PHP, display image with Header()

The best solution would be to read in the file, then decide which kind of image it is and send out the appropriate header

$filename = basename($file);
$file_extension = strtolower(substr(strrchr($filename,"."),1));

switch( $file_extension ) {
    case "gif": $ctype="image/gif"; break;
    case "png": $ctype="image/png"; break;
    case "jpeg":
    case "jpg": $ctype="image/jpeg"; break;
    case "svg": $ctype="image/svg+xml"; break;
    default:
}

header('Content-type: ' . $ctype);

(Note: the correct content-type for JPG files is image/jpeg)

There is a better why to determine type of an image. with exif_imagetype

If you use this function, you can tell image's real extension.

_{with this function filename's extension is completely irrelevant, which is good.}

function setHeaderContentType(string $filePath): void
{
    $numberToContentTypeMap = [
        '1' => 'image/gif',
        '2' => 'image/jpeg',
        '3' => 'image/png',
        '6' => 'image/bmp',
        '17' => 'image/ico'
    ];

    $contentType = $numberToContentTypeMap[exif_imagetype($filePath)] ?? null;
    
    if ($contentType === null) {
        throw new Exception('Unable to determine content type of file.');
    }

    header("Content-type: $contentType");
}

You can add more types from the link.

Hope it helps.

Browsers make their best guess with the data they receive. This works for markup (which Websites often get wrong) and other media content. A program that receives a file can often figure out what its received regardless of the MIME content type it's been told.

This isn't something you should rely on however. It's recommended you always use the correct MIME content.