A node module to rotate JPEG images based on EXIF orientation.

• What does it do
• Installation
• Usage
  • Options
  • CLI
  • Node module
    • Sample usage
    • Error handling
• Troubleshooting
  • Thumbnail too large
• Changelog
• License
• Contributing
• Credits

What does it do

This module applies the right orientation to a JPEG image, based on its EXIF tag. More precisely, it:

• Rotates the pixels
• Rotates the thumbnail, if there is one
• Writes 1 in the Orientation EXIF tag (this is the default orientation)
• Updates the PixelXDimension and PixelYDimension EXIF values
• Does not alter the other EXIF tags

It may be useful, if:

• You need to compress your image with a tool that strips EXIF data without rotating the pixels (like the great ImageOptim)
• You need to upload the image, but the destination application does not support EXIF orientation (like WordPress)
• You just want to get rid of the orientation tag, while leaving the other tags intact

More information about EXIF:

• EXIF Orientation Handling Is a Ghetto
• Standard EXIF Tags

Installation

This module needs Node >=14.

Install with npm:

$ npm install jpeg-autorotate --global
# --global isn't required if you plan to use the node module

Usage

Options

| Option | Default value | Description | | --- | --- | --- | | quality | 100 | Quality of the JPEG. Uncompressed by default, so the resulting image may be bigger than the original one. | | jpegjsMaxResolutionInMP | jpeg-js default | maxResolutionInMP option in jpeg-js (doc) | | jpegjsMaxMemoryUsageInMB | jpeg-js default | maxMemoryUsageInMB option in jpeg-js (doc) |

CLI

Rotate a single image:

$ jpeg-autorotate /Users/johan/IMG_1234.jpg

Rotate a set of images:

$ jpeg-autorotate /Users/johan/images/IMG_*.jpg

Glob support:

$ jpeg-autorotate "/Users/johan/images/IMG_*.{jpg,jpeg,JPG,JPEG}"

Passing options:

$ jpeg-autorotate /Users/johan/IMG_1234.jpg --quality=85 --jpegjsMaxResolutionInMP=1234

Node module

The Node module will load the image, apply the rotation, and return the binary data as a Buffer, allowing you to:

• Save it on disk
• Load it in an image processing module (like jimp, lwip, gm...)
• ...

Sample usage

const jo = require('jpeg-autorotate')
const options = {
  quality: 8,
  jpegjsMaxResolutionInMP: 1234,
}
const path = '/Users/johan/IMG_1234.jpg' // You can use a Buffer too

//
// With a callback:
//
jo.rotate(path, options, (error, buffer, orientation, dimensions, quality) => {
  if (error) {
    console.log('An error occurred when rotating the file: ' + error.message)
    return
  }
  console.log(`Orientation was ${orientation}`)
  console.log(`Dimensions after rotation: ${dimensions.width}x${dimensions.height}`)
  console.log(`Quality: ${quality}`)
  // ...Do whatever you need with the resulting buffer...
})

//
// With a Promise:
//
jo.rotate(path, options)
  .then(({buffer, orientation, dimensions, quality}) => {
    console.log(`Orientation was ${orientation}`)
    console.log(`Dimensions after rotation: ${dimensions.width}x${dimensions.height}`)
    console.log(`Quality: ${quality}`)
    // ...Do whatever you need with the resulting buffer...
  })
  .catch((error) => {
    console.log('An error occurred when rotating the file: ' + error.message)
  })

Error handling

The error object returned by the module contains a readable message, but also a code for better error handling. Available codes are the following:

const jo = require('jpeg-autorotate')

jo.errors.read_file // File could not be opened
jo.errors.read_exif // EXIF data could not be read
jo.errors.no_orientation // No orientation tag was found
jo.errors.unknown_orientation // The orientation tag is unknown
jo.errors.correct_orientation // The image orientation is already correct
jo.errors.rotate_file // An error occurred when rotating the image

Example:

const jo = require('jpeg-autorotate')
jo.rotate('/image.jpg')
  .catch((error) => {
    if (error.code === jo.errors.correct_orientation) {
      console.log('The orientation of this image is already correct!')
    }
  })

Troubleshooting

Thumbnail too large

The piexifjs module has a 64kb limit when reading thumbnails. If you get the Given thumbnail is too large error, you can try to remove the thumbnail from the image before rotating it:

import piexif from 'piexifjs'

function deleteThumbnailFromExif(imageBuffer) {
  const imageString = imageBuffer.toString('binary')
  const exifObj = piexif.load(imageString)
  delete exifObj['thumbnail']
  delete exifObj['1st']
  const exifBytes = piexif.dump(exifObj)
  return Buffer.from(piexif.insert(exifBytes, imageString), 'binary')
}

Changelog

This project uses semver.

| Version | Date | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | | 9.0.0 | 2023-02-11 | Drop Node 12 support | | 8.0.1 | 2022-01-10 | Remove colors package from dependencies | | 8.0.0 | 2021-11-12 | Node 16 supportDrop support for Node 10 | | 7.1.1 | 2020-10-11 | Introduce code coverageFix an error if options are not passed | | 7.1.0 | 2020-10-10 | Introduce jpegjsMaxResolutionInMP & jpegjsMaxMemoryUsageInMB options (#26) | | 7.0.0 | 2020-09-19 | Don't publish test and linting files on NPM | | 6.0.0 | 2020-05-30 | Dependencies updateDrop support for Node < 10From jpeg-js update: images larger than 100 megapixels or requiring more than 512MB of memory to decode will throw | | 5.0.3 | 2019-12-24 | Fix multiple file support in CLIDependencies update | | 5.0.2 | 2019-09-28 | Dependencies update | | 5.0.1 | 2019-06-08 | Fix CLI support | | 5.0.0 | 2019-03-03 | Drop --jobs CLI optionDrop support for Node 6 & 7Introduce new quality property in the jo.rotate callbackPublic API now supports both callbacks and PromisesUpdate documentation accordinglyUpdate dependencies | | 4.0.1 | 2018-11-29 | Fix rotations 5 and 7 (issue #11) | | 4.0.0 | 2018-07-15 | Drop support for Node 4 & 5Unpublish lockfileUse prettier for code formattingUpdate documentationUpdate dependencies | | 3.1.0 | 2017-12-03 | Output dimensions after rotation | | 3.0.1 | 2017-07-30 | Node 8 supportUpdate dependencies | | 3.0.0 | 2017-02-11 | CLI supports globNo more node 0.12 supportDrop semicolonsAdd eslint rules | | 2.0.0 | 2016-06-03 | Supports buffers in entryReturns a buffer even if there was an errorImproves tests | | 1.1.0 | 2016-04-23 | Adds test suite, removes lwip dependency | | 1.0.3 | 2016-03-29 | Displays help when no path given in CLI | | 1.0.2 | 2016-03-21 | Adds missing options in CLI help | | 1.0.1 | 2016-03-21 | Fixes NPM publishing fail ^_^ | | 1.0.0 | 2016-03-21 | Initial version |

License

This project is released under the MIT License.

Contributing

Bug reports and feature requests are welcome! More details in the contribution guidelines.

Credits

• piexifjs
• jpeg-js
• exif-orientation-examples
• yargs
• FontAwesome
• Chai
• Mocha
• eslint
• glob
• prettier