Image Metadata Viewer

What a photo file carries besides the picture

An image file holds two separate things. The first is the picture people see. The second is a block of data describing the file: how and when it was captured, on what device, and where. The second part is invisible in every normal image viewer but is trivially readable by a metadata tool. On a phone photo it routinely includes GPS coordinates accurate to a few metres, the device model, an exact timestamp, and the lens and exposure settings.

MDN: image file type and format guide

Why reading it matters before sharing

The practical question is what the file still says after you have sent it. A photo taken at home carries coordinates that identify the building. A photo of a child's school identifies the school and the time of day. A screenshot of a receipt may carry a device name. Reading the metadata first tells you whether that is the case, and if it is, you can strip it before sending rather than after someone has already downloaded it. Once a file is out there, removing your own copy does not retract the copy they have.

• Check before sharing a photo taken at home, work, or school.
• A screenshot can carry the device or app that produced it.
• Strip the data first. Removing your copy later does not retract theirs.
• Use the EXIF remover to produce a clean copy once you know what is there.

NoteReading before sharing takes seconds. Undoing it afterwards is not possible.

Some metadata is worth keeping

Not all of it is a privacy problem, and stripping everything has a cost. A photographer may want the camera and exposure data retained for their own records. The date and time is useful for organising a library. An image saved from a design tool may have a colour profile that affects how the colours render elsewhere. The answer is not to strip indiscriminately but to know what is present, decide what is needed, and remove what is not. For a photo going to the public internet, removing location is usually the priority.

• Keep camera and exposure data if you are managing your own library.
• A colour profile affects how colours render in other software.
• The timestamp helps organise a large set of photos.
• For public sharing, location is almost always the priority to remove.
• Read first, then decide what to strip rather than removing everything.

Why a stripped file is usually bigger

Stripping metadata produces a new file, and if the new file is saved in a lossless format it is often noticeably larger than the original. That is not a side effect of removing data. It is because the original was a compressed JPG that discarded a lot of the image in order to be small, and the cleaned file is saved as PNG, which keeps everything. The picture is identical; only the storage method changed. Knowing that prevents the mistaken conclusion that removing the data damaged the image.

• A cleaned file is commonly larger, because PNG keeps more than JPG discarded.
• The visible image is unchanged, pixel for pixel.
• If you need it small, convert the cleaned file to JPG afterwards.
• Do not skip the clean just because of size. Strip first, then compress.

NoteA bigger cleaned file is normal and does not mean the image was damaged.