10 Open Source Image Viewer Software For Windows

Image Viewer is a software we all use in our everyday life. Different people use different image viewer depending on their needs and the OS they use. Most people stick with the default image viewer offered by their OS. And, to be honest, many of those image viewers are not so good. For example, most of the time, the default Photos app in Windows 10 takes some time to open an image. This might not matter to all but it surely does to many. So, those people start looking for a viable alternative. This article talks about 10 open source image viewer software that have the potential to be your default image viewer.

Each of these image viewers offers a good set of tools and functions. Most of them also include adjustment tools to tweak images. And, some are even viable to be your default photo manager.

If you are also looking for open source image editor, do check out our other article 10 Free Open Source Image Editors for Windows.

So, let’s explore these image viewers one by one.

Here Are 10 Open Source Image Viewer Software For Windows:

nomacs

nomacs is an open-source image viewer that has the potential to be your default image manager. With its cross-platform availability, you can use it on all major desktop OS including OpenBSD and OS2. It is not just a photo viewer that supports a vast range of image formats, it is also an image editor. You can perform pretty much every basic photo-adjustment task such as color adjustment, tint, exposure, flip, rotate, sharpen, crop, resize and more.

Apart from that, you can view metadata, histogram, file info and can add notes to an image. It also has an option to generate mosaic images and support batch operations. On top of that, it has a plug-in manager where you can add plugins to gain more features. And, you can open multiple instances of nomacs at the same time which is another useful feature most people want/need sometimes.

You can download nomacs open source image viewer here.

ImageGlass

ImageGlass is an open source image viewer software. It is versatile and small in size. It supports all major image formats including HDR, RAW and PSD image. ImageGlass has all basic features and tool that an ideal image viewer should have. Its magnify and scale adjustment tools enhance the user experience.

ImageGlass can be used as a photo manager software. You can add your entire photo-collection to it and easily view, delete, rotate any image with its simple to use tools. It also has an edit option which you can associate with an external software for photo editing. You can also change the visual appearance of ImageGlass by installing themes, changing the background color and other toolbar and thumbnail options.

Download ImageGlass open source image viewer here.

JPEGView

JPEGView is an open source simple image viewer. It has a clean user interface with an auto-hide toolbar. In terms of functionality, it covers all the basic aspects of an image viewer. It offers basic image adjustment tools including auto correct, color-balance and lossless image transformation.

Apart from that, you can view histogram and metadata of images and perform batch operations like batch rename, copy, etc. You can also tweak the GUI to improve the user experience. You can change the navigation style, sort images by various aspects and set hotkeys for various options and tools. All these features make JPEGView a decent image viewer.

Here to download this open source image viewer.

QuickViewer

QuickViewer is another open source image viewer. Rather than offering more image adjustment tools like others, its main focus is to improve the user experience. To do that, it offers many features that you might not know you needed. For example, you can set the default orientation for the wider images, 2-page spread and so on.

Apart from that, you can rotate the image, change its brightness, contrast, and gamma value. You can create catalogs of images and tweak it accordingly. It also has a shader feature which adds different shades to your images. You can use this feature to tweak the shades and shadows in your images.

Download this open source image viewer here.

vJPEG

vJPEG is a borderless image viewer that offers an immersive photo experience to its users. Despite the name, it can open all major image format including PSD. The whole idea behind this image viewer is to open larger images files rapidly. After opening an image, you can drag it around the screen and resize it simply by pushing to the left or the top edge.

With 138KB executable file, its size is very tiny for an image viewer. Regardless of tiny size, it also has hidden keyboard commands. With its different keyboard commands, you can resize, rotate, and auto-levels images and email the actual or compressed version of images.

You can find this open source image viewer here.

PhotoQT

PhotoQt is a powerful open source image viewer written in C++/Qt. The UI is divided into 3 sections; one shows standard folders, second includes the sub folders and the third lists all the images within a particular folder. PhotoQt always runs in full screen mode, you can not resize the window size. It supports many formats and uses GraphicsMagick and Libraw image processing system.

In terms of functionality, you can flip, rotate and scale your images and can apply these parameters permanently. You can also perform basic file management tasks, renaming, deleting, copying, and moving. It also has keyboard and mouse shortcuts which you can customize accordingly. You can set an image as wallpaper and can also play a slideshow of your images. Lastly, it also has a button to upload an image directly to imgur.com

Download this open source image viewer here.

LightGallery

LightGallery is another simple image viewer software. It does not offer any type photo adjustment tools which is okay, its a photo viewer after all. It enriches your image viewing experience with many different features and options. For example, you can change slideshow timing, speed and transition mode, loop the slideshow, enable and adjust auto play options and so on.

The user interface is modern with good animations. The cross-platform availability makes it a good options if you need same photo viewer on all of your systems.

Download this open source image viewer here.

Frame

Another open source image viewer in this list is Frame. With Frame, you can easily browse through your photo library and perform a set of specific tasks. When you open an image in Frame, it shows its basic info at the bottom of the screen. With its channel function, you can adjust the color channels in your image. Here, you can sort your images in any order you like and toggle tile image (makes a 3×3 tiling image) and channel montage. You can set an external photo editing software so that, whenever you have to edit, you can easily switch to that.

You can download this open source image viewer here.

Pictus

Pictus is a small image viewer software. Just like Focus, it shows the basic info about an image at the bottom bar along with loading time. Apart from being a tool to view images, it is very responsive and offers some useful features. With Pictus, you can easily change the orientation of an image and adjust its brightness, contrast and gamma values. You can also rename the image and set it as wallpaper right from the Pictus. It supports all major image file formats including PSD and PSP. It also helps Windows Explorer to show thumbnails for these formats.

Download this open source image viewer here.

MComix

MComix is another open source image viewer in this list which is specifically designed to handle comic books. It supports a variety of container formats including CBR, CBT, CBZ, CB7, LHA, and PDF. It has Double Page and Manga mode to make the magazines and comics reading experience a bliss.

Here, you can transform images and enhance them by adjusting their brightness, contrast, saturation, and sharpness values. You can add bookmarks to images and can also edit those later. In the Manga mode, you can switch between right-to-left and left-to-right, as per your comic. With these features, it serves as both, an image viewer and a comic book reader.

Download this open source image viewer here.

Wrap Up

All these open source image viewers are viable to be your next default photo viewer. They include all necessary tools and features along with their own custom functionalities. If you think your image editor can be better, do check these out and share your opinion with us in the comments.

How to get Windows Photo Viewer back in Windows 10

If you miss Windows Photo Viewer from Windows 7 or 8, here’s how to get it back now that you’ve upgraded to Windows 10.

Windows 10 ($170 at Best Buy) has been around for years, but lots of people have only recently made the switch since Microsoft ended support for Windows 7 back in January (you can still download Windows 10 for free if you need to). If you were a Windows 7 or 8 holdout who just upgraded, you may have noticed that the Windows 10 Photo app is different from the old Windows Photo Viewer, and includes the ability to edit and enhance your images with a couple of clicks.

Even with the upgraded features, some die-hard Windows Photo Viewer fans are finding their way back to their beloved original photo app. Here’s how you can make Windows Photo Viewer the default photo app in Windows 10.

Get more out of your tech

If you upgraded from Windows 7, 8 or 8.1

It’s easy to get the trusty old Windows Photo Viewer back — simply open up Settings and go to System > Default apps. Under «Photo viewer,» you should see your current default photo viewer (probably the new Photos app). Click this to see a list of options for a new default photo viewer. Assuming you upgraded to Windows 10 from a previous version of Windows, you should see Windows Photo Viewer as an option.

Choose Windows Photo Viewer and exit the Settings menu, and you’re done — photos will now open up in Windows Photo Viewer.

If you installed Windows 10 from scratch

This is trickier, because while Windows Photo Viewer is still technically available, it’s not easy to find. It does involve editing the Windows Registry, which you should not attempt unless you know what you’re doing — editing the Registry can be dangerous if you make a mistake.

Here’s how to do it:

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

1. Copy the code from this post by Edwin over at TenForums into Notepad and save it as a REG file (call it whatever you like, maybe photoviewer.reg).

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

2. Double-click on your new REG file to merge it with your Windows Registry. You will need to click through the User Account Control and a few other windows to allow the file to make changes to the Registry.

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

3. You should now be able to see the Windows Photo Viewer and set it as the default program for various image files. To do this, open the Control Panel and go to Default Programs > Set Default Programs. Find Windows Photo Viewer in the list of programs, click it, and choose Set this program as default. This will set the Windows Photo Viewer as the default program for all file types it can open by default.

15 BEST Photo (Image) Viewer Apps for Windows 10 in 2021

Photo viewer is computer software that can display stored pictures. These tools can handle many common file formats like PNG, BMP, JPG, etc. You can use software to rename, cut, copy, delete, and convert images from one format to another. Many applications enable you to view images in full-screen mode without any hassle.

Following is a handpicked list of Top Image Viewer for Windows, with their popular features and website links. The list contains both open source (free) and commercial (paid) software.

Best Windows 10 Photo (Picture) Viewer Apps & Software

1) ACDSee Ultimate

ACDSee Ultimate is a tool that can find duplicate images from a variety of locations and folders. You can get pictures stored on cloud storage apps like OneDrive or DropBox.

Features:

• Convert massive images into other formats.
• The tool is fully customizable.
• View collection of images by date.
• Wirelessly send images to ACDSee Photo Studio from your mobile.
• Supports HEIF (High-Efficiency Image File Format) file formats.
• Erase unwanted objects in the photo.
• It provides image cropping.
• Automatically correct the exposure levels of any photo.
• Adjust the contrast of any image.
• This software allows you to view files in ZIP format without extraction.

2) Microsoft Photos

Microsoft Photos is image viewer for window OS that enables you to edit photos with no hassle. This software enables you to search photos for places, people, things, and more.

Features:

• You can make images smaller for fast scrolling.
• It has improved navigation and design.
• You can crop, and rotate photos, adjust color, lighting, and more.
• Enables you to fix red eyes and blemishes in photos.
• View photos and albums from all your devices.
• See images as a slideshow.
• Set image as a lock screen image or desktop background.
• This tool automatically arranges photos in a timeline that can be scrollable.
• It supports image formats like BMP, JPEG, JPEG GIF, PNG, and more.

3) Adobe Photoshop Elements

Adobe Photoshop Elements is a tool that enables you to edit, create, manage, and share photos. It allows you to add motion to your static images with just one mouse click.

Features:

• You can add personalized quotes or messages to pictures.
• Allows you to create landscape images with ease.
• Offers customized effects to your photos.
• You can move, scale, or duplicate objects.
• This tool automatically adjusts the position of the human face for a selfie.

4) Movavi Photo Manager

Movavi Photo Manager is a tool for Windows, which enables users to manage digital photo collection. It helps you to edit individual or multiple images for the enhancement. The software also helps you to flip, crop rotate, and resize the photo.

Features:

• It enables you to manage RAW, PNG, JPEG, and many other formats.
• Automatically detects faces in the photo and create an album of each person.
• You can add tags to image files.
• It enables you to find and remove duplicate photos from your hard drive quickly.
• View photos in full-screen mode.
• The software can select visually similar images for you.
• Review automatically created photo albums which are sorted by the company.

5) Apowersoft Photo Viewer

Apowersoft Photo Viewer is an app that provides a free cloud service. It supports numerous image formats like PNG, BMP, JPG, etc. This software comes with a function of processing images in batch.

Features:

• You can share photos instantly with other people.
• View long images with ease.
• Screenshot anything which is there on your screen.
• Offers free cloud space.
• It can also work as a PDF reader app.

6) 123 Photo Viewer

123 Photo Viewer is a tool having a simple user interface. This tool supports the most common image formats like .bmp, gif, .jpg, .jpeg, and many more.

Features:

• Animation formats supported by this software are GIF, PNG, etc.
• You can magnify images.
• Use delete key for fast deletion of any file
• You can use a mouse to drag and drop images to the directory.
• Press ‘ESC’ key to quite from the application.
• 123 Photo Viewer enables you to change the format and rename image in batch.

7) Jalbum

Jalbum is application that enables you to create a photo album website from your images. It allows you to create folders to organize your album with no hassle.

Features:

• You can drag and drop images to this web application.
• A photo album can be uploaded to any website or blog.
• You can customize the presentation.
• Allows you to create or edit templates.
• Supports more than 160 different video formats suitable for web presentation.
• You can adjust any images with Straighten and crop tools.

8) ScanMyPhotos

ScanMyPhotos is a website that enables you to scan and view your photos with ease. This service helps you to enhance your old pictures.

Features:

• Offers photo restoration facility.
• It provides you video transfer service.
• ScanMyPhotos allows you to scan all your photos in bulk.
• You will get fast digitization of your photographs.

9) Google Photos

Google Photos allows you to share photos with friends and family using shared albums. It is one of the best photo viewer for Windows 10 which enables you to make room for more memories.

Features:

• This picture viewer for Windows 10 enables you to get back up unlimited photos, images, and videos for free, up to 16MP.
• This app helps you in the management of phone storage.
• It allows you to access them from any phone, tablet, or computer.
• See your photos automatically organized by the people, places, and things that matter.
• Navigate a lifetime of photos with simple gestures.

10) XnView

XnView is a free image viewer that enables users to open and make changes in photos easily. This Windows photo viewer supports JPEG, TIFF (Tagged Image File Format), PNG, PSD (Photoshop Document), GIF, etc.

Features:

• You can adjust the color of image, resize, and crop it.
• It can find duplicate image
• You can quickly view photos and manage images.
• Rename file in batch.
• Create a slideshow of images.
• Available for mobile phones as well as PC.

11) IrfanView

IrfanView is a compact and free image viewer for Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, and 10. It provides multi-language support. This software enables you to preview images using Thumbnail.

Features:

• This picture viewer for Windows 10 supports multiple undo steps.
• You can cut or crop any image.
• Convert image from one format to another in batch.
• You can save slideshow as SCR or EXE.
• Provides directory view of images.
• It allows you to add a watermark into the image.
• Change color in depth.
• Multipage TIF (Tagged Image Format File) editing is possible.
• You can rotate JPEG files.
• This tool supports OCR tread text from image and export in an editable format.

12) FastStone Image Viewer

FastStone Image Viewer is an image viewer for Windows 10. It supports numerous different image formats. This tool allows you to view photos in a variety of ways, like full screen, thumbnails, etc.

Features:

• It provides a fast and user-friendly photo browser.
• FastStone offers quick access to EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) information.
• This tool provides HD magnifier and a musical slideshow with many transactional effects.
• You can drag and drop photos to a directory.
• Add special effects on the image.
• It has a customizable image magnifier.
• This tool has multi-level undo/ redo capability.
• FastStone Image Viewer supports one-touch best fit or actual size display.
• You can compare images side by side.

13) HoneyView

HoneyView is a portable free image viewer. This tool supports operating systems like Windows XP, Vista, 7,8, and 10. You can use it to convert batch photo format conversion with resizing.

Features:

• Supports formats like GIF, JPG, BMP, PNG, and more.
• A portable version is also available.
• It is a freeware software.
• This photo viewer app for Windows 10 allows you to view files in a RAR or ZIP folder without unzipping it.

14) ImageGlass

ImageGlass is a lightweight and versatile image viewing software. It is designed for Microsoft Windows 10, 8, 7 and Vista.

Features:

• This photo viewer app for Windows 10 supports more than 70 file formats.
• You can personalize the software the way you like.
• Switch quickly between images.
• Open-source image viewer that can be used for any purpose.

15) GonVisor

GonVisor is a free sequential image viewer designed for Microsoft Windows. It enables you to view images in the form of a comic book or magazine.

Features:

• This program supports Brazilian, Dutch, English, French, and German, and more languages.
• You can enhance images that are bad taken or scanned.
• You can effortlessly check which comic book you have started reading.
• This Windows 10 photo viewer allows you to sort images and add a description.
• This software enables you to view images quickly.
• Support a full-screen view.
• Adjust image according to the size of your screen.
• Rotate image and save it with a new direction.

16) Nomacs

Nomacs is a free and open source image viewer that supports multiple platforms. It is one of the best photo viewer for Windows 10 that helps you to view all common image formats, including PSD and RAW files. It displays additional information like thumbnails, metadata, and histogram.

Features:

• You can browse images in MS Office files or zip that can be extracted to any directory.
• This image viewer for Windows 10 offers file explorer panel that allows switching between folders.
• You can add notes to the image.
• You can apply filters within the directory.

17) Photo Mechanic

Photo Mechanic is an application that enables you to view, organize, manage, and export digital photos. This tool makes the process of choosing, managing, and adding metadata to your image easier.

Features:

• You can edit any image quickly.
• It is one of the best photo viewer Windows 10 which enables you to copy images from memory cards.
• You can add metadata to the image.
• It has a basic feature that helps you to preview images with ease.
• Contains structured Keyword lists that enable you to add related keywords for searching a file.
• Copy, delete, tag, watermark, rename, and resize the image in batch.
• Geotag images by applying your saved GPS tracking logs.
• Synchronize photos from more than one camera.
• You can view and compare images side by side.

18) DigiKam

DigiKam is an open-source and free image viewer and tag editor written in C++. This tool can work with Operating systems like Linux, Windows, and even macOS. It contains a set of tools that can be used for importing, managing, editing, and sharing photo.

Features:

• You can transfer photos directly from external storage devices like USB sticks, SD cards, etc.
• Process images and publish them to social media.
• Filter album by file name, type, labels, and tags.
• Icon view enables you to display images as a thumbnails and full size.
• Easily compare images.
• You can create image presentation using this Windows 10 photo viewer.
• It enables you to crop, rotate, and flip photos.

19) FastPictureViewer

FastPictureViewer is a software that is developed for photographers with the aim of speeding up the image section. It has a facility to quickly review, rate, and annotate large quantities of pictures.

Features:

• It is one of the best photo viewer Windows 10 that provides full support of 4K and 5K monitors.
• View images in full-screen mode.
• You can press the delete button to simply remove the images.
• Tag, filter by rating, move, or copy images in batch.
• Allows you to sort by folder and file name.

⚡ Which are the Best Photo Viewing Apps for Windows 10?

Following are some of the best photo viewing apps for Windows 10:

• ACDSee Ultimate
• Microsoft Photos
• Adobe Photoshop Elements
• Movavi Photo Manager
• Apowersoft Photo Viewer
• 123 Photo Viewer
• Google Photos

💻 How to set default Photo Viewer in Windows 10?

Below are the steps to set the default photo viewer of your choice in Windows 10:

1. First, make sure you have installed the photo viewer you want to set as default on your computer
2. On the desktop, press “Win + I”
3. Navigate to the Default Apps > Photo viewer
4. Press the left click on Photos, and you will see the list of Photo viewing apps
5. Select the app you want to set as default
6. Your desired app will be set as default to view photos

✅ How to select the Best Photo Viewer for Windows 10?

To select the best photo viewer for Windows 10, we should consider the following factors:

• GUI and User Experience
• Usability and Compatibility
• File formats supported
• Tools and functionalities offered
• How photos are organized
• Ease of finding images
• Sharing options
• Album creation
• Basic editing, filters, and tagging features
• Cloud compatibility