what is the source of the image?

The image is a photo imposted from a mobile phone. It was cropped, rotated and saved using Microsoft Office 2013. Then it was attached to an email using Thunderbird.

ok, lets back up.

Microsoft office is about the worst thing you could undertake image manipulation will. Like driving a Peterbuilt coast to coast you might get there, but it is not the easiest or most appropriate way.

Open the image in paint (that is built into windows). That is what your image looks like, is it the same in Thunderbird?

Thanks for the reply.

I can understand your thoughts on Microsoft and mostly agree. But Office was cheap, for me at least, and it does the simple image things I want to do. (Crop, rotate, resize and that's about all)

Is it really a good thing to restrict Thunderbird to those people who don't use Microsoft Office. ?

I opened the image in Paint and the orientation is correct. I created a new email in Thunderbird, attached the image and saved it as a draft. On viewing the draft, the image has been rotated right 90 degrees. I sent the email. When it was received, the image was rotated 90 degrees, just like the draft view.

Perhaps there is something strange about the Image. I've attached it if that helps.

Am I the only one seeing this.? It only started happening since I upgraded Thunderbird.

If it helps, I've tried attaching other portrait oriented and the Thunderbird 90 degree rotating behaviour is not consistent. Some images are rotated, others not.

There are free programs that just do the job; anything that's gone through Office is likely to be loaded with Office-specific bloat, and may use proprietary formats. Paint and Irfanview, for instance, are free and do just what they are supposed to do, using standard formats and techniques.

Would you care to send me an example of the message, to xenos at gmx.co.uk

The image you posted here seems to have been healed and doesn't get rotated when saved to draft in a message in Thunderbird. However I don't understand how you view the attachment when working with a saved draft.

Happy to do that.

For viewing the saved draft, I just save the message before sending and then switch to the main Thunderbird gui.

Under drafts, select the message and it appears in the preview pane.

The image posted there is a png. I uploaded a jpg. So there seems to be a conversion going on.

Noel sent me a copy and indeed the message arrives with the picture in landscape orientation, i.e. rotated.

There are two ways to rotate an image.

One is to load it into an image manipulation program, rotate it and save it. It is now stored ready-to-use in the appropriate orientation.

The other is to use EXIF metadata attached to the file, which relays information about the picture, including items such as the camera used, its settings etc. Along with this are instructions about its orientation. These are widely used with the cameras built into smartphones and tablets, which are capable of detecting their own orientation thanks to the built-in accelerometers.

The following is a snippet from the EXIF data of your original attached photo:

 ...
 </rdf:Description>
 <exif:ImageWidth>4128</exif:ImageWidth>
 <exif:ImageLength>2322</exif:ImageLength>
 <exif:Make>SAMSUNG</exif:Make>
 <exif:Model>GT-I9505</exif:Model>
 <exif:Orientation>Right-top</exif:Orientation>
 <exif:XResolution>72</exif:XResolution>
 <exif:YResolution>72</exif:YResolution>
 <exif:ResolutionUnit>Inch</exif:ResolutionUnit>
 ...

Thunderbird does not know how to use EXIF data (at present) so shows the image as-is. So it's better to rotate the image yourself before sending it, using a program that really rotates it, not just swaps the EXIF settings. You cannot be sure that wherever the picture ends up will honour EXIF data.

IIRC, programs such as Irfanview let you choose whether it's a real physical rotation, or a logical rotation implemented via EXIF data.

When I view your original image, GIMP says to me: "According to the EXIF data, this image is rotated" and goes on to ask me what to do about it.

Thanks for the really useful information.

Now I know what the Office image "manipulator" is doing (or really not doing) I'll switch to using a real image manipulator.

As usual, Microsoft changes the way they do things and expect everyone to swing along. I should have know better.

Thanks again.

The exif was where I was going, bug 916104 refers

Interestingly the image will appear correctly oriented when displayed as an attachment, or at least that is my reading of it.