VarSeal 1.0.1 manual

Add an IPTC/PLUS Data Mining value and your usage terms to new copies of delivered JPEGs, review existing rights metadata, and export a ZIP with delivery notes and a per-file receipt. Everything runs in a browser tab on your computer.

What VarSeal does not do. The embedded values are machine-readable statements. They cannot technically prevent copying or AI training, many websites and apps remove metadata on upload, and VarSeal does not provide legal advice or create a licence agreement. You supply your own rights, usage and contact text.

1. What you need

A desktop browser. VarSeal 1.0.1 was tested in Google Chrome 152 on Linux. Other browsers are not tested.
Exported JPEG files (.jpg or .jpeg) — copies you intend to deliver. VarSeal never edits the files you choose.
No installation, account, internet connection, ExifTool or command line.

2. Open VarSeal

Unzip VarSeal-1.0.1.zip to a folder you control, for example Documents/VarSeal.
Double-click VarSeal.html, or drag it into a Chrome window. Keep the app folder next to it.

VarSeal start screen with practice and file buttons, notice panel and empty file list — Start screen: choose photos (1), fill in your notice (2), export copies (3).

In a narrow window (tested at 390 px wide) the panels stack vertically and the file table scrolls sideways inside its own box.

VarSeal at 390 pixels wide with the intake and notice panels stacked — Narrow window: notice panel.

VarSeal at 390 pixels wide showing the first columns of the file table after export — Narrow window: the file table after export. Swipe or scroll sideways inside the table to see the remaining columns.

VarSeal at 390 pixels wide showing the export results and download button — Narrow window: export results with the download button.

3. First result with the practice photos

Click Load practice photos. Ten fictional files appear: nine JPEGs and one text file.
Click Use example values. This fills the notice for the fictional Harbor Studio delivery to Northwind Bakery: Data mining Prohibited for AI/ML training with Replace existing values, usage terms (Replace), other constraints, copyright info URL and copyright notice (Fill where missing).
Check the status chips: Ready 4 · Review 3 · Blocked 2 · Skipped 1.

Practice files listed with statuses Ready, Review, Blocked and Skipped and the filled notice — Review table after loading the practice photos and example values.

Select a file name to see its fields before and after. For H_0008.jpg, the original says Data mining Allowed; the copy will say Prohibited for AI/ML training, because Replace was chosen. With the default Add where missing, the existing value would be kept and flagged instead.

Detail panel for H_0008 showing the original thumbnail and a before/after field table — Detail panel: existing values, review notes and the planned value for each field.

Click Create delivery ZIP. Expected result: 7 written and verified, 2 blocked, 1 skipped.
Click Download VarSeal-Autumn-menu-….zip. Chrome saves it to your downloads folder.

Results with 7 written and verified, 2 blocked, 1 skipped, download button and a pixel comparison for H_0002 — Results. In the detail panel, *Compare decoded pixels* decodes the original and the copy and compares every pixel value.

Practice file	What it shows	Expected
H_0001.jpg	Attribute-style XMP like many editors write, matching IPTC and EXIF copyright	Ready
H_0002.jpg	Progressive JPEG with existing usage terms	Review (usage terms replaced)
H_0003.jpg	EXIF copyright only, no XMP	Ready (XMP added)
H_0004.jpg	No metadata at all	Ready (copyright filled)
H_0005.jpg	XMP and IPTC-IIM copyright disagree	Review (IIM kept, difference reported)
H_0006.jpg	Incomplete file	Blocked
H_0007.jpg	CMYK JPEG	Ready
H_0008.jpg	Existing Data mining = Allowed	Review (replaced)
H_0009.jpg	Content Credentials-style APP11 data	Blocked
notes.txt	Not a photo	Skipped (not opened; the receipt lists it without a SHA-256)

4. Use your own JPEGs

Click Clear list, then Choose JPEG files (you can select many at once) or drop files onto the page. The practice photos are also in the practice folder if you want to try this step with known files.
Choose a Data mining value and decide what should happen when a photo already has one.
Enter your own text for the other fields, or leave them on Keep existing.
Review every Review and Blocked note, then export.

Templates: Save template downloads varseal-template.json with your notice and delivery details. Load template restores it next time. Every export ZIP also contains the template it used.

5. Notice fields and modes

Field	Written to	Notes
Data mining (required)	`plus:DataMining`	A PLUS vocabulary URI such as `http://ns.useplus.org/ldf/vocab/DMI-PROHIBITED-AIMLTRAINING`. The labels in the list are the PLUS vocabulary definitions.
Other constraints	`plus:OtherConstraints` (language alternative, x-default)	Required when you choose “Prohibited, see Other Constraints property”.
Rights usage terms	`xmpRights:UsageTerms` (x-default)	What this client may do with the photos.
Copyright info URL	`xmpRights:WebStatement`	Must start with http:// or https://.
Copyright notice	`dc:rights` (x-default)	IPTC-IIM and EXIF copies are never changed; differences are reported.

Modes. Keep existing writes nothing for that field. Fill where missing writes only when the photo has no value. Replace overwrites the value (other language versions are kept and reported). A blank field never erases anything: Replace or Fill with empty text is refused. For the copyright notice, Fill where missing also refuses to write when IPTC-IIM or EXIF already holds a different notice.

6. Review statuses

Ready — will be written, nothing to check.
Review — will be written; read the note (for example an existing value is replaced or kept, or copyright differs between XMP and IPTC-IIM/EXIF).
Blocked — no copy is made. Causes: incomplete or damaged JPEG, Content Credentials/JUMBF (APP11) data that editing would invalidate, Extended XMP, more than one XMP block, malformed XMP, XMP with a document type declaration, a result over the 64 KB XMP segment limit, or a file over 32 MiB.
Skipped — not a .jpg/.jpeg file (VarSeal does not open it), or a file named .jpg whose content is not JPEG.
No change — every selected value is already present or kept, so no copy is needed.

7. Export and what is in the ZIP

photos/ — the new JPEG copies. Names are kept; unsafe characters are replaced and duplicate names get “ (2)”. The table shows any new name before export.
VarSeal-delivery-notes.html — a printable summary for your client: studio, client, project, date, the Data mining label and URI, your terms, and each file with its SHA-256.
VarSeal-receipt.json and VarSeal-receipt.csv — your record: one row per listed file with its status, size (input_bytes), every field before and after, review and block notes, verification results and SHA-256 values (see below).
varseal-template.json — the notice used for this delivery.

Delivery notes page listing the Data mining value, usage terms and seven files with SHA-256 values — Delivery notes from the practice export (fictional data).

SHA-256 values in the receipt. output_sha256 is the SHA-256 of each copy in photos/. input_sha256 is the SHA-256 of each original file VarSeal read. VarSeal does not open files that are not .jpg/.jpeg or that are larger than 32 MiB; their rows say input_read: false (CSV: no), give the size and the reason, and have no input SHA-256.

Before each copy is added to the ZIP, VarSeal re-reads it and checks that every non-XMP segment and all image data are byte-identical to the original and that each written value reads back exactly.

8. Check and reopen results

Open VarSeal-delivery-notes.html from the unzipped folder in any browser.
Load the exported copies back into VarSeal: the table shows the new values as the current ones (and “No change” if you use the same notice).
Optional independent check with ExifTool: exiftool -XMP-plus:DataMining -XMP-xmpRights:UsageTerms photos/H_0001.jpg.

9. Supported files and limits

Input: baseline and progressive JPEG (grayscale, colour, CMYK) with or without existing XMP, IPTC-IIM and EXIF.
Up to 100 files per batch, 32 MiB per file, 256 MiB per batch. Text fields up to 2,000 characters.
Files with other extensions and files over 32 MiB are listed with a reason but not opened, so the receipt has no input SHA-256 for them.
Written: XMP only, in the standard XMP segment. Not written: IPTC-IIM, EXIF, captions, keywords, alt text, C2PA.
Not supported: TIFF, PNG, WebP, HEIC/AVIF, RAW/DNG, .xmp sidecars, Extended XMP.

10. Troubleshooting

Problem	What to do
Page is unstyled or buttons do nothing	Keep `VarSeal.html` and the `app` folder together; unzip the whole archive first instead of opening it inside the ZIP viewer.
“Create delivery ZIP” is disabled	Read the red notes under Export: choose a Data mining value, enter text for fields set to Fill/Replace, or fix the URL.
A file is Blocked	Open its detail panel for the reason. Re-export it from your editor (for example without Content Credentials) and add it again.
Files were not added	The batch limits are 100 files and 256 MiB; split large deliveries into several batches.
Download does not start	Check Chrome's download bar or settings; the ZIP is created in memory and saved by Chrome.
Metadata missing after upload to a website	Many sites remove metadata. VarSeal cannot change that; deliver the files directly where possible.

11. Privacy

Photos are read only inside the browser tab. VarSeal makes no network requests (its page policy blocks connections), has no account, and stores nothing between sessions; closing the tab discards the list. Templates are saved only when you click Save template.

12. Uninstall

Delete the unzipped VarSeal folder. Nothing else is installed. Downloaded ZIPs and templates stay where Chrome saved them until you delete them.

13. Tested environment and limitations

Tested: Google Chrome 152.0.7977.82 on Linux (Ubuntu 22.04 kernel 5.15), opened from a local folder. Output was read independently with ExifTool 13.59, Python ElementTree and ImageMagick 6.9.11 (pixel comparison).
Test files are first-party synthetic JPEGs with metadata written by ExifTool and hand-built segments. No exports from Lightroom, Capture One, Photo Mechanic or darktable were tested, so no compatibility with those applications is claimed.
Whether a platform, model trainer or court respects the embedded statements is outside VarSeal's control.

VarSeal 1.0.1 · Perunlight · see LICENSE.txt.