ExifTool is a free and open-source software program for reading, writing, and manipulating image, audio, video, and PDF metadata. As such, ExifTool classes as a tag editor. It is platform independent, available as both a Perl library (Image::ExifTool) and a command-line application. ExifTool is commonly incorporated into different types of digital workflows and supports many types of metadata including Exif, IPTC, XMP, JFIF, GeoTIFF, ICC Profile, Photoshop IRB, FlashPix, AFCP and ID3, as well as the manufacturer-specific metadata formats of many digital cameras. This tool is often used in digital forensic analysis and library archival.

ExifTool also implements its own open metadata format. It is designed to encapsulate metainformation from many sources, in binary or textual form, and bundle it together with any type of file. It can either be a single file, wrapping existing data, added as a trailer on other file types, or used as a sidecar file, carrying for example Exif or XMP metadata.

Websites and services that use ExifTool include:

ExifTool can read, edit or create files with the following formats:

Some metadata-only files may be created from metadata input alone. Here is a list of files that ExifTool can create from scratch:

ExifTool can read, edit or create the following types of metadata in JPEG images:

ExifTool is available as the native Perl library Image::ExifTool. The Python PyExifTool module provides a wrapper to the system version of ExifTool. Further programming resources are given on the ExifTool project webpage.