How to write exif metadata to an image (not the camera roll, just a UIImage or JPEG)
I am aware of how to save metadata using ALAssets. But, I want to save an image, or upload it somewhere, with exif intact. I have exif data as an NSDictionary. But how can I inject it properly into a UIImage (or probably an NSData JPEG representation)?
I am using UIImagePickerController to get the image from the camera and my flow is a bit different than the one described by Chiquis. Here it is:
- (void)imagePickerController:(UIImagePickerController *)picker didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo:(NSDictionary *)info {
UIImage *image = info[@"UIImagePickerControllerOriginalImage"];
NSString *fullPhotoFilename = ...; // generate the photo name and path here
NSData *photoData = [UIImage taggedImageData:image.jpegData metadata:info[@"UIImagePickerControllerMediaMetadata"] orientation:image.imageOrientation];
[photoData writeToFile:fullPhotoFilename atomically:YES];
}
And using a UIImage category to put combine the image data with its metadata:
#import <ImageIO/ImageIO.h>
#import "UIImage+Tagging.h"
#import "LocationHelper.h"
@implementation UIImage (Tagging)
+ (NSData *)writeMetadataIntoImageData:(NSData *)imageData metadata:(NSMutableDictionary *)metadata {
// create an imagesourceref
CGImageSourceRef source = CGImageSourceCreateWithData((__bridge CFDataRef) imageData, NULL);
// this is the type of image (e.g., public.jpeg)
CFStringRef UTI = CGImageSourceGetType(source);
// create a new data object and write the new image into it
NSMutableData *dest_data = [NSMutableData data];
CGImageDestinationRef destination = CGImageDestinationCreateWithData((__bridge CFMutableDataRef)dest_data, UTI, 1, NULL);
if (!destination) {
NSLog(@"Error: Could not create image destination");
}
// add the image contained in the image source to the destination, overidding the old metadata with our modified metadata
CGImageDestinationAddImageFromSource(destination, source, 0, (__bridge CFDictionaryRef) metadata);
BOOL success = NO;
success = CGImageDestinationFinalize(destination);
if (!success) {
NSLog(@"Error: Could not create data from image destination");
}
CFRelease(destination);
CFRelease(source);
return dest_data;
}
+ (NSData *)taggedImageData:(NSData *)imageData metadata:(NSDictionary *)metadata orientation:(UIImageOrientation)orientation {
CLLocationManager *locationManager = [CLLocationManager new];
CLLocation *location = [locationManager location];
NSMutableDictionary *newMetadata = [NSMutableDictionary dictionaryWithDictionary:metadata];
if (!newMetadata[(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyGPSDictionary] && location) {
newMetadata[(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyGPSDictionary] = [LocationHelper gpsDictionaryForLocation:location];
}
// Reference: http://sylvana.net/jpegcrop/exif_orientation.html
int newOrientation;
switch (orientation) {
case UIImageOrientationUp:
newOrientation = 1;
break;
case UIImageOrientationDown:
newOrientation = 3;
break;
case UIImageOrientationLeft:
newOrientation = 8;
break;
case UIImageOrientationRight:
newOrientation = 6;
break;
case UIImageOrientationUpMirrored:
newOrientation = 2;
break;
case UIImageOrientationDownMirrored:
newOrientation = 4;
break;
case UIImageOrientationLeftMirrored:
newOrientation = 5;
break;
case UIImageOrientationRightMirrored:
newOrientation = 7;
break;
default:
newOrientation = -1;
}
if (newOrientation != -1) {
newMetadata[(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyOrientation] = @(newOrientation);
}
NSData *newImageData = [self writeMetadataIntoImageData:imageData metadata:newMetadata];
return newImageData;
}
And finally, here is the method I am using to generate the needed GPS dictionary:
+ (NSDictionary *)gpsDictionaryForLocation:(CLLocation *)location {
NSTimeZone *timeZone = [NSTimeZone timeZoneWithName:@"UTC"];
NSDateFormatter *formatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[formatter setTimeZone:timeZone];
[formatter setDateFormat:@"HH:mm:ss.SS"];
NSDictionary *gpsDict = @{(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyGPSLatitude: @(fabs(location.coordinate.latitude)),
(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyGPSLatitudeRef: ((location.coordinate.latitude >= 0) ? @"N" : @"S"),
(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyGPSLongitude: @(fabs(location.coordinate.longitude)),
(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyGPSLongitudeRef: ((location.coordinate.longitude >= 0) ? @"E" : @"W"),
(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyGPSTimeStamp: [formatter stringFromDate:[location timestamp]],
(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyGPSAltitude: @(fabs(location.altitude)),
};
return gpsDict;
}
Hope it helps someone. Thanks to Gustavo Ambrozio, Chiquis and several others SO members I was able to piece it together and use it in my project.
UIImage does not contain metadata information (it is stripped). So if you want to save it without using the imagepicker method (not in camera roll):
Follow the answer here to write to a file with the metadata intact:
Problem setting exif data for an image
no idea why would this be downvoted but here is the method:
In this case im getting the image through AVFoundation and this is what goes in the
[[self stillImageOutput] captureStillImageAsynchronouslyFromConnection:videoConnection
completionHandler:^(CMSampleBufferRef imageSampleBuffer, NSError *error)
{
// code here
}
block code:
CFDictionaryRef metaDict = CMCopyDictionaryOfAttachments(NULL, imageSampleBuffer, kCMAttachmentMode_ShouldPropagate);
CFMutableDictionaryRef mutable = CFDictionaryCreateMutableCopy(NULL, 0, metaDict);
// Create formatted date
NSTimeZone *timeZone = [NSTimeZone timeZoneWithName:@"UTC"];
NSDateFormatter *formatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[formatter setTimeZone:timeZone];
[formatter setDateFormat:@"HH:mm:ss.SS"];
// Create GPS Dictionary
NSDictionary *gpsDict = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
[NSNumber numberWithFloat:fabs(loc.coordinate.latitude)], kCGImagePropertyGPSLatitude
, ((loc.coordinate.latitude >= 0) ? @"N" : @"S"), kCGImagePropertyGPSLatitudeRef
, [NSNumber numberWithFloat:fabs(loc.coordinate.longitude)], kCGImagePropertyGPSLongitude
, ((loc.coordinate.longitude >= 0) ? @"E" : @"W"), kCGImagePropertyGPSLongitudeRef
, [formatter stringFromDate:[loc timestamp]], kCGImagePropertyGPSTimeStamp
, [NSNumber numberWithFloat:fabs(loc.altitude)], kCGImagePropertyGPSAltitude
, nil];
// The gps info goes into the gps metadata part
CFDictionarySetValue(mutable, kCGImagePropertyGPSDictionary, (__bridge void *)gpsDict);
// Here just as an example im adding the attitude matrix in the exif comment metadata
CMRotationMatrix m = att.rotationMatrix;
GLKMatrix4 attMat = GLKMatrix4Make(m.m11, m.m12, m.m13, 0, m.m21, m.m22, m.m23, 0, m.m31, m.m32, m.m33, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1);
NSMutableDictionary *EXIFDictionary = (__bridge NSMutableDictionary*)CFDictionaryGetValue(mutable, kCGImagePropertyExifDictionary);
[EXIFDictionary setValue:NSStringFromGLKMatrix4(attMat) forKey:(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyExifUserComment];
CFDictionarySetValue(mutable, kCGImagePropertyExifDictionary, (__bridge void *)EXIFDictionary);
NSData *jpeg = [AVCaptureStillImageOutput jpegStillImageNSDataRepresentation:imageSampleBuffer] ;
After this code you will have your image in the jpeg nsdata and the correspoding dictionary for that image in the mutable cfdictionary.
All you have to do now is:
CGImageSourceRef source = CGImageSourceCreateWithData((__bridge CFDataRef)jpeg, NULL);
CFStringRef UTI = CGImageSourceGetType(source); //this is the type of image (e.g., public.jpeg)
NSMutableData *dest_data = [NSMutableData data];
CGImageDestinationRef destination = CGImageDestinationCreateWithData((__bridge CFMutableDataRef)dest_data,UTI,1,NULL);
if(!destination) {
NSLog(@"***Could not create image destination ***");
}
//add the image contained in the image source to the destination, overidding the old metadata with our modified metadata
CGImageDestinationAddImageFromSource(destination,source,0, (CFDictionaryRef) mutable);
//tell the destination to write the image data and metadata into our data object.
//It will return false if something goes wrong
BOOL success = CGImageDestinationFinalize(destination);
if(!success) {
NSLog(@"***Could not create data from image destination ***");
}
//now we have the data ready to go, so do whatever you want with it
//here we just write it to disk at the same path we were passed
NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *documentsDirectory = [paths objectAtIndex:0]; // Get documents folder
NSString *dataPath = [documentsDirectory stringByAppendingPathComponent:@"ImagesFolder"];
NSError *error;
if (![[NSFileManager defaultManager] fileExistsAtPath:dataPath])
[[NSFileManager defaultManager] createDirectoryAtPath:dataPath withIntermediateDirectories:NO attributes:nil error:&error]; //Create folder
// NSString *imageName = @"ImageName";
NSString *fullPath = [dataPath stringByAppendingPathComponent:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@.jpg", name]]; //add our image to the path
[dest_data writeToFile:fullPath atomically:YES];
//cleanup
CFRelease(destination);
CFRelease(source);
Note how I'm not saving using the ALAssets but directly into a folder of my choice.
Btw most of this code can be found in the link I posted at first.
There is easier way. If you need to save some exif, you can use SimpleExif pod
First create a ExifContainer:
ExifContainer *container = [[ExifContainer alloc] init];
and populate it with all requred data:
[container addUserComment:@"A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away"];
[container addCreationDate:[NSDate dateWithTimeIntervalSinceNow:-10000000]];
[container addLocation:locations[0]];
Then you can add this data to image:
NSData *imageData = [[UIImage imageNamed:@"DemoImage"] addExif:container];
Then you just save this data as a JPEG