Image Metadata for Google

Google supports rich image metadata via ImageObject. Providing licensing, creator, and credit information makes your images eligible for Google Images’ licensable image badges and attribution display.

Table of contents

1. Why Image Metadata Matters
2. ImageObject Fields
3. Full Image Object
4. Image on an Article
5. Multiple Images with Different Aspect Ratios
6. ImageOrUrl — Simple vs Rich
7. Organization Logo Requirements
8. Creative Commons License URLs

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Why Image Metadata Matters

1. Licensable badge: Google Images shows a “Licensable” badge on images with license + acquireLicensePage
2. Creator attribution: Image credit appears in Google Images when you supply creator + creditText
3. Copyright protection: copyrightNotice and copyrightHolder help establish ownership
4. Rich results eligibility: Products, recipes, and articles with rich ImageObject data may get larger thumbnails

---

ImageObject Fields

Field	Type	Notes
url	string	Required — canonical image URL
contentUrl	string?	Direct file URL (if different from page URL)
width	number?	Pixel width
height	number?	Pixel height
caption	string?	Caption to display below the image
description	string?	Longer image description
name	string?	Image title
creator	Person \| Organization?	Who took/made the image
creditText	string?	Credit line to display (e.g. “Photo by Alice / Acme Corp”)
copyrightNotice	string?	Copyright notice (e.g. “© 2025 Acme Corp”)
copyrightHolder	Person \| Organization?	Who owns the copyright
license	string?	URL to the license (e.g. Creative Commons URL)
acquireLicensePage	string?	URL where someone can buy/request a license
representativeOfPage	boolean?	true if this is the primary image of the page
encodingFormat	string?	MIME type, e.g. "image/jpeg"
uploadDate	string?	ISO 8601 upload date
thumbnailUrl	string?	Thumbnail URL

---

Full Image Object

import { createImageObject } from 'schemaorg-kit';

const image = createImageObject({
  url: 'https://example.com/photos/mountain-sunrise.jpg',
  contentUrl: 'https://cdn.example.com/photos/mountain-sunrise-full.jpg',
  width: 4000,
  height: 2667,
  caption: 'Sunrise over the Dolomites, June 2025',
  description: 'Golden sunrise light illuminating the jagged peaks of the Dolomites in northern Italy.',
  name: 'Dolomites Sunrise',
  creator: {
    '@type': 'Person',
    name: 'Marco Bianchi',
    url: 'https://marcobianchi.photography',
    sameAs: 'https://instagram.com/marcobianchi_photo',
  },
  creditText: 'Photo © Marco Bianchi Photography',
  copyrightNotice: '© 2025 Marco Bianchi. All rights reserved.',
  copyrightHolder: {
    '@type': 'Person',
    name: 'Marco Bianchi',
  },
  license: 'https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/',
  acquireLicensePage: 'https://marcobianchi.photography/licensing',
  representativeOfPage: true,
  encodingFormat: 'image/jpeg',
  uploadDate: '2025-06-10',
  thumbnailUrl: 'https://example.com/photos/mountain-sunrise-thumb.jpg',
});

---

Image on an Article

import { createArticle, createImageObject } from 'schemaorg-kit';

const article = createArticle({
  headline: 'The Rise of Dolomite Tourism',
  datePublished: '2025-07-01',
  author: { '@type': 'Person', name: 'Travel Writer' },
  image: createImageObject({
    url: 'https://example.com/dolomites.jpg',
    width: 1200,
    height: 630,
    caption: 'The Three Peaks of Lavaredo',
    creator: { '@type': 'Person', name: 'Marco Bianchi' },
    license: 'https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/',
    creditText: 'Marco Bianchi / Creative Commons',
    representativeOfPage: true,
  }).toObject() as any,
});

---

Multiple Images with Different Aspect Ratios

Google recommends providing images in multiple aspect ratios to maximize eligibility across different surfaces (Discover, Search, News):

import { createArticle } from 'schemaorg-kit';

const article = createArticle({
  headline: 'Test Article',
  datePublished: '2025-01-01',
  author: { '@type': 'Person', name: 'Author' },
  image: [
    // 16:9 — for Google Discover, AMP
    {
      '@type': 'ImageObject',
      url: 'https://example.com/article-1200x675.jpg',
      width: 1200,
      height: 675,
    },
    // 4:3 — for Top Stories
    {
      '@type': 'ImageObject',
      url: 'https://example.com/article-1200x900.jpg',
      width: 1200,
      height: 900,
    },
    // 1:1 — for Google News
    {
      '@type': 'ImageObject',
      url: 'https://example.com/article-1200x1200.jpg',
      width: 1200,
      height: 1200,
    },
  ],
});

Minimum image size: 1200 × 628 pixels for Top Stories / Discover. Minimum for structured data validation: any non-zero dimensions.

---

ImageOrUrl — Simple vs Rich

Most schema fields accepting images use ImageOrUrl, which accepts:

// Simple string URL (most common)
{ image: 'https://example.com/photo.jpg' }

// Full ImageObject for metadata
{ image: { '@type': 'ImageObject', url: 'https://example.com/photo.jpg', width: 1200, height: 630 } }

// Array of either
{ image: [
  'https://example.com/photo-16x9.jpg',
  { '@type': 'ImageObject', url: 'https://example.com/photo-1x1.jpg', width: 800, height: 800 }
]}

---

Organization Logo Requirements

Google has specific requirements for Organization.logo:

• Format: PNG, WebP, SVG, or GIF (not JPEG — poor transparency support)
• Aspect ratio: Prefer square; if rectangular, max 10:1 width:height
• Min size: 112 × 112 pixels
• Recommended: 512 × 512 pixels
• White/transparent background works best for Knowledge Panel display

import { createOrganization } from 'schemaorg-kit';

const org = createOrganization({
  name: 'Acme Corp',
  logo: {
    '@type': 'ImageObject',
    url: 'https://acme.com/logo-512.png',
    width: 512,
    height: 512,
    encodingFormat: 'image/png',
  },
});

---

Creative Commons License URLs

License	URL
CC BY 4.0	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
CC BY-SA 4.0	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
CC BY-NC 4.0	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
CC BY-ND 4.0	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/
CC0 (Public Domain)	https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/