Comparison of image viewers

This article presents a comparison of image viewers and image organizers which can be used for image viewing.

Functionality overview and licensing

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, curves Via 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 ImageGlass 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 tree 32 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 PhotoNavigator Multi image browse, autobrowse, global community light table sharing, WebCam and chatrooms, Thumbnails, fullscreen slideshow, zoom, print, camera information, events, rotate, mirror, flip, red eye reduction, crop, auto enhance, exposure, saturation, tint, temperature, shadows, revert to original, rename, straighten 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 XnViewClassic and MP 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

Supported file formats

Commonly used vendor-independent formats