XMP or Adobe’s Extensible Metadata Platform is a standard for processing and storing standardized and proprietary metadata, created by Adobe Systems Inc. This is a labeling technology that allows you to embed data about a file, known as metadata, into the file itself and to retain it. Adobe’s tag line for this technology is “Adding intelligence to media”. Adobe Systems Inc., who has trademarked the XMP name and logo states that this is a useful tool to facilitate keeping track of important files and assets and to effectively manage files. It thus claims to be an important and necessary part of the creative process.

XMP was launched in April 2001 as part of the Adobe Acrobat 5.0 software product. XMP or Adobe’s Extensible Metadata Platform standardizes the definition, creation, and processing of extensible metadata. In order to comprehend this definition, it necessary to first understand what exactly is metadata.

To put it simply Metadata (or meta data) is data about data. It helps to describe the content or characteristics of a file. A piece of metadata could be a label of content or a compilation of data including many or multiple items. The functions of metadata is to make possible the comprehension and management of data. To clarify what metadata entails, let us take the example of a book store. What is the data available in a book store? The contents of or the material inside the books stocked there. The meta data of the book store would be a log of titles of the books, important information regarding the books such as author, summary of the book and details of indexing. Another example would be the songs on an MP3 player. The data is the music, the play-list is its meta data.

If an application is enabled with XMP, information about a task or project can be secured at the time that content is created and the same is embedded within the file and structured. This information would include Meaningful descriptions and titles, searchable keywords, and up-to-date author and copyright information etc.

An advantage of this platform is that this embedded information or the meta data is retained even if the material or file is passed across more than one format, different software or applications, and even varied appliances, or databases. XMP lengthens the lifecycle of the content and enables different kinds of search and recovery of media from within different formats and databases. XMP is a built in support in respect of Adobe applications and products.

XMP can applied to the use of different formats such as PDF, JPEG, HTML, GIF, PNG, PSD, TIFF Adobe Illustrator etc. XMP metadata can depict a document as a whole or in terms of the different parts that make up a whole, such as pages or included images. This structural design makes it possible to keep the intellectual property of the document. In the same way, if several smaller documents are brought together to form another, XMP permits the original meta data contained within the smaller document to be retained in the unified product.