Controlled Vocabulary Keywords
Getty Images and iStock only accept keywords from their official "controlled vocabulary" — a fixed list of approved terms. Any keyword that doesn't match a term in the list is ignored at submission, so an image keyworded outside the vocabulary can lose most of its searchability without any warning from the agency.
With Controlled Vocabulary enabled, MetaPhotoAI generates keywords drawn from that vocabulary and tracks, per image, which terms were matched.
Note
MetaPhotoAI is an independent application and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Getty Images or iStock. References to the controlled vocabulary describe their published submission requirements.
Enabling Controlled Vocabulary#
- Open Settings > Keywords.
- Turn on Use Controlled Vocabulary.
- A Controlled Vocabulary toggle now appears in the metadata panel. Its state is remembered across sessions.
With the toggle on, keyword generation matches terms against the controlled vocabulary. The AI prefers returning fewer, matched keywords over padding the list with terms the vocabulary would reject.
Warning
Controlled Vocabulary requires cloud processing — it is unavailable while Local AI Processing is enabled, because vocabulary matching happens server-side.
Reading the Shield Badge#
Images generated with Controlled Vocabulary carry a shield badge:
- Full shield — every keyword was matched to the controlled vocabulary during the image's last generation.
- Partial shield — some keywords (added manually or from your keyword settings) aren't vocabulary-matched. Unmatched terms are shown with a dashed outline in the keyword list, each with a tooltip explaining why.
Your manual edits are never removed — unmatched terms are only marked so you can decide whether to keep them.
Filtering by Match Status#
Use the library filter to show only images whose keywords are vocabulary-matched, only images that aren't, or everything. This makes it easy to isolate a Getty/iStock submission set from the rest of your library.
Pre-Upload Check#
When you start an upload to a Getty/iStock destination, MetaPhotoAI warns you if selected files carry keywords that weren't generated with Controlled Vocabulary, so you can regenerate them first instead of discovering the problem after submission.
IPTC Country Requirement#
Getty and iStock require an IPTC Country value on submissions. If it's missing, MetaPhotoAI prompts you to choose a default country, saves it globally in Settings, and applies it wherever IPTC Country is unset. You can still override the value per image in the IPTC tab.
Workflows#
Automated workflows have their own independent Controlled Vocabulary setting, so a Getty-bound workflow can generate vocabulary-matched keywords while your manual generation settings stay unchanged. See Automated Workflows.