EXIF Viewer & Remover

about this tool

Reading the metadata

Drop a JPEG, PNG, WebP or TIFF and the tool reads its metadata blocks directly from the bytes — the EXIF block, which is a small TIFF file with three directories (the image, the camera's Exif extension and GPS), plus XMP, IPTC, ICC and comment blocks, which are listed with their sizes. The tags are decoded and formatted the way a photographer reads them: 1/250 s, f/1.8, ISO 125, 6.9 mm, flash did not fire, forced off, orientation rotated 90° CW. GPS coordinates in degrees, minutes and seconds become decimal degrees, with the altitude and links to OpenStreetMap and Google Maps. Both byte orders are handled, and a broken EXIF block is reported rather than crashing the page.

What it reveals

Before the raw tags, the tool lists what the metadata gives away, most serious first: a geotag (anyone with the file knows where it was taken), camera and lens serial numbers (which link your photos to each other and to a purchase), the artist, owner and copyright names, a unique image ID, free-text comments, the date and time, and — mildly — the camera model and software. An embedded thumbnail is flagged because it can show the picture before a crop, and XMP and IPTC blocks because they often repeat and extend the EXIF fields.

Removing it, losslessly

"Download without metadata" cuts the metadata segments out of the file and copies the image data byte for byte: JPEG APP1 (EXIF and XMP), APP13 (IPTC), comments and other application segments go, while the coding tables and scan stay; PNG eXIf, tEXt, zTXt, iTXt and tIME chunks go; WebP EXIF and XMP chunks go, the flags in the VP8X header are cleared and the RIFF size is corrected. Nothing is re-encoded, so the pixels are exactly the original, which canvas-based strippers cannot promise. The ICC colour profile is kept by default — it is not personal, and without it wide-gamut photos look duller — with a box to remove it too.

Limits

HEIC is not read: its EXIF lives in a different container and no browser but Safari decodes the image; convert it to JPEG first. TIFF files are inspected but not stripped, since a TIFF is metadata all the way down. Maker notes — the proprietary blob each manufacturer adds — are not decoded, and XMP and IPTC are detected and removed but not displayed field by field. Nothing leaves the page and nothing is stored.

PDFs carry the same kind of hidden history — PDF metadata shows and edits the author, dates and producer. Stripping EXIF also shrinks a file a little; image compressor does the rest.

questions

What is EXIF data?

Metadata a camera or phone writes into the image file: make and model, lens, exposure settings, the date and time, the orientation, often the GPS position, and sometimes the owner’s name and the camera’s serial number. It sits in a TIFF-structured block inside the JPEG, PNG or WebP container and travels with the file when it is copied or emailed.

Does a photo really contain where it was taken?

If location was on when it was shot, yes: latitude, longitude and usually altitude, to within a few metres. The tool converts the degrees-minutes-seconds values to decimal and links them on a map. Most social networks strip this on upload, but email, messaging apps that send “original quality”, and direct file sharing do not.

Does removing metadata reduce image quality?

Not here. The metadata segments are cut out of the file and the compressed image data is copied byte for byte, so the pixels are exactly the original — unlike tools that redraw the image on a canvas and re-encode it. The file simply gets smaller by the size of the metadata.

Should I keep the colour profile?

Usually yes. An ICC profile describes the colour space the pixels are in (Display P3 on recent iPhones, for instance) and has nothing personal in it; without it, wide-gamut photos look duller in browsers. The tool keeps it by default and offers to remove it if you want the smallest possible file.

Why does the tool not read HEIC?

HEIC stores its EXIF inside a different container structure, and no browser other than Safari can decode the image. Convert the HEIC to JPEG with the image converter first — that conversion drops the metadata on the way — or inspect the JPEG your phone exports.