Suggestion: Tab previews a la FireFox

[JohnFredC]

It would be great if a customizable preview panel would display on mouse hover over a tab. Firefox has a (non-customizable, apparently) implementation that I use more and more every day:



My idea would be, depending on the "kind" of tab (Browser, Image, Compare, Slideshow, etc., etc.) that the user could select what appeared on the preview panel. Some ideas would be:

Image (or compare) preview
Tool bar with user definable buttons such as previous/next, rename, category, rating, close, etc.
Various image stats (path, resolution, EXIF, IPTC, etc.)
Histogram
Folder stats (for browser tab)

Having this stuff in a mouse hover panel below (or above) the tab saves screen real-estate, is local to the image, and IMO could potentially simplify the interface. A user could turn off all toolbars, status bar, (even the menu?) for an ultra clean interface, but still have access to tools that appear when mousing over the tab.

[ckit]

Love the sound of this suggestion, strongly support it!

[marcoswat]

only if it won't use much ram or slow it a lot!
I find it slow just to open a new tab already - 6-7s for a raw

[xnview]

only if it won't use much ram or slow it a lot!
I find it slow just to open a new tab already - 6-7s for a raw

More than xnview?

[JohnFredC]

Loading/preparing the tab preview images could occur in the background after the image itself is loaded and displayed. The cached thumbnail would be a fast source for the tab preview image.