Problems with Edited Images and Digital Cameras (323400)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
  • Microsoft Windows XP Professional
This article was previously published under Q323400

SYMPTOMS

You may not be able to use your digital camera or the editing software that was included with your digital camera to view images that you took with the digital camera and then edited in Windows. Any of the following activities may cause this problem to occur:
  • Editing the image in Paint and then saving the changes.
  • Rotating the image in Windows Explorer or in the Image Preview tool.
  • Editing the image's meta data in Windows Explorer.

CAUSE

Windows XP uses GDI+ to display, edit, and save images. GDI+ saves some Exchangeable Image File Format (EXIF) images in such a way that they are not fully compatible with the EXIF specification. Some digital cameras and image-editing software may act as if these images are corrupted, and may not display the images.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain the update that is mentioned in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

318966 Problems Viewing, Editing, or Printing Some Images in Windows XP

This update contains fixes for several problems in the GDI+ imaging code that saves EXIF files. This update also adds support for new features that are included with some digital cameras. The changes include:
  • GDI+ does not add an APP0 tag to an image that originated as an EXIF file. This change complies with the EXIF specification.
  • GDI+ sorts the image's EXIF tags by tag ID. The EXIF specification does not require this, and not all digital cameras require this, but some digital cameras do not display images whose EXIF tags are not sorted.
  • GDI+ makes sure that all of the tags are aligned on a WORD boundary. The EXIF specification does not require this, but some cameras and some image-editing software cannot read EXIF files whose meta data tags are only BYTE aligned.
  • When you rotate an image, GDI+ also rotates the image's thumbnail.
  • GDI+ preserves GPS meta data if it is present.
These changes address all of the known EXIF compatibility issues with GDI+. If you install the update that is mentioned in this article but your digital camera still cannot display images that you rotated in Windows XP, one of the following two issues may be causing the problem. These problems are hardware issues with the digital camera; contact the camera's manufacturer about these issues:
  • Your camera may have inserted hard-coded link pointers in the image's "Make Note." After you rotate the image, the link pointers are no longer valid. This may cause the camera to stop responding (hang).
  • You not be able to display image thumbnails of some dimensions. For example, if you start with an image whose resolution is 1600 X 1200 pixels, your camera generates a thumbnail whose resolution is 160 X 120. When you rotate the image by 90 degrees in Windows XP, the image's thumbnail is also rotated. Its resolution is now 120 X 160 pixels. Some digital cameras cannot display thumbnails of this resolution.
Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:5/8/2006
Keywords:kbDSWGDI2003Swept kbprb KB323400
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