What application can rotate a TIFF without re-encoding it?

This question is inspired by my earlier question:

Ask Different: Why does rotating a TIFF in Preview increase the file size?

One thing I don't like about the Preview application is that even something as simple as rotating an image 90 degrees requires Preview to re-encode the file, adding an alpha channel in the process. This results in a file that is 10% to 20% larger than the original, with no added benefit. This size difference may not matter much on a 5 MB file, but on a 500 MB file, it is a nuisance.

Are there any applications that can rotate a TIFF image 90 degrees without re-encoding it and altering the image in any other way? The source of the TIFF is a scanner, which does not offer a rotation feature.

I did a search and all I found were JPEG programs.

^{(2013 rMBP) -- (OS X 10.11.4)}

Solution 1:

I realize this is a very old question, but I had the same problem today, and found what seems to be a useful answer. When I searched on this, this question came up at or near the top of a search, so I thought I'd add what I found.

I did not do any checking to make sure the process did not change the image any, but I don't see any indicators in the man file for the command used, or in the artile linked below, that the image is changed. The rotated image looks the same to me, and that's good enough for my current use.

For one TIFF file, rotating a 181 KB image in Preview went to 5.5 MB, whereas using the below method the file size changed to 183 KB; major improvement!

Super simple, just use the 'sips' command from Terminal.

To rotate a file 270 degrees (the default is clockwise, and I don't see any options to change that), run this command on 'image.tiff':

sips -r 270 image.tiff

Here's where I found this: article on OSXDaily.com, Immediately Resize, Rotate, and Flip Images via Command Line with sips

Bonus: sips works on other types of image files, and it also resizes image files, and can use wildcards to process multiple files with one command. I've been using the resize feature a long time for jpeg's, and it's worked flawlessly. The article shows sips also flips images, but I've never used that feature.

Solution 2:

GraphicConverter ($40 shareware) is the "Swiss Army Knife" of graphics applications.
The list of what it can do & the file types it can handle runs to pages, far too much to even précis here.

The one thing it's very good at is 'not doing anything you didn't ask it to do' so for instance, it won't add an alpha channel if all you want to do is rotate an image.

Being "Shareware" in the good old-fashioned sense, if you run over the trial period it doesn't cease to function, unlike many other apps, so you can continue to use it until you decide it's worth your money.

^{No affiliation, it's just a cracking good product that I've been using for perhaps 20 years :-)}