Edit Image Metadata & Photo Details (EXIF)
Change photo details — title, author, copyright, date, and camera info — stored as EXIF metadata in your images.
How to edit image metadata — 3 steps
- 1
Add your image
Drop the photo in and its existing metadata is read out of the file, so you can see what it is currently claiming before you change anything.
- 2
Set the fields you want
Write the description, copyright, creator, and keywords. Clear any field that should not travel with the picture — the location is usually the one to remove.
- 3
Download the updated image
The metadata block is rewritten and the picture itself is untouched: identical pixels, resolution, and colour.
Writing metadata rather than just removing it
Most advice about image metadata is about deleting it, which addresses only half the subject. The fields exist to be filled in, and a photograph with proper metadata is substantially more useful than a bare one. The copyright and creator fields state who owns the image and how to reach them — the closest thing a digital photograph has to a signature, and the first place anyone checks when trying to license a picture or trace its source.
The descriptive fields do the other job. A caption explains what the picture shows, and keywords supply the terms someone will search for later. This is what turns a folder of files named DSC_0472 into an archive you can actually find things in, and it is why picture libraries, newsrooms, and any organisation with more than a few hundred images treat metadata as part of the work rather than an afterthought.
There is a practical dimension too. Content management systems, stock platforms, and asset managers read these fields on import and use them to populate titles, captions, and credits automatically. Filling them in once, in the file, means the information follows the image everywhere it goes rather than being retyped — or lost — at each step.
The standards, and which fields are worth your time
Three standards coexist inside a typical photograph and it helps to know which does what. EXIF is written by the camera and records the technical circumstances of capture — device, exposure settings, timestamp, orientation, and GPS position. IPTC is the descriptive and rights layer, designed originally for news photography, and holds the caption, creator, credit line, copyright notice, and keywords. XMP is a more modern container that can carry both, and is what most editing software reads and writes.
You do not need to complete all of them. The fields that earn their keep are creator, copyright notice, a one-line description, and a handful of accurate keywords. Beyond that you reach diminishing returns quickly — long keyword lists stuffed with loosely related terms help nobody, and the technical EXIF fields are written by the camera and rarely worth editing by hand.
One caution: metadata is a claim, not proof, and it is trivially editable by anyone who receives the file. Recording your copyright is worth doing because it travels with the image and makes ownership discoverable, but it does not prevent anyone from removing or altering it. For images where attribution really matters, treat metadata as one layer alongside a visible watermark and your own record of the originals.
Your files never leave your device
Metadata is read and rewritten in your browser, so photographs stay on your own device — including the location data you may be editing specifically because you do not want it disclosed.
Most online PDF sites upload your document to their servers, process it there, and keep a copy for minutes, hours, or longer. PilotPDF works differently: the page downloads a small processing engine into your browser, and your file is opened and edited in your device's memory using WebAssembly. Nothing is transmitted, so there is nothing for a server to store, leak, or scan. You can even disconnect from the internet after the page loads and the tool keeps working.
Read more about how this works in our privacy-by-design explainer.