# Image Metadata Remover

> Remove common descriptive and identifying containers from a PNG or JPEG without decoding, resizing or recompressing its image data. The cleaned copy is assembled locally from the original file's retained byte ranges.

Use it: https://tessalor.com/en/image/image-metadata-remover

This tool runs entirely in the browser. Nothing entered into it is uploaded.

## How it is done

1. Identify PNG by its eight-byte signature or JPEG by its start-of-image marker, then walk the file's declared chunks or marker segments.
2. Omit known text, EXIF, time and comment containers. Maximum cleanup also omits unknown non-rendering ancillary or application blocks while retaining colour and animation structures.
3. Copy every retained range in its original order, including PNG image-data chunks and the complete JPEG entropy-coded scan.
4. Report the complete blocks and bytes omitted, then offer a separate same-format file rather than changing the selected source.

## Assumptions

- The source is a structurally complete PNG or JPEG no larger than the stated 50 MB input limit.
- Personal cleanup targets known metadata containers; it cannot prove that identifying material is absent from pixels, filenames, cloud copies or an unknown retained block.
- ICC colour profiles, PNG colour information, transparency, physical pixel size and APNG animation control are retained because removing them can alter presentation.
- Retained chunk CRCs and scan bytes are copied rather than revalidated or repaired; this is a metadata cleaner, not a damaged-image recovery tool.

## Inputs

| Name | Label | Type | Default | Range |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `source` | PNG or JPEG image | file | chosen on your device | image/png, image/jpeg, up to 50 MB |
| `scope` | Cleaning scope | select | personal |  |

## Outputs

- `metadataBlocksRemoved` — Metadata blocks removed (integer), primary
- `bytesRemoved` — Bytes removed (integer)
- `outputBytes` — Cleaned file size (integer)
- `encodedImagePayload` — Encoded image payload (text)

## Questions

### Does removing image metadata reduce picture quality?

This cleaner never decodes or re-encodes the picture. PNG IDAT and fdAT chunks and JPEG scan bytes are copied byte for byte, so the operation introduces no new compression loss.

### Does this guarantee that a photo contains no location information?

It removes the EXIF container that commonly carries GPS fields, but no file-only cleaner can certify the pixels themselves, a filename, another copy or every private format extension. Review the cleaned file in the system where it will be shared when the risk is important.

### Why can the cleaned image look almost the same size?

Metadata is often tiny beside the encoded pixels. A large photograph may lose only a few kilobytes because this tool preserves its dimensions, quality and compressed image stream rather than trying to make it smaller.

### Why is the ICC profile kept?

An ICC profile describes how colour samples should be displayed. It is rendering information rather than ordinary authorship or location text, and removing it can visibly change a wide-gamut image.

## Sources

- [Portable Network Graphics (PNG) Specification, Third Edition](https://www.w3.org/TR/png-3/) — World Wide Web Consortium, applies to PNG chunk structure and ancillary metadata. Retrieved 2026-08-01.
- [Recommendation T.81: Digital compression and coding of continuous-tone still images](https://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-T.81-199209-I/en) — International Telecommunication Union, applies to JPEG markers, application segments, comments and scan structure. Retrieved 2026-08-01.

## Variants

- [How do I remove EXIF and GPS metadata from a photo?](https://tessalor.com/en/image/image-metadata-remover/remove-exif-and-gps-from-photo)
- [How do I remove extra text and EXIF metadata from a PNG?](https://tessalor.com/en/image/image-metadata-remover/remove-text-metadata-from-png)

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Estimate, not advice. See https://tessalor.com/en/disclaimer.
Machine-readable catalogue: https://tessalor.com/api/tools.json