The tool that we recommend the most for command-line use is Phil Harvey’s exiftool (exiftool.org).

How you install the exiftool software depends on your operating system and environment. Here are some installation instructions.

It has extensive documentation online. You can also run exiftool with no arguments for a complete list of available options with examples.

On this page:

Examples of reading IPTC metadata from the command line using exiftool

To get you started quickly, here are some examples of things that can be done with it regarding IPTC metadata (we cover writing these fields below)

View all embedded metadata for an image file

Simply run exiftool with the file name / path to the image file that you wish to investigate:

exiftool <image file name>

This will simply display all metadata (IPTC, Exif and other formats) that can be extracted from the file.

View a single-valued metadata property in an image file

Exiftool can extract any single property from a media file. To find out which tag to use, first consult the IPTC Photo Metadata Standard Specification to get the XMP tag used, then consult the exiftool XMP tags page to determine how to specify that tag for exiftool.

Show only the Digital Source Type value

% exiftool -XMP-iptcExt:digitalsourcetype IPTC-PhotometadataRef-Std2021.1.jpg
Digital Source Type             : http://cv.iptc.org/newscodes/digitalsourcetype/softwareImage

Show only the Credit Line value

% exiftool -struct -XMP-photoshop:Credit IPTC-PhotometadataRef-Std2021.1.jpg
Credit                          : Credit Line (ref2021.1)

View multi-valued properties in image files

Here’s an example of viewing a non-structured but multi-valued property:

Show the creator value(s)

By default, exiftool shows multi-valued properties as comma-separated values on the same line:

% exiftool -XMP-dc:creator test-image.jpg
Creator                         : Creator 1, Creator 2

Using the -struct option shows more clearly that it is in fact a list of values:

% exiftool -struct -XMP-dc:creator test-image.jpg
Creator                         : [Creator 1,Creator 2]

To make it totally clear that it is in fact a repeatable value, you can ask for JSON-encoded output:

% exiftool -json -XMP-dc:creator test-image.jpg
[{
  "SourceFile": "test-image.jpg",
  "Creator": ["Creator 1","Creator 2"]
}]

View a structured property for an image file

Some properties (such as Licensor which is used for Google’s Licensable feature) are structured, which means they contain sub-properties. In this case, running the simple exiftool -XMP-plus:Licensor test-image.jpg returns no results.

The secret is to use the -struct option:

% exiftool -struct -XMP-plus:Licensor test-image.jpg
Licensor                        : [{LicensorCity=Licensor City 1 (ref2021.1),LicensorCountry=Licensor Country 1 (ref2021.1),LicensorEmail=Licensor Email 1 (ref2021.1),LicensorExtendedAddress=Licensor Ext Addr 1 (ref2021.1),LicensorID=Licensor ID 1 (ref2021.1),LicensorName=Licensor Name 1 (ref2021.1),LicensorPostalCode=Licensor Postcode 1 (ref2021.1),LicensorRegion=Licensor Region 1 (ref2021.1),LicensorStreetAddress=Licensor Street Addr 1 (ref2021.1),LicensorTelephone1=Licensor Phone1 1 (ref2021.1),LicensorTelephone2=Licensor Phone2 1 (ref2021.1),LicensorTelephoneType1=Work,LicensorTelephoneType2=Cell,LicensorURL=Licensor URL 1 (ref2021.1)},{LicensorCity=Licensor City 2 (ref2021.1),LicensorCountry=Licensor Country 2 (ref2021.1),LicensorEmail=Licensor Email 2 (ref2021.1),LicensorExtendedAddress=Licensor Ext Addr 2 (ref2021.1),LicensorID=Licensor ID 2 (ref2021.1),LicensorName=Licensor Name 2 (ref2021.1),LicensorPostalCode=Licensor Postcode 2 (ref2021.1),LicensorRegion=Licensor Region 2 (ref2021.1),LicensorStreetAddress=Licensor Street Addr 2 (ref2021.1),LicensorTelephone1=Licensor Phone1 2 (ref2021.1),LicensorTelephone2=Licensor Phone2 2 (ref2021.1),LicensorTelephoneType1=Work,LicensorTelephoneType2=Cell,LicensorURL=Licensor URL 2 (ref2021.1)}]

View all properties read by Google Image Search for the Licensable badge feature

To read more than one property from a file, simply specify multiple Exiftool tags, each prefixed with a dash/hyphen character.

% exiftool -XMP-dc:creator -XMP-photoshop:Credit -XMP-dc:rights -XMP-xmpRights:WebStatement -XMP-plus:LicensorURL   IPTC-GoogleImgSrcPmd_testimg01.jpg
Creator                         : Jane Photosty
Credit                          : IPTC/Jane Photosty
Rights                          : © Copyright 2020 IPTC (Test Images) - www.iptc.org
Web Statement                   : https://iptc.org/tests/copyright-and-licenses-of-images-test-page/
Licensor URL                    : https://iptc.org/tests/licensing-of-images-test-page/

View all properties read by Google Image Search for Licensable badge and Synthetic Media features

% exiftool -XMP-dc:creator -XMP-photoshop:Credit -XMP-dc:rights -XMP-xmpRights:WebStatement -XMP-plus:LicensorURL -XMP-iptcExt:DigitalSourceType  test-image.jpg                   
Creator                         : Creator 1, Creator 2
Credit                          : Credit Line (ref2021.1)
Rights                          : Copyright (Notice) 2021.1 IPTC - www.iptc.org  (ref2021.1)
Web Statement                   : http://www.WebStatementOfRights.org/2021.1
Licensor URL                    : Licensor URL 1 (ref2021.1), Licensor URL 2 (ref2021.1)
Digital Source Type             : https://cv.iptc.org/newscodes/digitalsourcetype/trainedAlgorithmicMedia

View the full XMP data for an image file

This displays the native internal structure of the XMP packet within an image file. This is usually only used for debugging purposes or if you are curious about how this metadata is actually stored inside the file.

$ exiftool -b -xmp IPTC-PhotometadataRef-Std2021.1.jpg
<?xpacket begin='' id='W5M0MpCehiHzreSzNTczkc9d'?>
<x:xmpmeta xmlns:x='adobe:ns:meta/' x:xmptk='Image::ExifTool 12.34'>
<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf='http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#'>

 <rdf:Description rdf:about=''
  xmlns:Iptc4xmpCore='http://iptc.org/std/Iptc4xmpCore/1.0/xmlns/'>
  Iptc4xmpCore:AltTextAccessibility
   rdf:Alt
    <rdf:li xml:lang='x-default'>This is the Alt Text description to support accessibility in 2021.1</rdf:li>
   </rdf:Alt>
  </Iptc4xmpCore:AltTextAccessibility>
  <Iptc4xmpCore:CountryCode>R21</Iptc4xmpCore:CountryCode>

  [... much more data snipped for brevity ...]

  </xmpRights:UsageTerms>
  <xmpRights:WebStatement>http://www.WebStatementOfRights.org/2021.1</xmpRights:WebStatement>
 </rdf:Description>
</rdf:RDF>
</x:xmpmeta>

Examples of writing IPTC metadata on the command line using exiftool

The same exiftool XMP tags can be used to write metadata to image files on the command line.

Note that by default when writing to an image file using exiftool on the command line, the original unaltered version of the image is backed up as <filename>_original, for example test-image.jpg_original. This can be a life saver!

Writing Digital Source Type for synthetic media

Note that the value can be any text string, but we recommend using a full URI from the IPTC Digital Source Type vocabulary:

% exiftool -XMP-iptcExt:digitalsourcetype=https://cv.iptc.org/newscodes/digitalsourcetype/trainedAlgorithmicMedia test-image.jpg
    1 image files updated

(Note that Google’s documentation on Digital Source Type for synthetic media specifies using only the ID, not the full URI. So if you are writing software to read these values, we recommend that you support both the fully-expanded URI and the short ID.)

Writing Creator and Credit Line metadata

The contents of these fields will be displayed in the Google Images search results details panel.

% exiftool -XMP-dc:creator="Jane Smith" -XMP-photoshop:Credit="Jane Smith, Smith Photography Ltd" -XMP-dc:rights="Copyright Smith Photography Ltd 2023" -XMP-xmpRights:WebStatement="http://smithphotography.com/licensing/" -XMP-plus:LicensorURL="http://www.mypictureagency.com/obtain-licence/" -XMP-iptcExt:DigitalSourceType="https://cv.iptc.org/newscodes/digitalsourcetype/digitalCapture"  test-image.jpg
    1 image files updated
brendan@Brendans-M1-MacBook-Pro pmd-sample-images % exiftool -XMP-dc:creator -XMP-photoshop:Credit -XMP-dc:rights -XMP-xmpRights:WebStatement -XMP-plus:LicensorURL -XMP-iptcExt:DigitalSourceType  test-image.jpg
Creator                         : Jane Smith
Credit                          : Jane Smith, Smith Photography Ltd
Rights                          : Copyright Smith Photography Ltd 2023
Web Statement                   : http://smithphotography.com/licensing/
Licensor URL                    : http://www.mypictureagency.com/obtain-licence/
Digital Source Type             : https://cv.iptc.org/newscodes/digitalsourcetype/digitalCapture

Writing Licensor URL metadata

This triggers the “Get this image on…” text in Google Images search results.

% exiftool -XMP-plus:LicensorURL=http://www.mypictureagency.com/obtain-licence/ test-image.jpg
    1 image files updated

Writing Web Statement of Rights metadata

This triggers the “Licensable” badge in Google image search results.

% exiftool -XMP-xmpRights:WebStatement="http://smithphotography.com/licensing/" test-image.jpg
    1 image files updated
brendan@Brendans-M1-MacBook-Pro pmd-sample-images % exiftool -XMP-xmpRights:WebStatement test-image.jpg
Web Statement                   : http://smithphotography.com/licensing/

Writing all metadata that can be read by Google Search

% exiftool -XMP-dc:creator="Jane Smith" -XMP-photoshop:Credit="Jane Smith, Smith Photography Ltd" -XMP-dc:rights="Copyright Smith Photography Ltd 2023" -XMP-xmpRights:WebStatement="http://smithphotography.com/licensing/" -XMP-plus:LicensorURL="http://www.mypictureagency.com/obtain-licence/" -XMP-iptcExt:DigitalSourceType="https://cv.iptc.org/newscodes/digitalsourcetype/digitalCapture"  test-image.jpg
    1 image files updated
brendan@Brendans-M1-MacBook-Pro pmd-sample-images % exiftool -XMP-dc:creator -XMP-photoshop:Credit -XMP-dc:rights -XMP-xmpRights:WebStatement -XMP-plus:LicensorURL -XMP-iptcExt:DigitalSourceType  test-image.jpg
Creator                         : Jane Smith
Credit                          : Jane Smith, Smith Photography Ltd
Rights                          : Copyright Smith Photography Ltd 2023
Web Statement                   : http://smithphotography.com/licensing/
Licensor URL                    : http://www.mypictureagency.com/obtain-licence/
Digital Source Type             : https://cv.iptc.org/newscodes/digitalsourcetype/digitalCapture

Appending to an existing set of repeatable tags

exiftool allows appending to a repeatable list of tags, for example Image Creator (dc:creator):

% exiftool '-XMP-dc:creator+=New Creator' test-image.jpg
    1 image files updated
% exiftool -XMP-dc:creator test-image.jpg                   
Creator                         : Creator 1, Creator 2, New Creator

Would you like more examples? Just ask!

If you would like to see other exiftool examples, or if you have suggestions of exiftool incantations that you find useful and you would like to share them with others, please let us know!