Adobe has announced a public beta of Adobe XMP Toolkit 4.0, Adobe's labeling technology for embedding metadata into files. This prerelease allows software developers to inject XMP data into popular media file formats (JPEG, PSD, TIFF, AVI, WAV, MPEG, MP3, MOV, INDD, PS, and EPS). It also gives developers a centralized view of XMP data through Adobe Bridge. As described on the Adobe Labs site:

"Version 4.0 of the Adobe XMP Toolkit is planned to significantly extend the capabilities of the current SDK by adding an often-requested feature: the ability to easily find, add, and update XMP in popular image, document, and video file formats. As such, Version 4.0 will contain two distinct components:

• The XMP Core: a component for parsing, manipulating, and serializing XMP data. This component was historically called the "XMP Toolkit" because it was the only component in the toolkit. It will henceforth be called the XMP Core, whereas the XMP Toolkit refers to the entire SDK.
• The XMP File Handler: a component for reading, rewriting, and injecting serialized XMP into popular image, document, and video file formats. The XMP File Manager can be thought of as a "file I/O" component for reading and writing the XMP that is manipulated by the XMP Core."

A free download of the beta for Windows (Visual Studio 2005) or Mac (Xcode 2.2) development environments is available from Adobe Labs. The Mac version of the Toolkit will create universal binary code for both Intel and PowerPC processors. Adobe is seeking developers' feedback on file format support and overall architecture of the Toolkit.

For the uninitiated, XMP stands for Extensible Metadata Platform, and metadata is information about a file--anything from copyright to image captions. Metadata is essential for organizing and accessing files, and is an fundamental part of creative professionals' workflow. You can learn more about XMP and metadata at Adobe's site.