EXIF, XMP, and IPTC
EXIF commonly describes camera and technical capture fields. XMP is an extensible framework used by creative software. IPTC fields often describe publishing and editorial information. Their presence is informative; their values are not cryptographically protected by default.
Generator-specific workflow records
ComfyUI, Automatic1111, and related tools can store prompts, seeds, models, and graph data in PNG text. These records are useful for reproducibility but depend on application conventions and export settings.
Content Credentials
C2PA binds signed assertions to an asset and provides validation states. It can include generator information and digital source type, but it should be read with a conforming validator rather than treated as ordinary free-form metadata.
| Layer | Useful for | Main limitation |
|---|---|---|
| EXIF/XMP/IPTC | Technical and editorial context | Editable or removable |
| Workflow JSON | Reproduction and debugging | Tool-specific |
| C2PA | Signed provenance and actions | Absence is not an authorship verdict |
| Invisible watermark | Provider-specific identification | Requires compatible detector |
Preserve the earliest file
Before uploading, editing, or converting an important generated asset, archive the original output and a separate human-readable report. Later copies may preserve pixels while losing the data needed to reconstruct the workflow.