About the Standard

IPTC Photo Metadadata Standard 2021.1, including

Copyright © 2021 by IPTC, the International Press Telecommunications Council - https://iptc.org. All Rights Reserved.

The IPTC Photo Metadata Standard document is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license - see the full license agreement at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. 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.

This project intends to use materials that are either in the public domain or are available by the permission for their respective copyright holders. All materials of this IPTC standard covered by copyright shall be licensable at no charge.

Acknowledgments

This document is the result of a team effort by members of the International Press Telecommunications Council since 2004 with input and assistance from other contributors.

Development and maintenance of the IPTC Photo Metadata schemas is led by David Riecks (PLUS) and Michael Steidl (IPTC) and these members of the Photo Metadata Working Group contributed (ordered by surname):

Thierry Bergerx) (WAN-Ifra), Linda Burman (L.Burman), Dave Compton (Refinitiv/Thomson Reuters), Karl Csoknyay (Keystone-SDA Switzerland), Caroline Desrosiers (Scribely), Annette Feldman (AP), Alfonso Gutierrez (CEPIC), Jan Leidickex) (BVPA), Harald Löfflerx) (Ifra), Cindy Lewisx) (PLUS), Philippe Mougin (AFP), Andrea de Polox) (CEPIC/Alinari), Brendan Quinn (IPTC), Sarah Saundersx) (BAPLA/CEPIC), Jeff Sedlik (PLUS), Klaus Sprick (IPTC), Alison Sullivan (Individual Member), Staffan Testex) (CEPIC), Margaret Warren (Metadata Authoring Systems), Andy Williamsx) (Ifra), Guowei Wu (Xinhua)

x) Person is no longer IPTC Delegate of the member company in 2021

Further these invited experts: Chi Zhang, Pengzhou Zhang and Min Wang (invited by Xinhua), Greg Reser (VRA)

Standard History

The IPTC Photo Metadata Standard includes two metadata schemas. Each schema has its specific version, the version of the full standard reflects the date of release. Both is indicated below.

IPTC Core Schema Specification History

Version Approval Date Approved by In Standard Version

1.0

2004-10-08

Standards Committee

2004

1.1

2008-07-02

Standards Committee

2008

1.2

2014-06-18

Standards Committee

July 2014

1.3

2021-10-20

Standards Committee

2021.1

IPTC Extension Schema Specification History

Version Approval Date Approved by In Standard Version

1.0

2008-07-02

Standards Committee

2008

1.1

2009-06-17

Standards Committee

July 2009

1.2

2014-06-18

Standards Committee

July 2014

1.3

2016-10-26

Standards Committee

October 2016

1.4

2017-05-17

Standards Committee

2017.1

1.5

2019-10-16

Standards Committee

2019.1

1.6

2021-10-20

Standards Committee

2021.1

About This Document

This document specifies metadata properties with a focus on usage with photos, some of these properties are also specified by the IPTC Video Metadata Hub.

This document is a specification that may be revised to fix errata. Any changes will be indicated by a new document revision number. Any changes to the specification will be reflected by a change of the version of the standard.

This specification document will be supplemented by guidelines for end users and implementers.

Status of this Document

This document is under the governance of the IPTC Photo Metadata Working Group of the IPTC Standards Committee.

This is a specification document endorsed by IPTC members and may be updated, replaced or made obsolete by other documents at any time.

A public version of this specification document is available at https://iptc.org/std/photometadata/specification/IPTC-PhotoMetadata

Previous versions of this specification document can be accessed in the web folder https://iptc.org/std/photometadata/specification

All related IPTC documentation like user guidelines is available at https://iptc.org/std/photometadata/documentation

Public comments should be sent to this forum and mailing list at: https://groups.io/g/iptc-photometadata

Specification Document Revision History

Revision Issue Date Author/revised by Remarks

2021.1 Revision 1

2020-10-21

Photo Metadata WG/M Steidl

Document as approved by the Standards Committee

IPTC Photo Metadata

1. Overview

IPTC Photo Metadata provides data about photographs and the values can be processed by software. Each individual metadata entity is called a property and they are grouped into Administrative, Descriptive and Rights-related properties.

IPTC Photo Metadata properties have photo specific definitions that are widely supported by imaging software.

IPTC Photo Metadata aligns with other IPTC metadata standards made for media items of any media-type. Thus they integrate with media-type agnostic digital asset management systems.

The IPTC Photo Metadata specification is split into two different schemas:

(A schema is a set of metadata properties.)

  • The IPTC Core schema was built initially from properties of the IPTC “Information Interchange Model” (IIM) standard [IPTC-IIM] (in use since 1995). A few additional properties related to existing IPTC Core properties have been added. This schema is backward compatible with properties going back to the 1990’s.

  • The IPTC Extension schema extends and complements the IPTC Core schema by an additional set of more granular properties and further specialised rights-related properties from the PLUS metadata schema [PLUS]. It started in 2008.

This document provides the latest specifications for both schemas.

2. Technical Metadata

Digital cameras capture metadata at the time the image is taken reflecting technical characteristics. Such metadata may include, but is not limited to, generic camera metadata, camera manufacturer-specific metadata, ICC profiles and positioning data. Standards for these metadata are not subject to IPTC Standards, but are under the control of the camera manufacturers, their associations (such as CIPA) and others. Because the IPTC acknowledges these technical metadata standards of other bodies and does not wish to duplicate existing metadata properties, the IPTC Photo Metadata specification does not include any technical metadata.

3. History

In 1990, the IPTC developed its “Information Interchange Model” (IIM) metadata property standard for exchanging news that was, by design, media-type agnostic and thus encouraged users to apply it to photos. A few years later, the software company Adobe Systems, Inc., adopted a subset of IIM properties for its imaging software Photoshop and developed a metadata storage technology named “Image Resource Block” to embed the metadata properties in a header section of the image files. From that moment on, millions of photographs were annotated using IIM metadata.

In September 2001, Adobe introduced its new technical metadata framework “Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP)” [Adobe-XMP] that may make the “Image Resource Blocks” sooner or later obsolete. The XML-based XMP technology is much more flexible and can deal better with globalisation requirements. In 2012 the core definition of the data model and the XML syntax were defined by ISO as standard 16684-1 [ISO-XMP].

In 2004, IPTC and Adobe jointly developed the “IPTC Core Schema for XMP” which is actually a redefinition of the IIM properties in the new XMP environment; only a few properties were added.

In 2007, the IPTC collected requirements from different sectors of the professional photography business – with a focus on news photography and stock photography – and published these requirements in its Photo Metadata White Paper 2007. After receiving wide assent to this paper, the IPTC developed specifications for the “IPTC Extension Schema” and slightly revised the IPTC Core specifications. Both specifications were released in a single document named “IPTC Photo Metadata Standard” in 2008 and have been updated or extended in 2009, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2021.

4. Photo Metadata specification notation

This document provides a human readable specification of the IPTC Photo Metadata Standard.

4.1. The specification template

This specification document provides for each photo metadata property a full specification including:

The specification of a Photo Metadata property is shown in a generic table form using the following template.
Some rows may be missing if there is no use for this specification, e.g. structures have no help text or label as they are applied to a property with help text and label.

Specification Table Template
Row header What is specified by this row

Name

The reference name of the property used by this specification. This name shall never be translated.

Definition

A photo-specific definition of the semantics of this property, may be translated for localization purposes.

Help Text

A help text for this property which may be displayed by a generic help system of the user interface, and should be translated for localization purposes.

User Note(s)

Any notes that apply to the end user of this property, should be translated for localization purposes.

Implementation Note(s)

Notes targeting parties implementing this property by any specified technology.

Label

Text appearing next to the entry field in the user interface, that should be translated for localization purposes. (As structures are used by fields with labels no label is defined for a structure.)

Basic Specs

A recommended basic data type, XMP and JSON provide a more specific data type. Used types:
Text = sequence of characters, can be used for free text or other purposes
Integer = integer number
Decimal = decimal number
URL = Uniform Resource Locator, in most cases the web address of a resource
URI = Uniform Resource Identifier for identifying a resource, this includes URLs
…​ Structure = a structure of sub-properties
Cardinality: how often this property must or may occur in a set of Photo Metadata about an image or in a structure of a metadata property:
1 = one and only one occurrence is mandatory,
0..1 = one occurrence is optional,
0..unbounded = one and multiple occurrences are optional,
1..unbounded = one occurrence is mandatory, multiple occurrences are optional

CV Note(s)

A note on the use of Controlled Vocabularies with this property. The term "Required" specifies the use of a specific CV as mandatory.

History Note(s)

A note in which version of the specification or, if there was an error in the specification document, in which revision of this specification document a property was changed and how.
Search for the identifier of a version of the standard - like 2021.1, 2019.1 or 2017.1 - to find all properties added or modified by it.

XMP Specs

The specification of the property for XMP: The namespace alias and the property identifier are separated by a colon, see section “XMP Namespaces and Identifiers” of IPTC Core and IPTC Extension.
Further the value type as as defined by the XMP specification’s XMP Category and how the value of the property is generated - External, Internal - as defined by XMP, both in []-brackets.

XMP Implementation Note(s)

Note(s) regarding an XMP-specific implementation. It may include a reference to a generic note on XMP Properties.

IIM Specs

The specification of the property by IIM: The numeric values of the IIM Dataset property identifier, separated by a colon, plus the IIM name of the datataset. If the basic data type of the property is text "max bytes for text" is appended with the maximum count of permitted bytes. Read more about it in this generic IIM Implementation Note

JSON Specs

The specification of the property for JSON: The name of the JSON property plus the data type in []-brackets.
Data type parts are sepearated by /. Part 1: basic type string, number, object; part 2: subtype like uri, url, date-time or for the basic type object the name of the object (= structure); part 3: no value = single occurrence, array = multiple occurrence. Suffix -MANDATORY = occurrence required.

4.2. TechReference

IPTC provides also a machine-readable version of the specifications that can be consumed directly by a software tool, called the IPTC Photo Metadata TechReference.

The TechReference is a data object containing all the details of the IPTC Photo Metadata technical specifications in the easy-to-use JSON and YAML formats.
IPTC has published a rich documentation about the TechReference data object including how to download the data objects themselves from the IPTC site.

4.3. Generic Specification Notes

4.3.1. The terms Metadata Property and Metadata Structure

The term Metadata Property is used for data about the image content. A metadata property can be made to hold only a single kind of value, or a structure of different values, for which the term Metadata Structure is used.

Examples:

  • The metadata property Description is made for only one kind of value, a text string, but may provide this value in different languages. It is important to understand that language translations are NOT a metadata structure.

  • The property Artwork or Object in the Image provides a structure of many sub-fields, and is not designed for only a single value.
    For a property using a structure, the string “structure” is used in the “Basic data type” cell of its specification table. In this case, check the XMP Value Type cell of the table and refer to the corresponding structure identified in it. For all structures specified by the IPTC this document includes the specification tables for all members of a structure. For all structures specified by another standardisation body, in particular by PLUS, the specifications of the structure can only be found in the specification documents (website, PDF document …​) of this body.

4.3.2. (legacy) appended to a property name

This suffix is used if the IPTC Extension provides a better solution to annotate the information about an image than the IPTC Core does. In this case, the IPTC recommends to phase out the use of the (legacy)-marked property and to move towards using the IPTC Extension. See the notes on this matter in the particular specification table.

4.3.3. (DEPRECATED) appended to a property name

This suffix is used for properties which should not be used any longer. A reason for this is given in the spec table of the property and may include a recommendation to use a different property.

4.3.4. Saving metadata values to files

The values of properties should be saved to an image file using both the IIM format and the XMP format as defined in the specification tables.
(A guideline on how to synchronise values existing in parallel was available from the Metadata Working Group [MetadataWG] until October 2018 and was widely used.)

IPTC Core schema 1.3 specifications

The IPTC Core schema defines the semantics of a set of metadata properties and their technical expressions by the IPTC IIM and the ISO XMP format.

5. XMP Namespaces and Identifiers

The technical XMP format of IPTC Core schema uses different namespaces for different properties.

The namespace URI for some IPTC Core schema properties is: http://iptc.org/std/Iptc4xmpCore/1.0/xmlns/
The preferred namespace-prefix of this IPTC Core namespace is: Iptc4xmpCore
The use of this namespace-prefix is not mandatory, but highly recommended for interoperability support.

Other namespaces used for IPTC Core schema properties are:

Name URI Recommended/used Prefix

Dublin Core

http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/

dc

Photoshop

http://ns.adobe.com/photoshop/1.0/

photoshop

XMP Rights

http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/rights/

xmpRights

User interfaces showing “IPTC Core” properties should refer to this schema as an “IPTC Core” or “IPTC” panel.

6. Metadata Properties

6.1. Alt Text (Accessibility)

Row header Specification

Name

Alt Text (Accessibility)

Definition

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. It should not exceed 250 characters.

Help Text

Enter text describing the appearance of the image from a visual perspective, focusing on details that are relevant to the purpose and meaning of the image

User Note(s)

This property should not be confused with the IPTC property Headline, which is a brief synopsis or summary of the contents of the image. This property is required for conformance with the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

Implementation Note(s)

It may help to show a warning on the editing interface when 250 characters are exceeded.

Label

Alt Text (Accessibility)

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 2021.1

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpCore:AltTextAccessibility [Lang Alt <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Read note about Lang Alt value type

JSON Specs

altTextAccessibility [object/AltLang/]

6.2. City (legacy)

Row header Specification

Name

City (legacy)

Definition

Name of the city of the location shown in the image. This element is at the third level of a top-down geographical hierarchy.

Help Text

Enter the name of the city pictured in this image

User Note(s)

This is a detail of a location with blurred semantics as it does not clearly indicate whether it is the location in the image or the location the photo was taken - which can be different. Two more concise properties are available in IPTC Extension with Location Created and Location Shown in the Image.

Implementation Note(s)

Read the IIM note about Max bytes for text

Label

City

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2004), modified by version 1.1 (2008)

XMP Specs

photoshop:City [Text <External>]

IIM Specs

2:90 City, max bytes for text: 32

JSON Specs

cityName [string//]
Row header Specification

Name

Copyright Notice

Definition

Contains any necessary copyright notice for claiming the intellectual property for this photograph and should identify the current owner of the copyright for the photograph. Other entities like the creator of the photograph may be added in the corresponding field. Notes on usage rights should be provided in "Rights usage terms".

Help Text

Enter a Notice on the current owner of the Copyright for this image, such as ©2008 Jane Doe

User Note(s)

Copyright ownership can be expressed in a more controlled way using the PLUS fields "Copyright Owner", "Copyright Owner ID", "Copyright Owner Name" of the IPTC Extension. It is the user’s responsibility to keep the values of the four fields in sync.

Implementation Note(s)

Read the IIM note about Max bytes for text

Label

Copyright Notice

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2004)

XMP Specs

dc:rights [Lang Alt <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Read note about Lang Alt value type

IIM Specs

2:116 Copyright Notice, max bytes for text: 128

JSON Specs

copyrightNotice [object/AltLang/]

6.4. Country (legacy)

Row header Specification

Name

Country (legacy)

Definition

Full name of the country of the location shown in the image. This element is at the top/first level of a top-down geographical hierarchy. The full name should be expressed as a verbal name and not as a code, a code should go to the element "CountryCode"

Help Text

Enter the name of the country pictured in this image

User Note(s)

This is a detail of a location with blurred semantics as it does not clearly indicate whether it is the location in the image or the location the photo was taken - which can be different. Two more concise properties are available in IPTC Extension with Location Created and Location Shown in the Image.

Implementation Note(s)

Read the IIM note about Max bytes for text

Label

Country

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2004), modified by version 1.1 (2008)

XMP Specs

photoshop:Country [Text <External>]

IIM Specs

2:101 Country/Primary Location Name, max bytes for text: 64

JSON Specs

countryName [string//]

6.5. Country Code (legacy)

Row header Specification

Name

Country Code (legacy)

Definition

Code of the country of the location shown in the image. This element is at the top/first level of a top-down geographical hierarchy. The code should be taken from ISO 3166 two or three letter code. The full name of a country should go to the "Country" element.

Help Text

Enter the 2 or 3 letter ISO 3166 Country Code of the Country pictured in this image

User Note(s)

This is a detail of a location with blurred semantics as it does not clearly indicate whether it is the location in the image or the location the photo was taken - which can be different. Two more concise properties are available in IPTC Extension with Location Created and Location Shown in the Image.

Implementation Note(s)

Read the IIM note about Max bytes for text

Label

ISO Country Code

Basic Specs

Data type: CV-code / Cardinality: 0..1

CV Note(s)

Required: ISO 3166-1 - 2 or 3 characters (see Definition)

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2004), modified by version 1.1 (2008)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpCore:CountryCode [closed choice Text <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Note 1: an implementer would have to derive from the length of the value string whether this is the country code from the two or three letter scheme as no explicit indication can be provided.

IIM Specs

2:100 Country/Primary Location Code, max bytes for text: 3

JSON Specs

countryCode [string//]

6.6. Creator

Row header Specification

Name

Creator

Definition

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.

Help Text

Enter the name of the person that created this image

User Note(s)

The creator can be expressed in a more controlled way using the "Image Creator" of PLUS in the IPTC Extension additionally. It is the user’s responsibility to keep the values of the IPTC Core and the PLUS fields in sync.

Implementation Note(s)

Note 1: Synchronising this Creator property with PLUS' Image Creator Name should be supported by software.

Note 2: Read the IIM note about Max bytes for text

Label

Creator

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2004)

XMP Specs

dc:creator [Seq ProperName <External>]

IIM Specs

2:80 By-line, max bytes for text: 32

JSON Specs

creatorNames [string//array]

6.7. Creator’s Contact Info

Row header Specification

Name

Creator’s Contact Info

Definition

The creator’s contact information provides all necessary information to get in contact with the creator of this image and comprises a set of sub-properties for proper addressing.

User Note(s)

The IPTC Extension Licensor fields should be used instead of these Creator’s Contact Info fields if you are using IPTC Extension fields. If the creator is also the licensor his or her contact information should be provided in the Licensor fields.

Implementation Note(s)

The structure of Creator’s Contact Info should not be visible to the user.

Label

Creator’s Contact info

Basic Specs

Data type: Creators Contact Info structure / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2004)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpCore:CreatorContactInfo [struct ContactInfo structure <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Note 1 to user interface implementers: All sub-properties of "Creator’s contact information" should be shown as group on the form.

Note 2: the CreatorContactInfo sub-properties' naming aligns with the vCard specification RFC 2426.

Note 3: the structure corresponds to the first entry in a sequence of creators

JSON Specs

creatorContactInfo [object/CreatorContactInfo/]

6.8. Creator’s jobtitle

Row header Specification

Name

Creator’s jobtitle

Definition

Contains the job title of the photographer. As this is sort of a qualifier the Creator element has to be filled in as mandatory prerequisite for using Creator’s Jobtitle.

Help Text

Enter the Job Title of the person listed in the Creator field

Implementation Note(s)

Read the IIM note about Max bytes for text

Label

Creator’s Jobtitle

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2004), XMP Implementation Note added 2010

XMP Specs

photoshop:AuthorsPosition [Text <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Note: corresponds to the first entry in a sequence of creators

IIM Specs

2:85 By-line Title, max bytes for text: 32

JSON Specs

jobtitle [string//]

6.9. Credit Line

Row header Specification

Name

Credit Line

Definition

The credit to person(s) and/or organisation(s) required by the supplier of the image to be used when published. This is a free-text field.

Help Text

Enter who should be credited when this image is published

User Note(s)

Note 1: For more formal identifications of the creator or the owner of the copyrights of this image other rights properties may be used. Note 2: This property was named "Credit" by the IIM metadata, then it was renamed to "Provider" in IPTC Core 1.0. In IPTC Core 1.1. it has been renamed to "Credit Line" as the field is used for this purpose by many users.

Implementation Note(s)

Read the IIM note about Max bytes for text

Label

Credit Line

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2004), renamed by version 1.1 (2008)

XMP Specs

photoshop:Credit [Text <External>]

IIM Specs

2:110 Credit, max bytes for text: 32

JSON Specs

creditLine [string//]

6.10. Date Created

Row header Specification

Name

Date Created

Definition

Designates the date and optionally the time the content of the image was created rather than the date of the creation of the digital representation.

Help Text

Enter the Date the image was taken

Implementation Note(s)

Note 1: If a software system requires explicit time values and no time is given by the Date Created property the software system should default the time to 00:00:00. If the software system does not require an explicit time value the time part should be left empty as it is.

Note 2: Software showing the metadata user interface should adopt a widget for this property that supports editing truncated dates, like year and month only, or year only. Software embedding truncated dates as IIM DataSet 2:55 should use the value "00" for undefined days or months (like "19180000" for an image taken "in the year 1918")

Label

Date Created

Basic Specs

Data type: DateTime (preferred: truncated DateTime) / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2004), Implementation Notes revised by version 2021.1

XMP Specs

photoshop:DateCreated [Date <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Note 1: Any content of the IIM datasets 2:55, Date Created, and 2:60, Time Created, should be merged to this element.

Note 2: Implementers are encouraged to show the values of the Exif tags DateTimeOriginal (36867, 0x9003) + OffsetTimeOriginal(36881,0x9011) of a digital camera to the user for entering this date for the first time.

Note 3: Read note about Date value type

IIM Specs

2:55 Date Created+2:60 Time Created

JSON Specs

dateCreated [string/date-time/]

6.11. Description

Row header Specification

Name

Description

Definition

A textual description, including captions, of the image.

Help Text

Enter a "caption" describing the who, what, and why of what is happening in this image, this might include names of people, and/or their role in the action that is taking place within the image

Implementation Note(s)

Read the IIM note about Max bytes for text

Label

Caption/Description

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2004)

XMP Specs

dc:description [Lang Alt <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Read note about Lang Alt value type

IIM Specs

2:120 Caption/Abstract, max bytes for text: 2000

JSON Specs

description [object/AltLang/]

6.12. Description Writer

Row header Specification

Name

Description Writer

Definition

Identifier or the name of the person(s) involved in writing, editing or correcting the Description, Alt Text (Accessibility), or Extended Description (Accessibility) of the image.

Help Text

Enter the name of the person(s) involved in writing, editing or correcting the Description, Alt Text (Accessibility), or Extended Description (Accessibility) of the image, separated by commas

User Note(s)

Multiple description writers can be given. May have to be separated by a comma in the user interface.

Implementation Note(s)

Read the IIM note about Max bytes for text

Label

Caption/Description writer

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2004), modified by version 2021.1

XMP Specs

photoshop:CaptionWriter [Text <External>]

IIM Specs

2:122 Writer/Editor, max bytes for text: 32

JSON Specs

captionWriter [string//]

6.13. Extended Description (Accessibility)

Row header Specification

Name

Extended Description (Accessibility)

Definition

A more detailed textual description of the purpose and meaning of an image that elaborates on the information provided by the Alt Text (Accessibility) property. This property does not have a character limitation and is not required if the Alt Text (Accessibility) field sufficiently describes the image.

Help Text

Enter the text describing the appearance of an image from a visual perspective, focusing on relevant details that further describe the meaning and purpose of the image

User Note(s)

This property should not be confused with the IPTC property Description/Caption, which is the who, what, when, where, why, how of an image. This property can be combined with Alt Text (Accessibility) if and when a brief description is not sufficient to convey the purpose and meaning of an image. It should not repeat the information in the Alt Text (Accessibility) property. It is required for conformance with the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

Implementation Note(s)

Extended Description (Accessibility) is designed to be used in conjunction with Alt Text (Accessibility) therefore both properties should be available on the editing interface.

Label

Extended Description (Accessibility)

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 2021.1

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpCore:ExtDescrAccessibility [Lang Alt <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Read note about Lang Alt value type

JSON Specs

extDescrAccessibility [object/AltLang/]

6.14. Headline

Row header Specification

Name

Headline

Definition

A brief synopsis of the caption. Headline is not the same as Title.

Help Text

Enter a brief publishable synopsis or summary of the contents of the image

Implementation Note(s)

Read the IIM note about Max bytes for text

Label

Headline

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2004)

XMP Specs

photoshop:Headline [Text <External>]

IIM Specs

2:105 Headline, max bytes for text: 256

JSON Specs

headline [object/AltLang/]

6.15. Instructions

Row header Specification

Name

Instructions

Definition

Any number of instructions from the provider or creator to the receiver of the image

Help Text

Enter information about embargoes, or other restrictions not covered by the Rights Usage field

User Note(s)

The Instructions may include any of the following: embargoes (NewsMagazines OUT) and other restrictions not covered by the "Rights Usage Terms" field; information regarding the original means of capture (scanning notes, colourspace info) or other specific text information that the user may need for accurate reproduction; additional permissions required when publishing; credits for publishing if they exceed the IIM length of the credit field

Implementation Note(s)

Read the IIM note about Max bytes for text

Label

Instructions

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2004)

XMP Specs

photoshop:Instructions [Text <External>]

IIM Specs

2:40 Special Instruction, max bytes for text: 256

JSON Specs

instructions [string//]

6.16. Intellectual Genre

Row header Specification

Name

Intellectual Genre

Definition

Describes the nature, intellectual, artistic or journalistic characteristic of an image.

Help Text

Enter a term to describe the nature of the image in terms of its intellectual or journalistic characteristics

User Note(s)

The Intellectual Genre can be expressed in a more controlled way using the "Genre" property of the IPTC Extension.

Implementation Note(s)

Read the IIM note about Max bytes for text

Label

Intellectual genre

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2004). Help text and notes revised by version 2021.1

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpCore:IntellectualGenre [Text <External>]

IIM Specs

2:04 Object Attribute Reference, max bytes for text: 64

JSON Specs

intellectualGenre [string//]

6.17. Job Id

Row header Specification

Name

Job Id

Definition

Number or identifier for the purpose of improved workflow handling. This is a user created identifier related to the job for which the image is supplied.

Help Text

Enter a number or identifier needed for workflow control or tracking

Implementation Note(s)

Read the IIM note about Max bytes for text

Label

Job Identifier

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2004)

XMP Specs

photoshop:TransmissionReference [Text <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Note: As this identifier references a job of the receiver’s workflow it must first be issued by the receiver, then transmitted to the creator or provider of the news object and finally added by the creator to this field.

IIM Specs

2:103 Original Transmission Reference, max bytes for text: 32

JSON Specs

jobid [string//]

6.18. Keywords

Row header Specification

Name

Keywords

Definition

Keywords to express the subject of the image. Keywords may be free text and don’t have to be taken from a controlled vocabulary. Codes from the controlled vocabulary IPTC Subject NewsCodes must go to the "Subject Code" field.

Help Text

Enter any number of keywords, terms or phrases used to express the subject matter in the image.

Implementation Note(s)

Note 1: Single values of this field should not be restricted to single words but must allow for phrases as well.

Note 2: Read the IIM note about Max bytes for text

Label

Keywords

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2004)

XMP Specs

dc:subject [Bag Text <External>]

IIM Specs

2:25 Keywords, max bytes for text: 64

JSON Specs

keywords [string//array]

6.19. Province or State (legacy)

Row header Specification

Name

Province or State (legacy)

Definition

Name of the subregion of a country of the location shown in the image. This element is at the second level of a top-down geographical hierarchy.

Help Text

Enter the name of the province or state pictured in this image

User Note(s)

This is a detail of a location with blurred semantics as it does not clearly indicate whether it is the location in the image or the location the photo was taken - which can be different. Two more concise properties are available in IPTC Extension with Location Created and Location Shown in the Image.

Implementation Note(s)

Read the IIM note about Max bytes for text

Label

Province/State

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Modified by version 1.1 (2008)

XMP Specs

photoshop:State [Text <External>]

IIM Specs

2:95 Province/State, max bytes for text: 32

JSON Specs

provinceState [string//]

6.20. Rights Usage Terms

Row header Specification

Name

Rights Usage Terms

Definition

The licensing parameters of the image expressed in free-text.

Help Text

Enter instructions on how this image can legally be used

User Note(s)

Rights and licensing related properties of the IPTC Extension can be used in parallel to express the licensed usage in more controlled terms.

Label

Rights Usage Terms

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2004)

XMP Specs

xmpRights:UsageTerms [Lang Alt <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Read note about Lang Alt value type

JSON Specs

usageTerms [object/AltLang/]

6.21. Scene Code

Row header Specification

Name

Scene Code

Definition

Describes the scene of a photo content. Specifies one ore more terms from the IPTC "Scene-NewsCodes". Each Scene is represented as a string of 6 digits in an unordered list.

Help Text

Enter only the 6-digit codes from the IPTC Scene NewsCodes Controlled Vocabulary (see: http://cv.iptc.org/newscodes/scene)

Label

IPTC Scene Code

Basic Specs

Data type: CV-code / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

CV Note(s)

Required: IPTC Scene NewsCodes. Use only the 6-digit code.

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2004)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpCore:Scene [Bag closed choice Text <External>]

JSON Specs

sceneCodes [string//array]

6.22. Source

Row header Specification

Name

Source

Definition

The name of a person or party who has a role in the content supply chain. This could be an agency, a member of an agency, an individual or a combination. Source could be different from Creator and from the entities in the Copyright Notice.

Help Text

Enter or edit the name of a person or party who has a role in the content supply chain, such as a person or entity from whom you received this image from

Implementation Note(s)

Read the IIM note about Max bytes for text

Label

Source

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2004), definition changed by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

photoshop:Source [Text <External>]

IIM Specs

2:115 Source, max bytes for text: 32

JSON Specs

source [string//]

6.23. Subject Code

Row header Specification

Name

Subject Code

Definition

Specifies one or more Subjects from the IPTC Subject-NewsCodes taxonomy to categorise the image. Each Subject is represented as a string of 8 digits in an unordered list.

Help Text

Enter only the 8-digit codes from the IPTC Subject NewsCode Controlled Vocabulary (see: http://cv.iptc.org/newscodes/subjectcode)

Implementation Note(s)

Read the IIM note about Max bytes for text

Label

IPTC Subject Code

Basic Specs

Data type: CV-code / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

CV Note(s)

Required: IPTC Subject NewsCodes. Use only the 8-digit code.

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2004)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpCore:SubjectCode [Bag closed choice Text <External>]

IIM Specs

2:12 Subject Reference, max bytes for text: 236

JSON Specs

subjectCodes [string//array]

6.24. Sublocation (legacy)

Row header Specification

Name

Sublocation (legacy)

Definition

Exact name of the sublocation shown in the image. This sublocation name could either be the name of a sublocation to a city or the name of a well known location or (natural) monument outside a city. In the sense of a sublocation to a city this element is at the fourth level of a top-down geographical hierarchy.

Help Text

Enter the name of the Sublocation pictured in this image

User Note(s)

This is a detail of a location with blurred semantics as it does not clearly indicate whether it is the location in the image or the location the photo was taken - which can be different. Two more concise properties are available in IPTC Extension with Location Created and Location Shown in the Image.

Implementation Note(s)

Read the IIM note about Max bytes for text

Label

Sublocation

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2004), modified by version 1.1 (2008)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpCore:Location [Text <External>]

IIM Specs

2:92 Sublocation, max bytes for text: 32

JSON Specs

sublocationName [string//]

6.25. Title

Row header Specification

Name

Title

Definition

A shorthand reference for the digital image. Title provides a short human readable name which can be a text and/or numeric reference. It is not the same as Headline.

Help Text

Enter a short verbal and human readable name for the image, this may be the file name

User Note(s)

Many use the Title field to store the filename of the image, though the field may be used in many ways. Formal identifiers are provided by the Digital Image Id, or the Registry Entry property of the IPTC Extension.

Implementation Note(s)

Read the IIM note about Max bytes for text

Label

Title

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2004)

XMP Specs

dc:title [Lang Alt <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Note 1: This element aligns with the use of Dublin Core’s "Title" element.

Note 2: Read note about Lang Alt value type

IIM Specs

2:05 Object Name, max bytes for text: 64

JSON Specs

title [object/AltLang/]

7. Metadata Structures

7.1. Contact Information structure

Row header Specification

Name

Contact Information structure

Definition

A generic structure providing a basic set of information to get in contact with a person or organisation. It includes an Address, a City, a Country, Email address, Phone number, a Postal Code, a State or Province and Web URL.

Basic Specs

Data type: Structure / Cardinality: N/A

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2004), XMP Implementation Note removed (2021.1)

IIM Specs

2:118 Contact

JSON Specs

CreatorContactInfo [object//]

7.1.1. Address

Row header Specification

Name

Address

Definition

The contact information address part. Comprises an optional company name and all required information to locate the building or postbox to which mail should be sent. To that end, the address is a multiline field.

Help Text

Enter Address for the person that created this image

Label

(Contact Info detail:) Address

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2004)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpCore:CiAdrExtadr [Text <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Note 1: to user interface implementers: This field should be part of a "Contact information" group on the form.

Note 2: the ContactInfo naming aligns with the vCard specification RFC 2426.

JSON Specs

address [string//]

7.1.2. City

Row header Specification

Name

City

Definition

The contact information city part.

Help Text

Enter the City for the address of the person that created this image

Label

(Contact Info detail:) City

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2004)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpCore:CiAdrCity [Text <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Note 1: to user interface implementers: This field should be part of a "Contact information" group on the form.

Note 2: the ContactInfo naming aligns with the vCard specification RFC 2426.

JSON Specs

city [string//]

7.1.3. Country

Row header Specification

Name

Country

Definition

The contact information country part.

Help Text

Enter the Country name for the address of the person that created this image

Label

(Contact Info detail:) Country

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2004)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpCore:CiAdrCtry [Text <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Note 1: to user interface implementers: This field should be part of a "Contact information" group on the form.

Note 2: the ContactInfo naming aligns with the vCard specification RFC 2426.

JSON Specs

country [string//]

7.1.4. Email address(es)

Row header Specification

Name

Email address(es)

Definition

The contact information email address part.

Help Text

Enter the work Email address(es) for the person that created this image, such as name@domain.com

User Note(s)

Multiple email addresses can be given. May have to be separated by a comma in the user interface.

Label

(Contact Info detail:) Email(s)

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2004)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpCore:CiEmailWork [Text <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Note 1 to user interface implementers: This field should be part of a "Contact information" group on the form. Note 2 to user interface implementers: provide sufficient space to fill in multiple e-mail addresses.

Note 3: the ContactInfo naming aligns with the vCard specification RFC 2426.

JSON Specs

emailwork [string//]

7.1.5. Phone number(s)

Row header Specification

Name

Phone number(s)

Definition

The contact information phone number part.

Help Text

Enter the work Phone number(s) for the person that created this image, using the international format, such as +1 (123) 456789

User Note(s)

Multiple numbers can be given. May have to be separated by a comma in the user interface.

Label

(Contact Info detail:) Phone(s)

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2004)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpCore:CiTelWork [Text <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Note 1 to user interface implementers: This field should be part of a "Contact information" group on the form. Note 2 to user interface implementers: provide sufficient space to fill in multiple international numbers.

Note 3: the ContactInfo naming aligns with the vCard specification RFC 2426.

JSON Specs

phonework [string//]

7.1.6. Postal Code

Row header Specification

Name

Postal Code

Definition

The contact information part denoting the local postal code.

Help Text

Enter the Postal Code for the address of the person that created this image

Label

(Contact Info detail:) Postal Code

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2004)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpCore:CiAdrPcode [Text <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Note 1: to user interface implementers: This field should be part of a "Contact information" group on the form.

Note 2: the ContactInfo naming aligns with the vCard specification RFC 2426.

JSON Specs

postalCode [string//]

7.1.7. State/Province

Row header Specification

Name

State/Province

Definition

The contact information part denoting regional information such as state or province.

Help Text

Enter the State for the address of the person that created this image

Label

(Contact Info detail:) State/Province

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2004)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpCore:CiAdrRegion [Text <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Note 1: to user interface implementers: This field should be part of a "Contact information" group on the form.

Note 2: the ContactInfo naming aligns with the vCard specification RFC 2426.

JSON Specs

region [string//]

7.1.8. Web URL(s)

Row header Specification

Name

Web URL(s)

Definition

The contact information web address part. Multiple addresses can be given.

Help Text

Enter the work Web URL(s) for the person that created this image, such as http://www.domain.com/

User Note(s)

Multiple URL can be given. May have to be separated by a comma in the user interface.

Label

(Contact Info detail:) Web URL(s)

Basic Specs

Data type: URL / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2004)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpCore:CiUrlWork [Text <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Note 1 to user interface implementers: This field should be part of a "Contact information" group on the form. Note 2 to user interface implementers: provide sufficient space to fill in multiple URLs.

Note 3: the ContactInfo naming aligns with the vCard specification RFC 2426.

JSON Specs

weburlwork [string/url/]

8. Non-normative Information

8.1. “Deprecated” IIM metadata properties

Not all of the IIM datasets adopted by Adobe to be used for the Photoshop File Info have been adopted for the IPTC Core schema. In terms of mapping and transferring metadata from the legacy IIM-based metadata, these datasets must be considered as deprecated:

  • Urgency: As this metadata element pertains to distribution management, it was not adopted. However, this data is still synchronised with the XMP property “photoshop:Urgency”, and hence, available for future use, but outside the IPTC Core.

  • Category: As this metadata element was earmarked as deprecated already for IIM 4.1, it was not adopted. However, this data is still synchronised with the XMP property “photoshop:Category”, and hence available for future use – but outside the IPTC Core. For migrating from Category codes to Subject Codes please read the Guideline for mapping Category Codes to Subject NewsCodes section below.

  • Supplemental Categories: As this metadata element was earmarked as deprecated already for IIM 4.1, it was not adopted. However, this data is still synchronised with the XMP property “photoshop:SupplementalCategories”, and hence available for future use – but outside the IPTC Core.

8.2. 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 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. Organizations 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, organizations, 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. Organizations and bodies involved in these activities.

IPTC Extension schema 1.6 specifications

The IPTC Extension schema defines the semantics of a set of metadata properties and their technical expressions by the XMP format.

9. XMP Namespaces and Identifiers

The technical XMP format of the IPTC Extension schema uses different namespaces for different properties.

The namespace URI for some IPTC Extension schema properties is: http://iptc.org/std/Iptc4xmpExt/2008-02-29/
The preferred namespace-prefix of this IPTC Extension namespace is: Iptc4xmpExt
The use of this namespace-prefix is not mandatory but highly recommended for interoperability support.

Other namespaces used for IPTC Extension schema properties are:

Name URI Recommended Prefix

PLUS

http://ns.useplus.org/ldf/xmp/1.0/

plus

XMP

http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/rights/

xmp

XMP Rights

http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/rights/

xmpRights

9.1. User Interface Note

User interfaces (like the custom panels in Adobe Photoshop/Bridge/Lightroom products) showing “IPTC Extension” properties should refer to it as an “IPTC Extension” or “IPTC …” panel.

10. Metadata Properties

10.1. Event Identifier

Row header Specification

Name

Event Identifier

Definition

Identifier(s) of the specific event at which the photo was taken

Help Text

Enter one or more identifiers of the event where this image was taken

User Note(s)

The URL/URI of a persistent calendar showing this event can be used.

Label

Event ID

Basic Specs

Data type: URI / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

History Note(s)

Added by version 2021.1

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:EventId [Bag Text <External>]

JSON Specs

eventId [string/uri/array]

10.2. Event Name

Row header Specification

Name

Event Name

Definition

Names or describes the specific event at which the photo was taken.

Help Text

Enter the name or description of the event where this image was taken

User Note(s)

Examples are: a press conference, dedication ceremony, etc. If this is a sub-event of a larger event both can be provided by the field: e.g. "XXXIII Olympic Summer Games (Paris): opening ceremony". Unplanned events could be named by this property too.

Label

Event Name

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008), Name and Label modified by version 2021.1

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:Event [Lang Alt <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Read note about Lang Alt value type

JSON Specs

eventName [object/AltLang/]

10.3. Additional Model Information

Row header Specification

Name

Additional Model Information

Definition

Information about the ethnicity and other facets of the model(s) in a model-released image.

Help Text

Enter information like ethnicity or other details about the model(s) in this image

User Note(s)

Use the Model Age field for the age of model(s).

Label

Additional model info

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:AddlModelInfo [Text <External>]

JSON Specs

additionalModelInfo [string//]

10.4. Artwork or Object in the Image

Row header Specification

Name

Artwork or Object in the Image

Definition

A set of metadata about artwork or an object in the image

Help Text

Enter details about artwork or objects shown in this image

Label

Artwork or object in the image

Basic Specs

Data type: Artwork or Object in the Image structure / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:ArtworkOrObject [Bag ArtworkOrObject structure <External>]

JSON Specs

artworkOrObjects [object/ArtworkOrObject/array]
Row header Specification

Name

Code of Organisation Featured in the Image

Definition

Code from a controlled vocabulary for identifying the organisation or company which is featured in the image.

Help Text

Enter an identifier for the controlled vocabulary, then a colon, and finally the code from the vocabulary assigned to the organisation shown in this image (e.g. nasdaq:companyA)

User Note(s)

For example a stock ticker symbol may be used.

Label

Code of featured Organisation

Basic Specs

Data type: CV-code / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:OrganisationInImageCode [Bag Text <External>]

JSON Specs

organisationInImageCodes [string//array]
Row header Specification

Name

Copyright Owner

Definition

Owner or owners of the copyright in the licensed image.

Help Text

Enter the owner or owners of the copyright in the licensed image

User Note(s)

Serves to identify the rights holder/s for the image. The Copyright Owner, Image Creator and Licensor may be the same or different entities.

Implementation Note(s)

This is a structured PLUS version 1.2 property included in the IPTC Extension schema.

Label

Copyright owner

Basic Specs

Data type: plus-CopyrightOwner / Cardinality: 0..3

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

plus:CopyrightOwner [Seq CopyrightOwner structure <External>]

JSON Specs

copyrightOwners [object/CopyrightOwner/array

10.7. CV-Term About Image

Row header Specification

Name

CV-Term About Image

Definition

One or more topics, themes or entities the content is about, each one expressed by a term from a Controlled Vocabulary.

Help Text

Enter one or more topics, themes or entities the image is about, each one expressed by a term from a Controlled Vocabulary

Label

CV-Term About Image

Basic Specs

Data type: CV-Term structure / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:AboutCvTerm [Bag CVTerm structure <External>]

JSON Specs

aboutCvTerms [object/CvTerm/array]

10.8. Digital Image GUID

Row header Specification

Name

Digital Image GUID

Definition

Globally unique identifier for this digital image. It is created and applied by the creator of the digital image at the time of its creation . This value shall not be changed after that time.

Help Text

If an ID already exists, don’t change - otherwise enter a globally unique identifier for this digital image

User Note(s)

The identifier will probably be generated by the technical means of an imaging device or software and should be applied to the digital image file as early as possible in its life cycle. This identifier does not identify any pictured content, particularly in case of a scan of non-digital images, only this digital representation.

Implementation Note(s)

Any algorithm to create this identifier has to comply with the technical requirements to create a globally unique id. Any device creating digital images - e.g. still image cameras, video cameras, scanners - should create such an identifer right at the time of the creation of the digital data and add the id to the set of metadata.
IPTC’s basic requirements for unique ids are:
* It must be globally unique. Algorithms for this purpose exist.
* It should be secured against tampering.
These features may be considered:
* It may identify the camera body.
* It may identify each individual photo from this camera body.
* It may identify the date and time of the creation of the picture.

This field should be implemented in a way to prove it has not been changed since its value has been applied.
If the identifier has been created by the imaging device its type and brand can be found in the Exif/technical metadata.

Label

Digital Image Identifier

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008), Implementation Notes modified by version 2021.1

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:DigImageGUID [Text <Internal>]

JSON Specs

digitalImageGuid [string//]

10.9. Digital Source Type

Row header Specification

Name

Digital Source Type

Definition

The type of the source of this digital image

Help Text

Select one of the values for identifying the type of the source of the digital image from the controlled vocabulary

Label

Type of source for this photo

Basic Specs

Data type: CV-code / Cardinality: 0..1

CV Note(s)

Required: Digital Source Type NewsCodes

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.1 (2009)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:DigitalSourceType [URI <External>]

JSON Specs

digitalSourceType [string/uri/]

10.10. Embedded Encoded Rights Expression

Row header Specification

Name

Embedded Encoded Rights Expression

Definition

An embedded rights expression using any rights expression language

Help Text

Shows an encoded rights expression. These values cannot be changed by metadata panels

Label

Embedded Encoded Rights Expression

Basic Specs

Data type: Embedded Encoded Rights Expression (EERE) structure / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:EmbdEncRightsExpr [Bag EERE structure <Internal>]

JSON Specs

embdEncRightsExprs [object/EmbdEncRightsExpr/array]

10.11. Genre

Row header Specification

Name

Genre

Definition

Artistic, style, journalistic, product or other genre(s) of the image (expressed by a term from any Controlled Vocabulary)

Label

Genre

Basic Specs

Data type: CV-Term structure / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.3 (2016)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:Genre [Bag CVTerm structure <External>]

JSON Specs

genres [object/CvTerm/array]

10.12. Image Creator

Row header Specification

Name

Image Creator

Definition

Creator or creators of the image

Help Text

Enter details about the creator or creators of this image

User Note(s)

The creator can be additionally expressed in free-text using the IPTC Core Creator field. In many countries, the Image Creator must be attributed in association with any use of the image. The Image Creator, Copyright Owner, Image Supplier and Licensor may be the same or different entities.

Implementation Note(s)

This is a structured PLUS version 1.2 property included in the IPTC Extension schema.

Label

Image Creator

Basic Specs

Data type: plus-ImageCreator / Cardinality: 0..3

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

plus:ImageCreator [Seq ImageCreator structure <External>]

JSON Specs

imageCreators [object/ImageCreator/array

10.13. Image Rating

Row header Specification

Name

Image Rating

Definition

Rating of the image by its user or supplier

Implementation Note(s)

The value shall be -1 or in the range 0..5. -1 indicates "rejected" and 0 "unrated". If an explicit value is missing the implicit default value is 0 should be assumed.

Label

Rating

Basic Specs

Data type: Decimal / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.4 (2017.1)

XMP Specs

xmp:Rating [Closed Choice Real <External>]

JSON Specs

imageRating [number//]

10.14. Image Region

Row header Specification

Name

Image Region

Definition

Sets a region inside an image by defining its boundaries. All pixels of the boundary are also part of the region. It may include metadata related to this region.

Label

Image Region(s)

Basic Specs

Data type: Image Region structure / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.5 (2019.1)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:ImageRegion [Bag ImageRegion structure <External>]

JSON Specs

imageRegion [object/ImageRegion/array]

10.15. Image Registry Entry

Row header Specification

Name

Image Registry Entry

Definition

Both a Registry Item Id and a Registry Organisation Id to record any registration of this digital image with a registry.

Help Text

Enter IDs for this image and the registry issuing the image ID

User Note(s)

Typically an id from a registry is negotiated and applied after the creation of the digital image.

Implementation Note(s)

Any user interface implementation must show both sub-properties - Item Id and Organisation Id - as corresponding values. Further an input to both fields should be made mandatory.

Label

Registry Entry

Basic Specs

Data type: Registry Entry structure / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:RegistryId [Bag RegistryEntry structure <External>]

JSON Specs

registryEntries [object/RegistryEntry/array]

10.16. Image Supplier

Row header Specification

Name

Image Supplier

Definition

Identifies the most recent supplier of the image, who is not necessarily its owner or creator.

Help Text

Enter the identifier for the most recent supplier of this image - note that this might not be the creator or owner of the image

User Note(s)

For identifying the supplier either a well known and/or registered company name or a URL of the company’s web site may be used. This property succeeds the Provider property of IPTC Core 1.0 by its semantics as that Provider was renamed to Credit Line.

Implementation Note(s)

This is a structured PLUS version 1.2 property included in the IPTC Extension schema.

Label

Image Supplier

Basic Specs

Data type: plus-ImageSupplier / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

plus:ImageSupplier [Seq ImageSupplier structure <External>]

JSON Specs

suppliers [object/ImageSupplier/array

10.17. Image Supplier Image ID

Row header Specification

Name

Image Supplier Image ID

Definition

Optional identifier assigned by the Image Supplier to the image.

Help Text

Enter the unique identifier created by the image supplier

Implementation Note(s)

This is a structured PLUS version 1.2 property included in the IPTC Extension schema.

Label

Image Supplier Image Id

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

plus:ImageSupplierImageID [Text <External>]

JSON Specs

imageSupplierImageId [string//]

10.18. Licensor

Row header Specification

Name

Licensor

Definition

A person or company that should be contacted to obtain a licence for using the item or who has licensed the item.

Help Text

Enter the person or company that should be contacted for obtaining a license for this image

Implementation Note(s)

This is a structured PLUS version 1.2 property included in the IPTC Extension schema.

Label

Licensor

Basic Specs

Data type: plus-Licensor / Cardinality: 0..3

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

plus:Licensor [Bag Licensor structure <External>]

JSON Specs

licensors [object/Licensor/array

10.19. Linked Encoded Rights Expression

Row header Specification

Name

Linked Encoded Rights Expression

Definition

A linked rights expression using any rights expression language.

Help Text

Enter the details of a linked rights expression

Label

Linked Encoded Rights Expression

Basic Specs

Data type: Linked Encoded Rights Expression (LERE) structure / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:LinkedEncRightsExpr [Bag LERE structure <External>]

JSON Specs

linkedEncRightsExprs [object/LinkedEncRightsExpr/array]

10.20. Location created

Row header Specification

Name

Location created

Definition

The location the photo was taken.

Help Text

Enter the details about a location where this image was created

User Note(s)

If the location in the image is different from the location the photo was taken the IPTC Extension property Location Shown in the Image should be used.

Label

Location Created

Basic Specs

Data type: Location structure / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:LocationCreated [Bag Location structure <External>]

JSON Specs

locationCreated [object/Location/]

10.21. Location Shown in the Image

Row header Specification

Name

Location Shown in the Image

Definition

A location shown in the image.

Help Text

Enter the details about a location which is shown in this image

User Note(s)

If the location the image was taken in is different from this location the property Location Created should be used too.

Label

Location shown

Basic Specs

Data type: Location structure / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:LocationShown [Bag Location structure <External>]

JSON Specs

locationsShown [object/Location/array]

10.22. Max Avail Height

Row header Specification

Name

Max Avail Height

Definition

The maximum available height in pixels of the original photo from which this photo has been derived by downsizing.

Help Text

Enter the maximum available height in pixels of the original photo from which this photo has been derived by downsizing

Label

Maximum available height

Basic Specs

Data type: Integer / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:MaxAvailHeight [Integer <External>]

JSON Specs

maxAvailHeight [number/integer/]

10.23. Max Avail Width

Row header Specification

Name

Max Avail Width

Definition

The maximum available width in pixels of the original photo from which this photo has been derived by downsizing.

Help Text

Enter the maximum available width in pixels of the original photo from which this photo has been derived by downsizing

Label

Maximum available width

Basic Specs

Data type: Integer / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:MaxAvailWidth [Integer <External>]

JSON Specs

maxAvailWidth [number/integer/]

10.24. Minor Model Age Disclosure

Row header Specification

Name

Minor Model Age Disclosure

Definition

Age of the youngest model pictured in the image, at the time that the image was made.

Help Text

Enter the age of the youngest model pictured in this image, at the time that this image was made

User Note(s)

This age should not be displayed to the public on open web portals and the like. But it may be used by image repositories in a B2B enviroment.

Implementation Note(s)

This is a PLUS version 1.2 property included in the IPTC Extension schema.

Label

Minor Model Age Disclosure

Basic Specs

Data type: CV-code / Cardinality: 0..1

CV Note(s)

See the PLUS specification of this property

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

plus:MinorModelAgeDisclosure [URL <External>]

JSON Specs

minorModelAgeDisclosure [string/uri/]

10.25. Model Age

Row header Specification

Name

Model Age

Definition

Age of the human model(s) at the time this image was taken in a model released image.

Help Text

Enter the age of the human model(s) at the time this image was made

User Note(s)

The user should be aware of any legal implications of providing ages for young models. Ages below 18 years should not be included.

Label

Model age

Basic Specs

Data type: Integer / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:ModelAge [Bag Integer <External>]

JSON Specs

modelAges [number/integer/array]

10.26. Model Release Id

Row header Specification

Name

Model Release Id

Definition

Optional identifier associated with each Model Release.

Help Text

Enter an identifier for each Model Release

Implementation Note(s)

This is a PLUS version 1.2 property included in the IPTC Extension schema.

Label

Model Release Id

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

plus:ModelReleaseID [Bag Text <External>]

JSON Specs

modelReleaseDocuments [string//array]

10.27. Model Release Status

Row header Specification

Name

Model Release Status

Definition

Summarises the availability and scope of model releases authorising usage of the likenesses of persons appearing in the photograph.

Help Text

Select one of the values for summarising the availability and scope of model releases authorising usage of the likenesses of persons appearing in the photograph

User Note(s)

It is recommended to apply the PLUS controlled value Unlimited Model Releases (MR-UMR) very carefully and to check the wording of the model release thoroughly before applying it.

Implementation Note(s)

This is a PLUS version 1.2 property included in the IPTC Extension schema.

Label

Model Release Status

Basic Specs

Data type: CV-code / Cardinality: 0..1

CV Note(s)

See the PLUS specification of this property

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

plus:ModelReleaseStatus [URL <External>]

JSON Specs

modelReleaseStatus [string/uri/]
Row header Specification

Name

Name of Organisation Featured in the Image

Definition

Name of the organisation or company which is featured in the image.

Help Text

Enter the name of the organisation which is featured by this image

User Note(s)

May be supplemented by values from a controlled vocabulary in the Organisation Code field.

Label

Name of featured Organisation

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:OrganisationInImageName [Bag Text <External>]

JSON Specs

organisationInImageNames [string//array]

10.29. Person Shown in the Image

Row header Specification

Name

Person Shown in the Image

Definition

Name of a person shown in the image.

Help Text

Enter the name of the person shown in this image

Label

Person shown

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:PersonInImage [Bag Text <External>]

JSON Specs

personInImageNames [string//array]

10.30. Person Shown in the Image with Details

Row header Specification

Name

Person Shown in the Image with Details

Definition

Details about a person the content is about.

Help Text

Enter details about person(s) shown in the image. It is not required to list all, just those details which can be recognized

Label

Person Shown (Details)

Basic Specs

Data type: Person structure / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:PersonInImageWDetails [Bag Person structure <External>]

JSON Specs

personsShown [object/PersonWDetails/array]

10.31. Product Shown in the Image

Row header Specification

Name

Product Shown in the Image

Definition

A product the content is about.

Help Text

Enter details about a product shown in the image

Label

Product Shown

Basic Specs

Data type: Product structure / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:ProductInImage [Bag Product structure <External>]

JSON Specs

productsShown [object/ProductWGtin/array]

10.32. Property Release Id

Row header Specification

Name

Property Release Id

Definition

Optional identifier associated with each Property Release.

Help Text

Enter an identifier for each Property Release

Implementation Note(s)

This is a PLUS version 1.2 property included in the IPTC Extension schema.

Label

Property Release Id

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

plus:PropertyReleaseID [Bag Text <External>]

JSON Specs

propertyReleaseDocuments [string//array]

10.33. Property Release Status

Row header Specification

Name

Property Release Status

Definition

Summarises the availability and scope of property releases authorising usage of the properties appearing in the photograph.

Help Text

Select one of the values for summarising the availability and scope of property releases authorising usage of the properties appearing in the photograph

User Note(s)

It is recommended to apply the value PR-UPR very carefully and to check the wording of the property release thoroughly before applying it.

Implementation Note(s)

This is a PLUS version 1.2 property included in the IPTC Extension schema.

Label

Property Release Status

Basic Specs

Data type: CV-code / Cardinality: 0..1

CV Note(s)

See the PLUS specification of this property

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

plus:PropertyReleaseStatus [URL <External>]

JSON Specs

propertyReleaseStatus [string/uri/]

10.34. Web Statement of Rights

Row header Specification

Name

Web Statement of Rights

Definition

URL referencing a web resource providing a statement of the copyright ownership and usage rights of the image.

Label

Copyright Info URL

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.4 (2017.1)

XMP Specs

xmpRights:WebStatement [Text <External>]

JSON Specs

webstatementRights [string/uri/]

11. Metadata Structures

11.1. Artwork or Object in the Image structure

Row header Specification

Name

Artwork or Object in the Image structure

Definition

A structured datatype for details about artwork or an object in an image. Includes a Copyright Notice, a Creator, a Date Created, a Source, a Source Inventory Number and a Title.

Basic Specs

Data type: Structure / Cardinality: N/A

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

JSON Specs

ArtworkOrObject [object//]

11.1.1. Circa Date Created

Row header Specification

Name

Circa Date Created

Definition

Approximate date or range of dates associated with the creation and production of an artwork or object or its components.

Help Text

Enter the approximate date or range of dates associated with the creation and production of an artwork or object or its components

Label

Circa Date Created

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:AOCircaDateCreated [Text <External>]

JSON Specs

circaDateCreated [string//]

11.1.2. Content Description

Row header Specification

Name

Content Description

Definition

A textual description of the content depicted in the artwork or object.

Help Text

Describe the content depicted in the artwork or object in free-text

Label

Content Description

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:AOContentDescription [Lang Alt <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Read note about Lang Alt value type

JSON Specs

contentDescription [object/AltLang/]

11.1.3. Contribution Description

Row header Specification

Name

Contribution Description

Definition

A textual description about a contribution made to an artwork or an object.

Help Text

Describe any contributions made to the artwork or object as free-text. Include the type, date and location of contribution, and details about the contributor

User Note(s)

Should include the type, date and location of contribution, and details about the contributor.

Label

Contribution Description

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:AOContributionDescription [Lang Alt <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Read note about Lang Alt value type

JSON Specs

contributionDescription [object/AltLang/]
Row header Specification

Name

Copyright Notice

Definition

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.

Help Text

Enter any necessary copyright notice for claiming the intellectual property for artwork or an object in this image

Label

(Artwork or Object detail:) Copyright notice

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:AOCopyrightNotice [Text <External>]

JSON Specs

copyrightNotice [object/AltLang/]

11.1.5. Creator

Row header Specification

Name

Creator

Definition

Contains the name of the artist who has created artwork or an object in the image. In cases where the artist could or should not be identified the name of a company or organisation may be appropriate.

Help Text

Enter the name of the artist who has created artwork or an object in this image

Label

(Artwork or Object detail:) Creator

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:AOCreator [Seq ProperName <External>]

JSON Specs

creatorNames [string//array]

11.1.6. Creator ID

Row header Specification

Name

Creator ID

Definition

Globally unique identifier for the creator of artwork or object.

Help Text

Enter globally unique identifier(s) for the artist who has created artwork or an object e.g. issued by an online registry of persons or companies. Enter in the same sequence as the creator names.

User Note(s)

Add the IDs in the same sequence as the Creator names

Label

Creator ID

Basic Specs

Data type: URI / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:AOCreatorId [Seq URL <External>]

JSON Specs

creatorIdentifiers [string/uri/array]
Row header Specification

Name

Current Copyright Owner ID

Definition

Globally unique identifier for the current owner of the copyright of the artwork or object.

Help Text

Enter a globally unique identifier for the current copyright owner e.g. issued by an online registry of persons or companies

Label

Current Copyright Owner ID

Basic Specs

Data type: URI / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:AOCurrentCopyrightOwnerId [URI <External>]

JSON Specs

currentCopyrightOwnerIdentifier [string/uri/]
Row header Specification

Name

Current Copyright Owner Name

Definition

Name of the current owner of the copyright of the artwork or object.

Help Text

Enter the name of the current owner of the copyright of the artwork or object

Label

Current Copyright Owner Name

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:AOCurrentCopyrightOwnerName [Text <External>]

JSON Specs

currentCopyrightOwnerName [string//]

11.1.9. Current Licensor ID

Row header Specification

Name

Current Licensor ID

Definition

Globally unique identifier for the current licensor of the artwork or object.

Help Text

Enter a globally unique identifier for the current licensor e.g. issued by an online registry of persons or companies

Label

Current Licensor ID

Basic Specs

Data type: URI / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:AOCurrentLicensorId [URI <External>]

JSON Specs

currentLicensorIdentifier [string/uri/]

11.1.10. Current Licensor Name

Row header Specification

Name

Current Licensor Name

Definition

Name of the current licensor of the artwork or object.

Help Text

Enter the name of the current licensor of the artwork or object

Label

Current Licensor Name

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:AOCurrentLicensorName [Text <External>]

JSON Specs

currentLicensorName [string//]

11.1.11. Date Created

Row header Specification

Name

Date Created

Definition

Designates the date and optionally the time the artwork or object in the image was created. This relates to artwork or objects with associated intellectual property rights.

Help Text

Enter the date and optionally the time when the artwork or object in this image was created

Label

(Artwork or Object detail:) Date created

Basic Specs

Data type: DateTime (preferred: truncated DateTime) / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:AODateCreated [Date <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Read note about Date value type

JSON Specs

dateCreated [string/date-time/]

11.1.12. Physical Description

Row header Specification

Name

Physical Description

Definition

A textual description of the physical characteristics of the artwork or object, without reference to the content depicted.

Help Text

Describe the physical characteristics of the artwork or object as free-text, without referring to the subject depicted. Object type, materials-techniques and measurements may be described

User Note(s)

Object type, materials-techniques and measurements may be described.

Label

Physical Description

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:AOPhysicalDescription [Lang Alt <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Read note about Lang Alt value type

JSON Specs

physicalDescription [object/AltLang/]

11.1.13. Source

Row header Specification

Name

Source

Definition

The organisation or body holding and registering the artwork or object in the image for inventory purposes.

Help Text

Enter the name of the organisation or body holding and registering the artwork or object in this image for inventory purposes

Label

(Artwork or Object detail:) Source

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:AOSource [Text <External>]

JSON Specs

source [string//]

11.1.14. Source Inventory Number

Row header Specification

Name

Source Inventory Number

Definition

The inventory number issued by the organisation or body holding and registering the artwork or object in the image.

Help Text

Enter the inventory number issued by the organisation or body holding and registering the artwork or object in this image

Label

(Artwork or Object detail:) Source inventory number

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:AOSourceInvNo [Text <External>]

JSON Specs

sourceInventoryNr [string//]

11.1.15. Source Inventory URL

Row header Specification

Name

Source Inventory URL

Definition

URL reference to the metadata record of the inventory maintained by the Source.

Help Text

Enter a reference URL for the metadata record of the inventory maintained by the Source

Label

Source Inventory URL

Basic Specs

Data type: URL / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:AOSourceInvURL [URL <External>]

JSON Specs

sourceInventoryUrl [string/url/]

11.1.16. Style Period

Row header Specification

Name

Style Period

Definition

The style, historical or artistic period, movement, group, or school whose characteristics are represented in the artwork or object.

Help Text

Enter the style, historical or artistic period, movement, group, or school whose characteristics are represented in the artwork or object

User Note(s)

It is advised to take the terms from a Controlled Vocabulary.

Label

Style Period

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:AOStylePeriod [Bag Text <External>]

JSON Specs

stylePeriod [string//array]

11.1.17. Title

Row header Specification

Name

Title

Definition

A reference for the artwork or object in the image.

Help Text

Enter the verbal and human readable name of the artwork or object in this image

Label

(Artwork or Object detail:) Title

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:AOTitle [Lang Alt <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Read note about Lang Alt value type

JSON Specs

title [object/AltLang/]

11.2. CV-Term structure

Row header Specification

Name

CV-Term structure

Definition

A structure providing details of a Controlled Vocabulary term the image is about

Basic Specs

Data type: Structure / Cardinality: N/A

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

JSON Specs

CvTerm [object//]

11.2.1. CV-Term CV ID

Row header Specification

Name

CV-Term CV ID

Definition

The globally unique identifier of the Controlled Vocabulary the term is from.

Help Text

Enter the globally unique identifier of the Controlled Vocabulary which the term is from

Label

CV ID

Basic Specs

Data type: URI / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:CvId [URI <External>]

JSON Specs

cvId [string/uri/]

11.2.2. CV-Term ID

Row header Specification

Name

CV-Term ID

Definition

The globally unique identifier of the term from a Controlled Vocabulary.

Help Text

Enter the globally unique identifier of the term from a Controlled Vocabulary

Label

Term ID

Basic Specs

Data type: URI / Cardinality: 1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:CvTermId [URI <External>]

JSON Specs

cvTermId [string/uri/-MANDATORY]

11.2.3. CV-Term name

Row header Specification

Name

CV-Term name

Definition

The natural language name of the term from a Controlled Vocabulary.

Help Text

Enter the name of the term from a Controlled Vocabulary as free-text

Label

Name

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:CvTermName [Lang Alt <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Read note about Lang Alt value type

JSON Specs

cvTermName [object/AltLang/]

11.2.4. Refined 'about' Relationship of the CV-Term

Row header Specification

Name

Refined 'about' Relationship of the CV-Term

Definition

The refined 'about' relationship of the term with the content.

Help Text

Optionally enter a refinement of the 'about' relationship of the term with the content of the image. This must be a globally unique identifier from a Controlled Vocabulary

User Note(s)

May be used to refine the generic about relationship.

Label

Refined Aboutness

Basic Specs

Data type: URI / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:CvTermRefinedAbout [URI <External>]

JSON Specs

cvTermRefinedAbout [string/uri/]

11.3. Embedded Encoded Rights Expression (EERE) structure

Row header Specification

Name

Embedded Encoded Rights Expression (EERE) structure

Definition

A structure providing details of an embedded encoded rights expression

Basic Specs

Data type: Structure / Cardinality: N/A

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

JSON Specs

EmbdEncRightsExpr [object//]

11.3.1. Encoded Rights Expression

Row header Specification

Name

Encoded Rights Expression

Definition

An embedded rights expression using a rights expression language which is encoded as a string.

Help Text

Shows an embedded rights expression using a rights expression language which is encoded as a string

Label

Rights expression

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:EncRightsExpr [Text <Internal>]

JSON Specs

rightsExprLangId [string/uri/-MANDATORY]

11.3.2. Encoding type

Row header Specification

Name

Encoding type

Definition

The encoding type of the rights expression, identified by an IANA Media Type.

Help Text

Shows the encoding type of the rights expression by an IANA Media Type

Label

Encoding type

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

CV Note(s)

IANA Media Type may be applied, if used

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:RightsExprEncType [MIMEtype <Internal>]

JSON Specs

rightsExprEncType [string//]

11.3.3. Rights Expression Language ID

Row header Specification

Name

Rights Expression Language ID

Definition

An identifier of the rights expression language used by the rights expression.

Help Text

Shows the identifier of the used Rights Expression Language

Label

Rights expression language ID

Basic Specs

Data type: URI / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:RightsExprLangId [URI <Internal>]

JSON Specs

encRightsExpr [string//]

11.4. Entity or Concept structure

Row header Specification

Name

Entity or Concept structure

Definition

A structured datatype for a named entity or concept.

Basic Specs

Data type: Structure / Cardinality: N/A

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.3 (2016)

JSON Specs

Entity [object//]

11.4.1. Identifier

Row header Specification

Name

Identifier

Definition

Globally unique identifier of the entity/concept

Label

Identifier

Basic Specs

Data type: URI / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.3 (2016)

XMP Specs

xmp:Identifier [Bag Text <External>]

JSON Specs

identifiers [string/uri/array]

11.4.2. Name

Row header Specification

Name

Name

Definition

Full name of the entity/concept

Label

Name

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.3 (2016)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:Name [Lang Alt <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Read note about Lang Alt value type

JSON Specs

name [object/AltLang/]

11.5. Image Region structure

Row header Specification

Name

Image Region structure

Definition

A structured data type for defining the boundaries of an image region, some characteristics of the image region and holding metadata properties related to the region.

User Note(s)

Metadata properties related to the region are typically ones used also for an image as a whole.

Basic Specs

Data type: Structure / Cardinality: N/A

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.5 (2019.1)

JSON Specs

ImageRegion [object//]

11.5.1. Region Boundary

Row header Specification

Name

Region Boundary

Definition

Sets the boundaries of a region inside an image.

User Note(s)

As option only a single point may be defined to express special characteristics of this point, or a line may be defined to express a divide inside the image.

Label

Region Boundary

Basic Specs

Data type: Region Boundary structure / Cardinality: 1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.5 (2019.1)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:RegionBoundary [Image RegionBoundary structure <External>]

JSON Specs

regionBoundary [object/RegionBoundary/-MANDATORY]

11.5.2. Region Identifier

Row header Specification

Name

Region Identifier

Definition

Identifier of the region. Must be unique among all Region Identifiers of an image. Does not have to be unique beyond the metadata of this image.

Label

Identifier

Basic Specs

Data type: String / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.5 (2019.1)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:rId [Text <External>]

JSON Specs

rId [string//]

11.5.3. Region Name

Row header Specification

Name

Region Name

Definition

Free-text name of the region. Should be unique among all Region Names of an image.

Label

Name

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.5 (2019.1)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:Name [Lang Alt <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Read note about Lang Alt value type

JSON Specs

name [object/AltLang/]

11.5.4. Region Content Type

Row header Specification

Name

Region Content Type

Definition

The semantic type of what is shown inside the region. The value SHOULD be taken from a Controlled Vocabulary.

Label

Content Type

Basic Specs

Data type: Entity or Concept structure / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

CV Note(s)

Recommended but not mandatory: IPTC Region Content Type NewsCodes

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.5 (2019.1)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:rCtype [Bag EntityConcept structure <External>]

JSON Specs

rCtype [object/Entity/array]

11.5.5. Region Role

Row header Specification

Name

Region Role

Definition

Role of this region among all regions of this image or of other images. The value SHOULD be taken from a Controlled Vocabulary.

Label

Role

Basic Specs

Data type: Entity or Concept structure / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

CV Note(s)

Recommended but not mandatory: IPTC Image Region Role NewsCodes

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.5 (2019.1)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:rRole [Bag EntityConcept structure <External>]

JSON Specs

rRole [object/Entity/array]

11.5.6. Other Metadata Property

Row header Specification

Name

Other Metadata Property

Definition

The Image Region Structure includes optionally any metadata property which is related to the region.

User Note(s)

Metadata properties related to the region are typically ones used also for an image as a whole.

Label

{as defined for the used metadata property}

Basic Specs

Data type: not defined / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.5 (2019.1)

XMP Specs

any:any [ <>]

JSON Specs

any [any//]

11.6. Region Boundary structure

Row header Specification

Name

Region Boundary structure

Definition

The properties of the Image Region Boundary structure set the boundary of a region inside an image. As option only a single point may be defined to express special characteristics of this point, or a line may be defined to express a divide inside the image.

User Note(s)

Three options for the shape of the boundary are available: the boundary is a rectangle or a circle or a polygon. For each shape a set of properties is required, properties not listed in this set must not be used.

  • Rectangle: the x- and y-axis coordinates of the upper left corner of the rectangle and the width and height of the rectangle relative to this upper left corner.

  • Circle: the x- and y-axis coordinates of the centre of the circle and its radius measured along the x-axis.

  • Polygon: the x- and y-axis coordinates of the vertex/the vertices of the polygon.

The Shape property defines which of the three shapes is defined and an the Measuring Unit property defines the units used for measuring all distances.

The coordinates of points used as reference of a shape of the region boundary and values defining the size of the shape are expressed by scalar values along the x-axis or the y-axis of a rectangular coordinates system. The rules for this system are:

  • Point Zero of the coordinates follows the Image Data Arrangement of the pixels of a digital image as defined by Exif (CIPA DC-008-2019):

    • The top row of the pixels is the first row, the leftmost pixel of a row is the first pixel.

    • The counting of “top row” and “leftmost” applies to pixel data as set when the pixels were (re-)organized by the camera or by software. The orientation (rotation, flipping) of the image defined by a metadata value MUST NOT be applied.

    • Point Zero of the coordinates is the first, leftmost pixel in the top row.

    • The x-axis is from Point Zero along the top row of the image. The range of coordinate values is from 0 to any positive value not exceeding the size of the image.

    • The y-axis is from Point Zero along the first pixels of the rows in the image. The range of coordinate values is from 0 to any positive value not exceeding the size of the image.

  • Coordinates of a point in the image MUST have an x-axis and a y-axis value.

  • Values defining the size of the shape are measured along the x-axis and the y-axis.

  • The unit of a value is defined by the Region Boundary Measuring Unit property, its value MUST be from the enumeration defined for the Boundary Measuring Unit property.

Basic Specs

Data type: Structure / Cardinality: N/A

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.5 (2019.1)

JSON Specs

RegionBoundary [object//]

11.6.1. Boundary Shape

Row header Specification

Name

Boundary Shape

Definition

The shape of the boundary of a region inside an image. The value MUST be taken from the enumeration rectangle, circle, polygon.

User Note(s)

The applicable shapes are:

  • rectangle = a rectangle as shape of the boundary, the shape of a square is included

  • circle = a circle as the shape of the boundary

  • polygon = any shape with edges, except a rectangle, including a single point (using 1 vertex) and a line (using 2 vertices). The edges between a vertex and the next one in the sequence set the shape, the last edge is the one from the last vertex in the sequence to the first vertex in the sequence.

Label

Shape

Basic Specs

Data type: String / Cardinality: 1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.5 (2019.1)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:rbShape [Closed Choice Text <>]

JSON Specs

rbShape [string//-MANDATORY]

11.6.2. Boundary Measuring Unit

Row header Specification

Name

Boundary Measuring Unit

Definition

Unit used for measuring dimensions of the boundary of a region. The value MUST be taken from the enumeration pixel, relative

User Note(s)

The applicable units are:

  • pixel = A pixel of a digital image setting an absolute value

  • relative = Relative part of the size of an image along the x- or the y-axis. The range of the value is from 0 to 1 representing the proportion of the full size of an image along the x-axis or the y-axis.

Implementation Note(s)

If the unit "pixel" is used: in case of rescaling the image the coordinate values and the radius of a circle must be rescaled too.

Label

Measuring Unit

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.5 (2019.1)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:rbUnit [Closed Choice Text <>]

JSON Specs

rbUnit [string//-MANDATORY]

11.6.3. X-Axis Coordinate

Row header Specification

Name

X-Axis Coordinate

Definition

Distance along the x-axis of the coordinate system related to its Point Zero

User Note(s)

Used only by the shapes rectangle and circle. See also the User Notes of the Region Boundary structure

Label

X-Axis Coordinate

Basic Specs

Data type: Decimal / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.5 (2019.1)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:rbX [Real <>]

JSON Specs

rbX [number//]

11.6.4. Y-Axis Coordinate

Row header Specification

Name

Y-Axis Coordinate

Definition

Distance along the y-axis of the coordinate system related to its Point Zero

User Note(s)

Used only by the shapes rectangle and circle. See also the User Notes of the Region Boundary structure

Label

Y-Axis Coordinate

Basic Specs

Data type: Decimal / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.5 (2019.1)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:rbY [Real <>]

JSON Specs

rbY [number//]

11.6.5. Rectangle Width

Row header Specification

Name

Rectangle Width

Definition

The size of a rectangular region boundary along the x-axis, its width. The range of a width value is any positive value not exceeding the size of the image along its x-axis.

User Note(s)

Used only by the shape rectangle.See also the User Notes of the Region Boundary structure

Label

Rectangle Width

Basic Specs

Data type: Decimal / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.5 (2019.1)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:rbW [Real <>]

JSON Specs

rbW [number//]

11.6.6. Rectangle Height

Row header Specification

Name

Rectangle Height

Definition

The size of a rectangular region boundary along the y-axis, its height. The range of a height value is any positive value not exceeding the size of the image along its y-axis.

User Note(s)

Used only by the shape rectangle.See also the User Notes of the Region Boundary structure

Label

Rectangle Height

Basic Specs

Data type: Decimal / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.5 (2019.1)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:rbH [Real <>]

JSON Specs

rbH [number//]

11.6.7. Circle Radius

Row header Specification

Name

Circle Radius

Definition

The radius of a circular region boundary from the centre of the circle measured along the x-axis. The range of a radius value is any positive value not exceeding the size of the image.

User Note(s)

Used only by the shape circle. See also the User Notes of the Region Boundary structure

Label

Circle Radius

Basic Specs

Data type: Decimal / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.5 (2019.1)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:rbRx [Real <>]

JSON Specs

rbRx [number//]

11.6.8. Polygon Vertices

Row header Specification

Name

Polygon Vertices

Definition

Sequence of vertices of the polygon

User Note(s)

Used only by the shape polygon. See also the User Notes of the Region Boundary structure

Label

Polygon Vertices

Basic Specs

Data type: Region Boundary Point structure / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.5 (2019.1)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:rbVertices [Seq RegionBoundaryPoint structure <>]

JSON Specs

rbVertices [object/RegionBoundaryPoint/array]

11.7. Region Boundary Point structure

Row header Specification

Name

Region Boundary Point structure

Definition

Sets a point in an image by its coordinates.

User Note(s)

This structure must be used in a context defining the measuring unit of dimensions along the x- and y-axes.

Basic Specs

Data type: Structure / Cardinality: N/A

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.5 (2019.1)

JSON Specs

RegionBoundaryPoint [object//]

11.7.1. X-Axis Coordinate

Row header Specification

Name

X-Axis Coordinate

Definition

Distance along the x-axis of the coordinate system related to its Point Zero

Label

X-Axis Coordinate

Basic Specs

Data type: Decimal / Cardinality: 1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.5 (2019.1)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:rbX [Real <>]

JSON Specs

rbX [number//-MANDATORY]

11.7.2. Y-Axis Coordinate

Row header Specification

Name

Y-Axis Coordinate

Definition

Distance along the y-axis of the coordinate system related to its Point Zero

Label

Y-Axis Coordinate

Basic Specs

Data type: Decimal / Cardinality: 1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.5 (2019.1)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:rbY [Real <>]

JSON Specs

rbY [number//-MANDATORY]

11.8. Linked Encoded Rights Expression (LERE) structure

Row header Specification

Name

Linked Encoded Rights Expression (LERE) structure

Definition

A structure providing details of a linked encoded rights expression

Basic Specs

Data type: Structure / Cardinality: N/A

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

JSON Specs

LinkedEncRightsExpr [object//]

11.8.1. Encoding type

Row header Specification

Name

Encoding type

Definition

The encoding type of the rights expression, identified by an IANA Media Type.

Help Text

Enter the encoding type of the rights expression by using an IANA Media Type

Label

Encoding type

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

CV Note(s)

IANA Media Type may be applied, if used

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:RightsExprEncType [MIMEtype <External>]

JSON Specs

rightsExprLangId [string/uri/]
Row header Specification

Name

Link to Encoded Rights Expression

Definition

The link to a rights expression using a rights expression language.

Help Text

Enter the link to a web resource representing an encoded rights expression

Label

Link to Rights Expression

Basic Specs

Data type: URL / Cardinality: 1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:LinkedRightsExpr [URL <External>]

JSON Specs

rightsExprEncType [string/url/-MANDATORY]

11.8.3. Rights Expression Language ID

Row header Specification

Name

Rights Expression Language ID

Definition

The identifer of the rights expression language used by the rights expression.

Help Text

Enter the identifier of the used Rights Expression Language

Label

Rights Expression Language ID

Basic Specs

Data type: URI / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:RightsExprLangId [URI <External>]

JSON Specs

linkedRightsExpr [string/uri/]

11.9. Location structure

Row header Specification

Name

Location structure

Definition

A structured datatype for details of a location. It includes a Sublocation, a City, a Province or State, a Country (Name and ISO-Code) and a World Region.

Basic Specs

Data type: Structure / Cardinality: N/A

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

JSON Specs

Location [object//]

11.9.1. City

Row header Specification

Name

City

Definition

Name of the city of a location. This element is at the fourth level of a top-down geographical hierarchy.

Help Text

Enter the name of the City

Label

(Location detail:) City

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:City [Text <External>]

JSON Specs

city [object/AltLang/]

11.9.2. Country ISO-Code

Row header Specification

Name

Country ISO-Code

Definition

The ISO code of a country of a location. This element is at the second level of a top-down geographical hierarchy.

Help Text

Enter the 2 or 3 letter ISO 3166 Country Code of the Country

Label

(Location detail:) Country ISO-Code

Basic Specs

Data type: CV-code / Cardinality: 0..1

CV Note(s)

ISO 3166-1 - 2 or 3 characters (see Definition)

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:CountryCode [closed choice Text <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Note 1: an implementer would have to derive from the length of the value string whether this is the country code from the two or three letter scheme as no explicit indication can be provided.

JSON Specs

countryCode [string//]

11.9.3. Country Name

Row header Specification

Name

Country Name

Definition

The name of a country of a location. This element is at the second level of a top-down geographical hierarchy.

Help Text

Enter the name of the Country

Label

(Location detail:) Country Name

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:CountryName [Text <External>]

JSON Specs

countryName [object/AltLang/]

11.9.4. GPS-Altitude

Row header Specification

Name

GPS-Altitude

Definition

Altitude in meters of a WGS84 based position of this Location

Label

(Location detail:) GPS-Altitude

Basic Specs

Data type: Decimal / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.3 (2016)

XMP Specs

exif:GPSAltitude [Exif Rational <External>]

JSON Specs

gpsAltitude [number//]

11.9.5. GPS-Latitude

Row header Specification

Name

GPS-Latitude

Definition

Latitude of a WGS84 based position of this Location

Label

(Location detail:) GPS-Lattitude

Basic Specs

Data type: Decimal / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.3 (2016)

XMP Specs

exif:GPSLatitude [Exif GPSCoordinate <External>]

JSON Specs

gpsLatitude [number//]

11.9.6. GPS-Longitude

Row header Specification

Name

GPS-Longitude

Definition

Longitude of a WGS84 based position of this Location

Label

(Location detail:) GPS-Longitude

Basic Specs

Data type: Decimal / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.3 (2016)

XMP Specs

exif:GPSLongitude [Exif GPSCoordinate <External>]

JSON Specs

gpsLongitude [number//]

11.9.7. Location Identifier

Row header Specification

Name

Location Identifier

Definition

Globally unique identifier of the location

Help Text

Enter a globally unique identifier of the location shown

Label

Location ID

Basic Specs

Data type: URI / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014), XML Value Type corrected by version 2021.1

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:LocationId [Bag URI <External>]

JSON Specs

identifiers [string/uri/array]

11.9.8. Location Name

Row header Specification

Name

Location Name

Definition

Full name of the location

Label

(Location detail:) Location Name

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.3 (2016)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:LocationName [Lang Alt <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Read note about Lang Alt value type

JSON Specs

name [object/AltLang/]

11.9.9. Province or State

Row header Specification

Name

Province or State

Definition

The name of a subregion of a country - a province or state - of a location. This element is at the third level of a top-down geographical hierarchy.

Help Text

Enter the name of the Province or State

Label

(Location detail:) Province/State

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:ProvinceState [Text <External>]

JSON Specs

provinceState [object/AltLang/]

11.9.10. Sublocation

Row header Specification

Name

Sublocation

Definition

Name of a sublocation. This sublocation name could either be the name of a sublocation to a city or the name of a well known location or (natural) monument outside a city. In the sense of a sublocation to a city this element is at the fifth level of a top-down geographical hierarchy.

Help Text

Enter the name of the Sublocation

Label

(Location detail:) Sublocation

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:Sublocation [Text <External>]

JSON Specs

sublocation [object/AltLang/]

11.9.11. World Region

Row header Specification

Name

World Region

Definition

The name of a world region of a location. This element is at the first (topI) level of a top-down geographical hierarchy.

Help Text

Enter the name of the World Region

Label

(Location detail:) World Region

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:WorldRegion [Text <External>]

JSON Specs

worldRegion [object/AltLang/]

11.10. Person structure

Row header Specification

Name

Person structure

Definition

A structure of details of a single person in the image.

Basic Specs

Data type: Structure / Cardinality: N/A

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

JSON Specs

PersonWDetails [object//]

11.10.1. Characteristics

Row header Specification

Name

Characteristics

Definition

A property or trait of the person

Help Text

Enter a property or trait of the person by selecting a term from a Controlled Vocabulary

Label

Characteristics

Basic Specs

Data type: CV-Term structure / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

CV Note(s)

YES

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:PersonCharacteristic [Bag CV-Term structure <External>]

JSON Specs

characteristics [object/CvTerm/array]

11.10.2. Description

Row header Specification

Name

Description

Definition

A textual description of the person

Help Text

Describes the person, any actions taken, emotional expressions shown, etc. as free-text

User Note(s)

For example, you may include actions taken, emotional expressions shown and more.

Label

Description

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:PersonDescription [Lang Alt <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Read note about Lang Alt value type

JSON Specs

description [object/AltLang/]

11.10.3. Identifier

Row header Specification

Name

Identifier

Definition

Globally Unique Identifier of the person

Help Text

Enter Globally Unique Identifier(s) for the person, such as those from WikiData or Freebase

User Note(s)

This should be an identifier as it is used with semantic web technology.

Label

Identifier

Basic Specs

Data type: URI / Cardinality: 0..unbounded

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:PersonId [Bag URI <External>]

JSON Specs

identifiers [string/uri/array]

11.10.4. Name

Row header Specification

Name

Name

Definition

Name of the person

Help Text

Enter the name of the person

Label

Name

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:PersonName [Lang Alt <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Read note about Lang Alt value type

JSON Specs

name [object/AltLang/]

11.11. Product structure

Row header Specification

Name

Product structure

Definition

A structure providing details about a product

Basic Specs

Data type: Structure / Cardinality: N/A

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

JSON Specs

ProductWGtin [object//]

11.11.1. Description

Row header Specification

Name

Description

Definition

A textual description of the product.

Help Text

Enter a description of the product as free-text

Label

Description

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:ProductDescription [Lang Alt <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Read note about Lang Alt value type

JSON Specs

description [object/AltLang/]

11.11.2. GTIN

Row header Specification

Name

GTIN

Definition

A 14 digit GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) of the product (GTIN-8 to GTIN-14 codes are used).

Help Text

Enter the 14 digit Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) of the product as defined by GS1

Label

GTIN

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:ProductGTIN [Text <External>]

JSON Specs

gtin [string//-MANDATORY]

11.11.3. Name

Row header Specification

Name

Name

Definition

Name of the product.

Help Text

Enter the name of the product

Label

Name

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.2 (2014)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:ProductName [Lang Alt <External>]

XMP Implementation Note

Read note about Lang Alt value type

JSON Specs

name [object/AltLang/]

11.12. Registry Entry structure

Row header Specification

Name

Registry Entry structure

Definition

A structured datatype for an entry in a registry, includes the id for the image issued by the registry and the registry’s id.

Basic Specs

Data type: Structure / Cardinality: N/A

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

JSON Specs

RegistryEntry [object//]

11.12.1. Item Id

Row header Specification

Name

Item Id

Definition

A unique identifier created by a registry and applied by the creator of the digital image. This value shall not be changed after being applied. This identifier is linked to a corresponding Registry Organisation Identifier.

Help Text

Enter the unique identifier created by a registry and applied by the creator of the digital image. This value shall not be changed after being applied.

User Note(s)

This identifier may be globally unique by itself, but it must be unique for the issuing registry.

Label

(Registry Entry detail:) Item Identifier

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:RegItemId [Text <External>]

JSON Specs

assetIdentifier [string//-MANDATORY]

11.12.2. Organisation Id

Row header Specification

Name

Organisation Id

Definition

An identifier for the registry which issued the corresponding Registry Image Id.

Help Text

Enter the identifier for the registry which issued the corresponding Registry Image ID

Label

(Registry Entry detail:) Organisation Identifier

Basic Specs

Data type: Text / Cardinality: 1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.0 (2008)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:RegOrgId [Text <External>]

JSON Specs

registryIdentifier [string//-MANDATORY]

11.12.3. Role

Row header Specification

Name

Role

Definition

An identifier of the reason and/or purpose for this Registry Entry.

Label

(Registry Entry detail:) Role

Basic Specs

Data type: URI / Cardinality: 0..1

History Note(s)

Added by version 1.3 (2016)

XMP Specs

Iptc4xmpExt:RegEntryRole [Text <External>]

JSON Specs

role [string/uri/]

11.13. AltLang structure

Row header Specification

Name

AltLang structure

Definition

Holds text variants telling the same in different languages

Basic Specs

Data type: Structure

Implementation Note

This structure follows the W3C JSON-LD specification of expressing a text value of a property in different languages. Example
"occupation": {
"ja": "忍者",
"en": "Ninja",
"cs": "Nindža"
}
Be aware that XMP’s Lang Alt implementations strongly use the language identifier "x-default".

XMP Specs

Read the ISO XMP specification about the value Type Lang Alt

JSON Specs

AltLang [object]

11.13.1. AltLang property

Row header Specification

Name

AltLang property

Definition

Holds a text variant in a specific language

Basic Specs

Data type: / Cardinality:

JSON Specs

pattern property: "^(([A-Za-z]{2,3}(-([A-Za-z]{3}(-[A-Za-z]{3}){0,2}?)|[A-Za-z]{4}|[A-Za-z]{5,8})(-([A-Za-z]{4}))?(-([A-Za-z]{2}|[0-9]{3}))?(-([A-Za-z0-9]{5,8}

12. Non-normative Information

None

Generic Implementation Notes

This chapter covers notes regarding the implementation of the IPTC Photo Metadata Standard properties in software.

The notes apply across properties but they are grouped by XMP and IIM. IPTC Standard property specific notes can be found in the specification table of the property.

13. XMP Properties

13.1. Lang Alt value type

Applies to an XMP property if its value type is Lang Alt: This type enables an XMP property to hold the same text in different languages with an identifier of the used language. Any software dealing with this property must abide to the processing rules for the Lang Alt value type as specified by the XMP specifications.

13.2. Date value type

Applies to an XMP property if its value type is date: The XMP specification defines a quite flexible format for this value type, all these sets of year, month, day and time values are supported:

  • YYYY

  • YYYY-MM

  • YYYY-MM-DD

  • YYYY-MM-DDThh:mmTZD

  • YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssTZD

  • YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.sTZD

IPTC encourages makers of software to adopt a user interface widget for the Date value type properties which allows a user to enter all these variants of date and time.

Note the format of dates and times shown above is based on the ISO 8601 standard for date and time formats [ISO-8601]

14. IIM Properties

14.1. Max bytes for text

The specification tables of the IPTC Photo Metadata properties may include "max bytes for text". Be aware that this number expresses the limited count of bytes which can be used for this IIM property and not the count of characters. If UTF-8 encoding of text is used and if non-ASCII characters appear in the text the UTF-8 encoding uses more than one byte for a single character. If this is the case, fewer characters than the "max bytes of text" can be embedded. Please read the full IPTC IIM specifications.

References

15. Other standards

Name Source

Adobe XMP

Adobe Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP), see http://www.adobe.com/products/xmp/ and https://www.adobe.com/devnet/xmp.html
Latest specification as of August 2016 (Part 2) and January 2020 (Part 3). Part 1 is specified by ISO XMP
These documents include the specification of the metadata schemas Dublin Core, XMP Rights management and Photoshop which are referenced in this specification.

DC

Dublin Core metadata schema: https://www.dublincore.org/

IPTC IIM

IPTC Information Interchange Model
Overview: https://iptc.org/IIM/
Specification: https://iptc.org/std/IIM/4.2/specification/IIMV4.2.pdf

IPTC NewsML-G2

IPTC NewsML-G2 standard, an XML-based news exchange format: https://www.newsml-g2.org

ISO 8601

Widely used standard of formats for expressing dates, times, dates with time, periods and more.
Introduction at: https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:std:iso:8601:-1:ed-1:v1:en

ISO XMP

XMP Part 1 as ISO standard 16684-1. Latest version: Second Edition of 2019-04 (see https://www.iso.org/standard/75163.html)

JSON

The JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Data Interchange Format, RFC 7159: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7159

PhMdWP2007

IPTC Photo Metadata White Paper 2007: https://iptc.org/goto?phmdwp2007

PLUS

Picture Licensing Universal System – PLUS: https://www.useplus.org
PLUS specifications: https://www.useplus.com/useplus/standards.asp

MetadataWG

Guidelines for Handling Image Metadata v 2.0. This document was available at this URL until October 2018: http://www.metadataworkinggroup.com/specs/ but unfortunately this site is not active anymore.

W3C-JSON-LD 1.1

A JSON-based Serialization for Linked Data
Recommendation v1.1: https://www.w3.org/TR/json-ld11
Non-formal overview: https://json-ld.org/

W3C WCAG

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
Recommendation v2.1: https://www.w3.org/TR/2018/REC-WCAG21-20180605/
Understanding WCAG 2.1: https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/

W3C-SKOS

SKOS Simple Knowledge Organization System
Overview: https://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/
Recommendation: https://www.w3.org/TR/skos-reference/

Fixed Errata

List of errata in the specification which were fixed after the initial release of version 2021.1.

16. List of fixed errata

Date What showed an error Error How the error was fixed