PicScrub

Strip hidden metadata from images before sharing. GPS coordinates, device info, timestamps, thumbnails. Gone. Fast, lossless, zero dependencies.

Try it online at picscrub.com · no install needed, runs in your browser.

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Install

npm install picscrub

Usage

import { removeMetadata } from 'picscrub';

const result = await removeMetadata(imageBytes);

console.log(result.format);          // 'jpeg'
console.log(result.removedMetadata); // ['EXIF', 'XMP', 'ICC Profile']
console.log(result.cleanedSize);     // smaller than result.originalSize

// result.data is a clean Uint8Array ready to use

With options

const result = await removeMetadata(imageBytes, {
  preserveOrientation: true,   // keep EXIF rotation
  preserveColorProfile: true,  // keep ICC profile
  preserveCopyright: true,     // keep copyright notice
});

Node.js file API

import { processFile } from 'picscrub/node';

await processFile('photo.jpg');                          // creates photo-clean.jpg
await processFile('photo.jpg', { inPlace: true });       // overwrites original
await processFile('photo.jpg', { outputPath: 'out.jpg' });

CLI

npx picscrub photo.jpg           # creates photo-clean.jpg
npx picscrub *.jpg               # batch process
npx picscrub -i photo.jpg        # overwrite original
npx picscrub -o clean.jpg photo.jpg

All CLI flags

Flag	Description
-i, --in-place	Overwrite original files
-o, --output <path>	Output file (single file only)
-s, --suffix <suffix>	Output suffix (default: "-clean")
--preserve-orientation	Keep EXIF orientation tag
--preserve-color-profile	Keep ICC color profile
--preserve-copyright	Keep copyright notice
-q, --quiet	Suppress output
-h, --help	Show help
-v, --version	Show version

Supported Formats

Format	What gets removed
JPEG	EXIF, XMP, IPTC, ICC Profile, Comments, Adobe
PNG	tEXt, iTXt, zTXt, eXIf, iCCP
WebP	EXIF, XMP, ICCP
GIF	Comments, XMP, Application Extensions
SVG	metadata, RDF, comments, editor namespaces
TIFF	EXIF, GPS, XMP, ICC Profile
HEIC	EXIF, GPS, Thumbnails, MakerNotes *
DNG	Full TIFF-based metadata
RAW	Extracts clean JPEG preview **

All formats are lossless. Pixel data is never touched. *HEIC overwrites metadata with zeros rather than removing it (file size stays the same). **Proprietary RAW formats (CR2, NEF, ARW) return the cleaned embedded JPEG preview.

API Reference

removeMetadata(input, options?)

Accepts Uint8Array, ArrayBuffer, or base64 data URL. Returns:

interface RemoveResult {
  data: Uint8Array;          // cleaned image
  format: SupportedFormat;   // detected format
  originalSize: number;      // before (bytes)
  cleanedSize: number;       // after (bytes)
  removedMetadata: string[]; // what was actually removed
}

detectFormat(data) / getMetadataTypes(data)

import { detectFormat, getMetadataTypes } from 'picscrub';

detectFormat(imageBytes);      // 'jpeg' | 'png' | 'webp' | ... | 'unknown'
getMetadataTypes(imageBytes);  // ['EXIF', 'XMP', 'ICC Profile']

Format-specific handlers

import { jpeg, png, webp, gif, svg, tiff, heic, raw } from 'picscrub';

const cleaned = jpeg.remove(jpegBytes, { preserveOrientation: true });

Preserve options by format

Option	JPEG	PNG	WebP	TIFF	SVG
preserveOrientation	Yes	-	-	Yes	-
preserveColorProfile	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-
preserveCopyright	Yes	-	-	Yes	-
preserveTitle	-	-	-	-	Yes
preserveDescription	-	-	-	-	Yes

Known Limitations

TIFF

• Multi-page TIFFs: only the first IFD is processed
• Tiled images may not preserve all tile offsets correctly
• Test with your specific TIFF files before production use

HEIC

• Metadata is overwritten with zeros, not removed. File size stays the same
• Image data (HEVC stream) is completely preserved
• Embedded thumbnails are destroyed (overwritten with pattern data)
• This approach ensures file structure integrity without complex offset recalculation

RAW formats

Format	Handling	Output
DNG	Full TIFF-based processing	Clean DNG file
CR2 (Canon)	JPEG preview extraction	Clean JPEG
NEF (Nikon)	JPEG preview extraction	Clean JPEG
ARW (Sony)	JPEG preview extraction	Clean JPEG

Proprietary formats (CR2, NEF, ARW) return the cleaned embedded JPEG preview. Original RAW sensor data is not preserved. Use for sharing previews, not for archiving.

How It Works

PicScrub operates directly on binary file structures. No re-encoding, no quality loss.

Format	Technique
JPEG	Removes APP1–APP14 segments
PNG	Filters metadata chunks (tEXt, iTXt, zTXt, eXIf)
WebP	Removes EXIF/XMP chunks, updates VP8X header
GIF	Removes comment and application extension blocks
SVG	Regex-based removal of metadata elements and editor attributes
TIFF	Filters IFD entries, zeros out removed data
HEIC	Overwrites EXIF/thumbnails with zeros

Browser Support

Chrome 89+ · Firefox 89+ · Safari 15+ · Edge 89+

Acknowledgments

Modernized fork of exif-library by @hMatoba, with added support for GIF, SVG, TIFF, HEIC, DNG/RAW, TypeScript strict mode, and comprehensive metadata removal.

License

MIT