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 and you can also run exiftool with no arguments for a complete list of available options with examples.
Simple exiftool command-line examples
To get you started quickly, here are some examples of things that can be done with it regarding IPTC metadata:
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
% 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>
Writing embedded metadata to image files using exiftool
The same exiftool versions of XMP tags can be used to write metadata to image files on the command line:
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 value, not the full URI. So if you are writing software to read these values, we recommend that you support both formats.)
Writing Licensor