Android: rotate image without loading it to memory

enter image description here

For the 90-degrees rotations I really embrace RenderScript which is exactly designed to deal with bitmaps and is unexpectedly even faster than the default Bitmap.createBitmap(). The in-process bitmap isn't stored on the Java heap, therefore not pushing you into OutOfMemoryError.

After you set up the RenderScript support in your project with few lines, here is the RenderScript algorithm to use:

1) Create app\src\main\rs\rotator.rs RenderScript file with the following content.

#pragma version(1)
#pragma rs java_package_name(ua.kulku.rs)

rs_allocation inImage;
int inWidth;
int inHeight;

uchar4 __attribute__ ((kernel)) rotate_90_clockwise (uchar4 in, uint32_t x, uint32_t y) {
    uint32_t inX  = inWidth - 1 - y;
    uint32_t inY = x;
    const uchar4 *out = rsGetElementAt(inImage, inX, inY);
    return *out;
}

uchar4 __attribute__ ((kernel)) rotate_270_clockwise (uchar4 in, uint32_t x, uint32_t y) {
    uint32_t inX = y;
    uint32_t inY = inHeight - 1 - x;

    const uchar4 *out = rsGetElementAt(inImage, inX, inY);
    return *out;
}

Pay attention to ua.kulku.rs, that's some package name you choose for the auto-generate RS Java interface.

2) Reference it in your Java code:

import ua.kulku.rs.ScriptC_rotator;

    public Bitmap rotate(Bitmap bitmap) {
        RenderScript rs = RenderScript.create(mContext);
        ScriptC_rotator script = new ScriptC_rotator(rs);
        script.set_inWidth(bitmap.getWidth());
        script.set_inHeight(bitmap.getHeight());
        Allocation sourceAllocation = Allocation.createFromBitmap(rs, bitmap,
                Allocation.MipmapControl.MIPMAP_NONE,
                Allocation.USAGE_SCRIPT);
        bitmap.recycle();
        script.set_inImage(sourceAllocation);

        int targetHeight = bitmap.getWidth();
        int targetWidth = bitmap.getHeight();
        Bitmap.Config config = bitmap.getConfig();
        Bitmap target = Bitmap.createBitmap(targetWidth, targetHeight, config);
        final Allocation targetAllocation = Allocation.createFromBitmap(rs, target,
                Allocation.MipmapControl.MIPMAP_NONE,
                Allocation.USAGE_SCRIPT);
        script.forEach_rotate_90_clockwise(targetAllocation, targetAllocation);
        targetAllocation.copyTo(target);
        rs.destroy();
        return target;
    }

enter image description here

For 180-degrees rotations, NDK solution outperformed RenderScript, as for me, due to making use of the sequential array item access, as the 180-degree rotation is actually the reversion of the image's pixel array. The NDK algorithm I've used in these comparisons is from https://github.com/AndroidDeveloperLB/AndroidJniBitmapOperations . The in-process bitmap is also not stored on the Java heap, preventing OutOfMemoryError.

The stats bars indicate what I got in milliseconds on my Samsung S4 (Android 5.0) for the 13 MP photo.


you should decode decode the images using Bitmap. you should follow Loading Large Image presented by google on how to do it.. it helped me alot, you'll notice the large difference in the RAM usage..

UPDATE if all you want is just rotate the image you can use this code

Matrix matrix = new Matrix();
matrix.setRotate(90);
result = Bitmap.createBitmap(bitmap, 0, 0, bitmap.getWidth(),bitmap.getHeight(), matrix, false);

if you just need to set the image orientation (for example the photo orientation when it's was taken) you can use

ExifInterface exif = new ExifInterface(filePath);

with the attribute ExifInterface.TAG_ORIENTATION I hope this helps you


NOTE: that this answer is really just expanding on making riwnodennyk's answer a bit easier to implement. It's all renderscript and not concerned with anything NDK.

Covers all common rotations and getting Orientation.

To get the rotation you need to use the ExifInterface. Use the one in the support library as there are issues with the sdk version. It works with JPEG and RAW (and similar) Files as this information is embedded in the file (not in the decoded Bitmap).

add to build.gradle

implementation "com.android.support:exifinterface:28.0.0"

Use this if you have handle to the file

import android.renderscript.Allocation;
import android.renderscript.RenderScript;
import your.application.package.rs.ScriptC_rotator;
...

public static Bitmap getCorrectlyRotatedBitmap(@NonNull Context context, @NonNull File imageFile) throws IOException {
    ExifInterface ei = new ExifInterface(imageFile.getPath());
    Bitmap bitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeFile(imageFile.getPath());
    int neededRotationClockwise = ei.getRotationDegrees() % 360;
    return rotateClockwise(context, bitmap, neededRotationClockwise);
}

For the Bitmap rotation itself

public static Bitmap rotateClockwise(@NonNull Context context, @NonNull Bitmap bitmap, int degrees) {
    Log.i(TAG, "rotate bitmap degrees: " + degrees);
    if (degrees == 0F) return bitmap;

    RenderScript rs = RenderScript.create(context);
    ScriptC_rotator script = new ScriptC_rotator(rs);
    script.set_inWidth(bitmap.getWidth());
    script.set_inHeight(bitmap.getHeight());
    Allocation sourceAllocation = Allocation.createFromBitmap(rs, bitmap,
            Allocation.MipmapControl.MIPMAP_NONE,
            Allocation.USAGE_SCRIPT);
    bitmap.recycle();
    script.set_inImage(sourceAllocation);

    Bitmap.Config config = bitmap.getConfig();

    switch (degrees) {
        case 90: {
            Bitmap target = Bitmap.createBitmap(bitmap.getHeight(), bitmap.getWidth(), config);
            final Allocation targetAllocation = Allocation.createFromBitmap(rs, target,
                    Allocation.MipmapControl.MIPMAP_NONE,
                    Allocation.USAGE_SCRIPT);

            script.forEach_rotate_90_clockwise(targetAllocation, targetAllocation);
            targetAllocation.copyTo(target);
            rs.destroy();
            return target;
        }
        case 180: {
            Bitmap target = Bitmap.createBitmap(bitmap.getWidth(), bitmap.getHeight(), config);
            final Allocation targetAllocation = Allocation.createFromBitmap(rs, target,
                    Allocation.MipmapControl.MIPMAP_NONE,
                    Allocation.USAGE_SCRIPT);

            script.forEach_rotate_180(targetAllocation, targetAllocation);
            targetAllocation.copyTo(target);
            rs.destroy();
            return target;
        }
        case 270: {
            Bitmap target = Bitmap.createBitmap(bitmap.getHeight(), bitmap.getWidth(), config);
            final Allocation targetAllocation = Allocation.createFromBitmap(rs, target,
                    Allocation.MipmapControl.MIPMAP_NONE,
                    Allocation.USAGE_SCRIPT);

            script.forEach_rotate_270_clockwise(targetAllocation, targetAllocation);
            targetAllocation.copyTo(target);
            rs.destroy();
            return target;
        }
        default:
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("rotateClockwise() only supports 90 degree increments");
    }

}

And the renderscript, Create file in src/main/rs/rotator.rs, This is the default location that Renderscript is used from, but you'll have to create the directory yourself.

Change the your.application.package.rs as appropriate

#pragma version(1)
#pragma rs java_package_name(your.application.package.rs)

rs_allocation inImage;
int inWidth;
int inHeight;

uchar4 __attribute__ ((kernel)) rotate_270_clockwise (uchar4 in, uint32_t x, uint32_t y) {
    uint32_t inX  = inWidth - 1 - y;
    uint32_t inY = x;
    const uchar4 *out = rsGetElementAt(inImage, inX, inY);
    return *out;
}

uchar4 __attribute__ ((kernel)) rotate_90_clockwise (uchar4 in, uint32_t x, uint32_t y) {
    uint32_t inX = y;
    uint32_t inY = inHeight - 1 - x;

    const uchar4 *out = rsGetElementAt(inImage, inX, inY);
    return *out;
}

uchar4 __attribute__ ((kernel)) rotate_180 (uchar4 in, uint32_t x, uint32_t y) {
    uint32_t inX = inWidth - 1 - x;
    uint32_t inY = inHeight - 1 - y;

    const uchar4 *out = rsGetElementAt(inImage, inX, inY);
    return *out;
}

uchar4 __attribute__ ((kernel)) flip_vertical (uchar4 in, uint32_t x, uint32_t y) {
    uint32_t inX = x;
    uint32_t inY = inHeight - 1 - y;

    const uchar4 *out = rsGetElementAt(inImage, inX, inY);
    return *out;
}

uchar4 __attribute__ ((kernel)) flip_horizontal (uchar4 in, uint32_t x, uint32_t y) {
    uint32_t inX = inWidth - 1 - x;
    uint32_t inY = y;

    const uchar4 *out = rsGetElementAt(inImage, inX, inY);
    return *out;
}