FootprintClean / guide

What travels with a photo?

A photo has visible pixels and a less visible layer of descriptive information. Understanding both helps you share deliberately.

EXIF: camera and capture information

EXIF can include camera model, lens, exposure, capture date, image orientation and GPS coordinates. A location tag can be useful for organizing a trip but can also disclose a private place. Start with View metadata to see which fields a file carries.

IPTC and XMP: descriptions and editing history

IPTC and XMP can hold titles, creator names, copyright statements, keywords and software information. The metadata editor on this site changes the five listed XMP fields. It does not synchronize every possible duplicate in EXIF or IPTC, so check the resulting file when consistent attribution matters.

Content Credentials and provenance

Some images include signed records about how they were created or edited. These records are distinct from the image pixels. Cleaning may remove supported embedded records, but this does not change what the image depicts or prove how it was made. Respect disclosure obligations when publishing edited or generated content.

Cleaning and appearance

Our cleaner uses metadata operations without recompressing the image data. A color profile tells software how to interpret colors, and orientation tells it how to rotate the image. Keeping those fields usually gives a more consistent display. Strict cleaning can remove them and change appearance in a viewer.

A sensible workflow

1. Keep an untouched copy of the original file.
2. Inspect it to understand the fields it carries.
3. Clean or edit the copy using the tool you need.
4. Download, re-inspect and visually check the result.
5. Share only the details you intend others to receive.

Text cleanup has a different purpose

Plain text does not carry EXIF. It can contain unusual spaces, direction controls or invisible characters. Some are necessary for languages and emoji. Our default cleanup preserves joiners; the separate joiner option may change word shaping or emoji. Character cleanup is not an AI authorship test.