In this article, we will explore different approaches to checking the orientation of an image file in Node.js. Specifically, we will compare two popular libraries, "sharp" and "image-size".

Sharp

To check if an image file is vertical or horizontal in Node.js, you can utilize the `sharp` package, which is a popular image processing library. Here's an example of how you can determine the orientation of an image file using `sharp`:

First, you need to install the `sharp` package by running the following command in your Node.js project directory:

npm install sharp

Once you have `sharp` installed, you can use the following code to check the orientation of an image file:

const sharp = require('sharp');

function checkImageOrientation(imagePath) {
  return sharp(imagePath)
    .metadata()
    .then(metadata => {
      const { width, height } = metadata;
      if (width > height) {
        return 'horizontal';
      } else if (height > width) {
        return 'vertical';
      } else {
        return 'square';
      }
    })
    .catch(err => {
      console.error('Error reading image metadata:', err);
      return null;
    });
}

// Usage example
const imagePath = 'path/to/your/image.jpg';

checkImageOrientation(imagePath)
  .then(orientation => {
    console.log('Image orientation:', orientation);
  })
  .catch(err => {
    console.error('Error checking image orientation:', err);
  });

In the code above, we define the `checkImageOrientation` function that takes the path to an image file as a parameter. The function uses `sharp` to read the image's metadata, including the width and height. It then compares the dimensions to determine whether the image is horizontal, vertical, or square. The function returns a Promise that resolves with the orientation string.

You can replace `'path/to/your/image.jpg'` with the actual path to your image file, and the code will output the image's orientation (either 'horizontal', 'vertical', or 'square') to the console.

Make sure to replace `'path/to/your/image.jpg'` with the actual path to your image file.

Image-size

Another library is `image-size`. It provides a simple and lightweight solution for reading image dimensions without requiring any external dependencies. Here's an example of how you can use `image-size` to determine the orientation of an image file:

First, install the `image-size` package by running the following command in your Node.js project directory:

npm install image-size

Once you have `image-size` installed, you can use the following code to check the orientation of an image file:`

const sizeOf = require('image-size');

function checkImageOrientation(imagePath) {
  try {
    const dimensions = sizeOf(imagePath);
    const { width, height } = dimensions;
    if (width > height) {
      return 'horizontal';
    } else if (height > width) {
      return 'vertical';
    } else {
      return 'square';
    }
  } catch (err) {
    console.error('Error reading image dimensions:', err);
    return null;
  }
}

// Usage example
const imagePath = 'path/to/your/image.jpg';

const orientation = checkImageOrientation(imagePath);
console.log('Image orientation:', orientation);

In the code above, we define the `checkImageOrientation` function that takes the path to an image file as a parameter. It uses `image-size` to read the dimensions of the image and then compares the width and height to determine the orientation. The function returns a string indicating whether the image is horizontal, vertical, or square.

You can replace `'path/to/your/image.jpg'` with the actual path to your image file, and the code will output the image's orientation to the console.

Note that unlike `sharp`, `image-size` does not provide metadata beyond the dimensions, so if you require additional image processing capabilities, such as resizing or cropping, `sharp` might be a more suitable choice.