Brief Background of IPTC Metadata
The IPTC’s older standard for metadata, the Information Interchange Model (IIM), defined a large set of metadata properties. In the early nineties a subset of this IIM was adopted as the well known "IPTC Headers" supported in JPEG, TIFF and PSD files by Adobe Photoshop.
The IPTC Core is the latest revision of the International Press Telecommunications Council IIM schema, designed to use the Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) developed by Adobe in 2001.
XMP was first introduced in Adobe Photoshop 7.0 and Adobe Acrobat 5.0. With XMP, legacy IPTC IIM metadata, new and customized metadata and metadata from other standards (such as EXIF camera data) can be recorded using a common data format based on XML (Extensible Markup Language http://www.w3.org/XML/ ). This information can be stored inside JPEG, TIFF, and PSD files as well as other file types including PDF. Since its introduction a number of other software vendors have added XMP support in their products. 1.2 Four panels for Four Key Sets of Properties
IPTC Contact
Creator [Creator]
This field should contain your name, or the name of the person who created the photograph. If it is not appropriate to add the name of the photographer (for example, if the identify of the photographer needs to be protected) the name of a company or organization can also be used. Once saved, this field should not be changed by anyone. This field does not support the use of commas or semi-colons as separator. Note: This field is “shared” with the “Author” field in the Description Panel of the Adobe Photoshop File Info field.
Creator’s Job Title [CreatorJobtitle]
This field should contain the job title of the photographer. Examples might include titles such as: Staff Photographer, Freelance Photographer, or Independent Commercial Photographer. Since this is a qualifier for the Creator field, the Creator field must also be filled out. Note: This field is “shared” with the “Author Title” field in the Description Panel of the Adobe Photoshop File Info field (only appears in versions of Adobe products later than CS).
Address (Contact info) [CiAdrExtadr]
The address field is a multi-line field. Enter your company name and all required information to locate the building or postbox to which mail should be sent.
City (Contact info) [CiAdrCity]
Enter the name of the city in which your business is located.
State/ Province (Contact info) [CiAdrRegion]
Enter the name of the State or Province in which your business is located. Since the abbreviation for a State or Province may be unknown to those viewing your metadata internationally, consider using the full spelling of the name.
Postal Code (Contact info) [CiAdrPcode]
Enter the local postal code (such as ZIP code) in which your business is located.
Country (Contact info) [CiAdrCtry]
Enter the name of the country in which your business is located.
Phone(s) (Contact info) [CiTelWork]
Enter your business or work telephone number here. Multiple numbers can be given, separate them with a comma. Be sure to include the complete international format of a phone number which is: +{countrycode} ({regional code}) {phone number} - {extension if required} e.g. +1 (212) 1234578
Email(s) (Contact info) [CiEmailWork]
Enter your business or work email address. Multiple email addresses can be given, separate them with a comma.
Website( s) (Contact info) [CiUrlWork]
Enter the URL or web address for your business. Multiple addresses can be given, separate them with a comma.
IPTC Content panel
Headline [Headline]
A headline is a brief publishable synopsis/summary of the contents of the photograph. The Headline term should not be confused with the Title term. Note: This field is “shared” with the “Headline” field in the Origin Panel of the Adobe Photoshop File Info field.
Description [Description]
The Description field, often referred to as a “caption” is used to describe the who, what and why of what is happening in the photograph. If there is a person or people in the image, this caption might include their names, and/or their role in the action that is taking place. If the image is of a location, then it should give information regarding the location. Don’t forget to also include this same “geographical” information in the Image panel (location, city, state/province, country) of the IPTC Core. The amount of detail you include will depend on the image and whether the image is documentary or conceptual. Typically, editorial images come with complete caption text, while advertising images may not. Note: This field is “shared” with
Keywords [Keywords]
Enter keywords and terms or phrases used to express the subject of the content seen in the photograph. Keywords may be free text (i.e. they are not required to be taken from a controlled vocabulary). Values from the controlled vocabulary IPTC Subject Codes must be placed into the “Subject Code” field. Note: This field is “shared” with the “Keyword” field in the Description panel of the Adobe Photoshop File Info field.
IPTC Subject Code [SubjectCode]
This field can be used to specify and categorize the content of a photograph by using one or more subjects as listed in the IPTC “Subject NewsCode” taxonomy (available from http://www.newscodes.org/ ). Each subject is represented as an 8 digit numerical string in an unordered list. Only subjects from a controlled vocabulary should be used in this field, free-choice text should be entered into the Keyword field.
Description writer [DescriptionWriter]
Enter the name of the person involved in writing, editing or correcting the description of the photograph in this field. For individual photographers this will typically be your own name, as you are the person that is entering the image metadata. Note: This field is “shared” with the “Description Writer” field in the Description panel of the Adobe Photoshop File Info field.
IPTC Image panel
Date Created [DateCreated]
Use this field to record the date of when the photograph was taken, not the date when you scanned or edited the image. If you use a digital camera, you can look at the EXIF data for the date stamp. Note: This field is “shared” with the “Date Created” field in the Origin panel of the Adobe Photoshop File Info field. You can use the Origin panel’s “Today button” to set IPTC Image panel’s Date Created. ###Intellectual Genre [IntellectualGenre] Use this field to describe the “type” of use that a photograph fulfills in terms of its intellectual or journalistic characteristics. For example, at a newspaper, Intellectual Genre labels might include terms like daybook, obituary, press release, or transcript. A magazine might use terms like actuality, interview, background, feature, summary, or wrap-up. For best results, organizations should use a set of terms from a controlled vocabulary that they have developed. A sample taxonomy of “Intellectual genre” terms developed by the IPTC is available from http://www.newscodes.org/ . The PRISM working group of the IDEAlliance has also developed a set of terms that can be referenced at http://prismstandard.org/ .
IPTC Scene [Scene]
This field is used to describe the scene of a photo using one or more terms from the IPTC "Scene- NewsCodes" controlled vocabulary (available from http://www.newscodes.org/ ). The IPTC Scene is represented as a 6 digit numerical string in an unordered list. ###Location [Location] Enter the name of a location shown in the photograph. This location name could be the name of a specific area within a city (Manhattan) or the name of a well known location (Pyramids of Giza) or (natural) monument outside a city (Grand Canyon). Location is the most specific term, at the fourth level of a top-down geographical hierarchy. ###City [City] Enter the name of the city that is pictured in the photograph. If there is no city, you can use the location field alone to specify where the photograph was taken. City is at the third level of a topdown geographical hierarchy. Note: This field is “shared” with the “City” field in the Origin panel of the Adobe Photoshop File Info field. ###State/Province [Province-State] Enter the name of the subregion of a country–usually referred to as either a State or Province – that is pictured in the image. Since the abbreviation for a State or Province may be unknown to those viewing your metadata internationally, consider using the full spelling of the name. Province/State is at the second level of a top-down geographical hierarchy. Note: This field is “shared” with the “State/Province” field in the Origin panel of the Adobe Photoshop File Info field. ###Country [Country] Enter the full name of the country pictured in the photograph. This field is at the first level of a topdown geographical hierarchy. The full name should be expressed as a verbal name and not as a code, the ISO country code should be placed in the field titled ISO CountryCode. Note: This field is “shared” with the “Country” field in the Origin panel of the Adobe Photoshop File Info field. ###ISO Country Code [CountryCode] Enter the ISO Country Code of the country pictured in the photograph. This field is at the top/ first level of a top-down geographical hierarchy. Country codes should be displayed as upper-case letters (US not us), and may be either two- or three-letter codes as defined by the ISO 3166 standard. The two-letter code (3166-2) is freely available from the http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/02iso-3166-code-lists/list-en1.html site. The full name of a country should go to the “Country” field.
IPTC Status panel
Title [Title] This field can be used as a shorthand reference for the image or “photograph” — primarily for identification. The title of an image may take several forms; for photographers this might be the filename of their original scan or digital camera file, for news organizations it might be the name of the story for which it’s to be used. The Title term should not be confused with the Headline term, which is a short synopsis of the content of the photograph. Note: This field is “shared” with the “Document Title” field in the Description panel of the Adobe Photoshop File Info field. ###Job Identifier [JobID] You can enter a number or identifier that was created or issued for the purpose of improving workflow handling and image tracking. This ID should be added by the creator or provider for transmission and routing purposes only and should have no significance for archiving. (please note that this same field was labelled as the “transmission reference” in previous versions of Adobe Photoshop). Note: This field is “shared” with the “Transmission Reference” field in the Origin panel of the Adobe Photoshop File Info field. ###Instructions [Instructions] The Instructions field is a simple text field that can be used to include any of a number of instructions from the provider or creator to the receiver of the photograph. Any of the following could be included: embargoes (News Magazines 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 or credits required when publishing. Note: This field is “shared” with the “Instructions” field in the Origin panel of the Adobe Photoshop File Info field. ###Provider [Provider] Use the Provider field to identify who is providing the photograph. This doesn’t have to necessarily be the owner/ creator. If a photographer is working for a news agency such as Reuters or the Associated Press, these organizations could be listed here as they are “providing” the image for use by others. If the image is a stock photograph, then the group (agency) involved in supplying the image should be listed here. Note: This field is “shared” with the “Credit” field in the Origin panel of the Adobe Photoshop File Info field. ###Source [Source] The Source field should be used to identify the original owner or copyright holder of the photograph. The value of this field should never be changed after the information is entered following the image's creation. While not yet enforced by the custom panels, you should consider this to be a “write-once” field. The source could be an individual, an agency, or a member of an agency. To aid in later searches, it is suggested to separate any slashes “/” with a blank space. Use the form “photographer / agency” rather than “photographer/agency.” Source may also be different from Creator and from the names listed in the Copyright Notice. Note: This field is “shared” with the “Source” field in the Origin panel of the Adobe Photoshop File Info field. ###Copyright Notice The Copyright Notice should contain any necessary copyright notice for claiming the intellectual property, and should identify the current owner(s) of the copyright for the photograph. Usually, this would be the photographer, but if the image was done by an employee or as work-for-hire, then the agency or company should be listed. Use the form appropriate to your country. For the United States you would typically follow the form of © name of copyright owner, as in “©2005 John Doe.” Note, the word "copyright" or the abbreviation "copr" may be used in place of the © symbol. In some foreign countries only the copyright symbol is recognized and the abbreviation does not work. Furthermore the copyright symbol must be a full circle with a "c" inside; using something like (c) where the parentheses form a partial circle is not sufficient. For additional protection worldwide, use of the phrase, “all rights reserved” following the notice above is encouraged. In Europe you would use: Copyright {Year} {Copyright owner}, all rights reserved. ##Rights Usage Terms [RightsUsageTerms] The Rights Usage Terms field should include text instructions on how this photograph can be legally used. For example, if you are only submitting the image(s) for consideration only, you can indicate that, and stipulate that no reproduction is allowed without permission being negotiated in advance. There are several groups working on terminology that can be used for rights management. It is strongly encouraged that you use a standardized set of terms or controlled vocabulary when populating this field.