There are two competing standards for creating, displaying, and editing metadata in image files: EXIF metadata which conveys technical characteristics such as camera model, shutter speed, and resolution, and IPTC data, which contains content-related information such as location details, copyright notices, and contact details. EXIF data is generated automatically when creating JPEG image files. IPTC data, however, has to be entered into the metadata by the user afterwards.
The full name of the standard is IPTC-IIM, and it was introduced in 1991 by the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC) as an Information Interchange Model (IIM). The international standard was meant to simplify the exchange of image files between news agencies, photojournalists, and editors.
The IPTC standard is compatible with files saved in the JPEG, TIFF, and PNG image formats and offers the benefit of allowing detailed, content-related information to be sent along with a media file. This makes subsequent searches through image archives easier and simplifies the task of sifting through and structuring image sources and holding a photo competition.