best and fastest way to determine number of images in multi-page tiff

[hrv3e]

My example tiff has 593 images and it seems not optimal to parse output of this command

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exiftool -G1 -a -e my-image.tif


I could grep and count fields but there must be a better way or some shell guru logic to do better.

I know that there are `ImageMagick` and `libtiff` (`tiffinfo`) but I want to know.
I found this https://exiftool.org/forum/index.php?topic=3062.0


I want something like this which works for PDF files:

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exiftool -fast -n -T -PageCount -ext pdf -q my-file.pdf



Here is one output:

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❯ exiftool -ver
12.30


❯ exiftool -G1 -a -e vode-st-615378.tif | head -n50
Deep recursion on subroutine "Image::ExifTool::ProcessDirectory" at /usr/share/perl5/vendor_perl/Image/ExifTool/Exif.pm line 6611.
Deep recursion on subroutine "Image::ExifTool::Exif::ProcessExif" at /usr/share/perl5/vendor_perl/Image/ExifTool.pm line 7783.
[ExifTool]      ExifTool Version Number         : 12.30
[System]        File Name                       : vode-st-615378.tif
[System]        Directory                       : .
[System]        File Size                       : 17 MiB
[System]        File Modification Date/Time     : 2022:01:24 13:41:28+01:00
[System]        File Access Date/Time           : 2022:01:24 13:41:22+01:00
[System]        File Inode Change Date/Time     : 2022:01:24 13:41:52+01:00
[System]        File Permissions                : -rw-r--r--
[File]          File Type                       : TIFF
[File]          File Type Extension             : tif
[File]          MIME Type                       : image/tiff
[File]          Exif Byte Order                 : Little-endian (Intel, II)
[IFD0]          Subfile Type                    : Full-resolution image
[IFD0]          Image Width                     : 1632
[IFD0]          Image Height                    : 2336
[IFD0]          Bits Per Sample                 : 1
[IFD0]          Compression                     : T6/Group 4 Fax
[IFD0]          Photometric Interpretation      : WhiteIsZero
[IFD0]          Document Name                   : DN0P46383191        0000000023000000090000000.----!--11,0
[IFD0]          Image Description               :
[IFD0]          Make                            : Eastman Kodak
[IFD0]          Camera Model Name               : Kodak Scanner: i4600
[IFD0]          Strip Offsets                   : 8
[IFD0]          Orientation                     : Horizontal (normal)
[IFD0]          Samples Per Pixel               : 1
[IFD0]          Rows Per Strip                  : 2336
[IFD0]          Strip Byte Counts               : 24003
[IFD0]          X Resolution                    : 200
[IFD0]          Y Resolution                    : 200
[IFD0]          Planar Configuration            : Chunky
[IFD0]          Resolution Unit                 : inches
[IFD0]          Software                        : KODAK Capture Pro 3.1
[IFD0]          Modify Date                     : 2012.12.07 14:10:23
[IFD0]          Artist                          : aaa


<<<< CUT >>>>


[IFD591]        Software                        : KODAK Capture Pro 3.1
[IFD591]        Modify Date                     : 2012.12.07 14:16:55
[IFD591]        Artist                          : aaa
[IFD592]        Subfile Type                    : Full-resolution image
[IFD592]        Image Width                     : 1678
[IFD592]        Image Height                    : 2336
[IFD592]        Bits Per Sample                 : 1
[IFD592]        Compression                     : T6/Group 4 Fax
[IFD592]        Photometric Interpretation      : WhiteIsZero
[IFD592]        Document Name                   : DN0P46383191        0000000056000000148900000.----!--11,0
[IFD592]        Image Description               :
[IFD592]        Make                            : Eastman Kodak
[IFD592]        Camera Model Name               : Kodak Scanner: i4600
[IFD592]        Strip Offsets                   : 18010488
[IFD592]        Orientation                     : Horizontal (normal)
[IFD592]        Samples Per Pixel               : 1
[IFD592]        Rows Per Strip                  : 2336
[IFD592]        Strip Byte Counts               : 13590
[IFD592]        X Resolution                    : 200
[IFD592]        Y Resolution                    : 200
[IFD592]        Planar Configuration            : Chunky
[IFD592]        Resolution Unit                 : inches
[IFD592]        Software                        : KODAK Capture Pro 3.1
[IFD592]        Modify Date                     : 2012.12.07 14:16:56
[IFD592]        Artist                          : aaaa




[Phil Harvey]

I don't understand the TIFF specification.  The SubfileType for both images in your sample is 0 (Full-resolution image). If it is a multi-page tiff, shouldn't this be 2 (Single page of multi-page image)?  You need to pay attention to SubfileType when counting pages because a standard TIFF with a thumbnail has 2 IFD's but you definitely wouldn't call this 2 pages.  Also, depth maps and transparency masks shouldn't be counted as separate pages.  Perhaps just IFD's with SubfileType 0 and 2 should be counted?  What about sub-IFD's?

- Phil

[hrv3e]

I don't know the answers. Don't know TIFF at all.
I just thought that I am doing something wrong and that image count is hidden somewhere in exif.

I have send you a message with a link to mentioned file if you need it.
It is not a public file so cannot post link here.

[Phil Harvey]

I will add a feature to ExifTool to count the number of pages in a multi page TIFF, and return this in a PageCount tag.

- Phil

[hrv3e]

That would be awesome. PageCount like for PDFs.

Also, for TIFFs with many pages it is useful to know if TIFF is indeed multipage (has 2 or more pages) or not.
  - See this https://github.com/image-js/tiff#tiffismultipagedata

Can this also be exposed as tag?

[Phil Harvey]

Won't the PageCount give you this?  I won't generate the PageCount tag for a TIFF unless there is more than 1 page.

- Phil

[hrv3e]

Hm... it seems strange to me.

I would expect
  - PageCount=1 when tiff is valid and parsed OK and has only one page
  - PageCount=0 when something is wrong (detection failed) - combined with status code !=0
  - PageCount>1 when there is a valid multi-page tiff
     - there could be an optimization to stop parsing when detecting >1 pages - tag HasMultiPage=1 could be populated
When I get nothing I cannot parse it.

I don't know. Just thinking out loud here. You are the expert and know best how it will come together with other flags.

[Phil Harvey]

99.99% of all TIFF's in the wild would have PageCount = 1, so I don't think that is useful information and I would rather not make a change like this for current users who are perfectly happy the way things are.  Also, there are so many TIFF-based formats, and basically all of them are single page, and a change to the TIFF reader would affect these as well unless I put in some extra logic to restrict this to only specific types of TIFF's.

- Phil

[hrv3e]

That makes sense.
Thank you for explaining the bigger picture.

[AlbatorV]

I will add a feature to ExifTool to count the number of pages in a multi page TIFF, and return this in a PageCount tag.

- Phil

Hi, I try to know tiff page count but fail. It's implemented?

[Phil Harvey]

Yes.  It will only return a PageCount if there is more than one page or if the multi-page document flag is set.

Be sure you are using an up-to-date version of ExifTool.

- Phil