Metadata & Stock Optimization (Tags Tab)

The Tags tab is Jade GT's metadata engine: keywords, captions, rights, classification, IPTC location, and a live stock-readiness gauge in one column.

The Tags tab is where your photos get their identity for stock agencies, archives, and clients. Every field here writes through to IPTC and XMP blocks that Adobe Bridge, Lightroom, Capture One, and the major stock platforms read natively. The tab is intentionally long, so the layout is grouped: Captions, Rights, Classification, Location, then Stock Readiness, in that order down the column.

Status, Triage, and Progress

A thin progress bar across the header shows how many of the agency's required fields are filled, with a small status dot next to the file name: pulsing indigo while edits are pending, green once committed.

Below it, the Triage Row mirrors the one on the Preview tab so you can flag, color-label, and rate the photo without tab-switching. See Photo Identity & Triage for the full keyboard shortcuts.

Keywords

Keywords are the first content section because they drive most of your readiness score and most agency searches.

• Keyword pills: every word is a removable pill. The count badge to the right shows your total against the active agency's target (5 / 25 means five keywords against a target of twenty-five). Long lists collapse with a "show all" affordance so the tab stays scannable.
• Trademark-flagged pills turn red and contribute to a readiness penalty. Click the pill or the matching warning in the Stock Readiness dashboard to see which restricted brand triggered the flag.
• Private keywords: pills you tag as "private" stay in your Jade GT catalog but are stripped at write time, so they never reach the agency. Use them for personal organisation (model names, location aliases, project codes). Toggle private with the slashed-eye icon on each pill.
• Add input + autocomplete: as you type, Jade GT suggests matches drawn from words already used in this session, plus any synonyms you've defined.
• Quick Suggestions: the chip row beneath the input gives single-click adds for common matches based on the current keyword vocabulary.
• Keyword Sets: save a curated keyword bundle as a named set ("Detroit architecture", "Pine Bluff storefronts"), pick one from the dropdown to swap suggestions, and click + Save Set to capture the current photo's keywords as a new set.
• ⊞ Tree: opens a hierarchical taxonomy picker. Adding a leaf node automatically includes its ancestors, and + Branch on an internal node bulk-adds every leaf beneath it.
• ↹ Synonyms: opens the synonym manager. Map canonical words to comma-separated aliases, e.g. dog → puppy, k9, canine. Synonyms are local-only (never written to file) but surface during autocomplete and suggestions.

Captions

Three short fields, in capture order. Each one shows a green vertical bar when populated and an indigo dirty-glow when changed since import.

• Title (IPTC Title): a short headline, usually auto-derived from the filename and rewritten by you.
• Headline (IPTC Headline): the editorial caption, the one a wire service or stock buyer uses as the lede.
• Date Created (IPTC DateCreated): the editorial date, distinct from EXIF DateTimeOriginal. Use this for photos where the capture date and the publish date diverge (a re-released archive shot, an embargoed release).

Description

A larger field with a live character counter sized to the active agency's recommended length (e.g. 0 / 200 chars for Alamy). An issue badge appears when the description is too short or missing; click the badge to focus the field.

Rights

The XMP rights group: who owns the photo and how it can be used.

• Copyright (dc:rights): the visible copyright string, typically © 2026 Your Name.
• Artist (dc:creator): the byline. Stock agencies render this on the photo's profile page.
• Usage (xmpRights:UsageTerms): the licensing line.

Usage Terms in practice

A wedding-client example: Personal use only. No redistribution. A commercial example: Licensed for editorial use in Client X 2026 brochure only. The string travels with the file, including the XMP sidecar on RAW.

A + Editorial Fields toggle reveals three more rights fields used by news and editorial workflows: Credit, Source, and Notes / Instructions. They stay collapsed by default; click once to reveal, again to hide.

Classification (Scene & Subject)

Above the Rights group sit two toolbar buttons that open standardised code pickers.

• Scene Codes: IPTC Scene Codes describing the shot environment (010100 Headshot, 010300 Panoramic view, etc.).
• Subject Codes: 8-digit IPTC Subject NewsCodes. Multi-select; selected codes show as a count (Subjects: 3 codes) with a hover tooltip listing them all.

Location (IPTC)

A collapsible section near the bottom of the tab with five fields that mirror the IPTC location block. The section header summarises what's filled (Pine Bluff, United States · 5 fields) so you can leave it collapsed unless you need to edit.

• Sublocation: a specific landmark or venue (e.g. Murphy Theatre).
• City, State / Province, Country.
• ISO Code: ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code (US, GB, JP).

When the photo has GPS, Jade GT pre-populates these fields as placeholders by reverse-geocoding the coordinates. Type any value to override the placeholder; clear the field to fall back to the placeholder again.

Stock Readiness Dashboard

At the bottom of the tab is the Readiness Gauge, a live health check tied to the agency profile you've selected.

• Agency profiles: switch between Adobe Stock, Shutterstock, Getty, or General. Each one surfaces its own rules: title and description character targets, keyword count targets, and the conceptual-vs-factual keyword balance the agency prefers.
• Compliance Target: a strip of pills showing the active rules (Min Tags: 7, Target: 15, Desc 5+ words).
• Automated Trademark Audit: scans your Title, Description, and Keywords for restricted brand mentions.
  • Cloud-Sync Dictionary: Jade GT fetches a shared restricted-terms list aggregated from Adobe, Getty, and Shutterstock policies. Only the dictionary travels over the network; your photos and metadata never leave your device.
  • Real-time alerts: flagged words turn red in the keyword pills and the readiness score drops to reflect the rejection risk.
  • View dictionary: click the book icon in the dashboard to browse the active list.
• Smart Assistant Findings: dynamic warnings for low-density descriptions, missing technical data, or composition suggestions, each with a "Go to ..." link that focuses the offending field.

Metadata Templates

A preset system for the entire Tags tab: keywords, captions, rights, classification, and location. Controls live in the sticky action bar at the bottom of the tab.

• Save: with a single photo selected, click Save in the action bar. Jade GT prompts for a name and stores a snapshot of every populated field under that name. Empty fields are stored as empty.
• Load: opens the Metadata Templates modal. Each saved template is listed with its name, a few preview values, and a keyword count.
• Per-field decision matrix: when you apply a template, each field in the modal lets you choose Skip, Fill if empty (only writes when the photo's current value is blank), or Overwrite (always writes). This is what makes one template safe to apply across mixed photos.
• Token replacement: template values can include {YEAR}, {MONTH}, {DAY}, {DATE}, {ARTIST}, {CITY}, {STATE}, {COUNTRY}, {FILENAME}, and {EXT}. Tokens resolve per photo at apply time, so a Copyright = "© {YEAR} Your Name" template stays correct year over year.
• Default template (apply-on-import): mark a template as the default in the modal and Jade GT auto-applies it to every photo as it loads. Use this for the boilerplate values you re-type on every shoot.
• Storage: templates live in your browser's localStorage. They survive reloads and sessions on the same browser and device, but do not sync across devices.

Good candidates for a template

Anything you re-type on every shoot: your standard © {YEAR} Your Name, the agency boilerplate caption line, a recurring-client keyword bundle, or a venue-specific keyword stack. Mark the most-used one as the default and let it apply automatically.

Re-read, Undo, and Reset

Three sticky-action-bar buttons cover the recovery cases.

• Re-read: re-pulls EXIF and IPTC from disk and discards every pending Tags edit on the selected photo. Use it when you've round-tripped the file through Lightroom or another editor with Jade GT still open. The action is not undoable; a confirmation dialog warns before proceeding.
• Undo: a button companion to Ctrl+Z for the same 50-step pre-commit undo stack the rest of the app uses. The button shows a count badge so you can see how deep you can roll back.
• Reset: rolls every Tags-tab field back to the value it had when the photo was loaded. Use it when you've over-edited and want a clean slate.

Batch Tags View

Batch Tags view. Per-field Apply buttons replace direct typing so changes never write to a photo without confirmation.

When two or more photos are selected, the Tags tab becomes an Apply-explicit form.

• <mixed across N photos> placeholders show in any field where the selected photos disagree, with a MIXED label on the right.
• Per-field Apply buttons: each field has its own Apply button. Typing a value alone never writes; you have to confirm via Apply.
• Keyword pills with frequency counters: each pill shows the fraction of selected photos that already carry the keyword (AFTERNOON 1/4 means one of four). Adding a new keyword from the input writes it to all selected photos.
• Apply Description to Selection: a full-width button at the bottom for the description textarea, which has no inline Apply.
• Paste banner: if you copied metadata from another photo (right-click on a pill or use the action menu), a banner near the top of the tab offers Paste to apply the clipboard to every selected photo, or Clear Clipboard to drop it.

The Triage Row works the same way as in single-photo mode, with a Mixed badge in any cell where the photos currently disagree.