Metadata Glossary
Every term this site throws around, defined in plain language.
- C2PA
- Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity — an open standard for cryptographically signed provenance (“content credentials”) stored inside media files. The primary field platforms scan for AI labeling.
- JUMBF
- JPEG Universal Metadata Box Format — the container used to embed C2PA data inside JPEG files (typically APP11 segments).
- EXIF
- Exchangeable Image File Format — camera metadata: exposure settings, timestamps, orientation, GPS coordinates and device identifiers.
- XMP
- Extensible Metadata Platform — Adobe’s XML-based metadata standard. AI tools use custom XMP namespaces to record prompts, seeds, models and software versions.
- IPTC
- Press-telecom metadata standard for attribution and rights. Includes “Digital Source Type”, a field that declares whether an image was created or altered algorithmically.
- PNG text chunks
- Ancillary PNG segments (tEXt, zTXt, iTXt) used by Stable Diffusion UIs and ComfyUI to store complete generation parameters and node graphs.
- Content Credentials
- The user-facing implementation of C2PA — displayed as pinwheel icons or “AI Info” labels depending on the platform.
- Digital Source Type
- IPTC field enumerating how an image was produced: digital capture, trained algorithmic media, composite, and so on.
- SynthID
- Google’s pixel-level watermarking technique. Embedded in image data rather than metadata, so metadata strippers cannot touch it.
- Provenance
- The recorded history of a piece of media: who or what created it, when, and with which edits.
- GenAI label
- Generic term for platform-side disclosures such as Meta’s “AI Info”, Pinterest’s GenAI tag or TikTok’s AI-generated notice.
- Entropy-coded data
- The compressed pixel payload of a JPEG between SOS and EOI markers. Byte-exact cleaners leave this untouched — pixels do not change.