This article presents a comparison of image viewers and image organizers which can be used for image viewing.
| Name | View functions | Other functions | License | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACDSee | Thumbnails (user-defined sizes), fullscreen, slideshow, zoom, fit, view Exif info, view inside ZIP archives, ... | Resize, crop, rotate, flip, JPEG lossless rotate/mirror, face recognition, adjust exposure and colors etc., filters (sharpen, blur, average, emboss), red eye removal, batch rename, edit Exif info | ||
| Adobe Bridge | Thumbnails, slideshow, filmstrip, preview, versions with alternates | Stand Alone: rotate, rename, delete, move, copy, batch rename, add/Edit metadata, camera raw image adjustments: crop, resize, exposure, contrast, white balance, curvesVia Photoshop: contact sheet, merge to HDR, PDF presentation, photomerge, Web picture gallery | ||
| Adobe Lightroom | Library organization, RAW and JPEG editing, slideshow tools, print layout and preferences, web gallery creation and uploading | |||
| Aperture | ||||
| CDisplay | Fit to window, zoom, print, full-screen, slideshow, image collection, image information... | Rotate, flip, save as, used for reading comics and manga. | ||
| Darktable | Lighttable (contact sheet), darkroom (image editing), map, tethering | Non-destructive RAW photo editing (like Adobe Lightroom) as well as common image formats | ||
| digiKam | Fit to window, zoom, pan, light table, slideshow with effects, OpenGL viewer | Rotate, crop, vertical/horizontal flip, lossless JPEG operations (90° steps), color management, 16bit color depth, Light Table, Exif, IPTC, XMP, GPS metadata, adjust colors/brightness/levels, elaborate Black and White conversion, automatic lens correction, anti-vignetting, sharpening tools, vibrance, many filters, face recognition, Batch operations, export to archive, HTML, flickr, gallery2, picasaweb, smugmug, iPod, Facebook, 23hq, flash. | ||
| Eye of GNOME | Fit to window, zoom, flip, rotate, full-screen, slideshow, image collection, image information | Delete, print, save, rename, set wallpaper | ||
| F-Spot | Full-screen, slideshow, zoom, multiple sizes of thumbnails. Export: HTML, Flickr, Gallery Project, Picasa, Facebook (via extension) and O.r.i.g.i.n.a.l | Tags, rotate in single degree increments, hue, contrast, white balance, colour, sharpen, soft focus, crop, auto red-eye reduction. Files stored at /user/Pictures/Photos/[year]/[month]/[day] | ||
| FastPictureViewer | Borderless full-screen kiosk mode, Fit-to-window, 1:1, 50% to 6400% magnifier, multicore-enabled, GPU-based panning/zooming, black & white preview and lost shadows/highlights view. | File renaming, single-click background copy/move to preset location, single-click rating/labeling (writes Adobe XMP sidecar files and/or embeds XMP metadata within JPEG/TIFF/HD Photo/JPEG XR), Windows rating, color management including custom target profile selection, Unicode support, Exif shooting data (shutter speed, f-stop, ISO speed, exposure compensation) and real-time, seamless R,G,B histogram in translucent floating window. IPTC metadata editor in the registered version. | ||
| FastStone Image Viewer | All major formats, thumbnail view (6 predefined sizes), full screen, magnifier, slideshow. Uses second monitor for fullscreen preview. Popups image gallery, detailed image informations, editing options at the image border in fullscreen modus. | Many editing features: rotate, move, rename, 150+ transitional effects, crop, resize, clone, heal, convert format, color adjust, sharpen, drop shadow effects, scanner support, histogram. JPEG lossless rotate/flip/crop. | ||
| Geeqie | Full-screen, slideshow, zoom, color spectrum, 14 sizes of thumbnails | Rotate, move, rename, hue, contrast, find/remove duplicates | ||
| Gonvisor | Fit to window, zoom, print, full-screen, slideshow, image collection, image information, view images in compressed ZIP, RAR, or 7z files. | Rotate, flip, save as, used for reading comics and manga | ||
| GraphicConverter | Full-screen, slideshow | Rotate, move, rename | ||
| gThumb | Full-screen, slideshow, zoom, color spectrum, three sizes of thumbnails | Rotate, move, rename, hue, contrast | ||
| Gwenview | Fullscreen, slideshow, zoom, rotate, adjust gamma/contrast/brightness, disk navigator, file tree, thumbnails, extended thumbnails, bookmarks... | Add border, filter, effects, resize, rename, raw image converter, recompress, edit color. Share using 23, Dropbox, Facebook, Flickr, Google drive, Google photos/Picasaweb, Imageshack, Imgur, Piwigo, Rajce.net, remote storage, SmugMug, Yandex.Fotki, Zooomr | ||
| iPhoto | Thumbnails, fullscreen, slideshow, camera information, search, tags, organize by event or album, auto organize by date during first import | Lossless JPEG rotate, cropping (custom and template), brightness/contrast adjustment, red-eye reduction, retouch, color enhancement, B&W and sepia conversion, export to multiple formats & sizes | ||
| IrfanView | Thumbnails (18 pre-defined sizes from 50×50–800×800 pixels), fullscreen, slideshow, zoom, fit (several options), view IPTC and Exif info, hex view, histogram (also RGB); Format detection with offer to rename, set wallpaper, EXE/SCR creation, Burn slideshow to CD; directory tree32 languages (version 4.28/4.30) | Add Text, crop, cut/copy selected area, paste-Into selected area, paste from print screen, resize/resample, rotate, flip vertically/horizontally, JPEG lossless transformations, color adjustments, change color depth, greyscale, red-eye reduction, sharpen, effects/filters, own and 8bf (Photoshop) plugins compatibility, edit IPTC info, move, copy, delete, rename, convert, batch conversion, batch renaming/resizing/cropping, panorama creation, send email, also via IrfanView Thumbnails/Plugins: contact sheet creation, thumbnail creation, web gallery creation, face detection | ||
| KPhotoAlbum | Zoom, rotate, metadata, Exif, thumbnails (customize size), slideshow, categories | As Available per KIPI plugins | ||
| Loupe | Fullscreen, zoom, rotate, metadata | Print, delete, sandboxed decoding, support for touchpad and touchscreen gestures | ||
| Phase One Media Pro | Thumbnails, slideshow, zoom, print, light table, library organization, best practice DAM | Rotate, rename, delete, batch rename, add/edit metadata (IPTC, EXIF, Custom), free reader app to distribute catalogs | ||
| Photos (Apple) | ||||
| Photos (Windows) | fullscreen, slideshow, fit, zoom, print | |||
| Picasa | Zoom, lossless rotate, histogram, camera information, Thumbnails (fully adjustable), Slide Show (Full Screen w/zoom), Magnifier, Search, Search for faces | Crop, straighten, redeye, color tweaking, retouch, tuning, add text, numerous effects, batch edit, batch rename, video rendering, HTML gallery creation, photo browser application creator, screensaver, face recognition, keyword tagging, geo-tagging, photo collage, original file preservation, reorganize storage | ||
| Preview | Zoom, rotate, metadata | Crop, straighten, color tweaking, profile assignment | ||
| Shotwell | Thumbnails, fullscreen, slideshow, zoom, print, camera information, events | Auto enhance, rotate, mirror, flip, red eye reduction, crop, exposure, saturation, tint, temperature, shadows, revert to original, rename, straighten, change time/date, publish to Facebook, Picasa Web Albums, Flickr | ||
| STDU Viewer | Fullscreen, fit to window, zoom, print | rotate, brightness, contrast, gamma setting | ||
| Windows Photo Gallery | Fullscreen, slideshow, fit, zoom, print | Panorama stitching, adjust brightness, contrast, color saturation/hue, filters, stitching, rotate, straightening and skew, face recognition | ||
| Windows Photo Viewer | Fullscreen, slideshow, fit, zoom, print | Rotate, lossy JPEG rotate, annotate TIFF images | ||
| XnView and XnViewMP | Thumbnails (user-defined sizes), fullscreen, slideshow, zoom, fit, view IPTC and Exif info | Resize, crop, rotate, flip, JPEG lossless rotate/flip/crop, adjust exposure and colors etc., filters (sharpen, blur, average, emboss), batch convert, batch rename, edit IPTC info | ||
| Xv | View as ASCII or hex, magnify, determine pixel values | Crop, pad, resize, rotate, flip, brightness, contrast, gamma, saturation, hue, colormap, reduce colors, dither, convert, and more | ||
| Zoner Photo Studio | Thumbnails (user-defined sizes), fullscreen, histogram, slideshow with transition effects, auto rotation, JPEG lossless rotate, pan, zoom, fit, IPTC and Exif info, GPS support, full Unicode support, free version does not support color profiles | Resize, crop, rotate, flip, JPEG lossless rotate/mirror, adjust exposure, colors, contrast, saturation, hue, white balance, levels, curves, gamma correction, filters (sharpen, blur, soften, edge, emboss, average, grayscale, ...), .8bf (Photoshop) plugins compatibility, color management, batch operations, image conversions with reduced/dithered colors, batch rename, red eye removal, edit ITPC, XMP and Exif info, time creation offset, merge to HDR, PDF presentation, panorama creation, lens correction, anti-vignetting, web picture gallery, DNG/RAW image converter, TWAIN scanners support, send pictures via e-mail, 3D pictures, dynamic calendar generation, support for WIC codecs (RAW processing) | ||
| Name | View functions | Other functions | License |
| Program | Comic book | BMP | JPEG | PNG | TIFF | GIF | PSD | Other graphics file formats | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACDSee | ACDSee reads 9 compression formats and writes to 2, reads 33 video formats, and supports 61 image formats and writes to 16, including EMF, PCX, PIC, PICT, PSD, PSP, SGI, TGA, WMF, XBM, various camera formats among others | |||||||||
| Adobe Bridge | Displays all file types supported by Adobe Creative Suite | |||||||||
| Aperture | PSD, OLY, Various video formats including: AVI, MOV, MPEG | |||||||||
| CDisplay | ||||||||||
| digiKam | JPEG 2000, PCX, WMF, PNM, PPM, XCF, XPM, PGX, MPEG, MPO, MPE, AVI, MOV, ASF, PGF, MP4 | |||||||||
| Eye of GNOME | PNM, RAS, ICO, XPM, SVG | |||||||||
| F-Spot | PPM, SVG | |||||||||
| FastPictureViewer | HD Photo, HDP, WDP, JPEG XR (+ RLE, DIB, ICO, MTIFF in the registered edition, as well as DjVu, TGA, PSD, HDR, DDS, EXR, J2K, PNM, PBM, PGM, PBM, LRPREV, JPS through additional WIC codecs from the optional FastPictureViewer Codec Pack or from 3rd parties) | |||||||||
| FastStone Image Viewer | loading of: JPEG 2000, PCX, WMF, ICO, CUR, TGA, CRW, FAX, JFIF, HEIC, WEBP saving to: BMP, GIF, JPEG, JPEG 2000, PCX, PNG, PPM, TGA, TIFF, PDF | |||||||||
| Geeqie | ||||||||||
| Gonvisor | Opens images contained in rar, zip, ace and 7zip files. | |||||||||
| GraphicConverter | 190 types read, 79 types saved | |||||||||
| gThumb | ||||||||||
| Gwenview | MNG, SVG, XCF, RAW (NEF), etc. | |||||||||
| iPhoto | RAW (All QuickTime supported images), PSD (Leopard), AVI (Leopard), MOV (Leopard) | |||||||||
| IrfanView | ~70 types including : AIF, ANI/CUR, ASF, AU/SND, AVI, B3D, DIB, CAM (Casio JPG), CLP, DDS, Dicom/ACR, DJVU, ECW, EMF/WMF, EPS/PS, FITS, FlashPix (FPX), FSH, G3, HDR, ICO/ICL/EXE/DLL, IFF/LBM, IMG (GEM), JPEG 2000, JPM, KDC, LDF, LWF, MED, MID/RMI, MNG/JNG, MOV, MP3, MPG, MrSID, NLM/NOL/NGG, OGG, PBM/PGM/PPM, PCX/DCX, PhotoCD, PIC, PSD, PSP, RAS/SUN, RAW, Real Audio (RA), RLE, SFF, SFW, SGI/RGB, SWF (Flash/Shockwave), TGA, TTF, TXT, WAD, WAL, WAV, WBMP, WBZ/WBC, XBM, XPM, CAD formats. Partial support: MOV, QTIF, Mac PICT, FLI/FLC, SVG. Note that some modes don't display large animated GIF files entirely (for example the Slideshow mode). | |||||||||
| KPhotoAlbum | Photo formats supported by KDE; AVI, MPEG, RAW | |||||||||
| Loupe | AVIF, DDS, farbfeld, QOI, HEIC, ICO, JPEG XL, OpenEXR, PNM, SVG, TGA, WEBP | |||||||||
| Phase One Media Pro | Supports over 100 file formats for images, videos and documents, including: PSD, IIQ, CR, EIP, DOC | |||||||||
| Picasa | 8 types including TGA, RAW, and some movie formats | |||||||||
| Preview | All QuickTime images: | |||||||||
| Shotwell | RAW and some video formats | |||||||||
| STDU Viewer | TXT, EMF, WMF, DjVu, XPS | |||||||||
| Windows Photo Viewer | WMF, EMF, ICO | |||||||||
| XnView and XnViewMP | reads over 500 formats,[1] including: FAX, EPS, WMF, DICOM, DPX; writes about 75 formats [2] | |||||||||
| Xv | PBM, PGM, PPM, XPM, Sun Rasterfile, Targa, RGB, PCX, FITS, PM, PostScript | |||||||||
| Zoner Photo Studio | HDP/WDP, PSB, PSP/PSPIMAGE, DIB/RLE, J2K/JPC/JP2, PAM, PBM, PGM, PNM, PCD, PCX, WBMP/WBM, TGA, ICO, MAC, WPG, BMI, MDM, THN, DCM, stereo pictures: JPS, PNS, BMS. | |||||||||
| Program | Comic book | BMP | JPEG | PNG | TIFF | GIF | PSD | Other graphics file formats |
| Program | Fullscreen | slideshow | zoom (styles) | cache decoded images | thumbnails (sizes) | thumbnail caching | navigation views | sort (schemes) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACDSee | 1:1, fit width and/or height, lock | previous, next | user-defined | database | directory-tree, albums, calendar, favourites, search results | user-defined, name, date, size, type, ... | ||||
| CDisplay | 1:1, fit over/under width/height, fullscreen, doublepage | Fixed, with scroll | Thumbnails(of current folder images or archive) | |||||||
| digiKam | fit, in/out | previous, next | adjustable size | album-tree, tags, calendar, searches, map (geolocation) | sort (schemes) --> tags, date, keywords, metadata; no user-defined order | |||||
| Eye of GNOME | +/-, 1:1, best fit | image collection pane, only one row | Thumbnails(of current folder images) | |||||||
| F-Spot | list, file-tree | keywords | ||||||||
| FastPictureViewer | Auto-advance mode | 1:1, fit, 50%-6400% magnifier, click-and-hold zooming | dynamic, adaptive | 96x96px, shown on navigation slider (Vista or later) | (uses OS-managed cache on Windows Vista or later) | Windowed or full-screen, back and forth navigation, bookmarks, navigation slider | Filenames, file creation/modification date, Exif date taken, GPS timestamp | |||
| FastStone Image Viewer | 1:1, 2%-5000% magnifier, click-and-hold zooming, fit width and/or height, lock | 6 predefined sizes | database | dir-tree, back and forth navigation, bookmarks | user-defined, name, date, file size, image size, type | |||||
| Geeqie | fit, 1:1, in/out | previous, next | 24x24 - 256x256 | as png-files centrally or in sub-dir | list, dir-tree, collection | collections, keywords, directory | ||||
| gThumb | random, forward, reverse | fit, 1:1, remember, fit-if-larger, in/out | 48x48 - 256x256, 9 sizes | Newer versions cache in a central directory | list, icon, subfolders, categories, catalog | catalogs, categories | ||||
| Gwenview | fit, 1:1, fit-if-larger, zoom to 1600% | adjustable size | fullscreen thumbnails, dir-tree | name, size, date | ||||||
| IrfanView | 1:1, fit width and/or height, lock | 18 predefined sizes: 50×50–800×800 | dir-tree, search results | name, date, file size, image width/height, type, user-defined | ||||||
| KPhotoAlbum | fit, in/out, presets | views search results | by date | |||||||
| Phase One Media Pro | Fit to viewing area/height/width, 1:1, zoom to 1600% | Yes, user-defined | Database | Catalog-sets, date, filetypes, events, author, people, by search, by keywords and all metadata | name, date, size, user-defined | |||||
| Picasa | only in slideshow mode | no view window, fit to viewing area, 1:1, zoom to 400% | user defined | database | directory-tree, albums, timeline | name, date, size, user-defined | ||||
| Shotwell | fixed size | Thumbs, Events (dates), tags | Title, Exposure Date | |||||||
| STDU Viewer | fit to width, fit to height, fit to size | |||||||||
| Windows Photo Viewer | 1:1, fit, in/out | |||||||||
| XnView and XnViewMP | 1:1, fit width and/or height, lock | previous, next | user-defined | database | dir-tree, favourites, categories | name, date, size, type, etc.; no user-defined order | ||||
| Xv | fixed size | in subdirectory (.xvpics) | name | |||||||
| Zoner Photo Studio | 1:1, fit width and/or height, lock | in Viewer, previous and next | user-defined | database | dir-tree, albums, CD compilations, media archive, search results, web albums | contact sheet, templates, calendars, paper saver | name, date, size, type, etc.; user-defined order | |||
| Program | Fullscreen | slideshow | zoom (styles) | cache decoded images | thumbnails (sizes) | thumbnail caching | navigation views | sort (schemes) |
| Program | search (criteria) | selection (styles) | metadata | adjust image (functions) | hotkeys | color management (ICC) | JPEG Lossless operations | Unicode support | other / special | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACDSee | individual, linear, block | Exif, IPTC | many | rotation only | GPS Location, Scripts for batch/pre processing, automatic slideshow | |||||
| CDisplay | Rotate, Filter | configurable | Slider, automatic slideshow, mouse control | |||||||
| digiKam | file name, comments, most Exif and meta data | linear, block, complex | Exif and IPTC | many editing function | by changing EXIF orientation and not in editor | Geotagging, batch processing, detect duplicate/similar images, export to Internet/social media/HTML | ||||
| Eye of GNOME | Rotate | unconfigurable | ||||||||
| F-Spot | Export to HTML, Flickr, or O.r.i.g.i.n.a.l. | |||||||||
| FastPictureViewer | Filter the view by rating, file name... | Copy, move, delete, rate, label | Write XMP Rating/Label, IPTC metadata, Windows Rating, embedded or in sidecar files, shows shooting info (Exif) and realtime RGB histogram | (supports custom monitor profile, direct conversion from image colorspace to monitor colorspace, ICC v4) | n/a | , native | Native 32 and 64-bit, Tethered shooting (MTP/PTP over USB), Multicore-aware, DirectX accelerated, HD Photo / JPEG XR support. | |||
| FastStone Image Viewer | individual, linear | EXIF, JPEG comment | many | lossless transitions | full screen mode with all commands available via pop-up menu bars when approaching the mouse from the borders of the screen | |||||
| Geeqie | collections, keywords, filename, location, size, date, dimensions, comments, previous results | block, linear, complex | rotate, brightness, contrast | find duplicates, sort manager, recent collections | ||||||
| Gonvisor | Delete, rename | n/a | , native | Made to easily read comics or manga can display two pages at time and view images in compressed ZIP, RAR, 7z, cbr, cba, cbz etc. | ||||||
| gThumb | name, comment, date, category, folder, recursive-folder | linear, block, complex | manipulate color, flip/rotate, etc. | bookmarks, comments, rename series, create index image, create HTML album | ||||||
| Gwenview | tags | Exif, IPTC, XMP | Rotate, Red eye removal, saturation, color balance, levels and more | , rotation and flipping | batch processing, export to Internet/social media/HTML | |||||
| IrfanView & Thumbnails | various options | EIF, IPTC, Comment | many features | many | Opens and saves jpg2000 and jpgls photo files | , native | can search for and replace pixel of a certain color (with some latitude) and replace all with a given color of pixels | |||
| KPhotoAlbum | keywords, comments, title, any field from Exif metadata | linear, complex | per KIPI plugins | configurable | Quick-tagging using keyboard tokens | |||||
| Phase One Media Pro | name, date, rating, file size, and many more. | individual, linear | EXIF, IPTC, and custom keywords | Rotate, Red eye removal, saturation, color balance, levels and more | Find duplicates, hierarchical keywords, distributable catalog with free Media Pro reader, offline browsing of images | |||||
| Picasa | name, date, rating, faces | individual, linear | Keywords | basic | rotation only | collages, Geotagging, Search for Faces, find duplicates | ||||
| Shotwell | individual, linear, hide | Read IPTC, Exif, XMP | Exposure, Saturation, Tint, Shadows, Temperature, and more | Non-destructive editor, Auto Enhance Images, Duplicate, Upload, Favorite | ||||||
| STDU Viewer | ||||||||||
| Windows Photo Viewer | rotate, lossless JPEG rotate, annotate TIFF images | rotate only | ||||||||
| XnView and XnViewMP | name, date, file size, image size, meta data, ... | individual, linear | IPTC, Exif, JPEG comment | many | configurable | Custom monitor profile supported | Supported in XnViewMP | Supports Adobe Photoshop Filter 8BF plugins | ||
| Xv | individual, all | view comments | many | |||||||
| Zoner Photo Studio | name, date, file size, meta data | individual, linear | IPTC, Exif, XMP, JPEG comment | very many | configurable | sign images, 16 bits per channel, GPS support, merge pictures to HDR, WIC codecs support | ||||
| Program | search (criteria) | selection (styles) | metadata | adjust image (functions) | hotkeys | color management (ICC) | JPEG Lossless operations | Unicode support | other / special |