Image viewer
Encyclopedia
An image viewer or image browser is a computer program
that can display stored graphical image
; it can often handle various graphics file formats. Such software usually renders the image according to properties of the display such as color depth
, display resolution
, and color profile.
Although you may use a full-featured bitmap graphics editor (such as Photoshop or the GIMP
) as an image viewer, these have many editing functionalities which are not needed for just viewing images, and therefore usually start rather slowly. Also, most viewers have functionalities that editors usually lack, such as stepping through all the images in a directory (possibly as a slideshow).
Image viewers give maximal flexibility to the user by providing a direct view of the directory structure available on a hard disk. Most image viewers do not provide any kind of automatic organization of pictures and therefore the burden remains on the user to create and maintain their folder structure (using tag- or folder-based methods). However, some image viewers also have features for organizing images, especially an image database, and hence can also be used as image organizer
s.
Some image viewers, such as Windows Photo Viewer that comes with Windows operating systems, change a jpeg image if it is rotated, resulting in loss of image quality; others offer losseless rotation.
Typical features of image viewers are:
Advanced features are:
Common image viewers include:
Computer program
A computer program is a sequence of instructions written to perform a specified task with a computer. A computer requires programs to function, typically executing the program's instructions in a central processor. The program has an executable form that the computer can use directly to execute...
that can display stored graphical image
Image
An image is an artifact, for example a two-dimensional picture, that has a similar appearance to some subject—usually a physical object or a person.-Characteristics:...
; it can often handle various graphics file formats. Such software usually renders the image according to properties of the display such as color depth
Color depth
In computer graphics, color depth or bit depth is the number of bits used to represent the color of a single pixel in a bitmapped image or video frame buffer. This concept is also known as bits per pixel , particularly when specified along with the number of bits used...
, display resolution
Display resolution
The display resolution of a digital television or display device is the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed. It can be an ambiguous term especially as the displayed resolution is controlled by all different factors in cathode ray tube , flat panel or projection...
, and color profile.
Although you may use a full-featured bitmap graphics editor (such as Photoshop or the GIMP
GIMP
GIMP is a free software raster graphics editor. It is primarily employed as an image retouching and editing tool and is freely available in versions tailored for most popular operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, and Linux.In addition to detailed image retouching and...
) as an image viewer, these have many editing functionalities which are not needed for just viewing images, and therefore usually start rather slowly. Also, most viewers have functionalities that editors usually lack, such as stepping through all the images in a directory (possibly as a slideshow).
Image viewers give maximal flexibility to the user by providing a direct view of the directory structure available on a hard disk. Most image viewers do not provide any kind of automatic organization of pictures and therefore the burden remains on the user to create and maintain their folder structure (using tag- or folder-based methods). However, some image viewers also have features for organizing images, especially an image database, and hence can also be used as image organizer
Image organizer
An image organizer or image management application is application software focused on organizing digital images. Image organizers represent one kind of desktop organizer software applications.- Common image organizers features :...
s.
Some image viewers, such as Windows Photo Viewer that comes with Windows operating systems, change a jpeg image if it is rotated, resulting in loss of image quality; others offer losseless rotation.
Typical features of image viewers are:
- basic viewing operations such as zooming and rotation
- fullscreen display
- slideshowSlideshowA slide show is a display of a series of chosen information or pictures, done for artistic or instructional purposes. Slide shows are conducted by a presenter using an apparatus, such as a carousel slide projector, an overhead projector or in more recent years, a computer running presentation...
- thumbnailThumbnailThumbnails are reduced-size versions of pictures, used to help in recognizing and organizing them, serving the same role for images as a normal text index does for words...
display - printing
- screen capture
Advanced features are:
- decode next image in advance and keep previous decoded image in memory for fast image changes
- display (and edit) metadataMetadataThe term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...
such as XMPXMPXMP may refer to:In software and data standards:* Extensible Metadata Platform, Adobe's standard for processing and embedding metadata in various file formats*EXtreme Memory ProfileIn gaming:...
, IPTC Information Interchange ModelIPTC Information Interchange ModelThe Information Interchange Model is a file structure and set of metadata attributes that can be applied to text, images and other media types...
and Exif - batch conversion (image format, image dimensions, etc.) and renaming
- create contact sheets
- create HTMLHTMLHyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
thumbnail pages - different transition effects for slideshows
Common image viewers include:
- Windows
- Windows ExplorerWindows ExplorerThis article is about the Windows file system browser. For the similarly named web browser, see Internet ExplorerWindows Explorer is a file manager application that is included with releases of the Microsoft Windows operating system from Windows 95 onwards. It provides a graphical user interface...
- file managerFile managerA file manager or file browser is a computer program that provides a user interface to work with file systems. The most common operations performed on files or groups of files are: create, open, edit, view, print, play, rename, move, copy, delete, search/find, and modify file attributes, properties...
with basic built-in functionality for image viewing - Windows Picture and Fax ViewerWindows Picture and Fax ViewerWindows Photo Viewer is an image viewer developed by Microsoft that is included with Windows 7. It was also included with Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 under the name of Windows Picture and Fax Viewer. It was temporarily replaced with Windows Photo Gallery in Windows Vista, but has been...
- ACDSeeACDSeeACDSee is a shareware image organizer, viewer, and editor software for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X 10.5 and higher developed by ACD Systems. It was originally distributed as a 16-bit application for Windows 3.0 and later supplanted by a 32-bit version for Windows 95.ACDSee displays a tree view...
, FastStone Image ViewerFastStone Image ViewerFastStone Image Viewer is an image viewer and organizer for Microsoft Windows, provided free of charge for personal and educational use, .- Features :Highlights:* Relatively fast HQ image/thumbnail viewing, using Lanczos resampling algorithm...
, FastPictureViewer, ImagineImagine (graphics software)Imagine is an image and animation viewer developed by Chun Sejin for Microsoft Windows, capable of viewing numerous image formats, including ANI, ANM , BMP, CorelDRAW, CDT, PAT, CMX, CUR, DCX, DDS, EMF, GIF, ICL, ICO, JPE, JPEG, MacPaint, MNG, PBM, PCD, PCX, PGM, PIC, CEL, PNG, PPM, PSD, PSP , RAS,...
, IrfanViewIrfanViewIrfanView is a freeware/shareware image viewer for Microsoft Windows that can view, edit, and convert image files and play video/audio files. It is noted for its small size, speed, ease of use, and ability to handle a wide variety of graphic file formats, and has some image creation and painting...
, Media Pro 1, XnViewXnViewXnView is a cross-platform image viewer used for viewing, converting, organising and editing graphical & video files. It is free of charge for private, educational and non-profit organisations...
- Windows Explorer
- UNIX-like
- GwenviewGwenviewGwenview is an image viewer for the KDE Software Compilation desktop environment. The current maintainer is Aurélien Gâteau. The word "Gwen" means "white" in the Breton language and is commonly used as a first name....
, XnViewXnViewXnView is a cross-platform image viewer used for viewing, converting, organising and editing graphical & video files. It is free of charge for private, educational and non-profit organisations...
, xvXvxv is a shareware program written by John Bradley to display and modify digital images under the X Window System.While popular in the early 1990s , no official releases have been made since December 1994...
, xloadimage, KuickShow, GThumbGThumbgThumb is an open-source image viewer and organizer for the GNOME desktop environment released under the GNU General Public License. It was originally based on GQView, and is designed to have a clean, simple interface.- Features :...
, Eye of GNOMEEye of GNOMEEye of GNOME is the official image viewer for the GNOME desktop environment. Unlike some other image viewers, Eye of GNOME will only display images...
- Gwenview
- Web-based
- AJAX-ZOOM Gallery AJAX-ZOOM Gallery
- NeptuneLabs FSI Viewer
See also
- Comparison of image viewersComparison of image viewersThis article presents a comparison of image viewers and image organizers which can be used for image viewing.-General information:Note 1: Adobe Bridge comes included in the price with the Adobe Creative Suite CS2, Adobe Production Studio and Photoshop Elements 4 for Mac OS X...
- Comparison of CAD, CAM and CAE file viewersComparison of CAD, CAM and CAE file viewersComputer aided design , Computer-aided engineering and Computer-aided manufacturing software produces files in a large variety of formats many of which are extremely complex and poorly supported by other applications...
- Desktop organizerDesktop organizerDesktop Organizer software applications are applications that automatically create useful organizational structures from desktop content from heterogeneous types of content including email, files, contacts, companies, RSS news feeds, photos, music and chat sessions...
- Image organizerImage organizerAn image organizer or image management application is application software focused on organizing digital images. Image organizers represent one kind of desktop organizer software applications.- Common image organizers features :...
- Binary file#Viewing binary files
- Electronic documentElectronic documentAn electronic document is any electronic media content that are intended to be used in either an electronic form or as printed output....
- Media player
- Text editorText editorA text editor is a type of program used for editing plain text files.Text editors are often provided with operating systems or software development packages, and can be used to change configuration files and programming language source code....
- Web browserWeb browserA web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...