Use Content Credentials

Content Credentials are a durable, industry-standard metadata type that serves as a digital “nutrition label” for content. They may include information about who created a piece of content or how it was created, like if it came from a camera, was generated using AI, or edited in Photoshop. Websites and platforms are beginning to display Content Credentials, and you can download the Adobe Content Authenticity browser extension to view them. You can apply Content Credentials from within supporting Adobe apps including Adobe Content Authenticity (Beta).

Why use Content Credentials?

Applying Content Credentials to your work can help you protect and get more recognition for it and have more control over how it's used by certain generative AI models. Content Credentials allow you to share information about yourself, your creative process, and your preferences directly from your content.  

Content Credentials are available in a growing number of Adobe apps, including Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, and Adobe Premiere Pro. In Adobe Content Authenticity (Beta), they can even help you express your generative AI training and usage preference. Learn more about Content Credentials.

Are Content Credentials mandatory?

While applying Content Credentials to your work is generally optional, Content Credentials are automatically applied to content generated on the Adobe Firefly website and with Adobe Firefly APIs. Adobe does this to help promote transparency around the use of generative AI.

Types of information in Content Credentials

Content Credentials can contain information about the app or device they were recorded by as well as your identity, creative process, and generative AI training and usage preference. 

Recorder

Content Credentials will always list the app or device responsible for recording the information within them. You can trust each Content Credential’s information as much as you would trust the app or device it was recorded by to record and share information about the content.

Identity

If you choose to include it, Content Credentials can contain information about your identity such as your name and social media accounts.

Creative process

You can choose to include information in your Content Credentials about how your work was made for additional transparency with your audience. This includes a general list of the types of edits you performed (such as color, exposure, cropping, and orientation changes), and previews of any other content ingredients used to produce your work (such as other files or screenshots added to your document during editing).

Generative AI training and usage preference 

Adobe Content Authenticity (Beta) allows you to include generative AI training and usage preference in your Content Credentials. Adobe Firefly, our family of generative AI models, is trained only on licensed content, including assets submitted to Adobe Stock. Not all generative AI models follow the same approach. This preference lets you request that supporting generative AI models not train on or use your work. Applying it now is a proactive step you can take today to protect your content as more models add support for it. This preference is currently supported by Adobe Firefly and Spawning. 

Content Credentials may appear differently in different places

Adobe is just one of many organizations implementing the open standards created by the C2PA. As an open-source technology, other websites and tools may display Content Credentials differently than how Adobe displays them.

Apply Content Credentials to your work

Applying Content Credentials to your work is optional unless it was generated on the Adobe Firefly website or with Adobe Firefly APIs. Otherwise, it’s up to you when to apply Content Credentials to your work and what to include in them.

1. Locate Content Credentials settings in your supporting Adobe app or service.
2. Select information that you want to include in your Content Credentials.
3. Choose to apply Content Credentials when saving or exporting your work 
4. Once you save or export your work and have chosen to apply Content Credentials, people can view it online on supporting websites. They can also be viewed with the Adobe Content Authenticity Chrome browser extension or Adobe's Inspect tool.

Content Credential storage methods

Content Credentials can be attached directly to your files, stored in Adobe’s Content Credentials cloud, or both. Most Adobe apps allow you to choose a storage method.  

• Attached directly to your files: Your Content Credentials are embedded directly into your files, making them easy for other Content Credentials services to read.

  Content Credentials may be lost over time if your files undergo any kind of processing that may remove metadata. This often occurs when publishing online, as many websites resize and remove extra metadata from uploaded files.

• Published to Adobe’s public Content Credentials cloud: Your files’ Content Credentials are stored in Adobe’s public Content Credentials cloud, along with a small thumbnail copy of your file. This creates a “digital fingerprint” that helps ensure that your Content Credentials remain attached to your file, even if the metadata is removed. By storing a copy of your Content Credentials in the cloud, you can view the Content Credentials associated with a file, even from a screenshot, using Adobe Content Authenticity (Beta)’s Inspect tool.  

  The Inspect tool isn't a search or gallery service that recommends files and Content Credentials — it only displays Content Credentials attached directly to a selected file or that exist in the Content Credentials cloud and visually match a selected file.
 
  

Make your Content Credentials Durable

Adobe Content Authenticity (Beta) allows you to apply more durable Content Credentials to your files. When using Adobe Content Authenticity (Beta) to apply Content Credentials:

• Your files’ Content Credentials are both attached directly to your files and published to Adobe’s public Content Credentials cloud. 

• An invisible watermark is applied to your files allowing their Content Credentials to be viewed wherever your content is shared online using the Adobe Content Authenticity (Beta) Chrome browser extension, and recovered anytime using Adobe’s Inspect tool. Note that the watermarks applied by Adobe Content Authenticity (Beta):

  • May minimally impact image quality as the watermark adds a few secret pixels to the image 
  • Should not impact file size  

Viewing Content Credentials

Content Credentials can be viewed on any website that supports them, like Behance and LinkedIn. However, Content Credentials are still rolling out across the internet and not all websites support them yet. The Adobe Content Authenticity (Beta) Chrome browser extension allows you to view available Content Credentials on any webpage.