Ask LH: Which Image Viewer Should I Use?


Dear Lifehacker, I was wondering if you had any recommendations for a good image viewer for Windows. I’ve been looking for something that lets me view most image types and zoom in/out as well as having a nice GUI. I’ve been using Microsoft Office Picture Manager for a while and it fits what I need in that it lets me zoom in/out easily, but it doesn’t support GIF image types and the GUI leaves a lot to be desired.

I also tried IrfanView but I don’t like the look or feel of it and zooming is tedious as it only lets you go by set increments with the + and – buttons and it doesn’t show the percentage zoom. Any other suggestions? Thanks, Picture This

Dear PT,

When I read the very first line of your letter, I immediately thought: “I’ll be recommending IrfanView“. I’m a big fan of IrfanView — it’s lightweight, it has loads of keyboard shortcuts, it can perform complex batch processing, and it’s infinitely more capable than the built-in Windows picture viewer. But then I read on, and realised you’d already tried Irfanview and didn’t like it. Fair enough — it’s a useful reminder that there’s no such thing as a single piece of software everyone will love. Tastes and needs differ. So rather than picking just one tool, here are a couple of free options to try:

  • When we listed superior alternatives to crappy Windows tools, we suggested XnView. That said, if you don’t like IrfanView, I suspect the similarly broad feature set here may not be to your tastes either.
  • Nexus Image is a more recent piece of software, which focuses on viewing rather than editing and has a much more minimal interface (as you can see above).

If anyone wants to recommend other useful Windows image viewers, we’re all ears in the comments.

Cheers
Lifehacker

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