Fullscreen view performance, user friendliness, problems feedback

Ideas for improvements and requests for new features in XnView MP

Moderators: XnTriq, helmut, xnview

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brand2321
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2019 9:27 pm

Fullscreen view performance, user friendliness, problems feedback

Post by brand2321 »

suggestions:
  • Keep program running (in windows tray) after you close the window.
    Opening images from within the xnview browser is fast, almost instantaneous which is great. Opening images from windows explorer is slow in comparison but it is faster when a xnview browser window is already open. So instead of starting the program each time you view an image it could be left to run in the background for faster image display.
  • Thumbnail panel in fullscreen view: Move scrollbar to the top.
    The thumbnail panel that shows up when the mouse is at the top edge in fullscreen should have the scrollbar accessible immediately. The scrollbar being at the bottom is less userfriendly since it's slower and the panel disappears when the mouse moves out.
  • Zooming, panning & browsing could/should be possible with mouse only. All 3 actions cannot be done without keyboard.
    My idea: Default action for mouse-wheel = zoom, middle mouse-drag = rectangle-zoom, left mouse-drag = pan, right mouse-drag to right/left = load next/previous image, 1 image per 10 pixel or so. Rectangle-selection for editing being a default mouse action is a weird thing in xnview, it's not the primary function of an image viewer, so rectangle-selection = right mouse drag + keyboard.
  • Toggling between 'auto-fit' & 'actual-size' should also be possible with mouse only.
    For example with left-click on image - just like on a web browser. If you are zoomed in, click = back to actual size, click again = auto-fit. (if image larger than viewport)
  • Quickedit functions to be available in fullscreen and have keyboard shortcuts for fast access. Important ones:
    Lossless jpeg crop or crop (X in faststone).
    Resize (Ctrl+R in faststone)

problems:
  • If you open an image from windows explorer while the xnview browser window is open, the fullscreen image shows up behind the windows explorer window (or behind the web browser - whatever program initiates it). it should be always on top.
  • xnview browser window should not pop up when you close an image from fullscreen that you've opened through windows explorer.
bug:
  • JPEG-XR does not work (export function). Does not save file if the export file-path contains non-ASCII characters.
potential performance issue:
  • When opening an image in fullscreen, white horizontal bars appear at the top & bottom of the screen for a short time. Apparently something is being unnecessarily created that isn't immediately needed.

These are the first things that came to my mind as I was checking out this program. xnview is fast and for that reason one of the best image viewers for sure, with nice conversion/renaming features and support for newer formats like webp, but I can't say it's THE best, yet, because of the above-listed inconveniences and problems. All one really wants from an image viewer is instant image opening, maybe quick-editing, instant closing without delays. if you have that, you have the best image viewer. Overall you guys have done nice work that is appreciated.




other things:
- Batch conversion: Detecting current jpg quality of images and skipping over images that are already in a lower quality than the one chosen. When trying to reduce the sizes of jpg images of mixed qualities in a folder, batch converter should not save a jpg image in a higher quality than the one that the image is already in.
- Export function could replace the "save as" function, or compression options from the export dialogue could be added to the "save as" function
- Show current quality of jpg image (when saving a jpg image - a la faststone)
- Lossless jpg-image cropping: Selection rectangle to jump in 8px steps and precisely show final result.
- Lossless jpg-image cropping: Cropped image should not replace original file, auto-backup is nice but the created image should be the newly cropped image
- Selection rectangle: When dragging - Allow arrow-keys to move selection-rectangle by 1px for precise control. When resizing - Allow arrow-keys to move the border of selection-rectangle by 1px.
- Thumbnail size in browser view can be in-/decreased with Ctrl+mousewheel (as in windows explorer)
- Tooltip showing filename, size should appear immediately, without delay in browser view (maybe also in fullscreen view). Tooltip should move with the mouse instead of staying where it appeared. It can include additional image info, like categories.
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