EXIF rotation meta data in preview images missing

Post by **Tsall** » Sun Oct 07, 2018 8:18 am

I think everybody knows the problem "images loading sideways".

Since nearly a year I'm using some CSS to automatically rotate images based on EXIF meta data. This worked like a charm. But sadly this stopped functioning.
Today I did some research and found the problem. The thumbnails of new attachments do not have EXIF meta data any more. Therefore the rotation info is missing and my browser doesn't know how to rotate the image. But the original image still has these EXIF meta data. When opening the original image my browser is still able to rotate it. So these info get lost during resizing in the forum software.

I can understand if the EXIF meta data is removed because of privacy concerns (GPS data). But if this is the case you must also remove the EXIF meta data from the original image.

Please bring back the EXIF rotation info to the attachment thumbnails.
A better solution would be automatic rotation during upload. Or a serverside cronjob which rotates every newly uploaded image according to the EXIF data, if needed.

nukeno · Post by **nukeno** » Sun Oct 07, 2018 9:27 am

Tsall wrote:I think everybody knows the problem "images loading sideways".

I haven't noticed this, but I find it quiet fascinating that it seems to be an issue.
Are people too lazy now to rotate their images properly BEFORE uploading them to the internet?
Or is this more like a smart phone user issue? Because the not so smart phoney simply does not
care about what his smart phone thingy is doing???

Post by **Tsall** » Sun Oct 07, 2018 10:06 am

Are you using Safari? Then you didn't had this problem. Safari rotates images based on EXIF data per default. But you will start seeing this problem.

Yes, this is mostly a issue of members uploading their images from their smart phone, but not exclusive.
It has nothing to do with laziness. A Smart phone and any modern PC software displays images rotated based on EXIF data.
Not everybody edit/rotates their images before uploading. Not everybody knows how to do this.

And to be honest, every modern website like Flickr, Instagram, Google, Facebook, ... rotates uploaded images automatically. This forum does not. An update isn't easy and needs planing.

There was a thread about this problem and Nescio uploaded two example photos: Photos loading sideways!

Post by **Nescio50** » Sun Oct 07, 2018 10:11 am

This is an old issue. Several devices and software programs use different settings and interpretation of rotation data.

I know this was investigated in the past, can't find that thread right now. It is not that easy to get it right all the time. It is mostly images directly uploaded from smart phones that have an issue.

Post by **Tsall** » Sun Oct 07, 2018 10:31 am

Yes, photos loading side wise is an old issue, i linked to it above.
But I'm addressing a new issue.
Since some weeks the preview/thumbnail generated by the forum software for every uploaded attachment does not have EXIF meta data. Therefore the rotation info is missing.

Post by **Nescio50** » Sun Oct 07, 2018 10:47 am

Tsall wrote:Yes, photos loading side wise is an old issue, i linked to it above.
But I'm addressing a new issue.
Since some weeks the preview/thumbnail generated by the forum software for every uploaded attachment does not have EXIF meta data. Therefore the rotation info is missing.

Ouch -probably the same issue that causes animated gif not to animate ... that is on resized versions of the image, the full size version is okay.
This issue occurred after we changed some settings and updated a software component because of a security issue. All is fine at The Doll Album, The Harem forum and CoverDoll, we are working on the remaining issue at TDF.