In the digital age, images are an integral part of our lives, and finding the right photo viewer can significantly enhance the visual experience.
With so many different options available, it can be hard to know which one is right for you. This article delves into the top picture viewers, prioritizing user-friendly interfaces and practical functionality.
How we chose the best photo viewers for Windows 10
In selecting the top tools for viewing photos, we meticulously considered key factors to ensure a user-friendly and effective experience.
- Intuitive interface. We prioritized image viewers with simple interfaces, ensuring ease of navigation for users of all skill levels.
- Functionality. We focused on the functionality of each viewer, emphasizing quick access to editing tools, seamless organization features, and compatibility with various image formats.
- Performance. The chosen photo apps for Windows were evaluated for smooth operation without compromising system resources, aiming to provide an optimal viewing experience on Windows devices.
1. Icecream Photo Editor
Icecream Photo Editor serves as an ideal photos viewing and photo editing app for Windows. Its intuitive design makes it simple for both beginners and professionals to use. The app can be obtained without charge, offering a remarkable selection of tools.
With this photo-viewing application, you can easily view images in various formats, including JPG, PNG, and GIF. It also offers basic image editing capabilities, like cropping, resizing, rotating, and adjusting brightness, contrast, and saturation.
Moreover, you can use distinctive effects to give your images an exceptional appearance. These include image enhancement, the addition of frames to photos, the availability of filters and stickers, and blur options.
Additionally, the program includes an advanced collage maker that allows to combine several photos into one. You can also insert text or watermarks into your pictures. Plus, this photo viewer allows you to quickly save images in different formats and resolutions.
Pros:
- Easy-to-use interface. The photo editor has an easily understandable user interface. Its icons are clearly laid out, making it simple to find what you need.
- Variety of tools. It provides an extensive selection of tools for editing photos.
- Support for multiple file types. It is equipped to process widespread image formats like JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, etc.
- Photo manager. The best Windows photo viewer simplifies organizing photos on your computer. Easily browse, rotate, and delete unwanted photos.
2. IrfanView
IrfanView is a fast, compact, and innovative freeware image viewer/converter for Windows. It is crafted to be simple for beginners and powerful for professionals.
The user interface is intuitive and easy to use. There are lots of features available, such as batch conversion, image editing, slideshow creation, batch renaming, file search, and more. You can quickly resize or rotate graphics with a few clicks. Additionally, this free photo viewer provides support for plugins, expanding its capabilities further.
Pros:
- Works with almost all image formats.
- The photo viewer for Windows 10, 11 has a scroll navigation.
- Built-in batch processing for editing multiple images.
- Supports plugins for extra features.
Cons:
- Limited support for RAW files.
- Not suitable for professional editing tasks.
- No automatic backup system for edited images.
- This picture viewer has an outdated UI.
3. Apowersoft Photo Viewer
Apowersoft Photo Viewer is a comprehensive photo application for Windows. It’s designed to meet the needs of both professional photographers and casual users. It provides a simple interface and powerful features to help you view, and edit your photos effortlessly.
The main window displays all your photos in an organized grid layout. You can sort your images by filename, addition date, or size. You can even create custom categories and sub-categories to keep related images together.
The image viewer for Windows 10 also includes several editing tools. You can crop, rotate, resize images, and adjust color settings such as brightness, saturation, and contrast. It also supports various image formats including JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and BMP.
Pros:
- Offers basic editing functions like crop, rotate, resize, adjust effects, and more.
- Can open multiple images at once in separate tabs.
- The picture viewer supports drag and drop for quick image importing.
Cons:
- No built-in printing option.
- No ability to process multiple images together in one operation.
- Some users may find the UI cluttered and confusing.
4. ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate
With ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate, Windows users can enjoy an optimal photo viewing experience. The image viewer has all the features you may need for manipulating, viewing, and sharing photos. Manage and edit photos quickly and easily with the simple layout.
This software is capable of handling JPG, PNG, TIFF, and RAW images. You can also attach tags or ratings to photos for easy sorting and searching.
The photo viewer app also has advanced features like layers and blending modes that let you create unique images. Additionally, it incorporates over 100 special effects to impart a professional touch to your photos.
Pros:
- The design is uncomplicated and user-friendly, making it ideal for beginners.
- Photo viewer for Windows 10 and 11 allows you to view files within the ZIP archive without extraction.
- You can easily open and edit RAW images with this software.
Cons:
- Presence of numerous advanced tools hidden within menus.
- Slower import performance when working with large image files.
- This photo viewer can be resource-intensive for your PC.
5. Wondershare Fotophire
Fotophire is a premier image viewer for those who use Windows. The features include an advanced photo editor, a picture viewer, a collage maker, and a batch photo resizer.
The photo editor lets you adjust exposure, brightness, color temperature, contrast, saturation, and clarity. You can also add filters, crop images, remove red-eye, and sharpen details.
The photo viewer allows you to preview your photos in full screen or as a slideshow. It also supports RAW format, which makes it great for professionals. The collage maker is perfect for creating a unique look for your photos. You can add text, frames, and clipart to create stunning collages.
Pros:
- Includes numerous editing utilities that permit you to quickly modify photos.
- You can add filters, frames, and other effects to your photos.
- The drag-and-drop functionality makes it easy to import and work with images.
Cons:
- Does not support such image formats as NEF or CR2.
- Subscription-based pricing model.
6. Movavi Photo Manager
Movavi Photo Manager is a user-friendly software designed to streamline the management and enhancement of photo collections. With its intuitive interface, users of all levels can easily organize, categorize, and locate their images efficiently.
The application simplifies photo organization through features such as tagging, sorting, and facial recognition. It also offers the convenience of automatic album creation, intelligently grouping photos based on events, dates, or facial recognition to minimize manual categorization efforts.
The photo viewer includes built-in editing tools. Users can adjust colors, perform basic retouching, and improve image quality. It supports geotagging, enabling users to add location information to photos for an interactive way to visualize and organize images on a map.
Pros:
- Boasts an intuitive and user-friendly interface.
- The advanced image editing tools allow you to enhance your photos with text, frames, filters, and more.
- You can share your photos via email, social media networks, or cloud storage services directly from the app.
Cons:
- Lacks robust cloud integration features.
- Only a 3-day free trial.
7. Google Photos
Google Photos is an outstanding photo viewer for Windows. It offers a streamlined and easy-to-navigate interface designed to make organizing photos simple.
With this online image viewer, users can upload an unlimited number of photos and videos and store them in the cloud. This facilitates access to files from any location which has an internet connection.
Images can be sorted by date, location, or even people who appear in them. Users can also create albums and photo books with their uploaded images. This photo software provides fundamental editing capabilities like cropping and altering brightness, saturation, and contrast.
Pros:
- Photos can be accessed from any device with internet access.
- Images are automatically backed up online so they can be retrieved anytime.
- Photo viewer with a simple user interface which is easy for beginners.
Cons:
- Viewing photos is online only.
- Google may use uploaded photos for data mining purposes which has raised privacy issues.
- Loading time may be slow depending on your internet connection speed and the size of the photos being loaded.
8. FastStone
FastStone is one of the best free Windows photo viewers. It’s a lightweight, stable, and user-friendly image viewer, editor, and converter. It offers a nice array of features, including image viewing, management, red-eye removal, resizing, cropping, and color adjustments.
This picture viewer has an intuitive full-screen mode to browse through images quickly and easily. It includes a magnifier and a full-screen slideshow mode with effects like fades and wipes.
Pros:
- Photo viewer offers batch processing of files.
- Has an intuitive interface with useful features like full-screen view and slideshow.
- Allows you to add annotations or branding to the images.
Cons:
- No support for RAW images.
- Can be slow when dealing with large files or folders.
- Unsuitable for professional photographers or graphic designers due to limited capabilities.
9. Microsoft Photos
Microsoft Photos is a free photos viewing and editing program for Windows 10. It has a straightforward interface that allows users to quickly find and view photos, as well as edit images if desired.
The main window helps users easily access their photos through albums, folders, and tags. Users can also use the search bar to quickly find specific files. Once found, individual images can be viewed in full-screen mode or edited with the included basic tools.
The photo viewer app also has the ability to make slideshows. In addition, it has some great sharing options. You can quickly send pictures to friends and family via email or through social media. Also, you can dispatch photos straight from the app to any device running Windows 10.
Pros:
- Photo viewer for Windows 10 that is built-in. No additional purchase is necessary.
- Has an understandable and modern interface.
- Comes with a variety of basic editing tools.
Cons:
- No advanced features such as layers or clone stamping.
- Lacks support for certain file types and formats such as RAW files or panoramic images.
- The interface is not optimized for touchscreen devices.
10. 123 Photo Viewer
123 Photo Viewer provides quick access to all your photos, enabling you to find, view, and organize them with ease. You can zoom in and out, combine, and rotate images.
The software also supports batch operations, allowing you to quickly carry out a range of tasks on multiple images at once. You can rename files, add tags, resize images, or change their format. Plus, it can easily integrate with image-editing software such as Photoshop.
Pros:
- Built-in support for printing and sharing images.
- The photos viewing app has support for LIVP format.
- Compatible with touch-screen laptops.
Cons:
- No integrated photo editor.
- Distracting advertisements.
11. Honeyview
Honeyview is a lightweight, fast, and free image viewer for Windows. It provides an intuitive user interface, allowing you to easily browse pictures within a folder or open selected photos directly from Windows Explorer.
The application can quickly display full-size images without any lag or distortion. It also supports specialized graphic formats like HEIC, WebP, and TIFF. Furthermore, it has various zooming options to view your pictures in greater detail.
The photo viewer also offers basic editing tools like cropping and resizing. You can even add effects to enhance the look of your photos. Also, it allows you to add bookmarks to the image.
Pros:
- Quick loading times and smooth scrolling let you quickly browse through large folders of images.
- Support for many formats: RAW files, GIFs, and other image formats can be easily viewed.
- Offers fundamental editing services including cropping, adjusting color, and rotating images.
Cons:
- There are no advanced features like layer support or HDR editing.
- You can’t sync your photos with the cloud for storage or sharing.
12. JPEGView
JPEGView is recognized as one of the simplest photo viewers on Windows. It’s open-source, so you can use it without worrying about costly licenses.
The application features a no-nonsense navigation bar with buttons to zoom, rotate, slideshow, and more. You can easily find the images you need using the file browser, or open them in the program with the drag-and-drop feature. Additionally, you can quickly preview files without opening them in an editor.
The image viewer also provides advanced tools for editing photos. You can crop, resize, adjust brightness and contrast, apply gamma correction, and more. In addition, you can include text or shapes in your images and keep them as JPEGs.
Pros:
- Fast and responsive photo viewer, making it an ideal choice for viewing large image collections.
- Includes powerful editing tools such as color adjustment, cropping, and red-eye reduction.
Cons:
- Doesn’t have a slideshow feature to quickly view images in sequence.
- The photos viewing software has no batch processing capabilities.
13. Adobe Photoshop Elements
Adobe Photoshop Elements is also in our list of the top image-viewing programs for Windows users. It offers photo editing and organizing tools, which allow you to easily modify photos. It boasts a straightforward interface and user-friendly tools for uncomplicated usage.
This is one of the best Windows photo viewers that supports RAW file formats that allow you to edit photos in a more professional way. It has built-in filters that can help to enhance photos, such as the auto-correct tool, which can quickly improve the quality of a photo. Additionally, the cropping, resizing, and red-eye removal tools are great for making quick edits.
Pros:
- Comes with a wide selection of editing instruments for photos.
- The photo viewer integrates with Adobe Creative Cloud.
Cons:
- Overwhelmed with various features, making it too complicated for just image viewing.
- The absence of batch processing can make the whole experience time-consuming.
14. nomacs
nomacs is a free and open-source image viewer and photo editor that supports multiple platforms including Windows, Linux, and macOS. It is designed to provide users with a lightweight yet feature-rich alternative to other graphic viewing software.
This photo viewer provides a thumbnail preview of pictures within directories, allowing people to quickly browse through their media collections and select the ones they want to open or edit. Also, it supports plugins and extensions, which extend its functionality beyond the built-in features.
The «Viewer Synchronization» feature simplifies image comparisons by ensuring that zooming and panning are synchronized to identical locations. Additionally, it enables overlaying photos with varying opacities for enhanced comparison.
Pros:
- Fosters community-driven development, encourages transparency, and allows for user contributions and customization.
- Image viewer with the support for RAW, WebP, and AVIF file formats.
Cons:
- Does not work with JPEG-XL and has limited support for HEIC.
- After updating the software, the photo viewer reverts to default settings.
15. Visum Photo Viewer
Visum Photo Viewer is a lightweight and user-friendly application designed to provide a simple and efficient way to browse and open images on a computer.
The interface is designed to be minimalistic, ensuring that users can focus on their pictures without distractions. The image viewer is optimized for speed, allowing for quick loading times and smooth transitions between files.
The slideshow feature makes it suitable for automatically displaying photos during presentations or family gatherings.
Pros:
- Clean and straightforward interface.
- Compatibility with a wide range of image formats.
- Easy and quick to install, taking up minimal space on the device.
Cons:
- Lack of advanced photo editing tools.
- Does not display or allow editing of metadata such as EXIF data.
Tips
- Choose a photo viewer that is quick to launch and doesn’t consume too many system resources.
- Ensure that the program supports a wide range of file formats (e.g., JPEG, PNG, TIFF, GIF, BMP, RAW, HEIC) to avoid compatibility issues.
- Opt for a user-friendly interface that doesn’t overwhelm you with unnecessary features. The best image viewers should have simple navigation with zoom, rotate, and fullscreen modes.
- Look for software that allows you to customize how photos are displayed, such as adjusting brightness, contrast, or color balance directly within the viewer.
- A viewer that supports thumbnail previews makes it easy to browse through folders quickly. If you want seamless file management, make sure the tool has this integration.
FAQ
- Can photo viewers integrate with cloud storage services?
- Yes, often image viewers have integration with cloud storages, enabling direct access to online photos from any device. This streamlines management, adds backup protection and facilitates collaboration.
- Do photo viewing apps support features like geotagging or facial recognition?
- Yes, certain photo viewers allow users to tag photos with location information and have facial recognition, which automatically identifies and organizes photos based on individuals’ faces.
- Do picture viewers offer tools for creating and managing photo albums or portfolios?
- Yes, some programs have the capability to create and manage photo albums or portfolios, allowing users to organize their images into collections for easy browsing and sharing.
- Are there any accessibility features available in photo viewer for PC for users with disabilities?
- Yes, there are features such as screen reader compatibility or keyboard shortcuts to assist users with disabilities in navigating and interacting with the application.
- Can photo viewers handle large panoramic or high-resolution images?
- Most photo apps for Windows can process and open panoramic or high-resolution photos without significant lag or performance issues. However, the specific performance may vary depending on the software and the capabilities of the user’s device.
- What are some best practices for optimizing the performance of a photo viewer?
- To get the most out of photo viewing software, users should consider clearing the cache regularly, closing unnecessary background applications, and ensuring their device meets the software’s system requirements.
- Are there any notable trends in the field of photo viewer app?
- Recent trends in photo viewer software include advancements in AI-based image recognition for automatic tagging and organization, as well as increased integration with cloud storage services for seamless access to photos across multiple devices.
Conclusion
Finding the best photo viewer for Windows 10 may be overwhelming, but with this guide, you now know to make an informed decision.
From the user-friendly FastStone Image Viewer to the feature-rich Icecream Photo Editor, each photo viewer recommendation caters to different needs. Tailored for diverse users, they offer a canvas for exploring, organizing, and enhancing visual memories.
Choose the perfect picture viewer for your style, and let your photos tell your story with clarity and vibrancy on the Windows 10 platform.
Tech Writer and Photography Aficionado
Paul is a self-professed photography and tech nerd and has years of experience working with various editing software. He has a passion for travel and has taken his camera to destinations including Antarctica, Singapore, Indonesia, and Greenland.
Windows 10 and Windows 7 both come with their own default image viewer software, however, if you are not satisfied, here are some best photo viewer software to replace them.
IrfanViewXnView: Image Viewer, Photo Resizer & Graphic ConverterFastStone Image ViewerDigiKam- Free & Open source Image viewerImageGlass opensource basic photo viewerApowersoft photo viewerACDSee Photo Studio Software
The main sole purpose of a photo viewer software is to show an image preview when a user clicks on it. But using the same software every time isn’t a kind of monotonous thing. Thus, you should look for some alternatives.
Which is the best image viewer for Windows 10?
If you have this question in mind that which Image viewer software is best for you then there are a lot. It depends upon your requirement whether you want a basic picture explorer or some advance one with an editing feature. Well! to dispel you perplex, here we are with some best software to view images on both Windows 10 and Windows 7. Such as Irfan view, ImageGlass, FastStone Image Viewer, XnView and more…
IrfanView
IrfanView free Image viewer is one of the best free software available to edit and view pictures on WIndows 10/8/7. It is available for both 64-bit and 32-bit version systems. The software is pretty much light in weight (3 MB only), thus, low resource computers can also run it seamlessly. It is not available for Linux and macOS, only for Windows.
IrfanView offers a clear range of functions which helps users to view images of different formats. It also supports GIF, ICO and TIF formats.
In addition to above, the freeware can handle other multimedia formats such as MPEG, MP3, Ogg and FLV. The program can also read, process and convert RAW files.
Moreover, IrfanView is a plugin-based photo viewer which makes it a flexible extensible solution. Plugins are available for CD burning, AltaLux image effect, image effects, Face Detection feature and more… It is free for personal use only and not for commercial purpose.
Download IrfanView Price– Free
XnView: Image Viewer, Photo Resizer & Graphic Converter
If you want a photo viewer software for Windows 10 which also works on macOS and Linux then XnView should be your choice. It is a cross-platform freeware software, free to use only for personal usage. If you are intended to use it for commercial purporse then need to buy a license.
XnView is also available in a portable format for Windows which you can use without installing at all.
It supports around 500 image formats and in about 80 formats can be saved using XnView. The images can be viewed in a variety of ways, such as in thumbnail or full-screen view or as a slide show. Furthermore, this is not only an image viewer software and like IrfanView can also perform editing of images with various tools available, such as cutting, the correction of colour values and various filters and effects.
Download XnView Price– Free
FastStone Image Viewer
This photo viewer in our list is also not only for viewing images but can also be used as a converter and editor. However, there are other freeware software offer by the same developer and one of them is FastStone Photo Resizer which you can use if you really like this software.
It supports common graphic formats along with BMP, JPEG, JPEG 2000, GIF, PNG, PCX, TIFF, WMF, ICO, TGA and camera raw files.
Download FastStone Price– Free
DigiKam- Free & Open source Image viewer
DigiKam is a very versatile software to view images. It can handle image libraries having more than 100,000 images. While being a photo viewer it can also edit and process raw files and JPEGs to directly publish them on social media channels.
The built-in map support allowsusers to easily localize where images were taken over a map. Colour picker, rating system, bach processing, thumbnail generator, search system, tagging and more features are there on this open-source picture viewer software.
Download DigiKam Price– Free
ImageGlass opensource basic photo viewer
If someone looking for best but basic image viewer then ImageGlass would be an option. Because it is not only snappy, but also provide slideshow, thumbnail view, rotation of images, and other useful options to play with images. You can see: ImageGlass Review
Apowersoft photo viewer
Apowersoft Image viewer comes with a simple but sleek interface with lots of different features. It supports HEIC, JPG, PNG, BMP, PNG, JPG, BMP, TIFF and more image formats; light in weight; has a one-click button to take Screenshot; can process images in Batch; allow sharing of images directly from the image viewer interface;
It can be used to directly open photos taken by Canon, Sony, Nikon, Olympus, Matsushita or any other cameras. Plus also support PDF files reading.
Apowersoft Photo Viewer also provides a free cloud service.
Download Apowersoft
ACDSee Photo Studio Software
Indeed this photo software comes with vast features from photo viewing to editing, but it is available in trial version for 1 month only. If you like it using then you can pay for it.
ACDSee Photo Studio is an image organizer, viewer, and image editor program for Windows, macOS and iOS platforms. Supports wide range image formats. It features Layered Editing, built-in support for over 500 camera models; Luminosity Selection, Customizable Keyboard Shortcuts, Copy/Paste Masks; Support for HEIF, Brush, Colour grade, Colors in ContrastFace Detection & Facial Recognition and more…
Get its free trial.
Other Tools:
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- 7 Best free photo editing apps for Android 2019
Nowadays, most people want to take various types of photos of their friends and families on their mobiles and tablets. It remains as a memory on their smartphones, but when they want to relive those memories on a large Windows laptop or PC screen, they need proper photo or image viewer software.
While you can always enable Windows Photo Viewer, if you are looking for third-party tools, then in this post, we take a look at some of the best photo viewer apps for Windows 11/10:
- XnView
- ImageGlass
- Nomacs
- 123PhotoViewer
- Google Photos for Desktop.
Earlier, people used the built-in Windows Photo Viewer, but recently, Microsoft replaced the old built-in Photo Viewer with the Photo app – but you can still enable Windows Photo Viewer with a trick!
So, in this article, we will discuss some of the top-rated Photo Viewer apps for Windows 11/10.
1] XnView
XnView is a handy photo viewer app for Windows 10, as it supports a multi-lingual user interface. It supports more than 500 file formats, so you can open any type of file on your PC or laptop.
By using this software, you will be able to view your photo in different ways, including the Standard Thumbnail view or the FullScreen view. Moreover, you can also view the images in FileStrip mode and enjoy a Slideshow of your images with the FX option.
Other exciting features include the Duplicate File Finder option, which helps to find duplicate images on the hard disk. XnView provides metadata support along with batch processing and batch renaming.
2] ImageGlass
ImageGlass is a simple Photo Viewer app designed for Windows 10. It has a very modern user interface, but still, it is simple enough for even an amateur person. With the help of this app, you will be able to view the slideshow of all the images present in a particular folder.
This Photo Viewer app also supports many file formats including, JPG, GIF, TIFF, and BMP, etc. This app also allows you to link different file formats to different image editors, making your work much easier.
ImageGlass does not contain an inbuilt editing tool, which is probably the only drawback of this classic Photo Viewer app. Download ImageGlass from imageglass.org.
3] Nomacs
Nomacs is an open-source Photo Viewer app that can easily edit images and photos with basic editing tools like cropping, resizing, and rotating. This app is very similar to the Windows Photo Viewer, and so it can be easily regarded as the most appropriate alternative to the inbuilt Windows Photo Viewer.
You will be able to use Nomacs on almost all Operating Systems, and it also supports a huge number of file formats, including RAW and PSD images. Nomacs will allow you to view the thumbnails, histograms, and metadata of your images, which is another exciting feature of this app. Download and install Nomacs from the official website at nomacs.org.
4] 123 Photos
123 Photos Viewer app is another exciting Photo Viewer app that works flawlessly on Windows, and it supports OneDrive as well. Like most of the other top-class Photo Viewer apps for Windows, 123 Photo Viewer also supports the Slideshow feature that helps you relive your happy moments.
It has a straightforward user interface, which is one of the main advantages of this Photo Viewer app. It offers many filters and effects which you can easily utilize for basic editing tasks. 123 Photo Viewer supports various file formats, including JPEG, PNG, GIF, etc.
With the help of this app, if you require, you can change the file format of your image. This Windows Photo Viewer app also supports the batch rename feature.
Download 123 Photos from Microsoft Store.
5] Google Photos for Desktop
The Google Photos app has an extremely fast and reliable user interface. Its interface is very similar to the Windows Media Player’s interface as it offers many more features than a simple photo viewer app. It is packed with a large number of image editing tools.
Its interface is so simple that while using this app, you can view your image in the FullScreen mode by simply clicking on the “Enter” button on your keyboard. Moreover, you can enter the Slideshow mode by just using a single click. Download the Google Photos for the desktop from here.
Other free Image Viewer software that will interest you:
Nomacs | IrfanView | WildBit | MrViewer | FastStone Image Viewer.
As promised at the beginning of this article, we have highlighted the best Photo Viewer apps on the market. In this article, we have shown most of the free software, although some are open source software, so you can easily download the applications from the Internet. Hence, thoroughly go through the alternatives mentioned above and eventually select the best option according to your preferences.
What is best free image viewer?
The best free image viewers are often considered to be IrfanView or Nomacs. Nomacs is an open-source program that supports various image formats, including RAW and PSD. It offers impressive features like semi-transparent widgets that show thumbnails, metadata, and histograms, catering to a wide range of users on multiple platforms.
Software
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ImageGlass is a lightweight, open-source image viewer for Windows that supports over 80 formats, including WEBP, GIF, SVG, HEIC, and RAW. It offers a clean, minimal interface, slideshow capabilities, and animated GIF support. Customizable with themes and icon packs, it also includes color channel viewing, zooming, and EXIF metadata support. The viewer integrates with external editors for easy image editing and works with keyboard shortcuts, drag-and-drop, and file association. ImageGlass is portable, open-source, and free, ensuring a seamless, efficient experience.
ImageGlass is free for both personal and commercial use, except the Store version.
ImageGlass key features:
- Slideshow capabilities for seamless image presentation.
- Animated GIF support for viewing GIFs without external tools.
- Customizable interface with themes and icon packs.
- Color channel viewing for detailed image analysis.
- High-quality zooming and smooth image transitions.
- Supports EXIF metadata viewing for images with embedded data.
- Multiple file viewing with easy navigation between images.
- Supports image rotation and basic adjustments.
- External editor integration for easy editing from the viewer.
- Windows 10/11 compatibility for smooth operation on modern systems.
- File association for automatic opening of supported formats.
- Keyboard shortcuts for faster navigation and control.
- Customizable right-click menu for quick access to common actions.
- Supports image thumbnails for better file management.
- Drag-and-drop functionality to open images directly into the app.
- Open source and free with no ads or bloatware.
- Portable version for use without installation.
ImageGlass 9.3.0.514 changelog:
New Features
- Invert Colors: Quickly invert image colors with a single click (#2048)
- New Format Support: Added support for SVGZ, JXR, HDP, and WDP image formats (#1047, #2066)
- Live Photo Support: View motion/live photos embedded in JPEG files (#1927)
- Explorer Sort Order V2 (#404, #544, #635, #1683, #2024, #2093):
- Full compatibility with Explorer’s sort orders, including search result ordering
- Supports following sort order from saved search file: .search-ms
- Supports refreshing the image list with Explorer’s sort order
- Limitation: The Explorer window or tab must be open (it can be minimized)
Improvements
- Upgraded to .NET 9
- Updated Magick.NET to v14.6
- Updated «Set default photo viewer» feature to use per-machine level (#1938 #2102 #1855)
- Updated HEIC format read setting MaxChildrenPerBox up to 500 to suppress error «Memory allocation error: Security limit exceeded» (#2099)
- Updated SVGs viewed via WebView2 to display checkerboard backgrounds only within the image bounds (#2076)
- Updated Frame Navigation tool to remember its last-used state between sessions (#2072)
- Disabled «Window Backdrop» setting for Windows 10 (#2083)
- Disabled «Use Explorer sort order if possible» for the Standard user profile in Quick Setup dialog
- Added «Use Explorer sort order if possible» to the «Loading orders» context menu
- Removed the deprecated setting: «Enable image transition» in Settings > Image > Image loading
- Improved thumbnail extraction of Gallery Bar
Bugfixes
- Fixed: Rapid zooming with the mouse wheel misaligned the focus point
- Fixed: Image Booster did not preload images before switching between images (#1482)
- Fixed: Could not change «Toolbar icon size» and «Image quality» setting (#2058, #2059, #2070)
- Fixed: App crashed when opening Crop tool and Color Picker tool on a second monitor with different DPI (#1758, #1868, #2063)
- Fixed: The Copy button in the Color Picker didn’t fit within the modal boundaries (#2062)
- Fixed: JPEG XL HDR images on a non-HDR-system appeared dark and dull (#1677)
Download: ImageGlass 9.3.0.514 | Portable | ~100.0 MB (Open Source)
Download: ImageGlass ARM64 | 92.5 MB
View: ImageGlass Home Page | Github | Screenshot
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Tags
- Imageglass
- Image viewer
- Photo organizer
- Image preview
- Photo viewer
- Picture viewer
- Open source
- Software
Sometimes we want to tweak images/photos on Windows 10 PC or laptop, but the built-in viewer is not good enough or doesn’t offer many options to tweak/edit pictures. This is when we start to think about the default Windows Photo Viewer alternative. This post has picked the seven best image viewers for Windows 10/11 OS. It is also backward compatible with the previous version of Windows OS.
1) Windows Photo Viewer:
Windows Photo Viewer is a default image viewer which comes pre-installed in Windows 10. Microsoft has improved a lot from its previous versions in terms of in-built functionality for Photo viewers.
In the latest version of Windows Photo viewer, besides basic functionality like zoom in-out and image rotation, crop offers features like adding 3D effects, adding animated text etc.
Microsoft is slowly but gradually trying to make the default photo app more robust, but still, they have a long way to go.
2) Irfan View:
The second application in our list is Irfan View, the most popular third-party image viewer for Windows 10. It is also my all-time favourite; I enjoy using its many, many built-in functionalities.
Being an open-source application, it is available for free for different types of devices. It receives multiple iterations-updates from its developer from time to time to keep Irfan View app in the favourite list of all photo view enthusiasts in the world.
This app is not just a simple image viewer but comes with a complete package for all necessary types of editing on the go. You do not need a complicated application like Photoshop to make small tweaks in the image, like the option to read 1 BPP image in RAW dialogue, add effects to pictures like shadow, shape, turn image corners rounded, snowflake, hexagon, spikes, hearts etc.
Irfan View supports many image file formats and a few video formats. The functionality of the application can improve by using the Irfan View plugin.
Download Irfanview
3) FastStone Image Viewer:
FastStone is another fantastic photo viewer for Windows 10; it comes with features like red-eye removal from images, cropping, adding effects etc. It allows the end-user to do multi-tasking with FastStone, like viewing and editing the photos simultaneously. It also supports various image formats and a few advanced file formats like PCX and RAW files used in DSLR or high-end cameras.
The other fantastic functionality available in the application is batch processing of task, i.e. end-user can add as many images and process name change, file format change, cropping images at the desired format can be done in few mouse clicks. The official version of the application can be downloaded by clicking the below button.
Download FastStone
4) XnView:
XnView is another image viewer for Windows 10; launched initially for only a Linux-based eco-system, which was later released for Windows.
The most popular feature the XnView application offers is to create slideshows by selecting a group of images and adding different text and watermarks using a batch processing script. In addition to handling these things, XnView offers functionality that includes correcting and swapping colours, capturing screenshots, converting images into a grayscale format, creating webpages, thumbnails for videos etc.
Download XnView
5) HoneyView:
HoneyView is a simple image viewer for Windows 10, the functionality and features of HoneyView are the same as that of Windows Photo Viewer; however, it offers many additional features under its hood, like support for advanced file formats like PNG, GIF, RAW, TIFF.
The standard functions of the application can be accessed using the right-click menu on the app or keyboard shortcuts, which can be configured according to user choice.
A few other remarkable features are its speed of processing RAW, PSD or LZW- compressed TIF files; rendering such big files sometimes impacts the application’s performance, but HoneyView handles it very well. It supports almost 15 file formats that include animated GIFs.
Download HoneyView
6) Apowersoft Photo Viewer for Windows 10
Apowersoft photo viewer, for Windows 10, is a stylish and not so CPU-hungry application. Users using a mid-range PC or laptop can use this application very quickly without thinking of any issue arising out of it, as the simplicity, smoothness and light design will take a toll on the computer running it.
The application comes with features like support for a wide range of file formats, adding effects & text, resizing and rotating, the ability to take a screenshot and the easy-to-share option.
Download Apowersoft Viewer
7) Freshview:
Freshview application allows the end-user to keep images organized as much as possible. Besides supporting a wide range of image file formats, around 86 also supports video and audio file types.
Its minimalistic design and simple yet powerful make this application stands out from the crowd. Users can create slideshows and watch them in Freshview before sharing them with friends and family. Hence, it acts as a one-stop application for all such needs.
Download Freshview
What are the advantages of installing other image viewers on Windows 10?
The main advantages of installing using third-party image viewers on Windows 10 are the control and ease of performing the task. The default Windows Photo viewer doesn’t offer as much control compared to current third-party apps available in the market.
Features like support for a wide range of image formats, RAW, PSD or LZW- compressed TIF files, option to read 1 BPP image in RAW dialogue set third party application ahead of the competition when compared to Windows photo viewer.
Therefore, if the user is looking for full control over an editing-modifying image, then they should try any of the above-listed applications and can get a crux of features available in such tools.
Do let us know which one is your favourite photo/image viewer for Windows 10 from the list above and why down in your comments!