FREE Image Cleaner

Current Version: v1.0.5

FREE CLI utility for removing sensitive image data.

A privacy-focused, cross-platform CLI tool for removing AI provenance markers, image metadata, and watermarks — available for macOS, Linux, and Windows.

The Problem

Every photo you take carries invisible baggage, AI watermarks, etc : GPS coordinates, camera serial numbers, timestamps, editing software traces, and unique device fingerprints. When you share images online, you're not just sharing pixels — you're sharing your location, your habits, your identity.

image-cleaner strips it all. Cleanly. Reliably. Locally.

What It Removes

Format:

• JPEG - EXIF, XMP, IPTC, Comments, C2PA/JUMBF, APP2, APP3
• PNG - eXIf, tEXt/zTXt/iTXt, iCCP (color profiles), tIME, C2PA
• WebP - EXIF, XMP, ICCP

No re-encoding. No quality loss. Just metadata gone.

Why It Matters

• Journalists & activists — protect sources by stripping GPS and device IDs
• Privacy-conscious users — share photos without leaking location history
• Developers & designers — clean assets before shipping to production
• Everyone — because your photos shouldn't betray you

Features

✅ Cross-platform

• macOS (Intel & Apple Silicon)
• Linux (x64 & ARM64)
• Windows (x64 & ARM64)

✅ Zero dependencies — single static binary, no runtime needed

✅ Fail-closed design — if metadata remains after cleaning, the operation fails

✅ Atomic writes — your original file is never touched

✅ Post-clean verification — output is re-scanned to confirm nothing slipped through

✅ JSON output — machine-readable reports for automation pipelines

📸 Supported Formats

JPEG

• Removes all EXIF data
• Removes XMP metadata
• Removes IPTC/Photoshop APP13
• Removes JPEG comments
• Detects and removes C2PA/JUMBF APP11 segments
• Preserves image entropy-coded data byte-for-byte

PNG

• Removes eXIf metadata chunk
• Removes tEXt, zTXt, and iTXt chunks
• Removes iCCP color profile chunks
• Removes tIME modification time chunks
• Removes C2PA caBX chunks
• Preserves image data and recomputes PNG CRCs of retained chunks

WebP

• Removes EXIF metadata
• Removes XMP metadata
• Removes ICCP color profile
• Preserves VP8/VP8L/VP8X image data

Quick Start

 # Make executable (macOS/Linux)
 xattr -cr image-cleaner   # macOS remove extended attributes
 chmod +x image-cleaner

 # Clean a photo
 ./image-cleaner photo.jpg clean_photo.jpg

 # Get JSON report for automation
 ./image-cleaner -json photo.jpg clean_photo.jpg

Built For Privacy, By Default

• No network calls — runs entirely offline
• No tracking — no analytics, no phone home
• No installer — just a binary you can verify
• Container-only — never decodes or re-encodes pixels

📊 Report Example

 {
   "format": "jpeg",
   "input_bytes": 2457600,
   "output_bytes": 2457344,
   "removed": {
     "exif": true,
     "xmp": true,
     "iptc": false,
     "comments": true,
     "c2pa": true,
     "iccp": false,
     "png_metadata_chunks": 0,
     "webp_metadata_chunks": 0
   }
 }

Why Donate?

image-cleaner is free and always will be. No paywalls. No crippled features. No "pro" version.

But building and maintaining this takes real time:

• Researching obscure metadata formats across JPEG, PNG, WebP, C2PA specs
• Testing edge cases (malformed files, massive images, corrupted chunks)
• Maintaining cross-platform builds for 6 architectures
• Security auditing — fail-closed logic must be bulletproof
• Responding to issues, reviewing PRs, updating dependencies

If this tool saved you from a privacy leak, saved you hours of manual EXIF stripping, or just gave you peace of mind — consider buying me a coffee (or a beer).

Every donation keeps the project alive, tested, and improving.

What You Get

• The tool — forever free, no strings
• Good karma — you're funding digital privacy

Commercial Use

Using this tool for commercial purposes requires a paid license.

If you use the tool to make money, provide services to clients, process files for customers, or use it as part of a commercial workflow, please purchase a license.

Personal, non-commercial use is free.

Commercial use includes

• Using the tool to process files for paying clients
• Offering file-cleaning or metadata-removal services
• Using it in a business or commercial workflow
• Using the tool to create or prepare content that you sell
• Integrating it into a paid product or service

Making money with the tool? Please support the project with a commercial license.

"Privacy isn't about having something to hide. It's about having something to protect."

image-cleaner — Built with love, tested on real images, trusted by privacy advocates.