Picture Thumbnail orientation by EXIF data

Sierras · Post by **Sierras** » 2012 Feb 24, 02:14

This should be a simple question - but I searched this forum but couldn't find anything similar.

Basically, I would like the thumbnails of the pictures to have the correct orientation (portrait or landscape) according to the EXIF data in the picture.

I can not find a way of doing this or if it's even possible.
Windows Explorer can't do it so I was hoping that xPlorer2 can rather than having to open a dedicated photo app.

Thanks

Post by **nikos** » 2012 Feb 24, 07:02

xplorer2 uses the same thumbnail cache as windows explorer so it has the same limitations, sorry

Kilmatead · Post by **Kilmatead** » 2012 Feb 24, 10:26

You might look at the (free) Thumbnail extension SageThumbs as it's designed to generate it's own thumbnails for windows rather than allowing explorer to do it itself. There is no specific setting for what you request (and I have no misbehaving photos with which to test it) but as it's designed for viewing all manner of formats which windows does not natively support, one would assume it would take this common expectation into account.

Tuxman · Post by **Tuxman** » 2012 Feb 27, 13:00

I'm not sure it does, a rotated photo should have a rotated preview too.

profess · Post by **profess** » 2012 Feb 27, 13:33

no they are separate most of the time. you may see the unrotated version in explorer, and your image program automatically rotates it for you.

try exifer - it may be a bit manual though (haven't downloaded and used in a long time). there must be others that can do the same job too.

regards.

IneedHelp · Post by **IneedHelp** » 2012 Mar 26, 07:45

SageThumbs is really good for extending image previewing capabilities, unfortunately it doesn't rotate images according to EXIF data. Just in case I missed something and if anyone is willing to test, I attached a portrait image I have taken with my camera. When it opens the image, IrfanView reads the EXIF data and displays it as portrait, but thumbnail previews (in Explorer/Xplorer2) still show as landscape (unless manually rotated).

Portrait image

Kilmatead · Post by **Kilmatead** » 2012 Mar 26, 08:57

Actually, that's odd - I took your image and stuck it in my pictures folder (set to thumbnail view) and at first it was indeed the wrong way around. However, I viewed it in the bog-standard Windows Picture Viewer thingy (and rotated the view) and when I went back to x2, the thumbnail had rotated properly as well.

Does Windows Viewer modify the original file in some manner? I don't recall that ever happening before...

I'm using SageThumbs 2.0.0.14

IneedHelp · Post by **IneedHelp** » 2012 Mar 26, 09:00

Kilmatead wrote:Does Windows Viewer modify the original file in some manner? I don't recall that ever happening before...

Yes, that's happening at least since XP. It saves the image once rotated.

Kilmatead · Post by **Kilmatead** » 2012 Mar 26, 09:09

Is that why people keep using these "alternate viewers" (which I never saw a need for) - they like a more "hands off" approach? (Which makes sense, to a degree, if you're picky about these things. Unless it also runs the gamut of pixel encoding degradation, which would be more of a concern.)

IneedHelp · Post by **IneedHelp** » 2012 Mar 26, 09:17

To me it is important to view files and apply temporary changes to them without worrying that the original file gets modified. But it's about a lot more than that if you're working with image files. One of the most important features is navigation- I find IrfanView's navigation/viewing/zooming system extremely convenient after proper customization. You can also scan/print directly to/from it with loads of available settings.

Kilmatead · Post by **Kilmatead** » 2012 Mar 26, 09:30

Irfan was always unusable for the the simple reason that it never zoomed with the mouse-wheel, which is a hilarious design flaw. I think I always used XNView back when I pretended to care about such things - but they all just feel "wrong" to me, so it's easier to just view everything in Gimp, as it can render the odder formats like DDS, etc. Thankfully, pictures don't rule my life, so I can sleep better at night.

In any event, for those interested, while the file is indeed modified by Windows Viewer, it appears only the header itself incurs any lasting data-changes (when rotated back to original), the rotating seems to be lossless (going by 25 rotations [by 4 each time, for a complete twirl = 100 operations, closing and re-opening {thus saving} after each] and a binary-hex file comparison to the original at the end). That was fun.

IneedHelp · Post by **IneedHelp** » 2012 Mar 26, 09:40

Kilmatead wrote:Irfan was always unusable for the the simple reason that it never zoomed with the mouse-wheel

It can zoom with the mouse-wheel if you hold control, but I honestly think it is more useful and a lot faster to use the mouse-wheel for image browsing. Zooming with the mouse-wheel is extremely useful in photo-editing software (that's how I use it in Photoshop). The only thing I feel it is missing from IrfanView is preloading images in RAM for quick image browsing of high resolution photos. I currently use Fast Picture Viewer to run through 18MP images.