exif_read_data

Description
Syntax
Examples
Links

Description

The exif_read_data of Exif for PHP reads the EXIF headers from an image file.

Syntax

exif_read_data(
    resource|string $file,
    ?string $required_sections = null,
    bool $as_arrays = false,
    bool $read_thumbnail = false
): array|false

Parameters

file

The location of the image file. This can either be a path to the file (stream wrappers are also supported as usual) or a stream resource.

required_sections

A comma separated list of sections that need to be present in file to produce a result array. If none of the requested sections could be found the return value is false.

Section	Description
FILE	FileName, FileSize, FileDateTime, SectionsFound
COMPUTED	html, Width, Height, IsColor, and more if available. Height and Width are computed the same way getimagesize() does so their values must not be part of any header returned. Also, html is a height/width text string to be used inside normal HTML.
ANY_TAG	Any information that has a Tag e.g. IFD0, EXIF, ...
IFD0	All tagged data of IFD0. In normal imagefiles this contains image size and so forth.
THUMBNAIL	A file is supposed to contain a thumbnail if it has a second IFD. All tagged information about the embedded thumbnail is stored in this section.
COMMENT	Comment headers of JPEG images.
EXIF	The EXIF section is a sub section of IFD0. It contains more detailed information about an image. Most of these entries are digital camera related.

Specifies whether or not each section becomes an array. The required_sections COMPUTED, THUMBNAIL, and COMMENT always become arrays as they may contain values whose names conflict with other sections.

read_thumbnail

When set to true the thumbnail itself is read. Otherwise, only the tagged data is read.

Return

Returns an associative array where the array indexes are the header names and the array values are the values associated with those headers. Returns false if no data can be returned.

Examples

1 · file

<?

$file = $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] . "/assets/jpg/1.jpg";

$return = exif_read_data($file);

print_r($return);

Array
(
    [FileName] => 1.jpg
    [FileDateTime] => 1745202351
    [FileSize] => 887
    [FileType] => 2
    [MimeType] => image/jpeg
    [SectionsFound] => COMMENT
    [COMPUTED] => Array
        (
            [html] => width="100" height="100"
            [Height] => 100
            [Width] => 100
            [IsColor] => 1
        )

    [COMMENT] => Array
        (
            [0] => CREATOR: gd-jpeg v1.0 (using IJG JPEG v62), default quality

        )

)

2 · required_sections

<?

$file = $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] . "/assets/jpg/1.jpg";
$required_sections = "COMPUTED";

$return = exif_read_data($file, $required_sections);

print_r($return);

Array
(
    [FileName] => 1.jpg
    [FileDateTime] => 1745202351
    [FileSize] => 887
    [FileType] => 2
    [MimeType] => image/jpeg
    [SectionsFound] => COMMENT
    [COMPUTED] => Array
        (
            [html] => width="100" height="100"
            [Height] => 100
            [Width] => 100
            [IsColor] => 1
        )

    [COMMENT] => Array
        (
            [0] => CREATOR: gd-jpeg v1.0 (using IJG JPEG v62), default quality

        )

)

3 · as_arrays

<?

$file = $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] . "/assets/jpg/1.jpg";
$required_sections = "COMPUTED";
$as_arrays = true;

$return = exif_read_data($file, $required_sections, $as_arrays);

print_r($return);

Array
(
    [FILE] => Array
        (
            [FileName] => 1.jpg
            [FileDateTime] => 1745202351
            [FileSize] => 887
            [FileType] => 2
            [MimeType] => image/jpeg
            [SectionsFound] => COMMENT
        )

    [COMPUTED] => Array
        (
            [html] => width="100" height="100"
            [Height] => 100
            [Width] => 100
            [IsColor] => 1
        )

    [COMMENT] => Array
        (
            [0] => CREATOR: gd-jpeg v1.0 (using IJG JPEG v62), default quality

        )

)

4 · read_thumbnail

<?

$file = $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] . "/assets/jpg/1.jpg";
$required_sections = "COMPUTED";
$as_arrays = true;
$read_thumbnail = true;

$return = exif_read_data($file, $required_sections, $as_arrays, $read_thumbnail);

print_r($return);

Array
(
    [FILE] => Array
        (
            [FileName] => 1.jpg
            [FileDateTime] => 1745202351
            [FileSize] => 887
            [FileType] => 2
            [MimeType] => image/jpeg
            [SectionsFound] => COMMENT
        )

    [COMPUTED] => Array
        (
            [html] => width="100" height="100"
            [Height] => 100
            [Width] => 100
            [IsColor] => 1
        )

    [COMMENT] => Array
        (
            [0] => CREATOR: gd-jpeg v1.0 (using IJG JPEG v62), default quality

        )

)

5 · index

<?

$file = $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] . "/assets/jpg/1.jpg";
$required_sections = "COMPUTED";

$return = exif_read_data($file, $required_sections);

foreach($return["COMPUTED"] as $key => $value)
{
    echo "$key: $value\n";
}

html: width="100" height="100"
Height: 100
Width: 100
IsColor: 1