Adding copyright and metadata with File Info in Paint by Zaweba

Every image you publish can carry information about itself: who made it, who owns it, what it shows and where it was taken. In Paint by Zaweba that information lives in File > File Info, opened with Ctrl+Alt+Shift+I. It covers title, author, copyright, URL, description, keywords, rating and GPS, and it is written as XMP into JPEG and PNG files. When you open a photo, File Info is filled from the XMP and EXIF data already inside it.

What each field is good for

Title and description say what the image is. Photo libraries, stock sites and search tools use them, and they are often what a person sees when browsing a folder of images.

Author and copyright tell anyone who finds the picture who made it and who owns the rights. If your images are shared widely, putting this in every file is a simple habit that saves arguments later. The URL field can point to your website or portfolio.

Keywords help with finding images. A photographer with thousands of pictures can tag them by subject, client or location and search for them later in any program that reads XMP.

Rating stores a star value. It is handy for marking keepers during an edit and is read by many photo managers.

GPS holds the location. Cameras and phones often fill it in automatically, which is useful for travel archives and not always welcome when you post a photo of your home.

Reading what is already there

When a photo opens, Paint by Zaweba reads its XMP and EXIF data into File Info. That lets you check what a file says before you publish it. Look at the GPS field in particular before posting pictures taken at home, at a child's school or anywhere private, and clear it if you don't want the location shared.

The History Log

A History Log can write your edits into File Info as well. This is useful in jobs where you need a record of what was done to an image, for example news, insurance, scientific or archival work, or simply a client who wants to know how a photo was retouched. Switch it on for those documents, and the edit history travels with the file.

Metadata and web exports

Metadata adds a few bytes and can reveal more than you intend. Save for Web has a switch to include File Info or leave it out, so you can keep copyright on portfolio images and strip everything from quick social graphics. Export As can add copyright text too, which is useful for batches.

Keeping metadata tidy

Fill in author and copyright once on a template document and reuse it, so every new image starts with the right details. Use consistent keywords, singular or plural but not both, so searches find everything. Check GPS before sharing. And remember that metadata is not a watermark: some sites strip it on upload, so if attribution matters, it may need to appear in the image too.

For signed proof of how an image was made, Paint by Zaweba also offers content credentials, a separate feature in Preferences. File Info is the everyday layer of information, simple to read and edit, kept inside the file wherever it goes.