Extract
Inspect an image file
Drop in an image and this page tells you what it actually is, rather than what its name claims.
Format read from the file's own bytes, pixel dimensions, aspect ratio, colour model, bit depth, transparency, animation, embedded density and whatever metadata the file carries - including whether it records where the photograph was taken. Nothing about the file is changed, and your image is never uploaded.
How to inspect an image file
- Drop one image onto the upload area, or choose a file.
- Read the summary: format, dimensions, aspect ratio and size.
- Open Technical details, Metadata or Privacy for the full picture.
- Follow a suggested action if you want to change something.
Supported formats
This tool accepts JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, BMP, AVIF, HEIC and TIFF files. Everything is decoded by your own browser, so the formats available depend on what your browser can open - which for HEIC in particular varies between Safari and other browsers.
Frequently asked questions
How does it know the format if the filename is wrong?
It reads the first bytes of the file. Every image format begins with a distinctive signature - PNG starts with a specific eight-byte sequence, JPEG with 0xFFD8, GIF with the letters GIF - and those bytes are what software actually uses to decide how to open a file. The extension is only a label, and anyone can change it. If the two disagree, this page says so, because some upload forms check the extension and will refuse a file whose name does not match.
Why does it say DPI is not embedded?
Because that particular file does not record one. Most images have no density information at all - it is only written when a camera, scanner or design tool puts it there. Many tools display 72 DPI regardless, which is a made-up number: it is a historical default, not a property of your file. Since somebody might size a print from it, this page would rather say nothing than say something invented.
Does it tell me if my image is good quality?
No, and deliberately. A trustworthy quality score needs the decoded pixels and a defensible threshold for what counts as blurry or over-compressed, and every simple version of that is a number dressed up as a measurement. What you get instead are facts the file states about itself - its dimensions, how it was encoded, whether it is progressive, how large it is - which are the things you can actually act on.
Is my image uploaded?
No. The file is read in your browser and examined there. It is never decoded into pixels either, let alone sent anywhere - the page only reads the file's headers and metadata blocks, which is why it is fast on very large images and why it can describe formats your browser cannot display.
Which formats can it describe?
Format, size and metadata are read for JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, BMP, AVIF, HEIC and TIFF. The deeper structure - bit depth, colour model, transparency, interlacing, density - is read for JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP and BMP. For AVIF, HEIC and TIFF the page says the structure was not read rather than guessing at it.
Guides
- Why PNG files are so largePNG is lossless: it stores every pixel exactly, so it cannot throw away detail to save space. To make one smaller, either reduce how many distinct colours it stores - which is lossless for what remains and very effective on screenshots - or convert to JPEG or WebP if the image is a photograph.
- JPG, PNG or WebP: which should you use?Photographs: JPG, or WebP if everything downstream accepts it. Screenshots, diagrams, text, flat colour or transparency: PNG, or WebP. When in doubt and it is going on a website, WebP. When in doubt and it is going into a form, JPG.
- Image dimensions and aspect ratio, explainedAspect ratio is width against height, written as a pair like 16:9. When your shape does not match the target you have three choices: crop to fill (exact size, edges lost), fit inside (whole picture, shorter on one side), or stretch (exact size, distorted). Crop to fill is almost always the right one.
- Why passport photos get rejectedBackground, shadow, expression and obstruction account for most rejections. File size and pixel dimensions are a distant second, and they are the only ones a tool can put right. Fix the photograph first; the file takes a minute afterwards.
- What an image checker can and cannot tell youDimensions, file size, format, aspect ratio, transparency, animation and metadata are measured and certain. Background evenness, expression, framing and whether a photo looks professional are opinions. Whether an authority or marketplace will accept your image is neither - nobody outside them can answer it.
- Image metadata, explainedEXIF holds camera, settings, timestamp and often GPS coordinates. GPS is the field that matters most, because it can place you at an address. Removing metadata deletes those fields; it changes nothing about what the picture itself shows.
- Why some document photos must not be editedRead the authority's own wording. The UK asks for a photo unaltered by computer software and publishes no definition; Canada and New Zealand prohibit alteration explicitly, and Canada counts cropping and colour correction. Where editing is prohibited, the only honest tool is one that measures and hands you nothing.
- What image inspector results meanDimensions and file size explain most upload failures. Format and transparency explain most things looking wrong. Metadata is a privacy matter rather than a quality one. Interlacing, colour model and bit depth almost never matter unless something specifically asked about them.
Related tools
- Image Privacy CheckerBatchFind out what a photo discloses before you share it.
- Image Metadata ViewerInspect every metadata block in an image: EXIF, XMP, IPTC, colour profile and text records.
- Remove Image MetadataBatchStrip EXIF, GPS, XMP, IPTC and text records from an image in one pass.
- Image CompressorCompress JPG, PNG and WebP images in your browser.
- Image ConverterBatchConvert images between JPG, PNG, WebP and AVIF in your browser.
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