Does anyone here know of an image viewing program that's not terrible?
I've tried the windows photo gallery, the windows photo app, xnview, faststones, irfan view and cdisplayex. Every one of these apps except the last two doesn't give me the option to open images at native resolution by default, which means that they are plain useless. (I have some hope remaining that it's just a bug in xnview rather than by design, because the options look like they should support that.)
But I also have some gripes with irfan view. I haven't seen that program improve in a decade and they forum is locked so I don't think any of my complaints is ever gonna be addressed. And cddisplayex has bad controls. I am gonna write some suggestions in their forums though.
Do I really have to program my own goddamn image viewer? In 2016?

So, does anyone have a program that they can recommend? I would be quite thankful.

last edited at Aug 9, 2016 9:22PM

I've been using Linux the past couple of years, but is ACDSee still a thing?

I've been using Linux the past couple of years, but is ACDSee still a thing?

Gonna try that tomorrow.
I just tried out Honeyview and it's... actually not that terrible. It has some problems but when configured right it's only slightly worse than irfan view, currently. And one can hope that it will improve in the future. I'm gonna post in their forum and see if I can give some feedback.

If you need to open images at native resolution for editing, typesetting, etc. you might also be interested in GIMP which has a Windows version, though its interface for making edits is, well, decent at best.

muteKi posted:

If you need to open images at native resolution for editing, typesetting, etc. you might also be interested in GIMP which has a Windows version, though its interface for making edits is, well, decent at best.

I'd seriously recommend getting Photoshop instead, regardless of how you have to go about it. Or go for Paint.net if you're on Windows because while it has nowhere near the amount of functionality that Photoshop or Gimp have, it's actually usable in comparison to Gimp.

No, just for looking at pictures. I need native resolution, because resized images often look bad. A resized comic page can be unreadable. This should be a no-brainer.
I have a long list of complains about Photoshop as well, but at least it's a complicated program. But how do you screw up an image viewing program?

I've been using Linux the past couple of years, but is ACDSee still a thing?

Took a look at ACDSee. It doesn't resize the window when the next image has a different resolution, so you basically have to use it in fullscreen mode, always. It also doesn't have context sensitive navigation keys, that scroll or go to the next image, depending on whether the image can be scrolled horizontally. So you have to use "space, backspace, up, down" to read comics which requires two hands or moving one hand constantly, which is annoying. (Honeyview also didn't have context sensitive navigation but at least I could rebind the controls on keys that are next to each other.) My horizontal scrolling wheel is not supported and the vertical scrolling wheel jumps to the next page instead of scrolling down. Irfan view is still better.

My take on Honeyview in their forums: https://forum.bandisoft.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=5522

last edited at Aug 10, 2016 5:39AM

Maybe you should look for specialized comic viewer, they generaly have what you're searching for. I'm on Linux too though, I don't know what they have on windows.

I have a long list of complains about Photoshop as well, but at least it's a complicated program. But how do you screw up an image viewing program?

I think it's less them screwing up so much as you have specific needs that aren't necessarily requested by the majority of users. As was already suggested, comic reading utilities might have what you're looking for, rather than image viewers.

Every one of these apps except the last two doesn't give me the option to open images at native resolution by default, which means that they are plain useless.

I use the program in German so I don't know the exact name of the option in English but in XnView there is an option to not resize pictures.

last edited at Aug 10, 2016 10:23AM

I use the program in German so I don't know the exact name of the option in English but in XnView there is an option to not resize pictures.

That's what I thought. In German I try to use the options Ansicht->Automatische Bildgröße->Nicht Anpassen. But it always resets to "Auf Fenstergröße anpassen, nur große Bilder".
Update: turns out I need to set this in tools->options->view, everything I do in the normal view tab will not carry over.

About comic readers, I've already tried cdisplayex and the controls are bad in a way that can't be customized as I already said. But I went and tried a few more.
-ComicRack can only open archives which means that its uses are pretty limited. I generally prefer to unzip my comics so I can see thumbnails. But it may be possible to display thumbnails in zipped archives somehow, I wanted to look into that anyway. Haven't experimented with the controls further for now.
-MComix has controls that I don't like and they are not customizable.
-MangaMeeya: Ok, mangameeya has, by default, the worst controls of the whole bunch. But they can be customized pretty well; it has the most options yet. It doesn't have the option to change the window size according to the displayed image automatically, though. I tried to be clever and bind the shortcut for resizing the window on every key I use for navigating but I can only bind it to one key, so that's out. Fullscreen-mode-only it is. I also don't like that there is visible tearing when I scroll a page, but I might be able to fix that if I peruse the settings a bit more.

So at this point I have four apps that are "okay" (irfan view, honeview, mangameeya and xnview).

I think it's less them screwing up so much as you have specific needs that aren't necessarily requested by the majority of users. As was already suggested, comic reading utilities might have what you're looking for, rather than image viewers.

I'm gonna be so arrogant and say that many of my unmet needs aren't really that specific. My hor. scrolling wheel isn't supported? Sure, that's a specific need. I wouldn't go on a rant over that, I would send the developers a feature request and make do without it. But controls like "the image will start scrolling to the right when you hold down but hit the lower edge"? I'm not gonna put up with blunders like those. I will furthermore be as arrogant as to say that the majorities of users, as well as the majority of programmers are uneducated in interface design and don't see the problems that're right in front of their eyes.
But thank you for suggesting a program I hadn't tried before. I forgot to thank you earlier.

last edited at Aug 10, 2016 3:08PM