Changing EXIF Orientation Only

[geobrick]

XnView is a great tool for photos. I'm amazed at all it can do and how quickly suggestions are implemented.

Now my question. I started using XnView to change or add EXIF orientation information without changing any of the image data.

It seems to me that, in the browser view, clicking the "Rotate Clockwise" or "Rotate Counterclockwise" icons accomplish exactly what I want to do. It seems that nothing changes except the EXIF orientation information. This is perfect but I want to confirm this is correct before I start modifying hundreds of photos.

I can't find a description of which method of rotation these icons are associated with (but it seems to be EXIF only)

[Dreamer]

When using lossless rotate (using a toolbar button or shortcuts Ctrl+Shift+L / R) the rotation should be lossless. You can also select all files and use the JPEG lossless toolbar button - "Rotate based on EXIF value" and if the pictures have this information, all will be rotated at once, correctly and lossless.

Check also these topics:

1.91.6: Lossless JPG rotation not lossless?

minor change when lossless saved?

...And if you want, check (and support) these suggestions:

Lossless rotate for Batch convert

Rotate images based on EXIF orientation and auto-rotate

[geobrick]

Dreamer,
Thanks for the very quick response. I will review the links on lossless rotation.

In my case, I would prefer not to rotate the image. I only want to change the EXIF orientation information so that EXIF-aware display software and devices (smart enough to know the proper orientation based on the EXIF setting) will display the image properly (like XnView can do).

[soliter]

I have same problem. Is that possible to change EXIF orientation on multiple images/batch processing ?

[Markorki]

It's easy.

First, you must have XnView configured to display all pictures rotated accordingly to Exif orientation data.

Then you select all the pictures, you look for the "JPG lossless rotation" menu button, and you use the 4th button (the last of the left side frame).
All the selected pictures will stay displayed unchanged, but this will rotate data losslessly and set the Exif orientation tag to "don't rotate", so that even a "stupid" software will display every picture accordingly to the initial combination data/exif_orientation.

I'm not sure I'm quite clear, so first, make a test with a few pictures prudently copied in a separate directory