November 2004 — Product Watch

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2005 Digital Imaging Products Guide

Dr. Ronny Richardson, Southern Polytechnic State University, Georgia

JPEG Solutions

You may not know it, but your digital camera actually stores information called EXIF data within each photograph. The data includes the file name, photo dimensions and size, exposure and ISO information, as well as camera brand and model. EXIF Image Viewer is free software, available online at http://home.pacbell.net/michal_k/exif_v.html, which displays this information for all JPEG files in a folder. There is also a shell extension for Windows 2000 that displays the EXIF information as a pop-up balloon.

However, it is widely know that the JPEG file format uses lousy compression. Each time you save a JPEG file, the image is recompressed and information is lost. One solution to this problem is available for download at JPEGclub.org (www.jpegclub.org). This free software, known as JPEGcrop, allows you to crop and rotate JPEG images without sacrificing their quality. The software d'esn’t even require installation; just download the ZIP file, decompress it and run the program. It is easy to use and performs flawlessly.

- Dr. Ronny Richardson,

Southern Polytechnic State University, Georgia