of the Image
Administration and Commissioning Details
Image Regions
What is a …​ (help)
What is a Field / Field Structure / Property?
What is a Value List / Controlled Vocabulary?
What is an ISO Country Code?
What is a Model or Property Release?
What is IIM?
What is PLUS?
What is XMP?
Help on Specific Topics
Recommended Minimal Set of Metadata Properties
Fundamental Guidelines for the Preservation of Embedded Metadata
Dates and times and different software
Metadata values shown multiple times
Making images accessible for people with special needs
IPTC Photo Metadata and Google Images
Applying Metadata to AI-generated Images
Guidance for using Digital Source Type
Guideline for mapping Category Codes to Subject NewsCodes
IPTC recommendation for metadata about composite images
IIM Metadata deprecated in IPTC Core
Metadata Usage Examples
A landmark image - by an independent photographer
A documentary image - by a staff photographer
A heritage artwork image - by an agency photographer
Image of a painting - by a museum or gallery
Image of a sculpture - by a museum
Street photography image
User Guide History
Introduction
This document is designed to familiarise photographers, photo editors and metadata managers with the use of the IPTC Photo Metadata Standard. It provides a short guideline on the use and semantics of each IPTC field (also called metadata property).
The User Guide groups fields according to their category of use:
General image content
Person(s) shown in the image
Locations relevant to the image
Other things shown in the image, including artwork
How to assert rights
and
license usage
Administration and Commissioning details
The
Field Reference Table
lists all IPTC fields with their field labels for easy reference.
The
What Is A…​
section explains terms used by the IPTC Standards.
There is a
help section on specific topics
such as
applying metadata to AI-generated images
and
using the Digital Source Type vocabulary
Sample images are shown with
full examples of metadata
to aid in practical metadata entry.
More
about this User Guide
, including how to contact IPTC and a Copyright Notice, is also available.
What IPTC Photo Metadata is Made For
Photo metadata is key to protecting images' copyright and licensing information online. It is also essential for managing digital assets. Detailed and accurate descriptions about images ensure they can be easily and efficiently retrieved via search, by users or machine-readable code. This results in smoother workflow within organizations, more precise tracking of images, and increased licensing opportunities.
Therefore, photo metadata is critical to photo and related business. IPTC has specified metadata to meet these needs; it is the industry standard of professional photography.
How IPTC Photo Metadata Evolved Over Time
The IPTC -
www.iptc.org
- is a body of content providers and system vendors from the news industry and has defined standards for metadata about news since 1979. Since the mid 1990’s IPTC metadata have been quite popular for photos as they were adopted by Adobe Photoshop at this time. The IPTC Photo Metadata Standard defining the Core and Extension metadata schemas is the second generation of IPTC photo metadata.
IPTC’s older standard for metadata, the Information Interchange Model (IIM), was issued in 1991 and defined a set of metadata properties and a data format to embed the metadata values into image files. In the early nineties a subset of this IIM was adopted as the well-known "IPTC Fields" by Adobe Photoshop and can be embedded into JPEG, TIFF and PSD files since then.
In the early 2000s, a new technology for embedding metadata into image files was invented. It is called XMP, was developed by Adobe and is now an ISO standard. This technology required defining new technical specifications for the well-known "IPTC Fields" of the IIM standard and this was done by the IPTC Core schema which was initially released in 2005 and has evolved to version 1.4 since then. A key feature in the transition to IPTC Core in XMP was that the definition of the purpose and the specified use of an IIM field should remain the same, with only the underlying technical details changed. As the IPTC Core is in fact a mirror of the IIM fields it will no longer be extended.
Discussion of IPTC Core raised the need for additional metadata properties not covered by the IIM standard. IPTC created the IPTC Extension schema in 2008. In almost all cases new fields were added to the IPTC Extension, the only exception are the Accessibility fields which were added to the Core as they complement the Core field Description.
After development over two decades IPTC Photo Metadata can be embedded in the following ways:
IPTC Core fields can be embedded in the IIM format and/or in the XMP format. A key challenge for metadata embedded in parallel in IIM and XMP is that the values are synchronised - this should be taken care of by the image management software.
IPTC Extension fields can be embedded only in XMP format.
To help users, the IPTC collects information from software vendors on their support for IPTC Photo Metadata. Find out more at
Be aware that IPTC Core and IPTC Extension fields can be saved as XMP "sidecar files" for camera Raw files as some of these file formats do not support embedded metadata.
Photo Metadata - Under the Hood
This section explains the technical background of embedding photo metadata in an image file. (Click Details below to see it.)
Details
Photo metadata has to be processed by software under the hood of panels on your computer screen. See below how this is done.
The diagram shows the flow of metadata values from an input panel on your computer screen into an image file and the way back from an image file to their display on the panel.
What you see on your computer screen
On the left, the diagram shows a metadata input panel for IPTC fields in your software, only a few fields are shown here.
Inside imaging software on your computer
In the centre, the diagram shows how your software handles the metadata. The software creates a temporary internal structure to support the data in both IIM (in blue) and XMP (in red) formats.
You can see from the orange arrows that some field values are transferred to both the IIM and the XMP structures (Creator and Description) and others only to the XMP structure (Persons Shown and Digital Source Type). Fields added to the IPTC Photo Metadata specification’s Extension Schema (after 2005) exist only in XMP.
As some fields are replicated in IIM and XMP, the software has to keep these values in synch (dotted lines). This is less an issue for data transferred from the input panel than for data read from an image file.
Inside your JPEG image file
On the right you see the structure of an image file with sections for metadata (headers) and a section for image data (the pixels). The diagram shows that the IIM and XMP data structures are stored in two different headers. In a JPEG file the headers are of type APP1 and APP13 and they may have additional internal identifiers for the metadata formats.
The data structures are embedded into the headers using different technical formats:
IIM is a sequence of bytes, where each field has a numeric identifier (2:80 and 2:120)
XMP is a single (long) text string using XML as markup language, typically using angle brackets <> as delimiters. Fields are identified by strings like dc:creator.
The green arrows show how data from the internal software structure is embedded in the headers of the image file. If this file is copied to another computer, then exactly this set of embedded bytes takes the metadata to the new location.
Metadata from the image file to your screen panel
Data embedded in the image file can be read by software, so the process also works from right to left on the diagram, as shown by the bi-directional arrows. The software reads from the metadata headers and stores the information in its internal structures. The software has to verify that the IIM and XMP values are the same; if they are not, there are rules about which value should take precedence. At the end of this process IIM and XMP values are the same.
The values are then displayed on the panel on your computer screen and are ready for editing. Pressing Save, sends the data back to the image file for embedding as before.
About the IPTC Photo Metadata User Guide
IPTC Photo Metadata Standard version used by this User Guide
This document is based on the IPTC Photo Metadata Standard specification including
IPTC Core schema version 1.5, approved on 2 October 2024
IPTC Extension schema version 1.9, approved on 16 October 2025
All formal details of the standard can be obtained from
the specification document
The referenced PLUS standard specification is available at
For more information about the standards, please visit
or
Copyright © 2025 IPTC, International Press Telecommunications Council. Rights Reserved.
The IPTC Photo Metadata User Guide document is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license - see the full license agreement at
By obtaining, using and/or copying this document, you (the licensee) agree that you have read, understood, and will comply with the terms and conditions of the license.
Materials used in this guide are either in the public domain or are available with the permission of their respective copyright holders. All materials of this IPTC standard covered by copyright shall be licensable at no charge.
Acknowledgements
This document is the result of a team effort by members of the Photo Metadata Working Group of the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC), with input and assistance from other contributors.
The User Guide up to this version was edited by (in alphabetical order): Linda Burman (Individual IPTC member), Caroline Desrosiers (
), Annette Feldman (
AP
), Brendan Quinn (
IPTC
), David Riecks (
www.controlledvocabulary.com
/PLUS), Sarah Saunders (was
CEPIC
), Jeff Sedlik (
PLUS
), Michael Steidl (Honorary IPTC member).
How to contact IPTC
Join the public IPTC Photo Metadata group:
Submit a message on our website:
Visit IPTC’s website:
Follow IPTC on Twitter:
@IPTC
About IPTC
Our mission is to simplify the distribution of information. We develop and promote efficient technical standards to improve the management and exchange of information between content providers, intermediaries and consumers. We thereby enable easy, cost-effective and rapid innovation and product development.
We are committed to open standards and make all of our standards freely available to our members and the wider community.
Founded in 1965 and based in London, the IPTC brings together the world’s leading news agencies, publishers and industry vendors.
IPTC is a not-for-profit membership organisation registered in England -
find more about membership
Business address:
IPTC International Press Telecommunications Council
25 Southampton Buildings
London WC2A 1AL
United Kingdom
Field Reference Table
This section provides a reference of field labels and names in alphabetical order for quick location of specific fields and their guidelines.
Each
Label (IPTC Name)
is linked to the User Guide section which describes this field. Click on the name and follow. { …​ detail} may follow indicating this field covers a detail of the …​ field in a structure.
Labels in
bold
are not defined by the IPTC Photo Metadata Standard but used by popular software. The
Same as IPTC Name
column shows the name of the corresponding IPTC field.
The column
Schema
indicates which IPTC schema the field belongs to.
Label (IPTC Name)
Same as IPTC Name
Schema
Additional Model Information
Extension
Address
{Creator’s Contact detail}
Core
AI Prompt Information
Extension
AI Prompt Writer Name
Extension
AI System Used
Extension
AI System Version Used
Extension
Alt Text (Accessibility)
Core
Artwork or Object in the Image
Extension
Author
Creator
Author’s Title
Creator’s Job Title
Byline
Creator
Byline’s Title
Creator’s Job Title
Caption
Description
Characteristics
{Person detail}
Extension
Circa Date Created
{Artwork or Object detail}
Extension
City
(legacy)
Core
City
{Location Created detail}
Extension
City
{Location Shown detail}
Extension
City
{Creator’s Contact detail}
Core
Code of Organisation Featured in the Image
Extension
Content Description
{Artwork or Object detail}
Extension
Contribution Description
{Artwork or Object detail}
Extension
Contributor
Extension
Copyright Notice
Core
Copyright Notice
{Artwork or Object detail}
Extension
Copyright Owner
Extension
Country
{Creator’s Contact detail}
Core
Country Code
(legacy)
Core
Country ISO-Code
{Location Created detail}
Extension
Country ISO-Code
{Location Shown detail}
Extension
Country Name
{Location Created detail}
Extension
Country Name
{Location Shown detail}
Extension
Country
(legacy)
Core
Creator
Core
Creator’s Contact Info
Core
Creator’s Job Title
Core
Creator
{Artwork or Object detail}
Extension
Creator ID
{Artwork or Object detail}
Extension
Credit Line
Core
Current Copyright Owner ID
{Artwork or Object detail}
Extension
Current Copyright Owner Name
{Artwork or Object detail}
Extension
Current Licensor ID
{Artwork or Object detail}
Extension
Current Licensor Name
{Artwork or Object detail}
Extension
CV-Term About the Image
Extension
CV-Term CV ID
{CV-Term detail}
Extension
CV-Term ID
{CV-Term detail}
Extension
CV-Term name
{CV-Term detail}
Extension
Date Created
{Artwork or Object detail}
Extension
Data Mining
Extension
Date Created
Core
Description Writer
Core
Description
(of the full image)
Core
Description
{Person detail}
Extension
Description
{Product detail}
Extension
Digital Image GUID
Extension
Digital Source Type
Extension
Email(s)
{Creator’s Contact detail}
Core
Embedded Encoded Rights Expressions
{EERE}
Extension
Encoded Rights Expressions
{EERE detail}
Extension
Encoding type
{EERE detail}
Extension
Encoding type
{LERE detail}
Extension
Event
Extension
Event Identifier in
Event
Extension
Extended Description (Accessibility)
Core
GTIN
{Product detail}
Extension
Genre (generic)
Extension
Headline
Core
Identifier
{Person detail}
Extension
Identifier
{Product detail}
Extension
Image Creator
Extension
Image Rating
Extension
Image Region
Extension
Image Registry Entry
Extension
Image Supplier
Extension
Image Supplier Image ID
Extension
Instructions
Core
Intellectual Genre (legacy)
Core
Item Id
{Registry Entry detail}
Extension
Job
Job Id
Job Id
Core
Keywords
Core
Licensor
Extension
Link to Encoded Rights Expression
{LERE detail}
Extension
Linked Encoded Rights Expression
{LERE}
Extension
Location Created
Extension
Location Identifier
{Location Created detail}
Extension
Location Identifier
{Location Shown detail}
Location Shown in the Image
Extension
Max Avail Height
Extension
Max Avail Width
Extension
Minor Model Age Disclosure
Extension
Model Age
Extension
Model Release Id
Extension
Model Release Status
Extension
Name
{Person detail}
Extension
Name
{Product detail}
Extension
Name of Organisation Featured in the Image
Extension
Object Name
Title
Organisation Id
{Registry Entry detail}
Extension
Other Constraints
Extension
Person Shown in the Image
Extension
Person Shown in the Image with Details
Extension
Phone(s)
{Creator’s Contact detail}
Core
Physical Description
{Artwork or Object detail}
Extension
Postal Code
{Creator’s Contact detail}
Core
Product Shown in the Image
Extension
Property Release Id
Extension
Property Release Status
Extension
Provider
Credit Line
Province or State
(legacy)
Core
Province or State
{Location Created detail}
Extension
Province or State
{Location Shown detail}
Extension
Refined 'about'
{CV-Term detail}
Extension
Rights Expression Language ID
{EERE detail}
Extension
Rights Expression Language ID
{LERE detail}
Extension
Rights Usage Terms
Core
Role
{Registry Entry detail}
Extension
Scene Code
Core
Source (Supply Chain)
Core
Source
{Artwork or Object detail}
Extension
Source Inventory Number
{Artwork or Object detail}
Extension
Source Inventory URL
{Artwork or Object detail}
Extension
Special Instructions
Instructions
State/Province
{Location detail}
Core
Style Period
{Artwork or Object detail}
Extension
IPTC Subject Code (Legacy)
Core
Sublocation
(legacy)
Core
Sublocation
{Location Created detail}
Extension
Sublocation
{Location Shown detail}
Extension
Title
Core
Title
{Artwork or Object detail}
Extension
Transmission Reference
Job Identifier
Web Statement of Rights
Extension
Website(s)
{Creator’s Contact detail}
Core
World Region
{Location Created detail}
Extension
World Region
{Location Shown detail}
Extension
How to Edit Metadata for …​
This section groups metadata fields according to information type.
General Image Content
A key use of metadata is to describe the content of an image. This can be done in two basic ways:
Using standard terms from value lists or controlled vocabularies.
Choosing terms from a standard list of values enables easier and more consistent search within a single collection or across collections. Controlled vocabularies are one form of value list.
Using free-text (natural language)
Read also about metadata for specific content on pages about
persons
locations
or
other things
(organisations, events, products,
artwork, objects).
Keywords
Enter keywords to describe the visible and abstract content of the photograph. Keywords are in free text form, and may be single or compound terms.
Keywords are descriptive words added to an image to enable search and retrieval. They describe what is visible in the image and concepts associated with the image. Keywords are expressed as a list of terms. Keywords can be single or compound terms.
Values from the controlled vocabulary IPTC Subject Codes should be placed into the "Subject Code" field.
Terms should only be added to the Keywords property when the terms which can not be expressed using other properties.
Examples of abstract keywords that can be used in the Keywords property:
Camera Viewpoint or Lens Effect
VERTICAL (top of image is aligned to the short side of rectangle)
CLOSE-UP
FISH-EYE
SELFIE
Rating/Ranking
TOPSHOTS
ESSENTIAL (Overview/Summary shots)
1ST-IMAGES (photo is of first images distributed from an event)
Conceptual/Emotion
INSPIRING
Dominant Color
BLUE
RED
Type of Image
COMBO (composite of more than one image)
ILLUSTRATION (illustrative image not directly related to current news content)
Thanks to Philippe Mougin of AFP who provided these real-world examples as an illustration.
Keywords may have to be separated by commas or other separators depending on the software. The field for each keyword is limited by the IIM format to about 64 characters. In XMP there is effectively no character limit.
IPTC Subject Code (Legacy)
This field can be used to specify and categorise the content of a photograph by using one or more subjects as listed in the IPTC "Subject NewsCodes" taxonomy (available from
). Each subject term is represented as a code of 8 digits in an unordered list. Only subjects from this controlled vocabulary should be used in this field, free text keywords should be entered into the Keyword field.
As this vocabulary is not maintained by IPTC since 2010 the use of this field is a legacy. For the classification of images use the IPTC Media Topics vocabulary now, see:
. For Media Topics the CV Term About Image field must be used - see it just below.
CV-Term About the Image
This field structure is a generic way to add one or more terms, themes or named entities to describe the image.
Multiple terms may be used; each term must be taken from an identified Controlled Vocabulary. Terms may be from different Controlled Vocabularies.
This CV field enables users to enter terms about the image from specific controlled vocabularies. Terms from one or more vocabularies may be entered.
The structure is:
CV Term Name
taken from a Controlled Vocabulary
CV Term ID
Unique identifier for the term in the Controlled Vocabulary.
CV ID
Unique identifier for the Controlled Vocabulary (often a URL).
Refined "About"
Optional: globally Unique identifier for a concept refining the ‘about' relationship between the image and the CV term. Example: the concept could stand for emotions shown by persons in the image.
Intellectual Genre (legacy)
A term to describe the nature of the image in terms of its intellectual or journalistic characteristics. The value should be a globally unique identifier of a term of a controlled vocabulary. The identifiers of the terms of the IPTC Genre vocabulary may be used
or other genre vocabularies more focused on photography.
The intellectual Genre can be expressed in a more controlled way using the "
Genre
" property, see below. IPTC recommends using that property instead of Intellectual Genre.
Genre (generic)
This field structure is a generic way to describe the genre of the photo with a value from any Controlled Vocabulary.
Multiple genre terms may be used; each term must be taken from an identified Controlled Vocabulary.
Genre Terms from one or more vocabularies may be entered.
The structure is:
CV Term Name
taken from a Controlled Vocabulary
CV Term ID
Unique identifier for the term in the Controlled Vocabulary.
CV ID
Unique identifier for the Controlled Vocabulary (often a URL).
Refined "About"
Optional: globally Unique identifier for a concept refining the kind of genre CV this term originates from. Example: the used genre CV is providing terms of journalistic genres, product genres, usage genres, etc.
IPTC Scene Code
This field is used to describe the scene of a photo using one or more terms from the IPTC "Scene-NewsCodes". You should only enter values from the IPTC Scene controlled vocabulary (available from
). Each IPTC Scene term is represented as a 6 digit numerical string in an unordered list.
Image Rating
Many professional photo applications have had a image rating feature for some time. These are typically shown as star ratings within a collection and are used to indicate the quality of an image; typically giving one star for entry-level photos, and reserving the higher numbered values for more special or unique images. Assigning a star rating as part of a workflow will make it easier to quickly find, sort, or filter out more valuable images from a grouping at a later point in time.
Photographers may use a method where any ‘keepers' from an assignment are given one star during an initial review. On a second pass they may give a two-star rating to those images deemed superior, or even three stars for those that are outstanding. These values may differ from what an agency or distributor uses, so they may be overwritten or re-evaluated. Some editors recommend that you think of this as a pyramid, with a 10 to 1 ratio between each level. This method will ensure you won’t end up with too many ‘special' photos in a collection.
To make sure you consistently apply the same image rating criteria each time, write down your rationale. Then put this text somewhere you can refer to each time you are editing.
Here is one photographer’s image rating rationale as an example:
0 stars = record shots, or don’t delete immediately (fall back images)
* = Entry level threshold achieved (in focus, exposure within reason)
** = Best shot from each scenario or take. (usually 1 or 2 selected for every 10 shots?)
*** = Stars of the collection, have or will prep to master files or client selects
**** = Show stoppers. These are the "Best in class" or, "cream of the crop"
***** = Reserved for future use…​ (which means it could be used for temporary tagging)
Note that the star rating is done by the user/supplier and there is no universal standard for the rating between systems/collections.
Natural Language Free Text Descriptions
Free-text descriptions provide valuable information about the image in human readable form.
Headline
A headline is a brief synopsis or summary of the contents of the photograph. Like a news story, the Headline should grab attention, and telegraph the content of the image to the audience. Headlines need to be succinct. Leave the supporting narrative for the Description field. Do not, however, confuse the Headline term with the Title term.
This field is limited by the IIM format to about 256 characters. In XMP there is effectively no character limit.
Description/Caption
The Description field, often referred to as a ‘caption', is used to describe the who, what (and possibly where and when) and why of what is happening in the photograph. It can include people’s names, their roles in the action, and location information. Geographic location details should also be entered in the Location fields. The amount of detail included will depend on the image and whether the image is documentary or conceptual. Typically, editorial images come with complete caption text, while advertising images may not.
The Description field should not be confused with the field for
Alt Text (Accessibility)
, see below.
This field is limited by the IIM format to about 2000 characters. In XMP there is effectively no character limit.
Alt Text (Accessibility)
This field is used to provide a brief textual description of the purpose and meaning of an image that can be accessed by assistive technology or displayed when the image is disabled in the browser. The purpose of Alt Text is to provide a text alternative that serves the equivalent purpose.
While there is effectively no character limitation for Alt Text, the best practice is to keep the description short (a couple of sentences) so that assistive technology users can quickly navigate images on a page. If more detail is required to provide a text alternative, use this field to provide a summary and
Extended Description (Accessibility)
to provide additional details about the image.
Some editing interfaces may indicate when a specific number of characters (about 250) is exceeded.
Alt Text may be hidden from view within the HTML coding of a website; this field is intended to be read out loud by text-to-speech and assistive technologies while the
Description/Caption
is often presented as a visible caption below the image and provides the facts about an image.
Alt Text is required for conformance with the
W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Success Criterion 1.1.1 Text Alternatives
This field should not be confused with the IPTC field
Headline
, which is a brief synopsis or summary of the contents of the image.
Top 5 Tips for Writing Alt Text
Be specific:
Effectively convey the visual message by describing all meaningful and relevant details.
Keep it short:
Be as brief as you can. Know when you need to write more for complex images.
Limit keywords:
Alt Text is definitely not for boosting SEO. Beware of SEO-focused alt text "shortcuts."
Don’t repeat information:
Don’t copy/paste or auto-populate from adjacent text on the page.
Incorporate context:
Alt Text must make sense and flow with the surrounding page content.
More information on accessibility can be found in the
Making images accessible for people with special needs
section in this guide.
Extended Description (Accessibility)
The Extended Description (Accessibility) field can be used to provide a more detailed textual description of the purpose and meaning of an image that elaborates on the information provided by the
Alt Text (Accessibility)
field. Extended Description (Accessibility) is not required if the Alt Text (Accessibility) field provides a text alternative that serves the equivalent purpose. It should not repeat the information in the Alt Text (Accessibility) property.
This property should not be confused with the IPTC property
Description/Caption
Be aware that this IPTC field does not support formatted text or HTML markup.
More information on accessibility can be found in the
Making images accessible for people with special needs
section in this guide.
Persons Depicted in the Image
For a specific person shown in the image several properties can be used:
Person shown in the image only - use the field
Person Shown
If the name, an identifier and a detailed description of the person is to be entered then the field structure
Person Shown with Details
should be used.
Persons in the image may also be entered in the caption and keyword fields.
There are other fields associated with persons depicted in the image:
Additional Model Information
Model Age
Minor Model Age Disclosure
Model Release Status
Model Release Identifiers
Read also about metadata for specific content on pages about
general image content
locations
or
other things
(organisations, events, products,
artwork, objects).
Person Shown in the Image
Use this field to note the name of a person or persons shown in the image. Typically these would be recorded as they would be typed in a query, first name / last name (given name / surname).
Person Shown in the Image, with Details
Use this field structure to record details about each relevant and recognisable person(s) shown in the image. This might include links to a global online resource which lists the person uniquely with an identifier. There are fields to record physical characteristics and other details to help distinguish this person from others in the image.
These details are useful for identifying and distinguishing this person from others in the image.
Name
Use this field to note the name of a person or persons shown in the image. Typically, these would be recorded as they would be typed in a query, first name / last name (given name / surname).
Identifier
Use this field to enter one or more Globally Unique Identifier(s) for the person, such as those from WikiData or Freebase. This should be entered in the form of a URI.
Characteristics
Use this field structure including CV Term Name, CV Term ID, CV ID and Refined ‘About' for properties or traits of the person by selecting a term from a Controlled Vocabulary (CV).
Description
A free-text description of any actions taken, as well as any gestures or emotional expressions shown, by the person shown in the image.
Additional Model Information
The Additional Model Information field can be used to record information about the ethnicity and other facets of the person(s) ("model(s)") appearing in the image. Use the Model Age field to note the age of model(s).
Model Age
Age of the human model(s) at the time this image was taken in a model released image. If there is more than one model in the image, the ages can be listed in any order.
The user should be aware of any legal implications of providing ages for young models.
Minor Model Age Disclosure
Age of the youngest model pictured in the image, at the time that the image was made.
The user should be aware of any legal implications of providing ages for young models.
The identifier of one of these possible terms can be applied as value to the field:
Age Unknown
Identifier:
Age 25 or Over
Identifier:
Age 24
Identifier:
Age 23
Identifier:
Age 22
Identifier:
Age 21
Identifier:
Age 20
Identifier:
Age 19
Identifier:
Age 18
Identifier:
Age 17
Identifier:
Age 16
Identifier:
Age 15
Identifier:
Age 14 or Under
Identifier:
Model Release Status
This field summarises the availability and scope of model releases authorising usage of the likenesses of persons appearing in the photograph.
The identifier of one of these possible terms can be applied as value to the field:
None
- no release is available
Identifier:
Not Applicable
- there are no recognisable people in the image
Identifier:
Unlimited Model Releases
- releases are available for all people in the image, AND the terms of each release authorise unlimited usage of the model(s) likenesses
Identifier:
Limited or Incomplete Model Releases
- there are releases for some of the people in the image, OR one or more of the releases include terms limiting usage of model(s) likenesses
Identifier:
We recommend that the PLUS controlled value Unlimited Model Releases (MR-UMR) be used sparingly, and encourage you to check the wording of the model release thoroughly before choosing this value.
Model Release Identifier(s)
Use this field to indicate the ID of each available Model Release document. Be sure to give a unique number or name to all releases, and record that information in this field. If you don’t already include an ID name/number on your releases, consider adding one as this will make it easier to cross reference.
Read about Property Releases in the section about Rights Information.
Locations
The original ‘Location' fields in IPTC (Core) do not distinguish between the location where the image was created and the location shown in the image. The IPTC Location Created and Location Shown field structures were added later to remove this ambiguity.
When populating the Location fields, it is good practice to start with the sublocation which is at the lowest level of the location hierarchy. The wider Location terms define the position of the sublocation.
Read also about metadata for specific content on pages about
general image content
persons
or
other things
(organisations, events, products,
artwork, objects).
All location field structures use the following geographic hierarchy:
Sublocation
This could be the name of a specific area within a city (Manhattan) or the name of a well-known location (Pyramids of Giza) or a monument or natural feature outside a city (Grand Canyon, Mont Blanc Peak)
The area covered by Sublocation may differ for the two types of location. For Location Created, the sublocation might be derived from the Exif GPS coordinates of the camera. In general, the Location Shown should specify the area of interest shown in the image, which is a broader area e.g. The Vosges Mountains.
City
The name of the city or town or nearest human settlement such as village. If there is no data for ‘city', leave the field blank and enter details in sublocation and other fields in the hierarchy.
State/Province
The name of the State or Province or other sub-region of a country. Use of the full name, rather than the abbreviation, is advisable for international audiences.
Country
The name of the country.
Country Code
Country codes are two or three letter upper-case codes as defined by the ISO 3166 standard.
The codes are available from:
. If both the Country and Country Code fields are used, the Country Code is the authoritative reference. Most photo businesses use the 3 letter code.
World Region
The name of the region of the world.
The location fields above are limited by the IIM format to about 32 characters. In XMP there is effectively no character limit.
The
IPTC Extension schema structure
used for Location Created and Location Show has these
additional fields
GPS-Latitude and GPS-Longitude
These fields take the latitude and the longitude of the location. How to write down the values depends on the user interface of your software. The generic rules are:
a numeric value for the degrees, for the minutes and for the seconds can be used. The seconds may a decimal value.
OR a decimal value can be used: the integer part represents the degrees, the fractional part the minutes and seconds.
East or west of the 0-degree meridian:
Variant 1: east: a positive longitude value; west: a negative longitude value
Variant 2: A single character field with values like E(ast) and W(est)
North or south of the equator:
Variant 1: north: a positive latitude value, south: a negative latitude value
Variant 2: As single character field with values like N(orth) and S(outh)
GPS-Altitude
The altitude of the location above or below sea level using the unit metres, expressed as decimal value. An altitude below sea level is expressed by a negative value by the user interface of a majority of software, a single character field may be used as alternative.
Name
Full name of the location. Using it helps if the location as a well known name like "Buckingham Palast", "Grand Canyon" or "Suez Canal".
Identifier
Globally unique identifier of this location. Can be taken e.g. from Wikidata:
identifies the Suez Canal.
Location (Original/Legacy)
The legacy Location fields - in most cases shown as sequence of stand-alone fields - are widely understood to express the location shown in the image. They can be used where it is important to display the location values in software which does not read Location Created and Location Shown field structures. Some software applications copy data from the Location fields to the field structure ‘Location Shown.'
Location Created
The location where the image was created.
Use this field structure to specifically record the location where the photo was taken. If the location shown in the image is different from the location where the photo was taken then the IPTC field structure ‘Location Shown in the Image' should be used to note the difference. For example, if you are photographing a mountain with a telephoto lens from a distance, you may be standing on the other side of a state or even country border.
Location Shown in Image
This field structure describes the location shown in the image. Where the subject of the image is in a different location to the camera the values should differ from those in ‘Location Created'.
Other Things Shown in the Image
IPTC supports metadata about typically annotated things in an image:
* Organisations
* Events covered by the image
* Products
* Artwork or objects in an image
Read also about metadata for specific content on pages about
general image content
persons
locations
or
other things
(organisations, events, products,
artwork, objects).
Organisations (including companies) featured by the image
Featured organisations can be described by name and code:
Featured Organisation Name
The name of the organisation or company featured in or associated with the image. For example, an image of people at an event may list the organising or sponsoring company as a featured organisation.
Featured Organisation Code
A code from a known controlled vocabulary for identifying the organisation or company featured in the image. E.g. The stock ticker symbol would list Microsoft as MSFT or Adobe as ADBE. The code is not linked in this field specifically to the Organisation Name in the data structure, but it serves as an additional search term if necessary.
Event
The Event field describes a specific named event associated with the image, e.g. Archimedes press conference, The Great Steamboat Race, Maui Classical Music Festival. Sub events of larger events can be included as in: XXXI Olympic Summer Games (Rio): opening ceremony.
In 2023 the field
Event Indentifier
was introduced to add a unique identifier to the event. Example: the URL of a page about the event can be used as identifier.
Product Shown in the Image
The Product Shown field structure is used to describe one to many products depicted by the image. The
name
of the product and a textual
description
can be applied to the corresponding fields. To identify the product a single 14 digit
GTIN
(Global Trade Item Number) of the product should be applied to the GTIN field, GTIN-8 to GTIN-14 codes can be used too. For identifiers beyond GTIN the field
Identifier
can be used, multiple may be applied - it should be a globally unique identifier as used by semantic technology.
Artwork or Object in the Image
This field structure is used to record information about artworks or other objects in the image, and includes descriptive, administrative and rights information. This category covers paintings, sculptures, objects, and other items of interest for cultural heritage such as archaeological finds.
Title (AO)
The textual title of the work, or reference name. Do not confuse this with the Title field for the image showing this artwork or object.
Content Description (AO)
Free-text description of the content depicted in the artwork or object e.g. View of the Rhine River in Cologne.
Contribution Description (AO)
Contributions made to the artwork or object expressed as free-text. This can include find, restoration, engraving, or any contribution not included under the work ‘Creator'. Include the type, date and location of contribution, and details about the contributor.
Physical Description (AO)
The physical characteristics of the artwork or object as free-text. Object type, materials-techniques and measurements may be described but not content of the artwork or object, for which there is the Content Description field.
Date Created (AO)
The date (and optionally the time) that artworks or objects in the image were created. Please note that historical dates (before about 1900) may be handled differently by different operating systems and/or software versions and the same holds for partial dates such as year only. It may be advisable to also enter dates before that year in the Circa Date Created field. Do not confuse this field value with the Date Created field for the image showing this artwork or object.
Circa Date Created (AO)
A free text field for use where the exact date of creation of the artwork or object is unknown. An approximate date is entered in text rather than date format e.g. ‘ca 1900', ‘19th century'
Style Period (AO)
Free-text field for style, historical or artistic period, movement, group, or school describing the artwork or object.
Creator (AO)
Name of the creator of the artwork or other objects in the image. Where the artist cannot or should not be identified, the name of a company or organisation may be used. Do not confuse this field value with the Creator of the image showing this artwork or object.
Creator ID (AO)
Globally unique identifier for the creator of the artwork or object in the image. For example use an identifier issued by an online registry of persons or companies.
Multiple IDs should be entered in the same sequence as the creator names.
Do not confuse this field value with the Creator Id of the Image Creator of the image showing this artwork or object.
Source (AO)
Name of the organisation or body that holds or has registered the artwork or object for inventory purposes.
Source Inventory Number (AO)
Inventory number issued by the Source, for example an accession number.
Source Inventory URL (AO)
URL supplied by the Source for the online metadata record.
Copyright Notice (AO)
Copyright notice for claiming the intellectual property for the artwork or object in the image. It should identify the current owner of the copyright and associated intellectual property rights.
Do not confuse this field value with the Copyright Notice of the image showing this artwork or object.
Current Copyright Owner Name (AO)
Name of the current owner of the copyright in the artwork or object.
Do not confuse this field value with the Name field of the Copyright Owner of the image showing this artwork or object.
Current Copyright Owner ID (AO)
A globally unique identifier for the current copyright owner e.g. issued by an online registry of persons or companies.
Do not confuse this field value with the Identifier field of the Copyright Owner of the image showing this artwork or object.
Current Licensor Name (AO)
Name of the current licensor of the artwork or object.
Do not confuse this field value with the Name field of the Licensor of the image showing this artwork or object.
Current Licensor ID (AO)
A globally unique identifier for the current licensor e.g. issued by an online registry of persons or companies.
Do not confuse this field value with the Identifier field of the Licensor of the image showing this artwork or object.
Rights Information
This section is about how to record rights information for an image.
Read also the section about
Licensing Use of the Image
Metadata and the Law
Be aware that values assigned to rights-related metadata fields - including fields about licensing – of an image may be affected
by laws and other regulations of the region in which the image is used, and/or
by contracts applying to the image.
These fields can be affected:
Copyright Notice
Credit Line
Rights Usage Terms
Copyright Owner
Data Mining
Other Constraints
Embedded Encoded Rights Expressions
Linked Encoded Rights Expressions
Model Release Status
Property Release Status
Web Statement of Rights
Artwork or Object in the Image
: Copyright Notice, Current Copyright Owner
Creator - overview
The creator of the image as owner of rights can be identified by two fields:
Creator
a free text field for the name of the Creator and
Image Creator
a field structure including the name of the Creator and an identifier for the Creator.
IPTC recommends using the older Creator name only field for all images. The newer field structure (Name and ID) should be used in addition to this, when a Creator identifier is available.
Creator data saved in these fields should not be altered over time.
The Image Creator, Copyright Owner, Image Supplier and Licensor may be the same or different entities.
Creator (free text)
Name of the creator of the image. Where the artist cannot or should not be identified, the name of a company or organisation may be use.
This field is limited by the IIM format to about 32 characters. In XMP there is effectively no character limit.
This field is shown in the Image Credits of a photo in the results of a Google image search.
Image Creator (structure)
This field can be used to indicate the creator or creators of the image by name and identifier.
Creator’s Job Title
The job title of the person who created the photograph. For examples this might include titles such as: Staff Photographer, Independent Commercial Photographer, or staff writer. Since this is a qualifier for the Creator field, the Creator field must also be filled out.
This field is limited by the IIM format to about 32 characters. In XMP there is effectively no character limit.
Creator’s Contact Info
The Contact Info fields provide a generic structure for storing contact information for the person or organisation that created this image.
Address (CCI)
The address field is a multi-line field. Enter the street name and number or postbox to which mail should be sent, and a company name or location (building name, floor number) if necessary.
City (CCI)
The name of the city in which the primary contact’s business is located.
State/ Province (CCI)
The State or Province in which the primary contact’s business is located. For clarity, it is best to use the full name rather than the abbreviation.
Postal Code (CCI)
The local postal code (such as ZIP code) in which the primary contact’s business is located.
Country (CCI)
The name of the country (or ISO Country Code) in which the primary contact’s business is located.
Phone(s) (CCI)
The primary contact’s business or work telephone number. Multiple numbers can be given, separated by a comma. Be sure to include the complete international format of a phone number which is: +{countrycode} ({regional code}) {phone number} - {extension if required}
e.g. +1 (212) 1234578
Email(s) (CCI)
The primary contact’s business or work email address, such as
name@domain.com
. Multiple email addresses can be given, separated by a comma.
Website(s) (CCI)
The URL or web address for the primary contact’s business. Multiple addresses can be given, separated by a comma.
Contributor
Some images have multiple people (or systems) contributing to their creation. For example a fashion shoot may have a stylist, wardrobe manager, hair and make-up artists and more. A photo in a cookbook may have a food stylist. These people did not take the photo, but they contributed to its creation.
Indicate a contributor using name and identifier.
In addition the kind of contribution can be expressed by a value from a vocabulary of roles of persons contributiong to an image - it should be based on industry wide practices.
IPTC provides such a vocabulary at
We recommend using the
Product Shown in the Image
property, optionally as part of an
Image Region
, to list details of product(s) such as handbags or pairs of shoes featured in an image.
Copyright Notice
The Copyright Notice contains information required to assert copyright in the image and should contain the name of the current copyright holder, whether an individual or a company. The format will differ according to the relevant copyright legislation. It may include the copyright symbol ©, the year of publication, and other commonly used terms such as ‘All Rights Reserved.' If an image is Public Domain, it can be indicated here.
For legal advice on asserting copyright, you should consult a lawyer.
Notes on usage rights (how the image may be used) should be provided in the "Rights Usage Terms" field.
This field is limited by the IIM format to about 128 characters. In XMP there is effectively no character limit.
This field is shown in the Image Credits of a photo in the results of a Google image search.
Values for this field may be overruled by agreement, law or policy. See
Metadata and the Law
Copyright Owner
Indicate the owner or owners of the copyright in the image, using name and identifier. Note that Copyright Owner, Image Creator, Image Source and Licensor may be the same or different entities.
Values for this field may be overruled by agreement, law or policy. See
Metadata and the Law
Credit Line
The Credit Line shows how the image should be credited when published, as specified by the supplier of the image. The format varies for different suppliers and may contain: Agency Name, Photographer Name, Rights assertions. E.g. Agency/Photographer; © Photographer; Museum/Artist
The Credit Line may contain information also listed in other fields such as Creator, Copyright Notice, Supplier.
In IPTC Core version 1.0 this field was named 'Provider'.
This field is limited by the IIM format to about 32 characters. In XMP there is effectively no character limit.
This field is shown as Image Credits of a photo in the results of a Google image search.
Values for this field may be overruled by agreement, law or policy. See
Metadata and the Law
Source (Supply Chain)
The Source field is used to name parties with a role in the supply chain, such as agencies, originating organisations, or photographers. The Source field is useful for syndication where the original supplier agency or photographer is different from the end supplier.
Before the IPTC Photo Metadata Standard 2014 the semantics of this field were restricted to the original copyright owner of the image.)
This field is limited by the IIM format to about 32 characters. In XMP there is effectively no character limit.
Data Mining
Use this field to communicate whether data mining is prohibited or allowed either in general, for AI or Machine Learning purposes or for generative AI/ML purposes for your image. You can select one value from the standardised controlled list to express data mining permissions, constraints and prohibitions.
Values for this field — such as those related to search indexing or research — may be overruled by agreement, law or policy. See
Metadata and the Law
This field’s value must come from the PLUS Data Mining vocabulary, which is shown here:
Name: Unspecified – no prohibition defined
Identifier:
Name: Allowed
Identifier:
Name: Prohibited for AI/ML training
Identifier:
Name: Prohibited for Generative AI/ML training
Identifier:
Name: Prohibited except for search engine indexing
Note
: This prohibition only permits data mining by search engines available to the public to identify the URL for an asset and its associated data (for the purpose of assisting the public in navigating to the URL for the asset), and prohibits all other uses, such as AI/ML training.
Identifier:
Name: Prohibited
Identifier:
Name: Prohibited, see property.
Note
: The
Other Constraints
field must be populated if this value is set.
Identifier:
Name: Prohibited, see Embedded Encoded Rights Expression field
Identifier:
Name: Prohibited, see Linked Encoded Rights Expression field
Identifier:
The
Other Constraints
field can be used to express rights constraints in human-readable form. The IPTC properties "Embedded Encoded Rights Expression" and "Linked Encoded Rights Expression" can be used to express rights in a machine-readable format.
Other Constraints
This field can specify, in a human-readable form, what other constraints may need to be followed. For example this property could be used to allow Data Mining under special constraints, such as “Generative AI training is only allowed for academic purposes.”
This property must be populated if the
Data Mining
field uses the identifier
Values for this field may be overruled by agreement, law or policy. See
Metadata and the Law
Property Release Status
This field summarises the availability and scope of property releases for the photograph.
The identifier of one these possible terms can be applied as value to the field:
None
- no release is available
Identifier:
Not Applicable
- there are no items requiring a property release in the image
Identifier:
Unlimited Property Releases
- releases are available for all property shown in the image
Identifier:
Limited or Incomplete Property Releases
- there are releases for some property shown in the image but not for all
Identifier:
We recommend that the PLUS specified value Unlimited Property Releases (PR-UPR) be used with care, and encourage you to check the wording of the property release thoroughly before choosing this value.
Values for this field may be overruled by agreement, law or policy. See
Metadata and the Law
Property Release Identifier(s)
Use this field to indicate the ID of each available Property Release document. Be sure to give a unique number or name to all releases, and record that information in this field. If you don’t already include an ID name/number on your releases, consider adding one as this will make it easier to cross reference.
Read about Model Releases in the section about persons in an image.
Web Statement of Rights
The Web Statement of Rights can be used to link the viewer to a web page (by a URL) which provides a statement of the copyright ownership and usage rights of the image. In the Adobe ‘File Info' panel this field is called the ‘Copyright Info URL.'
Values for this field may be overruled by agreement, law or policy. See
Metadata and the Law
Licensing Use of the Image
This section provides fields for information required when licensing an image.
Read also the section about
rights information
Please read
Metadata and the Law
Rights Usage Terms
This field is for free-text instructions on how the image may be legally used. E.g. ‘Permission is required from (Supplier or Creator) to publish this image' or ‘Licensed to (Customer) for use in (publication) until (date)'.
For more detailed licensing terms, you may use the PLUS ‘Media Selector', or another standardised vocabulary. This field may also be used to indicate a Creative Commons Licence assigned to the image.
Values for this field may be overruled by agreement, law or policy. See
Metadata and the Law
Image Supplier
This field structure identifies the most recent supplier of the image. This may be the copyright owner, creator, or another party in the supply chain, such as an agency or other distributor. This field structure may also be used for parties with a role known as provider.
Image Supplier Name
Name of the image supplier.
Image Supplier ID
The Image Supplier may optionally be identified here by a recognised ID such as the PLUS ID or company URL.
Supplier’s Image ID
The ID assigned to the image by the Image Supplier. Not to be confused with the Image Supplier ID, which identifies the supplier, not the image!
Licensor
This field structure holds contact details for the person or entity authorised to licence the image. It includes Name, Identifier, Phone number, Fax Number, Email address, Web address. Up to 3 licensors may be entered.
Encoded Rights Expressions
A machine readable rights expression may include all or some of the terms and conditions of a licensing agreement. It communicates key information such as permissions, constraints and duties to allow for informed decisions as to how, where and when an image may be distributed to end users.
The Rights Expression may be included in two different ways:
by embedding a serialized expression into the image file
by a link to a web resource holding the expression
Embedded Encoded Rights Expressions
This structure holds encoded rights expressions. The values are created by software outside the panel, using standardised rights expression languages such as MPEG 21, ODRL or RightsML.
Encoded Rights Expression
Contains a sequence of characters representing the rights expression.
Encoding Type
Contains the encoding type for the rights expression using an IANA Media Type
Rights Expression Language ID
Contains the identifier for the Rights Expression Language used.
Values for this field may be overruled by agreement, law or policy. See
Metadata and the Law
Linked Encoded Rights Expressions
This structure holds details of encoded rights expressions referenced by a link.
Link to the Encoded Rights Expression
A URL for a rights expression from a specific Rights Expression Language
Encoding Type
Contains the encoding type of the rights expression using an IANA Media Type.
Rights Expression Language ID
Contains the identifier of the Rights Expression Language used.
Values for this field may be overruled by agreement, law or policy. See
Metadata and the Law
Administration and Commissioning Details
Date Created
This field records the date and optionally the time the image was created. This can be derived from the Exif DateTimeOriginal if that is supported by the software. If you change a shown Date Created value this can also change this corresponding Exif tag - depending on your software.
Description Writer
The name of the most recent person(s) involved in creating, editing or correcting the entries for the Description, Alt Text (Accessibility), or Extended Description (Accessibility) fields of the image. There may be more than one person writing descriptions for the image. In this case, make sure to specify the descriptions each writer worked on. For example, Description: Jane Doe; Alt Text and Extended Description: John Doe.
This field is limited by the IIM format to about 32 characters. In XMP there is effectively no character limit.
Title
A short human readable reference for the image. It can be a text reference or a numeric reference, and serves primarily as an identifier. The Title field has often been used by photographers for the image filename, but now IPTC provides specific fields for image IDs including the Supplier’s Image ID, The Digital Image GUID, and the Registry Entry fields. The Title field should not be confused with the Headline field which is a short descriptive field about the content of an image, or with the AO Title field which contains the title of the artwork or object in the the image.
This field is limited by the IIM format to about 64 characters. In XMP there is effectively no character limit.
Job Identifier
A number or textual identifier for the job for which the image was supplied. This field can allow job information to be tracked through the workflow.
This field is named ‘Transmission Reference' in the IIM but its use has changed as reflected by this name after the adoption by Adobe Photoshop.
This field is limited by the IIM format to about 32 characters. In XMP there is effectively no character limit.
Instructions
A free text field for instructions to the receiver from the creator or supplier of the image. Instructions may include details of embargoes, restrictions, or any other rights or technical information needed for the end use. Be aware that there are more specific rights expressions fields (see Rights Information and Licensing sections) which can be used.
Image Registry Entry
A field structure used to describe a registry entry for the image. The record must include identifiers for the registry and the registered item as below:
Registry Organisation Identifier
Globally unique identifier for the registry issuing the ID for the image. The identifier may be textual or numeric and is usually a URL e.g.
Registry Item Identifier
A unique identifier created and held within the registry identified above.
Role
An identifier of the reason and/or purpose for this Registry Entry. The identifier must be a URL (URI). Examples: "major registry of this photo", "alternative registry of this photo", "national registry of photos", etc.
Max Avail Width/Height
These fields together define the maximum image size in pixel dimensions available from the original image (which may have been downsized).
Digital Source Type
This field indicates the media source from which the digital image was created. The values are taken from a controlled list, available at
. See
Guidance for using Digital Source Type
in this document for more details.
Digital Image GUID
A globally unique identifier (GUID) for the digital image. The identifier, may be created by technical equipment such as camera or scanner as early as possible in the workflow. The creation of the identifier must comply with the technical requirements for a GUID, and should ideally identify the equipment used. Once entered, the GUID should not be changed.
Image Regions
Introduction
You can use the IPTC Image Region to record details for designated areas within a still photo using rectangles, circles and polygons. You can give each image region a name and an identifier (if desired) and note what type of role (see
IPTC’s CV
) the region plays and the type of content (see
IPTC’s CV
) within that region. (The use of both IPTC CVs is recommended but not mandatory.)
There are many times when you need to identify people within an image. This can be difficult especially when all the people don’t line up in nice ‘left-to-right’ rows. The Image Region feature gives you a way to: isolate each person’s face or body in an image (using a rectangle, circle or polygon), give it an identifier and name, indicate that the marked area is a
subject area
and indicate that the type of content is a
human
. Finally add the IPTC field
Person Shown in Image
to the Image Region with the name of the framed person.
If you create photo composites, the IPTC Image Region can be used to identify each of the different entities making up the composite and tie the provider’s name or copyright notice back to each.
Suggestions for how the image could be cropped to accommodate different layouts can now be embedded into the image itself. For example, you could mark a horizontal rectangle within a vertical image and indicate that the role for this marked area is a
"landscape format cropping"
for that image.
It should be possible to automatically map the face-tagging features in some cameras to the IPTC Image Regions so you would only have to add the name of the person to the regions. In addition, auto-tagging or image recognition systems could create image regions and auto-fill the embedded Image Region metadata fields.
This is a new feature, so it’s quite likely that there are other use cases which haven’t even been thought of yet. Talk to your software developers and ask them to implement this feature, and share with them your ideas for how you intend to use the IPTC Image Regions.
Image Regions - Under the Hood
Read on if you are planning to implement Image Regions into your software, or are simply curious about what needs to happen under the hood to make the IPTC Image Regions feature work properly.
Metadata for one to many image regions can be embedded in the image files. In time, this data should be read automatically and could be transformed into data displaying the shapes of the regions within an HTML page or in special software. These image region boundaries could be shown in a layer over or above the image and should be identified by the color of the boundary or by an identifier shown next to the boundary. Additional details about each image region should be shown in the same page/view—either outside the image (with it identified as a reference) or when hovering the mouse over an image region.
The IPTC Image Region specification allows these various facets of the metadata to be embedded right after having set the boundaries and included details. However, during the lifecycle of an image its size and format may be changed and this requires that the software used to monitor image changes properly understands and updates these Image Region values each time changes are made. For example if you have a horizontal image with four people shown, and set Image Regions around the face of each person; then software used later to crop the image to a square needs to know which people have been removed by cropping and to adjust the coordinates of Image Regions of the persons remaining in the image as well as update/modify the metadata values and embed the values appropriately. If such adjustments are not made the boundaries of Image Regions may appear in the wrong positions and could even be invalid as coordinates may exceed the current width or height of an image.
If images are cropped or resized and if the coordinates of the boundary of an Image Region are not adjusted it is very likely that they no longer frame the intended region. Therefore, if an Image Region asserts to be about a male person and the boundary touches or encompasses a female person one can assume that the image region is no longer valid.
As IPTC Image Regions employ and rely upon coordinates expressed by relative size values or pixel count, Image Region metadata is vulnerable to corruption (rendering the metadata inaccurate) should any of the following changes occur:
Cropping (if the Point Zero of the coordinates is changed, all x- and y-axis values must be adjusted and any Image Region no longer part of the image must be removed)
Resampling (if using a pixel count for coordinates when expressing width, height and radius of an Image Region these values must follow the resampling ratio. If these metadata fields are expressed using relative size values no adjustment is required)
Resizing (if using a pixel count for coordinates when expressing width, height and radius of an Image Region these values must follow the scale of resizing. If these metadata fields are expressed using relative size values no adjustment is required)
Rotating (if the Orientation Tag is used, no change of Image Region data is required)
If images are changed in artistic actions like resizing width and height differently or ‘stirring’ the pixels with an artistic filter IPTC recommends to remove the Image Regions as it may be very hard or impossible to adjust the boundary of Image Regions and the goal for the image may have changed from providing facts to providing artistic work.
In addition, if Image Region metadata has been applied to a composite image (an image made up of two or more images), then Image Region metadata is vulnerable to corruption (rendering the metadata inaccurate) should any of the following changes occur to the various elements:
Adding additional elements in a composite image
Removing elements in a composite image
Shifting position/location of elements in a composite image
Resizing portions of a composite image
Adding or removing borders
The IPTC invites and encourages developers to create solutions designed to allow IPTC Image Regions to survive image alterations. At the time of this feature release no such solutions are available. In the interim the IPTC recommends that users exercise caution in relying upon the IPTC Image Regions to identify or express metadata regarding people, objects or other subject matter appearing in a photograph, as this data may be inaccurate.
In particular, to mitigate legal liability, IPTC recommends that users exercise extreme caution if/when using the IPTC Image Regions to express rights-related information pertaining to any element/s of a photograph (such as copyright, property rights or model release information).
Note about the Exif SubjectArea and the IPTC Image Region
From 2020 to the end of 2023 this section had a guideline for mapping data between the IPTC Image Region and the Exif SubjectArea. Unfortunately this mapping was built on the assumption Exif’s SubjectArea may be used for metadata about what this area shows, e.g. the name of a person or an object. This assumption was wrong and therefore the guideline about this mapping was removed in 2023. Please do not map between the IPTC Image Region and the Exif SubjectArea.
What is a …​ (help)
What is a Field / Field Structure / Property?
Data about an image - the metadata - can be expressed in a single field, or in a field structure.
Single field
One value is sufficient to express the desired information. Examples: Date Created, Description, Copyright Notice
Field structure
Multiple values are used to express different facets of the information. Example: Facets such as city, province or state, country and world region are used to pinpoint a specific Location and remove any ambiguity.
A metadata property is the generic term for a field or field structure used as defined particle of metadata.
What is a Value List / Controlled Vocabulary?
The value of a photo metadata field can be selected and applied in two basic ways:
Free (text) value
The person editing a field can type in anything appropriate, no formal limitations or limitations in available values apply. Typical examples are the Description, the Headline or the Copyright Notice fields.
Already defined value
The person editing a field can only select one or more out of many already defined values. Such a set of values is called a
value list
or in the case of a specific authority managing this list a
controlled vocabulary
. Typical examples are the Country Code, the Subject Code, or the Digital Source Type fields. Actually also date fields can be considered as picking a value from a predefined list.
What is an ISO Country Code?
The International Standards Organisation - ISO, www.iso.org - defines among many other standards also codes representing country names as ISO 3166 standard. In the IPTC Country Code field country names can be presented by a two-letter, a three-letter, but not the numeric code defined by ISO.
A full list of currently defined country names in English and French can be obtained from
. Note that the codes of country names not existing anymore, e.g. Czechoslovakia or Yugoslavia, are not shown on this list.
What is a Model or Property Release?
For many assets its owner has the right to decide if a picture of it may be published or not.
A Model Release is a document granting the right to use an image of a person depicted. The law on the rights of people shown in images varies in different countries, but use of a model release is essential in some fields of photography, and the release should detail the scope of the intended use.
A Property Release is a documents granting the right to use an image of an object depicted, mainly used for images of buildings and interiors.
For legal advice on both types of releases, you should consult a lawyer.
What is IIM?
IIM stands for Information Interchange Model. An IPTC metadata standard created in 1991 which defines a rich set of metadata properties and a format for embedding values into binary files. A subset of the properties was adopted by Adobe for the File Info panels of Photoshop and other software. Find more about it at www.iptc.org/IIM
What is PLUS?
The Picture License Universal System (PLUS) is a rich set of metadata for expressing usage rights and licenses for images. Find more about it at
. The IPTC Photo Metadata Standard has adopted some of them, e.g. Image Creator, Copyright Owner or Licensor.
Note about identifiers of PLUS' entity properties: it is advised to use there globally unique identifiers issued by publicly accessible organisations or registries. Only if no such identifier is available a simple text string may be used.
What is XMP?
XMP stands for Extensible Metadata Platform. Created by Adobe Systems Inc. in 2001 as data format for metadata fields. The data can be embedded into binary files or be saved as external sidecar files. XMP as such does not define any metadata properties/fields, they are defined by special schemas which make use of XMP. Some of these schemas are maintained by Adobe, many others by other standardisation bodies like the IPTC. Find more about XMP at
Help on Specific Topics
This section provides views with more details on topics which were mentioned in the generic part of the user guide.
Recommended Minimal Set of Metadata Properties
IPTC is often asked which fields should be filled out as a minimum.
IPTC has selected the following set of properties as a guide to the minimum requirement:
Description/Caption
Creator/Image Creator*
Copyright Owner*
Copyright Notice
Credit line
Date Created - in many cases present at least as Exif value
*) For these properties also use an identifier if available.
By defining this set of minimal metadata properties IPTC does not support any removal of existing metadata outside this set without the explicit permission of the copyright owner of the image. (In simple words: this is not a permission to strip off metadata and is not legal advice.)
Fundamental Guidelines for the Preservation of Embedded Metadata
The IPTC endorses and strongly recommends adherence to the five guiding principles of the "Embedded Metadata Manifesto":
Metadata is essential to describe, identify and track digital media and should be applied to all media items which are exchanged as files or by other means such as data streams.
All people handling digital media need to recognise the crucial role of metadata for business. This involves more than just sticking labels on a media item. The knowledge required to describe the content comprehensively and concisely and the clear assertion of intellectual ownership increase the value of the asset. Adding metadata to media items is an imperative for each and every professional workflow.
Media file formats should provide the means to embed metadata in ways that can be read and handled by different software systems.
Exchanging media items is still done to a large extent by transmitting files containing the media content and in many cases this is the only (technical) way of communicating between the supplier and the consumer. To support the exchange of metadata with content it is a business requirement that file formats embed metadata within the digital file. Other methods like sidecar files are potentially exposed to metadata loss.
Metadata fields, their semantics (including labels on the user interface) and values, should not be changed across metadata formats.
The type of content information carried in a metadata field, and the values assigned, should not depend on the technology used to embed metadata into a file. If multiple technologies are available for embedding the same field the software vendors must guarantee that the values are synchronised across the technologies without causing a loss of data or ambiguity.
Copyright management information metadata must never be removed from the files.
Information identifying the image, the creator, the owner and associated rights is the only way to save digital content from being considered orphaned work. Removal of such metadata impacts on the ability to assert ownership rights and is therefore forbidden by law in many countries.
Other metadata should only be removed from files by agreement with their copyright holders.
Properly selected and applied metadata fields add value to media assets. For most collections of digital media content descriptive metadata is essential for retrieval and for understanding. Removing this valuable information devalues the asset.
Dates and times and different software
The way dates are displayed is dependent on software and on computer operating system settings.
The XMP specification allows the following date entries, though not all software products reflect and support this.
year only (if the month and day are unclear)
year and month only (if the day is unclear)
full date
full date with time, including time zone.
Time and time zone information are not obligatory, but if a time value is added, time zone should also be recorded. If no time zone is added, the software should supply a default value.
Exif currently does not hold time zone information in its time stamp. A time zone must be entered when importing Exif time information into an XMP field. Most software will apply the local time zone of the receiving computer system, so this should be checked if the image was created in a different time zone.
Metadata values shown multiple times
Some values may appear multiple times within software panels or tabs. This data is stored in only one location in the image file, but appears in the tabs for different schemas which use it as a ‘shared field'.
For example, in Adobe products data entered in the IPTC Creator field also appears in the Author field in the Description Panel. If a change is made to the data in any tab or panel, that change is replicated in the other locations.
Making images accessible for people with special needs
People with special visual needs, such as those who are blind or have low vision, use assistive technologies such as screen readers to navigate text and image content on the web. If a textual description is not provided for an image, assistive technologies will skip over the image as if it doesn’t exist on the page.
Text alternatives are required to meet
W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Success Criterion 1.1.1 Text Alternatives
Adding descriptive text metadata to images enables software tools and technologies to populate alt text and extended description fields on websites and digital documents. Embedding accessible descriptions provides a method for efficiently passing information across products and platforms and improves the accuracy and availability of image descriptions on the web.
Alt Text (Accessibility)
and
Extended Description (Accessibility)
were added to the IPTC Photo Metadata Standard to make it easier to embed descriptive metadata that can be used to create more accessible websites or digital products. These are found in the
Natural Language Free Text Descriptions
section above.
In the past some may have used Description/Caption to populate Alt Text or Long Description (Extended Description is a more recent term) for websites and digital products, Alt Text (Accessibility) and/or Extended Description (Accessibility) should be used instead.
IPTC Photo Metadata and Google Images
Google has introduced a new feature of their "image search" mode in 2018. When an image is shown, one can click on "Image Credits" and a popup will show the image’s creator, credit line and a copyright notice. It works by reading the corresponding embedded IPTC photo metadata fields from the image file. The name of the creator, the copyright notices and the credit line is shown.
IPTC is taking the opportunity to show the best way that each metadata field can be filled in based on the definitions in the standard.
What fields to use, and what to put in them
Google displays three IPTC photo metadata fields, wherever available, for an image shown as search result. This tells the viewer who is the creator and who is the copyright holder of the image and what credit line should be shown next to the image. This information is taken from the IPTC photo metadata embedded in the image file.
Creator
For displaying the creator of the image, the Creator field is read and shown with the label Creator. Google first reads the ISO XMP dc:creator field, and if that is empty, then the IPTC IIM 2:80 Creator field. Your editing tool probably just gives you a single field labelled "creator" so just use that and you won’t have to worry.
By its definition this field contains "the name of the photographer, but in cases where the photographer should not be identified the name of a company or organisation may be appropriate."
Copyright Notice
Google displays the Copyright Notice field (XMP dc:rights or IIM 2:116 Copyright Notice). So while you’re tidying up your image metadata it makes sense to get this right too. The definition for this field is: "Contains any necessary copyright notice for claiming the intellectual property for artwork or an object in the image and should identify the current owner of the copyright of this work with associated intellectual property rights." The format can differ according to the relevant copyright legislation of different countries. Again, Google first reads the ISO XMP dc:rights field, and if that is empty, then the IPTC IIM 2.116 Copyright notice field.
Credit Line
The Credit Line field (XMP photoshop:Credit or IIM 2:110 Credit) is used as "the credit to person(s) and/or organisation(s) required by the supplier of the image to be used when published." Generally this would be a line of text that the supplier expects users of the image (such as Google Images) to display to users alongside the image. Again, Google first reads the ISO XMP photoshop:credit field, and if that is empty, then the IPTC IIM 2.110 Credit field.
Most tools label this field as "Credit Line" in the editing interface, but some tools call it simply "Credit".
For photo creators and editors: how to edit the metadata fields
It’s important to understand that IPTC Photo Metadata is actually embedded in the image binary file. You can’t add HTML tags or schema.org markup to add this metadata. But never fear - there are some tools you can use to edit the fields.
We maintain a list of tools for editing IPTC Photo Metadata. Here are a few of the major tools we cover there:
Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom
Photographer tools such as FotoStation, PhotoMechanic, ACDSee Pro and the Digital Asset Management system Extensis Portfolio
For the more technical, the command-line ExifTool can be run in a script to update many images at the same time.
Each of these tools will allow you to edit fields a slightly different way. Usually there is some kind of "properties panel" or "metadata window" that lets you view and edit all embedded metadata fields.
For developers and site administrators: how to ensure the fields are preserved in images on your site
Your site’s digital asset management system, content management system, image management system or content delivery network may be stripping out embedded metadata fields. Some systems do this with the best of intentions, thinking that it will save a few bytes of bandwidth, but stripping out metadata actually infringes on the copyright holders' rights and may even be illegal in some countries.
You should use a DAM and CMS that respects and conserves IPTC and XMP embedded metadata, and ensure that any configuration options that strip out metadata are turned off. Also you may need to look at image cropping and manipulation plugins for your CMS - for example the ImageMagick WordPress library retains embedded metadata, but some others strip it out.
Applying Metadata to AI-generated Images
Over the past few years, there has been an explosion of tools that can be used to create images of all kinds using
artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning techniques such as Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), Auto Regression models
and Diffusion models. Together we refer to these as "AI-generated images".
It may be important to distinguish AI-generated images from "regular" images: for example, to avoid re-training AI models
on content that was already generated by a model, to understand which images can fall under copyright and which cannot
(in some jurisdictions) and to avoid misinterpreting generated images as being real photos.
Indeed, some national governments are recommending that all AI-generated content be tagged as such. Using embedded
IPTC Photo Metadata is a simple way to do this.
In the 2025.1 update to the IPTC Photo Metadata Specification, we have added four new fields that can be used to provide further information about AI-generated content:
AI System Used
AI System Version Used
AI Prompt Information
and
AI Prompt Writer Name
In terms of specific IPTC Photo Metadata fields, here are our suggestions:
Creator
is bound to the owner of the intellectual property of an image in many countries and there are first legal decisions that AI generated images are not considered as creative work generating an intellectual property.
Therefore,
our recommendation is to leave the Image Creator field empty
The
Digital Source Type
field should be set to the URI value
or
. For more detail, see the
Digital Source Type guidance in this guide
The
AI System Used
and
AI System Version Used
properties should be used to record the tool used to create the image. Users may use this property to record both the user interface and the model. For example, an image created using Microsoft’s tool may use the value "DALL-E via Bing Image Creator" for AI System Used and "3" for AI System Version Used.
[ai-prompt-information]
The
AI Prompt Information
property can be used to store all relevant information given to the AI engine to create the image. This may include one or more text prompts that were given to the AI engine, references to images and other media that were used as prompts, and information about model-specific parameters such as "negative prompt", "temperature", "steps" or "aspect ratio".
The
AI Prompt Writer Name
property should be used to record the human that authored the prompt that was used in the
AI Prompt Information
property.
In previous versions of this User Guide we recommended using the
Contributor
field to record both the tool used (using the role
Content Originator
) and the author of the prompt (using the role of
Generative AI Prompt Writer
). We no longer recommend that these properties are used to record AI creator details, but tool vendors may wish to examine the contents of the Contributor property to handle content that was created according to our previous guidance.
An example:
Title (en)
GenAI Robot in garden example
Description (en)
Cute robot sitting at a cast-iron table in a garden drawing a picture in a notebook
Created date
2025-11-26
Creator

AI System Used
Bing Image Creator/MAI-Image-1
AI System Version Used

AI Prompt Information
A cute robot sitting at a French-style cast iron table in a sunny garden, drawing a picture in a notebook
AI Prompt Writer Name
Brendan Quinn, IPTC
Digital Source Type
Credit Line (en)
Image created by Brendan Quinn using Bing Image Creator
Guidance for using Digital Source Type
The DigitalSourceType field and its corresponding controlled vocabulary
were originally added to the IPTC Photo Metadata Standard in 2008. The original goal was to represent the various sources of a digital image such as a direct capture from a digital camera, a scan from print, from a film negative or from positive film (also known as slide, reversal or transparency film).
In the first version of the vocabulary, there was a single term, "Created by Software" (softwareImage) which covered all forms of image created using a computer.
In 2022, with the proliferation of generative AI and "synthetic media" systems, the vocabulary was extended to include a more complete list of the different ways in which content might be created by or with the help of computer software. The vocabulary was again updated in 2024 to include more terms, retire some ambiguous terms and improve labels and descriptions.
The vocabulary can also be used to describe other media, therefore the IPTC created the definitions so that they can equally apply to video, audio or text.
This table describes each of the terms and definitions, along with some examples of the kinds of content intended to be tagged with each category. Be aware that the identifier of a term must be applied to the Digital Source Type field.
Name (en)
Original digital capture sampled from real life
Identifier
Description (en)
The digital media is captured from a real-life source using a digital camera or digital recording device
Image example
Digital photo taken using a digital SLR or smartphone camera
Video example
Digital video taken using a digital film, video or smartphone camera
Audio example
Digital recording via microphone
Name (en)
Multi-frame computational capture sampled from real life
Identifier
Description (en)
The media is the result of capturing multiple frames from a real-life source using a digital camera or digital recording device, then automatically merging them into a single frame using digital signal processing techniques and/or non-generative AI. Includes High Dynamic Range (HDR) processing common in smartphone camera apps.
Image example
High Dynamic Range photo taken using a smart phone camera
Video example
Digital video taken using a digital film, video or smartphone camera
Audio example
Processed audio constructed from several microphones, processed digitally to create a computed output
Name (en)
Digitised from a transparent negative
Identifier
Description (en)
The media was digitised from a negative on film or other transparent medium
Image example
Digital photo scanned from a photographic negative
Video example
Video scanned from a negative film
Name (en)
Digitised from a transparent positive
Identifier
Description (en)
The media was digitised from a positive on a transparency or other transparent medium
Image example
Digital image scanned from a photographic transparency
Video example
Film scanned from a moving image positive
Name (en)
Digitised from a non-transparent medium
Identifier
Description (en)
The media was digitised from a non-transparent medium such as a photographic print
Image example
Digital photo scanned from a photographic print or paper document
Name (en)
Screen capture
Identifier
Description (en)
A capture of the contents of the screen of a computer or mobile device
Image example
Screenshot of a screen on a computer or mobile device
Video example
Screen capture video of a computer or mobile screen
Name (en)
Virtual event recording
Identifier
Description (en)
Live recording of virtual event based on Generative AI and/or captured elements
Image example
Screenshot of a virtual event such as a virtual reality scene or a Zoom meeting
Video example
A recording of a computer-generated sequence, e.g. from a video game
A recording of a Zoom meeting
Name (en)
Composite of captured elements
Identifier
Description (en)
Mix or composite of several elements that are all captures of real life
Image example
A composite image created by a digital artist in Photoshop based on several source images
Video example
Edited sequence or composite of video shots
Audio example
Mixdown of several audio tracks
Name (en)
Original media with minor human edits -
RETIRED in September 2024
Identifier
Description (en)
Minor augmentation or correction by a human, such as a digitally-retouched photo used in a magazine
Note
RETIRED. Use "humanEdits" instead.
Image example
A digitally-retouched photo used in a magazine
Video example
Video camera recording, manipulated digitally
Audio example
Original audio with minor edits (e.g. eliminate breaks)
Text example
Original text with minor edits
Name (en)
Human-edited media
Identifier
Description (en)
Augmentation, correction or enhancement by one or more humans using non-generative tools
Image example
A digitally-retouched photo used in a magazine
Video example
Video camera recording, manipulated digitally using non-generative tools
Audio example
Original audio edited by a human (e.g. to eliminate breaks)
Text example
Original text edited by a human
Name (en)
Edited using Generative AI
Identifier
Description (en)
Augmentation, correction or enhancement using a Generative AI model, such as with inpainting or outpainting operations
Image example
A photo augmented using a generative tool such as Generative Fill
Video example
Video camera recording with enhancements added by a generative AI tool
Audio example
Original audio passed through a generative AI tool to change the voice of the speaker
Text example
Text written by a human and then re-written by a Generative AI tool to change tone or style, correct grammar etc
Name (en)
Algorithmically-altered media
Identifier
Description (en)
Modification or correction by algorithm without changing the main content of the media, initiated or configured by a human, such as sharpening or applying noise reduction
Image example
A photo that has been digitally altered using a mechanism such as Google Photos' "denoise" feature (which may or may not use Generative AI to perform the alteration)
Video example
A video altered using a visual filter in a video editing tool.
Audio example
An audio recording digitally altered to remove background noise.
Text example
Text with automatic spelling correction applied.
Name (en)
Created by software (RETIRED)
Identifier
Description (en)
The digital image was created by computer software
Note
RETIRED. Use trainedAlgorithmicMedia or algorithmicMedia instead.
Name (en)
Digital art (RETIRED)
Identifier
Description (en)
Media created by a human using digital tools
Image example
A cartoon drawn by an artist into a digital tool using a digital pencil, a tablet and a drawing package such as Procreate or Affinity Designer (4)
Video example
A scene from a film/movie created using Computer Graphic Imagery (CGI)
Audio example
Electronic music composition using purely synthesised sounds
Name (en)
Digital creation
Identifier
Description (en)
Media created by a human using non-generative tools
Image example
A cartoon drawn by an artist into a digital tool using a digital pencil, a tablet and a drawing package such as Procreate or Affinity Designer
Video example
A scene from a film/movie created using Computer Graphic Imagery (CGI)
Audio example
Electronic music composition using purely synthesised sounds
Name (en)
Data-driven media
Identifier
Description (en)
Digital media representation of data via human programming or creativity
Image example
Data visualisation as a still image
A representation of a distant galaxy created by analysing the outputs of a deep-space telescope (as opposed to a regular camera)
An infographic created using a computer drawing tool such as Adobe Illustrator or AutoCAD
Video example
Data visualization of time-based events
Audio example
Audio generated from data
Text example
Textual weather report generated by code using readings from weather detection instruments
Name (en)
Created using Generative AI
Identifier
Description (en)
Digital media created algorithmically using an Artificial Intelligence model trained on captured content
Image example
Image based on deep learning from a series of reference examples (training data)
"Text to image" generation using a text prompt to feed an algorithm using a trained model to create a synthetic image.
Video example
A "deepfake" video using a combination of a real actor and a trained model.
A video created using a text prompt and an algorithm using a trained model to create a synthetic video, with or without audio.
Audio example
A song created using a Generative AI audio model.
Text example
A GPT-3 generated news story
Name (en)
Pure algorithmic media
Identifier
Description (en)
Media created purely by an algorithm not based on any sampled training data, e.g. an image created by software using a mathematical formula
Image example
A purely computer-generated image such as a pattern of pixels generated mathematically e.g. a Mandelbrot set or fractal diagram
Video example
A purely computer-generated moving image such as a pattern of pixels generated mathematically
Name (en)
Composite of elements
Identifier
Description (en)
Mix or composite of several elements, any of which may or may not be generative AI
Image example
A collage of images of unknown origin
Video example
An edit using multiple video sources of unknown origin
Audio example
An edit using multiple audio sources of unknown origin
Name (en)
Composite including generative AI elements
Identifier
Description (en)
Mix or composite of several elements, at least one of which is Generative AI
Image example
A composite image created by a digital artist in Photoshop based on several source images, at least one of which was created or edited by Generative AI
Video example
Movie production using a combination of live-action and CGI content, e.g. using Unreal engine to generate backgrounds
A capture of an augmented reality interaction with computer imagery superimposed on a camera video, e.g. someone playing Pokemon Go
Audio example
A "speech-to-speech" generated audio clip created using a combination of a real actor and an AI model.
For any questions or advice on using Digital Source Type vocabulary, please
contact IPTC or post to the IPTC Photo Metadata discussion list
Guideline for mapping Category Codes to Subject NewsCodes
Early versions of IIM included the Datasets 2:15 "Category" and 2:20 "Supplemental Category". But these two fields were replaced in IIM version 4 (released in 1999) by the Dataset 2:12 "Subject Reference" which must be populated by values from the IPTC Subject NewsCodes controlled vocabulary. In version 4 of the IIM specification document the Datasets Category and Supplemental Category were indicated as "deprecated" which meant that after the time of this release these two Datasets should not be populated with values any longer.
To support the move from the three letter codes used with the Category Dataset to the Subject NewsCodes this table provides a reference for mapping.
Category Code
Subject NewsCode
Name and definition of the code
ACE
01000000
arts, culture and entertainment
Matters pertaining to the advancement and refinement of the human mind, of interests, skills, tastes and emotions
CLJ
02000000
crime, law and justice
Establishment and/or statement of the rules of behaviour in society, the enforcement of these rules, breaches of the rules and the punishment of offenders. Organisations and bodies involved in these activities.
DIS
03000000
disaster and accident
Man-made and natural events resulting in loss of life or injury to living creatures and/or damage to inanimate objects or property.
FIN
04000000
economy, business and finance
All matters concerning the planning, production and exchange of wealth.
EDU
05000000
education
All aspects of furthering knowledge of human individuals from birth to death.
EVN
06000000
environmental issue
All aspects of protection, damage, and condition of the ecosystem of the planet earth and its surroundings.
HTH
07000000
health
All aspects pertaining to the physical and mental welfare of human beings.
HUM
08000000
human interest
Lighter items about individuals, groups, animals or objects.
LAB
09000000
labour
Social aspects, organisations, rules and conditions affecting the employment of human effort for the generation of wealth or provision of services and the economic support of the unemployed.
LIF
10000000
lifestyle and leisure
Activities undertaken for pleasure, relaxation or recreation outside paid employment, including eating and travel.
POL
11000000
politics
Local, regional, national and international exercise of power, or struggle for power, and the relationships between governing bodies and states.
REL
12000000
religion and belief
All aspects of human existence involving theology, philosophy, ethics and spirituality.
SCI
13000000
science and technology
All aspects pertaining to human understanding of nature and the physical world and the development and application of this knowledge
SOI
14000000
social issue
Aspects of the behaviour of humans affecting the quality of life.
SPO
15000000
sport
Competitive exercise involving physical effort. Organisations and bodies involved in these activities.
WAR
16000000
unrest, conflicts and war
Acts of socially or politically motivated protest and/or violence.
WEA
17000000
weather
The study, reporting and prediction of meteorological phenomena.
IPTC recommendation for metadata about composite images
Definition: a composite image is an image that is made from multiple images.
IPTC is asked how metadata about the different images the final image is made of could be expressed in a way which strictly links a metadata value to one of the source images.
IPTC recommends this procedure:
Create a thumbnail of the final image and draw lines along the edges between the different photos it was made of. Then apply a number to each region representing a photo.
Assign numbers to the images making the composite photo: start at the left upper corner of the composite picture, go from left to right and from top to bottom. As soon as you encounter pixels from "another" image assign the next number from a sequence starting with 1. If the same source image is used for multiple regions of the composite image then apply the same number to all of them.
Make this thumbnail available on the web. Add the URL of this thumbnail to the Instructions field: the added string should be "composite reference
The rule for finding this link is: parse the Instructions field, any URL right after the words "composite reference" is the link to this thumbnail.
Prefix metadata about such a part-image with the assigned number of the reference thumbnail in square brackets. E.g. [1] …. [2] …. Metadata about the whole composite image should be prefixed with [0]
Example for the Creator field: [0] Giorgio Tintoretto [1] John Hopper [2] Pierre Monet [3] Franz Haas
IIM Metadata deprecated in IPTC Core
Some of the IIM metadata properties adopted by Adobe for the Photoshop File Info have not been carried forward into the IPTC Core schema. Data in these deprecated fields remains in the IIM header of the image, but will not be shown in IPTC Core compliant software.
The following fields from the IIM schema are deprecated in the IPTC Core schema, but are synchronised with XMP properties, and available for future use, but outside the IPTC Core.
Urgency
is used for distribution management and is synchronised with the XMP field ‘photoshop:Urgency'
Category
and
Supplemental Category
were deprecated and merged to form the later Subject Newscodes. See the this guideline for mapping Category Codes to the newer Subject Newscodes.
These two properties are synchronised with XMP properties ‘photoshop:Category' and ‘photoshop:SupplementalCategories'.
Metadata Usage Examples
These examples provide entries for many of the IPTC Core and Extension fields, see the list below.
These are examples of use of metadata and are not prescriptive. In-house rules for use of metadata differ, but we would like to encourage metadata use in line with IPTC semantics.
A landmark image - by an independent photographer
Example photo provided by and © David Riecks
(Fields listed in alphabetical order - see also Field Reference Table)
Field Name
Field Value
City
Nainital
Copyright Notice
Copyright Owner
Copyright Owner Name
David Riecks
Copyright Owner Identifier
Country ISO-Code
IN
Country
India
Creator
David Riecks
Creator’s Contact Info
Address
2701 W Washington
City
Champaign
State/Province
Illinois
Postal Code
61822
Country
USA
Phone(s)
+1 (217) 6661376
Email(s)
infor@riecks.com
Website(s)
www.riecks.com
Creator’s Jobtitle
Photographer
Credit Line
Date Created
1985-11-25
Description Writer
David Riecks
Description
Southern Himalayan Mountains, from Snow Peak, Nainital, Uttarakhand, India
Alt Text (Accessibility)
Landscape view of the snow-capped Southern Himalayan mountain range with jagged peaks towering above rolling foothills in the foreground.
Extended Description (Accessibility)
(empty, not required)
Digital Source Type
Original digital capture of a real life scene (
Headline
Southern Himalayan Mountains
Image Creator
Image Creator Identifier
Image Creator name
David Riecks
Image Supplier
Image Supplier ID
Image Supplier Name
David Riecks
Image Suppliers Image ID
Instructions
Original RAW capture Nikon D2X, Adobe RGB 1998.
Intellectual genre
Feature
IPTC Scene
0011000 (general view)
Job ID
Sacred India
Keywords
environment, ecology, ecosystem, environmentalism, scenery, nature, land, mountains, mount, Himalayans, sky, skies, cloud, clouds, concepts, concept, conceptual, summit, peak, weather, snow, snowing, snowfall, outdoors, outdoor, outside
Licensor
Licensor Name
David Riecks
Licensor Identifier
Licensor Telephone 1
+1 (217) 6661376
Licensor Telephone 2
Licensor Email address
info@riecks.com
Licensor Web address
Location Created
Sublocation
Snow Peak, Nainital
City
State/Province
Uttarakhand
Country Name
India
Country Code
IN
World Region
Asia
Identifier
Location Shown
Sublocation
Nanda Devi, Nainital
City
State/Province
Uttarakhand
Country Name
India
Country Code
IN
World Region
Asia
Identifier
GPS Longitude
79.444542
GPS Latitude
29.39805
Max available Height
3800
Max. available Width
5600
Property Release Status
Not Applicable
Registry Entry
Registry organisation ID
Registry image ID
Z07-3M7-9JJ-834
Rights Usage Terms
Licensed to Big Larch Publishing, For Placement on Any Interior Page in Traveling India Today book, all other rights reserved.
Source
David Riecks Photography
State/Province
Uttarakhand
Subject Code
06006005 (mountains)
Sublocation
Snow Peak
Title
drpin075402
A documentary image - by a staff photographer
Example photo provided by ©David Riecks
(Fields listed in alphabetical order - see also Field Reference Table)
Field Name
Field Value
Additional Model Info
Farmer modeling in this image is of part Native American ancestry.
City
Watseka
Copyright Notice
Copyright Owner Name
Copyright Owner Name
Big Newspaper Group
Copyright Owner Identifier
Country
United States of America
Creator
John Doe
Creator’s Contact Info
Address
Big Newspaper, 123 Main Street
City
Boston
State/Province
Massachusetts
Postal Code
02134
Country
USA
Phone(s)
+1 (890) 1234567
Email(s)
johndoe@bignewspaper.com
Website(s)
www.bignewspaper.com
Creator’s Jobtitle
Staff photographer
Credit Line
John Doe / Big Newspaper
Data Mining
Prohibited, see property (
Date Created
2007-04-19
Description Writer
Susan Brown
Description
After digging the furrows another ten yards with the tractor, Jim Moore hops off to hand-set more leeks and onions.
Alt Text (Accessibility)
Ground-level shot of a farmer bending forward to hand-set a tiny onion sprout. An older red tractor is seen in the row of crops in the background.
Extended Description (Accessibility)
The farmer is wearing denim overalls, a white t-shirt, and faded blue baseball cap. We look up along the row of crops towards a red tractor and cloud-filled sky beyond.
Digital Source Type
Original digital capture of a real life scene (
Featured Organisation (code)
Featured Organisation (name)
Prairieland Community Sponsored Agriculture
Headline
Farmer planting onions
Image Creator name
Image Creator Identifier
Image Creator name
John Doe
Image Supplier Name
Image Supplier ID
Image Supplier Name
Big Newspaper Group
Image Suppliers Image ID
bng01661gda
Instructions
Newspapers Out, Original Artixscan 4000 of color negative file, 160 ISO (frame 35a) is 7.6 x 11.2 at 500ppi, in Colormatch RGB.
Intellectual genre
Profile
IPTC Scene
011900 (action)
ISO Country Code
USA
Job ID
CSA farms
Keywords
agriculture, farm laborer, farmer, field hand, field worker, humans, occupation, people, agricultural, agronomy, crops, onions, vegetable crops, plants, vegetables, outdoors, outside, agricultural equipment, tractor, gender, male, men
Licensor
Licensor Name
Big Newspaper Group
Licensor Identifier
Licensor Telephone 1
+1 (800) 1234567
Licensor Telephone 2
Licensor Email address
info@bignewspaper.com
Licensor Web address
Location Created
Sublocation
Moore family farm
City
Watseka
State/Province
Illinois
Country Name
United States of America
Country Code
USA
World Region
North America
Location Shown
Sublocation
Moore family farm
City
Watseka
State/Province
Illinois
Country Name
United States of America
Country Code
USA
World Region
North America
Max available Height
3800
Max. available Width
5600
Model Age Disclosure
Age 25 or Over
Model Release Identifier
Bng20070419jd
Model Release Status
Limited or Incomplete Model Releases
Other Constraints
Photograph may not be used for machine learning, inclusion in AI data sets, image prompt submissions to generative AI platforms, or other AI-related purposes without an advance license from bignewspapergroup.com
Person Shown
Jim Moore
Property Release Identifier
Bng20070420jd
Property Release Status
Limited or Incomplete Property Releases
Registry organisation ID
Registry organisation ID
Registry image ID
B01-9C8-7EC-65F
Rights Usage Terms
For consideration only, no reproduction without prior permission
Source
Big Newspaper
State/Province
Illinois
Subject Code
04001000, 04001001
Sublocation
Moore family farm
Title
01661gdx
A heritage artwork image - by an agency photographer
Example photo provided by ©David Riecks
(Fields listed in alphabetical order - see also Field Reference Table)
Field Name
Field Value
Artwork/Object in the image
Title
Abraham Lincoln
Date Created
1920
Creator
Daniel Chester French
Source
National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior
Source Inventory Number
Copyright Notice
Public Domain
City
Washington
Copyright Notice
© 2009 Julie Doe / Mugwum Press, all rights reserved
Copyright Owner
Copyright Owner Name
Mugwum Press
Copyright Owner Identifier
Country ISO-Code
USA
Country
United States of America
Creator Contact Info
Address
Mugwum Press, 123 Broadway
City
New York
State/Province
New York
Postal Code
10006
Country
USA
Phone(s)
+1 (877) 9876543
Email(s)
j.doe@mugwum.com
Website(s)
www.mugwum.com
Creator
Julie Doe
Creator’s Jobtitle
Mugwum contract photographer
Credit Line
Mugwum Press
Data Mining
Prohibited except for search engine indexing (
Date Created
2009-06-24
Description Writer
Jacques Brown
Description
This statue of the 16th President of the United States depicts a 19 foot high seated Abraham Lincoln in contemplation inside the Lincoln Memorial. It was carved of Georgia white marble by the Piccirilli Brothers under the supervision of the sculptor, Daniel Chester French and took four years to create, and completed in 1920.
Alt Text (Accessibility)
Closeup of the Lincoln Memorial statue with Abraham Lincoln’s face and hand in view. Lincoln looks off with a steady expression, his hand curled into a loose fist resting on the arm of a large classical chair.
Extended Description (Accessibility)
Lincoln is depicted with deep-set eyes, a strong browline, prominent cheekbones, short wavy hair, and a close beard. Two creases extend down at an angle from his nose to his lower cheekbones. His fixed gaze is directed slightly upward, mouth set in a straight line. His wrist is resting on the edge of the chair, held out straight so we see the bony knuckles of his hand.
Digital Source Type
Original digital capture of a real life scene (
Headline
Lincoln Memorial
Image Creator
Image Creator Identifier
Image Creator name
Julie Doe
Image Supplier
Image Supplier ID
Image Supplier Name
Mugwum Press
Image Suppliers Image ID
G18-7U8-4DB-23Y
Instructions
Newsmagazines Out
Intellectual genre
Feature
IPTC Scene
010100, 011700 (headshot, Interior view)
Job ID
Honest Abe
Keywords
North America, United States of America, America, U.S., United States, US, USA, Washington DC, District of Columbia, Washington D.C., Lincoln Memorial, environment, ecology, ecosystem, environmentalism, scenery, nature, land, monument, morning, seasons, Summer, summertime, sky, skies, sun, sunlight, art, fine art, artistry, sculpture, statuary, statue, stone sculpture
Licensor
Licensor Name
Mugwum Press
Licensor Identifier
Licensor Telephone 1
+1.877.646.5375
Licensor Telephone 2
Licensor Email address
Licensing@mugwum.com
Licensor Web address
Location Created
Sublocation
Lincoln Memorial
City
Washington
State/Province
District of Columbia
Country Name
United States of America
Country Code
USA
World Region
North America
Identifier
Location Shown
Sublocation
Lincoln Memorial
City
Washington
State/Province
District of Columbia
Country Name
United States of America
Country Code
USA
World Region
North America
Max available Height
2868
Max. available Width
4312
Person Shown
Abraham Lincoln
Property Release Identifier
Property Release Status
Limited or Incomplete Property Releases
Registry Entry
Registry organisation ID
Registry image ID
C03-7D7-5EF-66H
Rights Usage Terms
Image to be used One-time only, non-exclusive use in English Language Edition Magazine as inside image, to be used no larger than a full page in color. Additional third party rights to be negotiated with Julie Doe / Mugwum Press in advance. All other rights are reserved except those specifically granted.
Source
Julie Doe / Mugwum Press
State/Province
District of Columbia
Subject Code
01002000, 01015001, 08005005 (architecture, sculpture, memorial)
Sublocation
Lincoln Memorial
Title
drp2091169d
Image of a painting - by a museum or gallery
(Fields listed in alphabetical order - see also Field Reference Table)
Field Name
Field Value
Artwork Or Object
[1] Circa Date Created
c.1680
[1] Copyright Notice
Photo Credit: St Edmundsbury Museums
[1] Creator(s)
Beale, Mary, 1633-1699
[1] Date Created
1680
[1] Physical Description
oil on vellum; 14 x 9 cm
[1] Source
St Edmundsbury Museums
[1] Source’s Inventory No
1997.40.4
[1] Source’s Inventory URL
[1] Title
Portrait of a Girl with a Cat
Copyright Notice
Copyright information and licence terms for this image can be found on the Art UK website at
Copyright Owner
[1] Copyright Owner Name
Photo Credit: St Edmundsbury Museums
Credit Line
Photo Credit: St Edmundsbury Museums
Data Mining
Allowed (
Description
Beale, Mary; Portrait of a Girl with a Cat; St Edmundsbury Museums;
Alt Text (Accessibility)
Painting of a young girl posing for a portrait with a cat curled up in her lap.
Extended Description (Accessibility)
She wears a dark gold dress with a low scooped neckline and short sleeves that are pinned up in front and draping down to her elbow. She looks at us with a serene expression, full rosy cheeks, pale skin, dark brown eyes, and a small pink mouth curling up slightly at the corners. Her hands delicately cradle the brown and black striped cat in her lap, one hand resting on its back and the other positioned close to its chest beside its head. The cat looks relaxed, perhaps sleepy, with its head tilted slightly towards the girl’s arm.
Description Writer
Jane Doe: Alt Text, Extended Description: Caroline Desrosier
Headline
Beale, Mary, 1633-1699; Portrait of a Girl with a Cat
Image Supplier
[1] Image Creator Name
www.artuk.org
Image Supplier’s Image ID
SFK_SED_MA_1997_40_4
Instructions
This metadata was embedded in the image on 20th February 2016
Title
Portrait of a Girl with a Cat
Usage Terms
Copyright information and licence terms for this image can be found on the Art UK website at
Image of a sculpture - by a museum
(Fields listed in alphabetical order - see also Field Reference Table)
Field Name
Field Value
Artwork Or Object
[1] Content Description
Upper part of limestone figure of Hera or Aphrodite; right arm and legs lost.
[1] Contribution Description
Excavated/Findspot: Larnaka; Donated by Henry Christy
[1] Physical Description
Limestone sculpture; Height: 27.5 centimetres (max)
[1] Source
British Museum
[1] Source’s Inventory No
1852.0609.56
[1] Style Period
Hellenistic
[1] Title
Figure
Copyright Notice
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Data Mining
Allowed (
Description
Figure; Hellenistic; Limestone sculpture; Height: 27.5 centimetres (max) ;Excavated/Findspot: Larnaka; Donated by Henry Christy; British Museum; 1852.0609.56; Upper part of limestone figure of Hera or Aphrodite; right arm and legs lost.
Alt Text (Accessibility)
Limestone sculpture shows a partial bust of Hera or Aphrodite, depicted with long hair, parted at the middle and tucked behind her ears, and a calm, focused expression.
Extended Description (Accessibility)
Her right arm is missing from the bust but we can see part of her left arm extending out and down to just above the elbow. Her face has a rounded oval shape with wide-set eyes, a small nose and mouth, and gaze directed slightly off to her left. She wears a tunic with delicate detailing around the high scooped neckline, hanging in loose folds down her arm and torso.
Headline
Figure
Keyword
Hellenistic,Woman,Upper Torso,Hera,Aphrodite
Usage Terms
For uses not covered under the Creative Commons license, or to license high-resolution versions of the images for commercial uses, contact the British Museum’s image service at bmimages.com.
Street photography image
(Fields listed in alphabetical order - see also Field Reference Table)
Field Name
Field Value
Creator
Yaopey Yong
Creator’s Contact Info
City
Manchester
County
United Kingdom
Website(s)
yaopey.com
Data Mining: Prohibited except for search engine indexing (
Description
Little Children on a Bicycle, 2012 mural by Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic in George Town, Penang, Malaysia.
Alt Text (Accessibility)
A realist street art wall mural of two life-size children positioned to appear as if they are riding an actual bicycle that is parked on a city sidewalk.
Extended Description (Accessibility)
The older child appears to be sitting on the seat of the black bicycle reaching towards the curved handlebars and looking out ahead with a joyous expression on their face. The younger child appears to be perched on the top of the back bicycle rack, hugging their arms tightly around the other’s waist and opening their mouth wide as if to scream. The distressed muted colors in the mural blend with the weathered gray and black patina stone wall and cracked sidewalk.
Date Created
2020-03-31
Headline
Mural by Lithuanian artist Zacharevic in Malaysia
Location Created
City
Penang
Country Name
Malaysia
Country Code
MYS
World Region
Asia
User Guide History
(Latest entry at the top of the list)
November 2025
Updated to include new properties added in IPTC Photo Metadata Standard 2025.1, approved
in October 2025.
August 2025
Updated Digital Source Type guidance to cover the changes to the digitalSourceType vocabulary
introduced in September 2024.
November 2024
Aligned the User Guide with version 2024.1 which is comprised of an update to the Keywords
property to clarify its usage.
March 2024
Guide for using Accessibility fields added
Guide for applying metadata to AI-generated images added
Guides for new fields added: Event Identifier, Product/Identifier, Contributor, Data Mining
Metadata Usage Examples updated
Text of guides on fields and topics reviewed and updated
March 2023
Add information on adding DigitalSourceType to images.
February 2020
Fix some cross-references and links in the document.
October 2019
Updated for the Photo Metadata Standard 2019.1 including Image Regions.
21 August 2019
Converted to Asciidoc format and lightly edited for style.
5 March 2019
Guidelines about the display of IPTC rights fields in the Google image search results added. Some URLs updated.
20 November 2017
New properties Genre (generic), Image Rating and Web Statement of Rights added. Covers the Photo Metadata Standard up to Core version 1.2 and Extension version 1.4.
18 October 2016
First public version after a complete rework. Covers the Photo Metadata Standard up to Core version 1.2 and Extension version 1.2.