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Published 31 July 2026 · jpeg.id

C2PA provenance, in plain language

What are Content Credentials?

A Content Credential is a tamper-evident record attached to digital media. It can describe who or what signed a file and which changes were declared.

Check an image Verification guide

A signed history for digital media

A Content Credential packages assertions about a file into a cryptographically signed manifest. The signature helps a verifier detect whether the signed claim was changed. A hard binding connects the manifest to the asset so a verifier can detect whether the protected bytes still match what was signed.

Claims can describe the application or device that created the credential, a creation method, edits, ingredients, timestamps, and other provenance information. Later C2PA-aware tools can add new signed manifests to record additional steps without silently rewriting earlier signed claims.

What verification can establish

  • Whether the credential structure and cryptographic signature validate.
  • Whether the manifest remains bound to the selected asset.
  • Whether the signer chains to the verifier’s selected trust list.
  • Whether a trusted timestamp can be established when one is present.
  • Which actions, ingredients, and creation methods the credential declares.

Trust is contextual. A mathematically valid signature can belong to a signer that the verifier does not recognize. jpeg.id therefore separates credential integrity from signer trust instead of collapsing them into one green checkmark.

What Content Credentials do not prove

A credential can preserve the integrity of a claim; it does not guarantee the claim was accurate when signed. A trusted camera credential can support an account of how pixels entered a workflow, but it does not by itself prove the meaning, context, or truth of the scene. Identity also depends on what a certificate issuer actually verified.

Absence is not a verdict

Screenshots, exports, messaging apps, and other transformations can remove embedded manifests. Many genuine images were never signed. No credential means there is no supported credential to inspect—not that the image is fake.

Content Credentials versus EXIF metadata

EXIF, IPTC, and XMP values are usually editable declarations. They can still be useful, but their presence alone does not protect them from alteration. Content Credentials cryptographically bind signed assertions and make covered changes detectable. A C2PA manifest may itself contain declarations; signing preserves integrity, not the objective truth of every declaration.

jpeg.id displays these as separate evidence layers. Learn more in the image metadata guide.

How to read a credential responsibly

  1. 01
    Check integrity. Did the signature and asset binding pass?
  2. 02
    Check trust. Who signed it, and why is that signer recognized?
  3. 03
    Read declarations. Which actions or creation methods were claimed?
  4. 04
    Keep unknowns visible. What relevant fact is not established?