With the exif extension you are able to work with image meta data.  For
     example, you may use exif functions to read meta data of pictures taken 
     from digital cameras by working with information stored in the headers of 
     the JPEG and TIFF images.
    
     Your PHP must be compiled in with --enable-exif.  
     PHP does not require any additional library for the exif module. Windows
     users must also have the  mbstring
     extension enabled.
    
  To enable exif-support configure PHP with 
  --enable-exif
 
  Windows users must enable both the php_mbstring.dll
  and php_exif.dll DLL's in php.ini. The 
  php_mbstring.dll DLL must be loaded 
  before the php_exif.dll DLL so
  adjust your php.ini accordingly.
 
The behaviour of these functions is affected by settings in php.ini.
  Exif supports automatically conversion for Unicode and JIS 
  character encodings of user comments when module
  mbstring
  is available. This is done by first decoding the comment
  using the specified characterset. The result is then encoded
  with another characterset which should match your
  HTTP output.
 
Table 1. Exif configuration options
| Name | Default | Changeable | Changelog | 
|---|
| exif.encode_unicode | "ISO-8859-15" | PHP_INI_ALL | Available since PHP 4.3.0. | 
| exif.decode_unicode_motorola | "UCS-2BE" | PHP_INI_ALL | Available since PHP 4.3.0. | 
| exif.decode_unicode_intel | "UCS-2LE" | PHP_INI_ALL | Available since PHP 4.3.0. | 
| exif.encode_jis | "" | PHP_INI_ALL | Available since PHP 4.3.0. | 
| exif.decode_jis_motorola | "JIS" | PHP_INI_ALL | Available since PHP 4.3.0. | 
| exif.decode_jis_intel | "JIS" | PHP_INI_ALL | Available since PHP 4.3.0. | 
  For further details and definitions of the 
PHP_INI_* constants, see the 
Appendix G.
 
Here's a short explanation of
the configuration directives.
  
- exif.encode_unicode
     string
- 
     exif.encode_unicode defines the 
     characterset UNICODE user comments are handled.
     This defaults to ISO-8859-15 which should work for
     most non Asian countries. The setting can be empty
     or must be an encoding supported by mbstring. If it
     is empty the current internal encoding of mbstring is
     used.
     
- exif.decode_unicode_motorola
     string
- 
      exif.decode_unicode_motorola defines 
      the image internal characterset for Unicode encoded user 
      comments if image is in motorola byte order (big-endian).
      This setting cannot be empty but you can specify a list
      of encodings supported by mbstring. The default is UCS-2BE.
      
- exif.decode_unicode_intel
     string
- 
      exif.decode_unicode_intel defines 
      the image internal characterset for Unicode encoded user 
      comments if image is in intel byte order (little-endian).
      This setting cannot be empty but you can specify a list
      of encodings supported by mbstring. The default is UCS-2LE.
      
- exif.encode_jis
     string
- 
      exif.encode_jis defines the 
      characterset JIS user comments are handled.
      This defaults to an empty value which forces 
      the functions to use the current internal encoding
      of mbstring.
      
- exif.decode_jis_motorola
     string
- 
      exif.decode_jis_motorola defines 
      the image internal characterset for JIS encoded user 
      comments if image is in motorola byte order (big-endian).
      This setting cannot be empty but you can specify a list
      of encodings supported by mbstring. The default is JIS.
      
- exif.decode_jis_intel
     string
- 
      exif.decode_jis_intel defines 
      the image internal characterset for JIS encoded user 
      comments if image is in intel byte order (little-endian).
      This setting cannot be empty but you can specify a list
      of encodings supported by mbstring. The default is JIS.
      
This extension has no resource types defined.
The constants below are defined by this extension, and
will only be available when the extension has either
been compiled into PHP or dynamically loaded at runtime.
  
 
  The exif_imagetype() lists several related built-in
  constants.