How to Add Metadata to PNG Files
Embed titles, descriptions, keywords, and copyright into PNG images using tEXt and iTXt chunks. Improve image SEO and asset management for transparent assets.
Open the tool →Why PNG metadata exists
PNG was designed with a chunk-based structure that supports embedded text data via tEXt (Latin-1) and iTXt (UTF-8) chunks. These chunks carry key/value pairs — Title, Description, Author, Copyright, Keywords, and anything else you want to store. This makes PNG just as friendly for embedded metadata as JPEG, even though many people assume PNG only carries pixel data.
tEXt vs iTXt vs zTXt
PNG supports three text chunks. tEXt stores plain Latin-1 text (no compression). iTXt stores UTF-8 text with optional language tags — use this for non-English characters. zTXt is compressed text. The PNG editor automatically chooses tEXt for ASCII-only values and iTXt when it sees characters outside Latin-1. You do not need to think about which chunk gets written.
Step 1 — Pick the right tool
For a single PNG, use /png-metadata-editor. For many PNGs at once, use the bulk editor. For mixed batches (PNG + JPEG + PDF together), the bulk editor handles everything in one pass. All of these run client-side, so your transparent assets never leave your device.
Step 2 — Choose the fields that matter
The standard PNG metadata keys are Title, Description, Author, Copyright, Keywords, Software, and Source. MediaMeta writes Title, Description, Keywords, Author, and Copyright by default. For album/genre/year/location/rating/comment fields, MediaMeta extends the chunk set with additional named chunks following PNG conventions. All of them are visible in the metadata viewer after processing.
Step 3 — Process and verify
Drop your PNGs, fill in the defaults and per-file overrides, click Process, and download. Drag the result into the viewer to confirm tEXt chunks appear as expected. If you opened the file in a text editor and looked at the first kilobyte, you would see your metadata as plain readable text alongside the PNG header — that is by design.
PNG SEO considerations
PNG is great for graphics, logos, screenshots, and any image needing transparency or lossless compression. Search engines treat PNG and JPEG metadata equally — the same Title, Description, and Keywords strategy applies. Where they diverge is filesize: PNG files are usually larger than equivalent JPEGs, so PNG is best reserved for assets that need transparency or sharp lines (UI screenshots, illustrations). For photos, prefer JPEG or WebP.
Stripping PNG metadata for privacy
If you receive PNGs from third parties (a designer, a screenshot tool, an editing app), they may contain embedded fields you do not want shared. The metadata remover drops every tEXt, iTXt, and zTXt chunk while keeping the image bytes intact. This is the safest way to clean third-party PNGs before publishing them on your site.
PNG metadata at scale
For large libraries — UI screenshots, icon sets, illustration collections — bulk editing is the only sane approach. The bulk editor plus localStorage-saved defaults turns a 200-PNG enrichment job into a 10-minute task. Set Album to your product or campaign name, Year to the current year, Artist to your brand, and Keywords to the relevant topic, then upload and process.
Frequently asked questions
- Does PNG support EXIF?
- Modern PNG specifications support an optional eXIf chunk, but most browsers and search engines still rely on the older tEXt/iTXt chunks for metadata. MediaMeta uses tEXt/iTXt for maximum compatibility.
- Will writing metadata break PNG transparency?
- No. Metadata chunks live alongside the IDAT image data without touching it. Alpha transparency is preserved exactly.
- Why are some PNG files bigger after editing?
- The added tEXt/iTXt chunks add a few kilobytes. The image data itself is untouched, so any size increase is just metadata overhead.
Ready to apply this?
Use MediaMeta's browser-based tools — your files never leave your device.