Descriptions are returned in either a structured metadata format or a human readable text format; sometimes one format may serve both purposes.

Each tool uses the same metadata format for defining and manipulating data.

It also has influenced and set the standards for the ecosystem through the metadata format and libraries.

This common metadata format allows for significantly less overhead when invoking WinRT from .

Most other containers have their own metadata format and the players usually use them.

It is capable of reading and editing all relevant metadata formats for audio files, including APEv2, ID3 and Vorbis comment.

Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) was created by Adobe Systems to be a better metadata format for photography and image processing.

The metadata format (XML) provides researchers with access to a comprehensive, organised listing that can be used to annotate and link precancer lesions contained in biomedical data sets.

Many multimedia metadata formats (as ID3, Exif, MPEG-7, etc.) are available to describe, on various levels, what a multimedia asset is about, who has produced it and so on.

ExifTool implements its own open metadata format.