These guidelines—provided as a Quick Guide—aim to clarify the issues affecting accurate reproduction and management of digital image files.

The guidelines were created to establish photographic standards and practices for photographers, designers, printers, and image distributors.

Version 4.0 of the guidelines represents the industry consensus as of Sept 22, 2008.

The guidelines have four primary goals:

• Digital images should look the same as they transfer between devices, platforms and vendors.
• Digital images should be prepared in the correct resolution, size and sharpness for the device(s) on which they will be viewed or printed.
• Digital images should have embedded metadata that conform to the IPTC and PLUS standards, making them searchable while providing relevant rights and usage information.
• Digital images should be protected from accidental erasure or corruption and stored carefully to ensure their availability to future generations.

Source: UPDIG