How to remove descriptive text from a PNG

A PNG can contain words that do not appear in the picture. Fields such as a title, description, comment, or author name may be stored inside the file and shown by image viewers or websites.

You can inspect and remove those fields with Photo Info & Cleaner. The steps below help you choose what to remove, save a clean copy, and check that the text is gone.

Remove descriptive text from a PNG

1. Open Photo Info & Cleaner and select the PNG file you want to check. Work on a copy if you want to keep the original unchanged.
2. Review the information shown for the image. Look for text fields such as title, description, comment, author, or copyright.
3. Choose the descriptive text you want removed. If the tool offers a choice between removing selected fields and clearing all metadata, use the narrower option when you want to keep other information.
4. Save or download the cleaned image as a new file. Give it a different name so you can tell it apart from the original.
5. Open the saved copy in Photo Info & Cleaner and check the same fields again. Make sure you inspect the copy, not the original file.

The image is handled in your browser, and the file stays on your device. Removing metadata changes information stored in the file, not the words or objects drawn in the picture itself.

What the result means

The descriptive fields are empty or missing

The saved copy no longer contains the text fields you checked. Keep that copy for sharing. The original may still have its metadata, so do not accidentally send the original instead.

Some text fields are gone, but others remain

Metadata is stored in separate fields. Removing a description does not always remove a title, comment, creator name, or copyright notice. Review the remaining entries and remove only the ones you do not want to share.

The picture looks the same after cleaning

That is expected. Descriptive metadata is information attached to the image file, not normally part of the visible pixels. The picture should look unchanged unless you also edited or converted it.

The text still appears in another app

First check that you opened the cleaned copy. Some apps show cached information from an earlier view, or display a filename as though it were a title. Close and reopen the file, then inspect the saved copy with Photo Info & Cleaner to distinguish stored metadata from an app label.

How to fix it if the text remains

1. Check that you saved a new copy. Open the file you downloaded or saved, rather than the original. If both files have the same name, move the original aside or rename the clean copy to avoid mixing them up.
2. Remove each unwanted text field. A PNG can store more than one kind of text. Check title, description, comment, author, copyright, and any other text entries the tool displays.
3. Check whether the text is part of the picture. If the words are visible when you view the image, they are pixels, not metadata. A metadata cleaner will not erase them. Use an image editor to cover, crop, or retouch visible text.
4. Reopen the file from its saved location. Do not rely on a thumbnail or a preview that may still show information from the original. Open the cleaned copy directly and check it again.
5. Keep the original until you have verified the result. If the clean copy does not look right or the fields remain, return to the original and try again. Keeping both versions prevents an accidental loss of the source image.

What descriptive text inside a PNG is

PNG files can hold text in chunks of data alongside the image. Common types include tEXt, iTXt, and zTXt. These can store readable fields such as a title or comment. Some other metadata formats may also be present, depending on how the image was created or edited.

This information is different from the filename and from visible text in the image. Changing vacation.png to photo.png renames the file, but does not clear an embedded description. Likewise, deleting a description does not necessarily remove other metadata, such as software details or color information.

If you are preparing photos to share without revealing identifying details, also see how to clean photos for an anonymous listing. Check the actual cleaned copy before sending it, because different images can contain different fields.

Keep the original until you have confirmed that the cleaned PNG has the appearance and metadata you want.