← Back to guides
What is IPTC metadata?
IPTC is the caption, credit, and rights layer used by journalists, agencies, and stock libraries.
IPTC (International Press Telecommunications Council) tags were designed for newsrooms and photo agencies. Where EXIF describes the technology, IPTC describes the story: caption, headline, byline, city, country, copyright, keywords, and usage rights.
If you download a photo from AP, Getty, or Reuters and look at its metadata, most of what you see is IPTC. Photographers and picture editors fill it in so the picture can be found, credited, and licensed correctly.
IPTC is stored inside the file itself — usually alongside EXIF — which is why a cropped, resaved, or emailed image can still tell you who took it and what it depicts.