2002.08.15 00:33 "Orientation field", by Dante Allegria

2002.08.15 13:12 "RE: Orientation field", by Kari Poysa

Does anyone know if anybody supports the Orientation field? It

Some do, some don't. According to the specification document, readers aren't required to support it.

I recently run a quick test of 7 TIFF viewers for the orientation tag support. Indeed, only one out of the 7 viewed orientation values requiring both 90 degree and 180 degree rotation correctly. This "viewer" was QualityLogic's TIFF-FXpert test suite! Viewer called "xv" (available for Unix) also was able to flip the image (180 degree rotation), but was unable to do a 90 degree rotation.

> <sigh> Now only if adobe/photoshop did, then maybe everyone else will.

You are right. I wish Adobe had never put that "optional" disclaimer in the TIFF 6.0 spec. This is a roadblock for TIFF usage. The exact same thing works well for PDF because there is no option to not implement it and still be compliant with the PDF spec.

One could argue that it is best to get the rotation correct right at the source. After all, a page is scanned once but it may be viewed many times. However, there is a lot more horsepower and memory available in the millions and millions of general-purpose desktop machines than scanner devices. So if any of you TIFF viewer developers are reading, please go and implement the tag!

--- Kari ---