Image viewers for Linux

Expected features of a good image viewer for Linux

First let's have a look on the expectations one could have when choosing an image viewer. Personally I think the ideal image viewer for Linux should :

• preferably be a gnome software, since gnome software mostly works well with kde, however kde software run under gnome do have the hyper annoying habit to ask for attention continuously by blinking in the task bars of all the workspaces for no reason, which makes them quite unusable under gnome.


• show a folder tree on the left, preferably with plus minus signs, not the ugly triangles which are inconvenient to click on.


• remember the last watched folder, show the tree and highlight the last watched folder after the next launch, not like gwenview is doing it recently, just showing the path in one line.


• show (a lot of) thumbnails with file name and image size in pixels on the right area.


• show an image preview on the left, below the folder tree.


• show the jpeg comment below the image preview.


• have 6 tabs or buttons to let you switch between the image preview, its complete exif data, its iptc data, an exif editor, an iptc editor, a jpeg comment editor. For the exif and iptc edition, a small GUI which would call the console program ExifTool would be a good idea.


• editing jpeg comment, exif or iptc data should also be possible when multiple thumbnails are selected (batch editing).


• display the file size (kB), image size (pixel), date, image preview zoom factor of the currently selected thumbnail, in the status line.


• copying/moving one or several images to another folder in the tree by drag and drop should be possible.


• a double click on a thumbnail opens the image in a large window like it is done by gThumb (with previous/next, full screen and slide view options, zoom in, zoom out, zoom1/1 and zoom fit toolbar buttons).


• the user should be able to associate several toolbar buttons and/or hot-keys with several image editors.

Reviews

Now let's make a review of some of the available image viewers, what they do well and what is missing. They are sorted in alphabetical order, not in any order of preference.

danpei version 2.9.7-1build1

danpei doesn't work with Ubuntu 7.04 on my box. Segmentation fault at launch (through terminal).

ExifTool

ExifTool is a command line program that lets you watch and edit the jpeg comment, the exif data, the iptc data, the GPS data and whatever. It is not listed in synaptic.

eye of gnome version 2.18.1

• eye of gnome has a thumbnail view at the bottom which can be switched on and off (F9)
• it doesn't have a folder navigation area nor a tree, thus it is best used when associated with image files and opened by a double click on a file in any file manager like thunar or nautilus.
• on the right of the image preview, an area with the file informations including the exif values can be switched on and off (CTRL-I)
• together with the file manager thunar and with image files associated to eye of gnome, the couple makes an image viewer package.
• if in a given directory, some photos do have exif data and others do not, walking through the photos with eye of gnome will erroneously show the photos without exif data as having the exif data of the last photo that had some.
• if exif data have been written by xnview (e.g. after a batch resize), eye of gnome can not see them anymore, but other viewers still can.

GImageView version 0.2.27-1build2

• GImageView shows a folder tree
• the tabbed area below the tree shows either an image preview or some data or some note.
• it shows the exif data through a right click on a thumbnail (context menu).
• it has many preferences settings.
• it has multiple tabbed thumbnails views, which is unique to GImageView.
• the file size (kB) of the selected thumbnail is shown in the status line, but the image size (pixel) isn't.
• after the next launch, it does not remember the folder watched last time.
• moving/copying an image by drag and drop is available, asks if copying or moving is requested.

gqview version 2.0.1-1ubuntu2

• gqview has a folder navigation area on the left, default is not a tree but you can switch to a tree (CTRL-T).
• it shows a small selection of the exif data or a large list of exif data through a right click on a thumbnail (context menu) and selecting properties. In another properties tab it shows some keywords but it's not the IPTC keywords and some comment, but it's not the jpeg comment nor the exif comment, probably an own incompatible one. CTRL-E shows the EXIF data in the image preview zone, closely to my expectations, I just needed to find it out !
• the preview area is below the tree on the left.
• doesn't show a large image view like others by double clicking on a thumbnail, but has a full screen mode (key F) and a nearly full screen view with CTRL-H, which is just as well.
• the file size (in kB) and image size (in pixel) are displayed in the status line.
• a setting lets you choose which folder (a fixed one, always the same) to open at launch, but it does not remember the folder watched last time.
• moving/copying an image by drag and drop is available, asks if copying or moving is requested.

Comment: At first, I did not look at gqview for more than a few minutes, since the tree was not switched on as default and gqview did not impress me much. Finally, it looks like that gqview is rather close to the expectations above if you remember a few hot keys. Presently, I use it daily.

gThumb version 2.10.2

• gThumb has a folder navigation area on the left, but does not show a tree.
• the preview area below the tree can be switched to show an image preview, the exif info or to show a comment (not the jpeg comment nor the exif comment but probably an own incompatible comment).
• it displays the file size (kB), image size (pixel), date, image preview zoom factor, in the status line.
• it does remember the path watched last time.
• batch resizing with gThumb loses all the exif data

gwenview version 1.4.1

• like most kde software run under gnome, gwenview has the hyper annoying habit to ask for attention continuously by blinking in the task bars of all the workspaces for no reason.
• older versions did shows a tree and come back to the last watched folder after the next program launch, as I would expect from every image viewer.
• version 1.4.1 is still going to the last watched folder after the next program launch, but does display the full path in one line instead of the tree and the highlighted folder. This makes the program useless, since you will have to re-navigate to the wished folder, as if the program would not remember it at all. I do not understand why a good feature has been wrecked, apparently intentionally.

mirage version 0.8.1-0ubuntu3

• mirage is an image viewer only, no tree, no thumbnails
• it is interesting as a program associated with image files that opens when double clicking an image in a file manager like thunar or nautilus.

pornview version 0.2pre1-7

The name should not stop you from watching decent photos with the program!

• shows a tree on the left, and comes back to the last watched folder after the next program launch, a little thing that seems evident to be expected, nevertheless very few do it.
• it shows thumbs on the left below the tree.
• it shows an image preview on the right.
• it has very few menu and tool buttons.
• moving/copying an image by drag and drop is not available.

showimg version 0.9.5-1.1ubuntu1

• like most kde software run under gnome, showimg has the hyper annoying habit to ask for attention continuously by blinking in the task bars of all the workspaces for no reason.
• it shows a folder tree.
• it shows the file size (kB) and the image size (pixel) in the status line.
• default is thumbs at left below the tree, image preview at right.
• selecting another layout makes 4 tabbed full pages (tree, thumbs, preview, meta) no way back !

thunar version 0.8.0

thunar is a fast and convenient file manager. When browsing through any files with a file manager, I always thought that the view as icons is absolutely useless and the view as detailed list should be the default (Bill did never understand that either). But when you are browsing though folders with images or photos, the "view as icons" makes sense somehow since it makes thunar to look like an image viewer. Moreover it is fast and a folder with a lot of images will not take too long to build up the thumbnails. Switch to detailed list with CTRL-2 and to thumbnails with CTRL-1.

• If you associate the image types with mirage, a double click on a thumbnail will open a large image view like most dedicated image viewers would do.
• Thus the couple thunar and mirage make a rather comfortable image viewer.
• Moving/copying images to another folder by drag and drop is not a problem for a good file manager like thunar.
• Unfortunately, thunar does not remember the last watched folder after the next launch.
• Obviously, you won't have an image preview within thunar (apart the thumbnails) since thunar is a file manager.

Remark : you could also associate the image types with eye of gnome, but when double clicking a thumbnail, eye of gnome opens in the background, takes a little longer than mirage and will mislead you if you have images with and without exif data.

xnview version 1.70

• xnview is available for Linux and Windows, but it is the Linux version that we are referring to here.
• Installation on Linux needs some attention, doesn't work "out of the box". But we have tips for that.
• Shows a tree and comes back to the last watched folder after the next program launch, a little thing that seems evident to be expected, nevertheless very few do it.
• default is preview at right below the thumbnails, but the layout can be changed at menu view/layout.
• moving/copying an image by drag and drop is not available.
• right click and properties do show the jpeg comment, the exif data and the iptc data (xnview is the only one to show iptc data),
• iptc data can be edited = a big plus

My recommendations

depending on what you want to do.

• to watch full screen images : GQview (F), gThumb (F11), GimageView (SHIFT-F), xnview (CTRL-F)
• to copy/move files around by drag and drop : GQview, GimageView, thunar, nautilus
• to batch resize images :
  
  • xnview (menu Tools/Convert... CTRL-U) keeps EXIF and IPTC and JPEG comment (the only one ?)
  • David's batch processor, a plug-in for the Gimp (menu Xtns/Batch Process...), will keep EXIF, lose IPTC and overwrite the JPEG comment with "DBP"
  • gThumb (menu Tools/Scale Images...) will lose all the EXIF data and IPTC data
  • Photophilia (through the Wine) will keep EXIF and JPEG comment, but lose IPTC
• to watch the jpeg comment : xnview, ExifTool
• to edit the jpeg comment : ExifTool
• to watch exif data : gThumb, xnview, GQview, ExifTool, avoid eye of gnome
• to edit exif data : ExifTool
• to watch iptc data : xnview, ExifTool
• to edit iptc data : xnview, ExifTool
• to watch GPS data : GImageView, ExifTool
• to edit GPS data : ExifTool

Comparison table of image viewers for Linux

image viewer function	Gqview 2.0.1-1	gThumb 2.10.2	Gimage View 0.2.27-1	xnview 1.70	thunar 0.8.0	nautilus 2.18.1	mirage 0.8.1	eye of gnome 2.18.1	ExifTool command line tool	David's Batch Processor (Gimp)
folder tree	yes	no	yes	yes	yes	yes
remembers last time folder	no	yes	no	yes	no	no
move/copy by drag n drop	yes	no	yes	no	yes	yes
file size (kB) in status line	yes	yes	no	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
image size (pixel) in status line	yes	yes	no	yes	yes	no	yes	yes
layout configurable	yes	yes	yes	yes
thumbnail view	yes	yes	yes	yes				yes
preview zoom factor in status line	yes	yes	no	yes
image zoom factor in status line	no	yes	yes at top	yes			yes	yes
large image view	CTRL-H	double click	double click	double click
full screen images	F	F11	SHIFT-F	CTRL-F			SHIFT- RETURN	F11
batch resize images	no	loses EXIF + IPTC +JPEG comment		keeps EXIF + IPTC + JPEG comment						keeps EXIF, loses IPTC + JPEG comment
watch JPEG comment	no	no	right click property	right click properties			no	no	yes
edit JPEG comment	no	no	no	no			no	no	yes
watch EXIF data	CTRL-E or right click properties	preview tab or right click properties	right click scan exif data	right click properties			no	yes, not well	yes
watch EXIF written by xnview	yes	yes	yes	yes				no	yes
edit EXIF data	no	no	no	no			no	no	yes
watch IPTC data	no	no	no	right click properties			no	no	yes
edit IPTC data	no	no	no	right click edit IPTC			no	no	yes
watch GPS data	no	no	right click scan exif data	no			no	no	yes
edit GPS data	no	no	no	no			no	no	yes