Introducing ImagePrep
Executive Summary
This is a simple program for preparing digital images to be shared on the Internet.
Java Required
Note that Java 8 (Macintosh) or Java 8 or 11 (Windows or Linux) must be present in order to run this program.
What ImagePrep Does
- On opening a file, scales it to the specified maximum dimension, and opens a dialog displaying it.
- Allows the user to optionally rotate it by 90, 180, or 270 degrees.
- On closing and saving, creates an plain, unadorned JPEG with no metadata.
Why Do This?
Basically, because it’s what I want to do when I share an image. I often share things via big social media sites that do intrusive tracking on those who use them, therefore I do my sharing under a fake identity.
Since I might want to print an image, I capture all my images at maximum resolution, but that resolution is way more than what is needed to display something on a screen. Plus, sharing giant images makes for needlessly long upload times, particularly if you’re a cheapskate like me and have a low-end ADSL connection.
Stripping out all metadata makes it harder to track who took the image. The downside is that this makes it harder to track piracy, and might even encourage piracy, because there is no metadata containing copyright or photographer information. Because I typically upload 640 × 480 images, and most pirates want higher resolutions, I don’t worry so much about piracy. Privacy is my main concern.
A final advantage (and a big one) is that the images this program creates don’t depend on metadata to indicate rotation. Any rotated image will be saved as an unadorned rotated image. Images saved by this program should always display the way they were saved, on all devices. Relying on metadata to support rotation is asking for trouble (i.e. sideways images on some platforms), because not all browsers support it.
In other words, this program works for me, and I am sharing it here in case it fills a need for others, as well.