Image information

[Pieter]

I'm running PSP2020 on Win10 and I'm puzzled about the difference in values reported by PSP and Win10 File Explorer. I'm looking at an image off my phone that was shot vertical/portrait. The image displays properly oriented in PSP but when I check the image information (shift/I) the orientation value displayed is 'landscape - top left'.

Windows 10 File Explorer does not report that detail at all and when you look at the remaining details of a copy with -some- details removed in Win10 file explorer that particular value is not removed, presumably since Win doesn't report it. It's curious that details of said copy vary between what Win reports and what I get reported as picture information in Corel PSP2020, specifically image height and image width. The details reported by WIN are what I would expect of a properly oriented portrait/vertical image ie. width 3468 x height 4624 - presumably because Win takes the unreported orientation value into account- whereas PSP reports it as width 4624 and height 3468 and orientation 'landscape top-left' which is really curious since the image displays properly oriented as a vertical/portrait image and the same value is reported for the original.

What's going on here? Why doesn't PSP report the correct orientation value? Am I doing anything wrong?

[Pieter]

So just for the helluvit I checked one of the images in Irfanview and it reports EXIF as width 3468 and height 4624, which is correct of course, and orientation as Right Top, which is correct as well. The correct information is in the EXIF, why doesn't PSP report it properly?

[migf1]

Maybe this post by Levi explains why, but other than that I have no idea.

[Pieter]

Thank you mig, all that really shows is that Corel has had issues with EXIF implementation for a while and they don't seem to be interested in dealing with it, likely one of those 'we know best' matters....

[LeviFiction]

That answer was for resolution and the fact that there was both EXIF and normal resolution units recorded in the file. And is not an issue at all. It is in fact PSP working perfectly and reporting data accurately.

This orientation issue is definitely a PSP "issue". And an interesting one at that.

So I used a portrait photo from my Pixel 3 and got more or less the same results in 2021 that you describe. Technically PSP shows both EXIF width and height as well as recorded width and height. So the image is still recorded landscape but the EXIF data indicates the orientation and the size after rotation.

Now, as for how PSP reports the orientation. I have no idea. It actually seems to have changed at some point, not sure why. I don't have all of the different versions of PSP installed on my system anymore so I can't really test this fully but X2 acted slightly differently than 2021 does.

In PSP X2 it doesn't auto-rotate the image unless you expressly activate that function in the File Format Preferences. When I first loaded my image into PSPX2 the image was landscape but the EXIF Orientation was properly reported as Portrait. If I manually rotate the image then the orientation gets set to a default "Landscape" setting. If I turn on auto-rotate, the same thing happens. Like rotating the image is enough to set a default landscape because PSP just doesn't know anymore. So when it auto-rotates it sets a default of Landscape.

This is not true for 2021. In 2021, if I turn off auto-rotate it still doesn't report the orientation properly. So somewhere between PXPX2 and PSP2021 this behavior changed. And I have no idea why. Now it just defaults to Landscape and you're free to change it manually.

[Pieter]

Thanks for your response Levi. I have raised a ticket on the issue with Corel. BTW, I still have X19 on my system and it behaves the same.....

[Pieter]

Just to be able to get the picture across, please look at these 3 screen captures and see what they report.

If anyone wants to repeat this process I'd be very grateful. If there is a setting somewhere in PSP I'm over-looking I'd be happy to have that pointed out to me. As you can see from the screen capture PSP has file format preferences set for image rotation based on EXIF information.

In case someone's curious as to what the flower is, that's Iris tuberosa, which is in bloom in my garden right now.

While I have raised a ticket with Corel support they have been less than helpful, suggesting what they show as image information is correct...and WIN10 and IrfanView are incorrect......

[LeviFiction]

I sent these to Corel in my own bug report. Haven't heard back yet.

I have 3 different versions of PSP installed on my computer. PSP8, PSPX2.5, PSP2021. In PSP8 there is no automatic rotation option, so it always loads on its side and I have to manually rotate it. However, the EXIF information properly reads Portrait. It should also be noted that PSP8 doesn't allow changing the orientation in the EXIF tag.

PSPX2.5 does have an auto-rotation option, and lets you change the orientation in the EXIF Tag. If Auto rotation is turned off, it reports the correct orientation. If you then manually rotate the image the orientation changes to Landscape. If you have auto-rotate turned on then the EXIF tab always reports Landscape orientation. We can change this manually.

PSP 2021 has auto-rotation and the ability to change the orientation in the EXIF Tag. Unlike PSPX2.5 it always reports an incorrect orientation of Landscape regardless of whether or not you use Auto-rotate. This can be manually updated though in the EXIF, but even after saving it reloads with the orientation set at Landscape. This is clearly a bug that was introduced at one point and has not been caught. It should be noted it does change the orientation when you save, so it's reading and saving it correctly. It just reports a default of Landscape without updating to match what's actually in the file. At worst this will force the image to save with a Landscape(Normal) orientation in the EXIF. If it saves after auto-rotating then the Width/Height are switched and the orientation is saved as normal. So no other app will rotate it. This specific behavior makes sense and I would not define it as a bug, but is annoying.

The bug is an initial incorrect reporting of the orientation that then gets saved with the image. In order to maintain the Landscape save with Portrait orientation you would have to Rotate the image CCW, go into Image Information and change the Orienation to Portrait (Right Top) and then save. This would restore the saved file to original proportions and orientation upon saving. Though upon next load it'll rotate and destroy the orientation again.

[Pieter]

Thanks for doing this Levi!