Adjusting cell phone photo orientation with Go
Programming Snapshot – Rotating Photos with Go
© Photo by Girl with red hat on Unsplash
Cell phones often store photos upside down or sideways for efficiency reasons and record the fact in the Exif metadata. However, not all apps can handle this. Mike Schilli turns to Go to make the process foolproof.
Somehow, I seem to hold my cell phone wrong when taking pictures. It often happens that a picture that looks right in the phone's photo gallery is suddenly upside down or on its side when I want to send it to friends on WhatsApp. A quick look at the metadata of the photo in question reveals what's going wrong (Listing 1) [1].
It appears that my phone is saving images with the wrong orientation, but it is also storing the correction value, which shows up in the JPEG format's Exif header to tell you how the photo actually should be rotated. I don't know who came up with this idea, but assuming that any app looks in the Exif header first and then aligns the image correctly seems like a fundamental flaw to me. There's no doubt in my mind that the original camera app should perform the rotation when the picture is taken, rather than having the work done downstream time and time again by an unmanageable number of photo apps.
Upside Down World
Figure 1 illustrates that the cell phone still displays the image the right way round in its photo app, even though it was stored incorrectly. The desktop version of the Whatsapp client in the browser, however, obviously ignores the associated Exif header and sends the picture upside down (Figure 2). Imagine the recipient's reaction to receiving a message about my surf trip to Ocean Beach in San Francisco with a photo on its head!
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Linux Kernel Project Releases Project Continuity Document
What happens to Linux when there's no Linus? It's a question many of us have asked over the years, and it seems it's also on the minds of the Linux kernel project.
-
Mecha Systems Introduces Linux Handheld
Mecha Systems has revealed its Mecha Comet, a new handheld computer powered by – you guessed it – Linux.
-
MX Linux 25.1 Features Dual Init System ISO
The latest release of MX Linux caters to lovers of two different init systems and even offers instructions on how to transition.
-
Photoshop on Linux?
A developer has patched Wine so that it'll run specific versions of Photoshop that depend on Adobe Creative Cloud.
-
Linux Mint 22.3 Now Available with New Tools
Linux Mint 22.3 has been released with a pair of new tools for system admins and some pretty cool new features.
-
New Linux Malware Targets Cloud-Based Linux Installations
VoidLink, a new Linux malware, should be of real concern because of its stealth and customization.
-
Say Goodbye to Middle-Mouse Paste
Both Gnome and Firefox have proposed getting rid of a long-time favorite Linux feature.
-
Manjaro 26.0 Primary Desktop Environments Default to Wayland
If you want to stick with X.Org, you'll be limited to the desktop environments you can choose.
-
Mozilla Plans to AI-ify Firefox
With a new CEO in control, Mozilla is doubling down on a strategy of trust, all the while leaning into AI.
-
Gnome Says No to AI-Generated Extensions
If you're a developer wanting to create a new Gnome extension, you'd best set aside that AI code generator, because the extension team will have none of that.