Mapping between IPTC and EXIF standards

IPTC Photo Metadata is an industry standard for descriptive information about images.

Exif (Exchangeable image file format) is a standard that specifies the formats for images, audio, and ancillary tags used by digital devices such as smartphones. Exif is supported by almost all camera manufacturers.

For descriptive metadata, there is an overlap between Exif and IPTC standards. If you manage photo metadata, you know that it is often difficult to know which metadata properties to use for different purposes.

Generally, Exif tags and IPTC Photo Metadata properties are essentially two different structures. Exif is primarily used for technical data around capturing an image, while IPTC focuses on describing the image and its administrative and rights metadata. However some properties are common between the two, such as who created the image and the date the image was captured.

To help resolve the ambiguity, IPTC collaborated with Exif experts to publish a document that describes how to map properties between these formats. The guidelines document can be found here:

https://iptc.org/std/photometadata/documentation/mappingguidelines/