Stripping all metadata to save a few kilobytes and losing the ICC profile with it, so the colours shift.
File formats
Image metadata
Also called photo metadata, embedded metadata or iptc. Here is what it means, when it changes what you export, and what people get wrong.
File formatsRuns on your deviceUpdated 10 August 2026
The short answer
Image metadata is the information stored inside an image file about the image rather than in the pixels: camera settings, dates, location, captions, credit, keywords and colour profile. It arrives in several separate standards (EXIF, IPTC, XMP and ICC) which can all sit in the same file at once.
Updated
The short version
Image metadata at a glance
| Quick fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Main standards | EXIF, IPTC, XMP and ICC profiles |
| Written by | Cameras, phones, editors and publishing tools |
| Typical size | A few kilobytes, more with an embedded thumbnail |
| Survives conversion | Only if both the format and the tool support it |
| No metadata support | GIF and BMP |
| Visible in the image | No, unlike a watermark |
Slide the table sideways to see every column.
Which metadata standards will you actually meet?
- EXIF is written automatically by cameras and phones: exposure settings, lens, timestamps, orientation and GPS.
- IPTC is the publishing side: caption, headline, creator, credit line, copyright notice, keywords. News agencies and stock libraries depend on it.
- XMP is Adobe's XML-based wrapper, designed to hold any of the above plus editing history and custom fields. Much of what EXIF and IPTC record can also exist as XMP in the same file, which is why two tools can disagree about a photo's caption.
- ICC profiles are a different animal: not descriptive information but the instructions that tell software what the colour numbers mean.
Formats add their own slots on top. PNG has text chunks, JPEG has a comment segment, and provenance signing such as C2PA content credentials has started appearing in files from editors and generative tools.
What survives when you convert or re-save a file?
Two things decide it: whether the destination format has a slot for that metadata at all, and whether the tool bothers to copy it across. The format side is fixed:
| Format | EXIF | XMP | ICC profile |
|---|---|---|---|
| JPEG | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| TIFF | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PNG | Yes (Third Edition) | Yes | Yes |
| WebP | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| HEIC and AVIF | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GIF | No | No | No |
| BMP | No | No | No |
The tool side is unpredictable. Two converters producing the same output format can differ completely, one copying everything and the other writing a clean file. Anything that rebuilds the image from raw pixels, including browser canvas exports and screenshots, starts from nothing and keeps nothing.
Why does losing metadata matter?
Three consequences bite most often. Dropping the ICC profile or colour space tag makes saturated colours shift, because software falls back to assuming sRGB. Dropping the orientation tag without rotating the pixels first leaves photos sideways. Dropping IPTC and XMP rights fields removes the only claim of authorship attached to the file, which matters if you licence images or want a credit line to survive syndication.
Metadata costs very little. A typical EXIF block is a few kilobytes, more if an embedded thumbnail or a large XMP record comes with it, so stripping it is rarely worth doing for file size alone.
What should you keep and what should you remove?
Keep the colour profile and the orientation tag, always. Keep creator, copyright and caption fields if attribution or searchability matters to you. Remove GPS coordinates, and remove serial numbers held in maker notes, before anything goes public.
Clean the file on your own machine rather than relying on a platform's pipeline to do it. Platforms strip metadata to save bandwidth, not to protect you, and their behaviour changes without notice.
What people get wrong about image metadata
Each one is a real failure mode, not a style preference.
Assuming a copyright line added in one tool is visible to every other, when IPTC and XMP are stored separately and only some software keeps them in sync.
Sharing a screenshot to hide location data and then attaching the original file in the same message.
Relying on a platform to strip metadata for you rather than cleaning the file before it leaves your machine.
Questions people ask
Image metadata, answered
The follow-up questions people search for once they have the definition.
Does metadata make image files bigger?
Barely. A normal EXIF block runs to a few kilobytes against a photo of several megabytes. It grows if an embedded thumbnail, a long XMP record or an editing history comes along, but stripping metadata is almost never a meaningful way to reduce file size.
Does converting a JPEG to PNG keep the metadata?
It can, since PNG has slots for EXIF, XMP and ICC profiles, but whether it does depends on the converter. Many write a clean PNG with none of it. If the colour profile or a copyright field matters to you, check the output rather than assuming it carried over.
How do I remove metadata from a photo before sending it?
On Windows, right-click the file, open Properties, go to Details and choose Remove Properties and Personal Information, which saves a cleaned copy. On macOS, drop location through the Photos share options or use the Preview inspector. Dedicated tools remove everything in one pass.
Is metadata the same as a watermark?
No. A watermark is drawn into the pixels and stays visible wherever the image goes. Metadata is invisible text alongside the pixels that any tool can delete in a second. Metadata is good for searchability and record keeping, not for protecting an image.
Can metadata be wrong?
Often. Camera clocks drift or sit in the wrong time zone, and anyone can edit any field afterwards with free software. Treat embedded dates and locations as useful hints rather than as evidence, particularly if the file has passed through several hands.
Same cluster
More from the glossary
Neighbouring entries, so every term in the set is one hop from every other.
Image noise
Image noise is the random speckle in a photo that does not correspond to anything in the scene.
Image matting
Image matting works out how transparent every pixel along an edge is, and what colour the subject would be there without the background showing through.
Image segmentation
Image segmentation is the task of labelling every pixel in a photo with what it belongs to, rather than drawing a box around it.
From the studio
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Each one runs on your own device, so the photo stays where it is.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from. Every link opens the specification, standard or documentation the claim was read at.
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