XnView Pocket picture viewer - Powerful Freeware

[Darren Garyson]

XnView 1.5 is a free image and photo viewer/manager for the Pocket PC. From their website:

Features
• Display in 5 input modes : Thumbnail, list, detail, Filmstrip et full screen.
• Use of the favorites to simplify and accelerate the navigation through files.
• Display informations, exifs and iptc of images.
• Sorting of images by the name, the date, the type, the size and the definition, the whole in ascending or decreasing order.
• Conversion of images between the different supported formats.
• Resizing of images according to various factors, sizes, and possibility to resize to the screen size in order to obtain the best ratio weight/clearness.
• Screen capture
• Association of image types with XnView Pocket possible and modifiable.
• Slide Show mode

Reading :Jpeg / Jfif, Gif, Bmp, Png, 2bp, Tif, Pcx, Pbm, Pgm, Ppm, Pnm, xbm, xpm, Tga
Writing :Jpeg, Gif, Bmp et Png

Available for Pocket PC 2000 (MIPS SH3), Pocket PC 2002/2003 (ARM/XSCALE)

Download your free copy right here. (http://xzeos.hosted.firstream.net/site_xnview_uk/Pocket_uk/index.html)

[Pony99CA]

Good find! That does look impressive.

However, the screen shots show that the user interface is in French. Is that true of the version you installed, or is there an English version available, too? I couldn't figure it out from their Web site.

Steve

P.S. Something seems wrong with the post count. Yours still shows one, and you've posted more than once. :confused:

[Gerard]

It's in English on my iPAQ 3835. I didn't notice a French version being offered, though I suppose there must be one. With the PC version one can use many, many language modules and select the language of your choice. My wife uses it in Japanese on her Japanese OS notebook.

The PPC version seems to share almost nothing with the PC version in terms of ease of use, interface design, or general feel and functionality. Edits to images are force-saved, at every change. This I found profoundly frustrating, as the changes aren't reflected in the original image, just in the default autosaved image. But by far the worst change from the PC version is that in the PPC rendition, every edit window shows the whole image. That means, for instance, that using the Sharpen or Reduce Noise commands, it is completely impossible to tell what has happened if the image is of larger scale. In the PC version one is offered sliders for most changes to images, with a checkbox for realtime updates to where the slider is moved... before accepting the changes. Pocket Artist does something like this, easily, so I know it's not a problem of memory limitations in PPC.

There are a number of other problems with this interpretation of XnView which took my initial excitement about 2 weeks ago down to mild interest within an hour of downloading it. Now it's uninstalled. I'll check back at the site once in a while, see if it's been updated and try again, maybe. But frankly it seems like someone has very loosely interpreted the great PC version and come up with something which doesn't really resemble it at all for the PPC. It's not the same author, correct?

I've been using XnView, very happily, on my PC for a couple of years. Last year I wrote a long email to the author begging that he consider releasing a PPC version, and he wrote back a very polite answer; no. It wasn't worth doing for what he anticipated would be a very low demand. Perhaps he farmed it out? Or someone volunteered? Whatever happened, this isn't really XnView. PQV is vastly more usable, in my opinion. Of course, PQV isn't free and this one is...

[Pony99CA]

Originally posted by Gerard
But frankly it seems like someone has very loosely interpreted the great PC version and come up with something which doesn't really resemble it at all for the PPC. It's not the same author, correct?
I don't know if it's the same author, but the two programs seem to be offered by the same company, Xzeos (http://xzeos.hosted.firstream.net/).

Steve

[Gerard]

Well, here's where I've always gone to get XnView for the PC:

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/pierre.g/xnview/endownload.html

Take note; there is no XnView Pocket in evidence on that page, at least not yet. It shows links for Linux, Solaris, Open BSD, Mac OSX, all the Windows PC versions... but no Pocket PC. There's something called 'Linux ppc', but I checked that over a year ago and it's not relevant.

Compare that to the Pocket link:

http://xzeos.hosted.firstream.net/site_xnview_uk/Pocket_uk/

Sure, that page gets linked directly from the main 'Pierre G' page. But wouldn't that just indicate a courtesy, sort of like the Japanese nPOP page offering a link to nPOPw? Only in that case the wibble-wobble version is almost identical to the source. In the case of XnView Pocket, there is virtually zero resemblance.

Certain functionalities are present in both, but rather differently implemented. Gamma adjustment for instance; in the full version the slider starts in the middle, allowing both upward and downward adjustment. In the Pocket version, only up, and brighter, is allowable. Since about 90% of my use of the gamma slider has always been down, for better intensity of colours and depth in shadows, this tool has been rendered almost useless. I rather suspect a similar complaint from most users.

This is stilll in beta, and surely some unfortunate aspects will be worked out. That's why I said I'll go back eventually and check it out. But the course is laid. I have never yet seen an author start again from scratch with a GUI during public beta testing, so this is basically the interface we're going to get from this author, whoever it is. I'll be happily eating crow if this proves wrong, if XnView Pocket turns out to become a whole lot like the PC version - with dozens of wicked tools for adjustment of images, plus a pile of great effects, keyboard shortcuts, saving if and when I choose instead of on every change...

[Pony99CA]

Originally posted by Gerard
Well, here's where I've always gone to get XnView for the PC:

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/pierre.g/xnview/endownload.html

Take note; there is no XnView Pocket in evidence on that page, at least not yet. It shows links for Linux, Solaris, Open BSD, Mac OSX, all the Windows PC versions... but no Pocket PC. There's something called 'Linux ppc', but I checked that over a year ago and it's not relevant.

Compare that to the Pocket link:

http://xzeos.hosted.firstream.net/site_xnview_uk/Pocket_uk/

Sure, that page gets linked directly from the main 'Pierre G' page. But wouldn't that just indicate a courtesy, sort of like the Japanese nPOP page offering a link to nPOPw?
I have no idea, but, as you've tried both, why don't you investigate and find out for us? :)

Steve

[Gerard]

I'm changing my tune, again. :) Seems the developer, who either is or is not Pierre Gougelet (I'll write him a bit later - right now I'm about to be late for a user group meeting if I don't get gone), seems to have been busy. XnView Pocket was up to version 1.05 as of last night, and in testing it a bit he seems to have improved some things rather well. It's still a bit glitchy here and there, but I think it's showing real promise with this version. Time to put away my attitude problem and get busy submitting error reports... though the online bug form is in French only it seems, and a bit odd in structure. I'm used to a simple email submittal routine for betas, but whatever.