What is a good Image viewer with a quality resizer algorithm? FOSS preferably

[taltamir]

I noticed that when viewing a large image in windows 7 built in viewer or firefox I get significant artifacting if it needs to be compressed to fit the screen (I hate scrolling). Lesser artifacting was noticed in chrome and cdisplayex, but it was still there.

Only photoshop exhibited no artifacting. I can reduce or increase an image in photoshop to a size that fits the screen without stretching (~1000 pixels vertical) and it looks much better when viewed in various viewers. For one thing, there is no more artifacting.

But viewing a gallery / slideshow in photoshop is painfully slow and cumbersome.
Is there a free, preferably foss viewer out there with high quality resizing algorithm?

 

[Gooberlx2]

Try irfanview, xnview, picasa, FastStone, etc...there are many.

 

[ninaholic37]

I don't like how there seems to be no way to make a picture take up the whole screen height in the Win7 Photo Viewer without switching to Slideshow mode (which loads up every image in the directory). Firefox seems a little better because I can just press F11 to make an image full screen, but there doesn't seem to be an easy way to just scroll a directory of images (or see thumbnails) in the browser itself, as far as I can tell.

I guess I'll try experimenting with some free ones on Gooberlx2's list for fun.

 

[Jeff7]

Another vote for Irfanview.
Besides being a decent image viewer, it also has some editing capabilities.
Downside: It still doesn't have proper support for 24-bit-color + 8-bit-alpha PNG files. It can read and display them just fine, but if you try to save it out, you lose the alpha channel. You can select a color to be transparent when saving, but then everything in the image that is that color also becomes transparent, which is usually not the desired behavior.

I have no idea why Microsoft removed good interpolation from their image viewer in Windows 7. I guess the rest of the world has no need to zoom in on things and have them look like something other than a blocky mess.

What I do miss though from XP: If you'd sort a folder in Explorer by something other than name, such as by date, and then open it in Windows' image viewer, the "playlist" of images would follow the same sequence as what was in the Explorer window.
*checking*
And it looks like it still does this in Windows 7. But that low-quality interpolation method the viewer uses means I don't get this useful functionality. :\

 

[taltamir]

Try irfanview, xnview, picasa, FastStone, etc...there are many.

My question was explicitly about the quality of the size scaling. Showing me a list of all viewer programs in existence on wikipedia does not answer it.

Another vote for Irfanview.
Besides being a decent image viewer, it also has some editing capabilities.

And it looks like it still does this in Windows 7. But that low-quality interpolation method the viewer uses means I don't get this useful functionality. :\

Thank you, I use photoshop CS6 extended for my file editing needs. I just need something for viewing images and photoshop is a bit clumsy as a viewer.

I tested infranview and aside from being somewhat clumsy as a viewer as well (partially due to all the editing capabilities) it also has interpolation that appears to be nearly as bad as win7 built in image viewer.

 

[Jeff7]

...
Thank you, I use photoshop CS6 extended for my file editing needs. I just need something for viewing images and photoshop is a bit clumsy as a viewer.

I tested infranview and aside from being somewhat clumsy as a viewer as well (partially due to all the editing capabilities) it also has interpolation that appears to be nearly as bad as win7 built in image viewer.

Huh. Maybe that's from the default settings in Irfanview?
- Open the main program and press 'P' to go to the options screen. (Or - Options ->Properties/Settings
- Full screen/Slideshow section: Check the two "Resample" boxes a little above the middle.

And I think you may have to check the two Resample options in the View -> Display Options menu.


What is clumsy about it, if I may ask?
I've not really used any other image viewer programs besides WinXP's default viewer and Irfanview. (And Win7's default viewer, for about 45 seconds before switching to Irfanview because of the awful interpolation.)

 

[ninaholic37]

I'm trying to install Irfanview 4.33 and it's making me install AVG toolbar (there are 2 options, install AVG toolbar... or install AVG toolbar). Did I download a bad version?

http://www.tucows.com/preview/194967

edit: Hrmm... apparently if press DECLINE on the bottom left, it goes through with installing Irfanview, but doesn't install AVG Toolbar. Alrighty then.

 

[taltamir]

I'm trying to install Irfanview 4.33 and it's making me install AVG toolbar (there are 2 options, install AVG toolbar... or install AVG toolbar). Did I download a bad version?

http://www.tucows.com/preview/194967

edit: Hrmm... apparently if press DECLINE on the bottom left, it goes through with installing Irfanview, but doesn't install AVG Toolbar. Alrighty then.

wow, what a scam!
This tucows site repackaged infranview with spam...

Go get it from http://www.irfanview.com/ and it will NOT ask you to install spam.

Huh. Maybe that's from the default settings in Irfanview?
- Open the main program and press 'P' to go to the options screen. (Or - Options ->Properties/Settings
- Full screen/Slideshow section: Check the two "Resample" boxes a little above the middle.

And I think you may have to check the two Resample options in the View -> Display Options menu.

Found it, only one was checked, but it doesn't seem to have improved anything.

What is clumsy about it, if I may ask?
I've not really used any other image viewer programs besides WinXP's default viewer and Irfanview. (And Win7's default viewer, for about 45 seconds before switching to Irfanview because of the awful interpolation.)

Its clearly an editor, the myriad editing options obscure the plain viewing.
The interface is also somewhat messy looking

 

[ninaholic37]

This tucows site repackaged infranview with spam...

Go get it from http://www.irfanview.com/ and it will NOT ask you to install spam.

Yup. Well I managed to get it to do what I want by going to:

Options - > Properties/Settings
- Start/Exit Options: check "Start in Full Screen Mode"
- Full Screen/Slideshow: uncheck "Show Text" then press OK at the left

Now I just click on an image (in Windows Explorer) and can see it in full screen and scroll through images in the directory right off the bat.

Found it, only one was checked, but it doesn't seem to have improved anything.

One thing I noticed, is that some options don't take effect when you check them (they resume to defaults) unless you press OK on the left. Not sure if that would help for your problem, but it solved mine.