GOOD Image viewer for OS X?

[TwistedMelon]

I have downloaded the Ulead viewer. I think that Iphoto is much
better and it doesn't cost anything. The, too, if you are using PS
7 it has some very powerful features too,

Photoshop is not an image viewer or browser. It is a huge program and not suited for quickly launching an image. It takes too long for Photoshop to load for it to be useful in this regard. Photoshop is also very slow at loading images. Its file browser preview images (to the left of the thumbnails) look terrible as well. Nothing compared to ACDSee or a number of other programs for Windows.

And iPhoto? Oh my. That is one sick joke of a program. It's next to useless for any purpose. The best thing I can say about it is that you can save a couple of megabytes of space on your hard drive after you delete it. It's THAT bad.

Iview media pro or whatever is a 2.5mb programe selling for
$50-$90. Somehow I cxan't see paying any money for this little
program. Maybe $10.00 as a shareware fee.

Maybe you should get into software development to see why people charge what they do for software.

I'll have to take a look at the program to see if it's any good though. Recently I've tried Photogrid and I think it too falls very short of the mark in usability. People keep trying to make a better wheel. I wish they;d try and keep them round - they don't work too well when they're square or triangular.

I'm coming to the conclusion that the Mac development community, on average, just can't get to grips with making usable and straight-forward software. It's no wonder that the two best, as well as largest, develpers for Mac OS are Microsoft and Adobe.

Bruno

 

[Jerry Rosen]

You seem very unhappy with a Mac computer. I find this to be very unusal. I came from a windows computer to Mac and like most people, I would never go back. However, you are a different story. So,,,My suggestion is to go back to a windows based computer so that you can run Acdsee until your heart is content.

I've tried what seems like all the image viewers I could find that
will run native in OS X. My impression of all of them has been
less than enthusiastic. In fact I've thought they were all
terrible - as viewers. Some of them did a few interesting things,
but they all suffered from very poor interface design.

Even the award-winning (and my personal favorite for Windows)
ACDSee was a pretty shabby effort, IMO.

I want (need) something that approaches the level of viewing
capabilities of ACDSee for Windows (even something at the level of
ACDSee 3.1). When I click on an image in the finder, I want to
have it show up in a viewer window at its original (non-scaled)
size. I want to have some controls for easily panning the image
around (cursor keys would be nice), zooming in and out, one-key to
fit-to-window, one key to go to next image in the same folder/path,
key for previous, etc. I'd like this without having to have a
seperate file-browser window open.

ACDSee for Mac OS, unlike the Windows version, seems to always want
to treat viewer windows seperately from the browser window. It
won't close the browser (or replace it with the image) when
double-clicking an image. And I've found no way to configure it to
behave the way I'd like. It's not a very good mirror of the
functionality that established their Windows product as the
best-of-platform.

Do I hear any suggestions? The built-in helper in Previewer in Mac
OS X is simply unusable for anything in my opinion, so that's
obviously out of the question.

Bruno

 

[TwistedMelon]

You seem very unhappy with a Mac computer. I find this to be very
unusal.

My suggestion to you is, that if you don't have anything to contribute, and don't know a thing about what you're stepping into, keep your fingers off the keyboard.

I use both platforms. I'm employed to work on Macs as a matter of fact. I have quite in-depth knowledge of both. I can identify the shortcomings and strengths of the product lines and the operating systems.

If you're hell-bent on hugging your Mac like a teddy bear and can't take some truth, you really shouldn't bother with the internet. Nor the outside world for that matter.

Meanwhile, I'm still looking for a quick, clean image viewer for Mac OS X that will come even remotely close to what I'm already using for Windows. I believe iView and the newer versions of GraphicsConverter are the only two things mentioned that I have yet to try. The others aren't an option after testing.

Bruno

BTW, I believe you have just been summarily flamed and dismissed.

 

[Michael Eckstein]

I tried photogrid....dosen't read crw files .

 

[Michael Eckstein]

I tried Toyviewer...dosen't read crw files .

 

[Jerry Rosen]

You provide a new meaning to ignorance.

You seem very unhappy with a Mac computer. I find this to be very
unusal.

My suggestion to you is, that if you don't have anything to
contribute, and don't know a thing about what you're stepping into,
keep your fingers off the keyboard.

I use both platforms. I'm employed to work on Macs as a matter of
fact. I have quite in-depth knowledge of both. I can identify the
shortcomings and strengths of the product lines and the operating
systems.

If you're hell-bent on hugging your Mac like a teddy bear and can't
take some truth, you really shouldn't bother with the internet.
Nor the outside world for that matter.

Meanwhile, I'm still looking for a quick, clean image viewer for
Mac OS X that will come even remotely close to what I'm already
using for Windows. I believe iView and the newer versions of
GraphicsConverter are the only two things mentioned that I have yet
to try. The others aren't an option after testing.

Bruno

BTW, I believe you have just been summarily flamed and dismissed.

 

[TwistedMelon]

You provide a new meaning to ignorance.

Hmm... Wait a sec. One more sec... Are you ready? Hahahaha. Damn, that was good. Do it again. C'mon, one more time. I have tears in my eyes. Bahaha.

Bruno

 

[TwistedMelon]

I tried Toyviewer...dosen't read crw files .

Haven't tried this one yet. Other than CRW, what reasons would lead you to discount it? I have been discounting programs based on their viewing abilities and presentation. I hate the way Photogrid views its images. Very unpolished interface that doesn't do bounds checking on image size or anything. Plus it lacked preferences to configure the viewer for your liking.

From the screen shots and web info, it looks like iView may work out the best so far. We'll see. I'll grab it on Monday.

Bruno

 

[David in Silverdale]

You provide a new meaning to ignorance.

Come on folks, lets kill the flame wars.

Jerry, Bruno is a decent sort, he just has very specific needs. He came here to ask a simple question and folks have been making recommendations, which he has tried and dismissed as not meeting his needs. There is nothing wrong with that. He is still looking and keeping an open mind.

Bruno, I would like to know if you find something that meets your needs. How did you find Graphic Converter when you tried it. It has long been one of my favorites, but I have never really used it as a viewer primarily. Just give us an update if you find something close. It might help someone else.

I just keep thinking that we what we need is a website dedicated to digital photography and the Macintosh. A resource for sharing useful tools that are found. Hmmm!

--
Photography by David 'Eaglechild' Robinson.
http://www.pbase.com/brdavid/

 

[wfolta]

iView Media Pro is a great organizer/viewer, but doesn't meet many of your requirements.

You can view thumbnails or view each individual image larger. You can zoom from the keyboard and it displays the zoom factor. You can go forward/back through images with the arrow keys, though of course this is forward/back through the current document's worth of images, not directly on a directory.

But it doesn't do several of the things you listed. And that's because it's a media management system, not a browser. So you first have to load images (sounds, fonts, documents, etc) into it through several different methods: drag-n-drop, selecting a directory (which recursively loads all photos in it and subdirectories), or importing from a camera. Then you can browse, sort, categorize, rename/delete (which is reflected in the Finder, not just internally), embed new profiles , view EXIF and other embedded info, extract and batch modify EXIF, make contact sheets, make web galleries, etc.

Which is way more powerful than just a browser. But if you want to just browse directories of images on the fly, it's "too much" of a tool in some ways and too little in others.

 

[Duncan C]

Hi,

I don't think that it makes slideshows which you could give away to
friends with a runtime version.. but there is a little applescript
which is quite convenient (for osx) : as you drop a folder on it,
it makes a http://www pages, which you can view in Internet explorer : you
have the mame of the pictures in a left frame and when you click on
the names, the pictures shows in the main frame..

Christaine,

iView MediaPro does have a slideshow function, and it works fairly well. Further, you are allowed to distribute the application to others, since it is "trial-ware", and some of it's advanced features turn off if you don't pay for an unlock code during the trial period. Thus, it makes a good program for distributing CDs with an included slide-show and image browser.

What program do you use on the Windows platform that allows you to distribute slideshows to friends? I've been searching high and low for such a Windows program. (I prefer Macs, but many of my friends and family are Windows users.)

Duncan C.

 

[Duncan C]

iView Media Pro is a great organizer/viewer, but doesn't meet many
of your requirements.

Folks,

I have iView MediaPro for my Mac, and love it.

I especially like the fact that I can include the app, and the image catalog, on CDs of pictures that I burn for my friends and familiy.

Unfortunately, most of my friends and family are Windows-only users (I strongly prefer Macs, but use both as the need arises)

I want a Windows app that will let me include an image catalog and slideshow on CDs of images that I distribute.

Can any of you make a recommendation?

I realize that the Windows boards might be a better place for this post, but since you've been discussing many of the features that I need, I thought I'd ask...

Duncan C

 

[mbryda]

I know you said OSX's preview is unusable for you, but the preview in Jag. looks really good. Highlight a bunch of images and they open with the image in the main window and then thumbnails on a tray on the right.... Not sure how fast it is (I'm planning on getting Jag tomorrow), but that may be the easiest solution for you...Not to mention you get the OS upgrade as well.

HTH

-Matt

 

[TwistedMelon]

Take a look at the slideshow software from ACD Systems... http://www.acdsystems.com

They make the popular ACDSee image browser/viewer. I believe their slideshow program works as a plugin for ACDSee as well as a stand-along program. I recall the website mentioning it could make self-contained shows. Take a look to be sure. You can try all their software before buying it.

I've also read somewhere that iView would be coming out with a Windows version of MediaPro. I believe that was on the Kaidan site (they distribute iView MediaPro).

Bruno

 

[wfolta]

I want a Windows app that will let me include an image catalog and
slideshow on CDs of images that I distribute.

Point of clarification: you want an app that creates an image catalog and catalog of images that Windows users can watch, right? The app doesn't have to work under Windows, just the final catalog/slideshow.

I ask because iVMP lets you create a web (HTML) image catalog with thumbnails and click to see enlarged image. This works on Macs and PCs. Not sure about slide-show capabilities, though.

 

[TwistedMelon]

I've had various versions of Jaguar for months. I've been using it all year. Things have changed from week to week, so I may have missed some added functionality in its preview app. But I don't remember anything that stuck out at me with regards to the features I mentioned.

Right now I'm, most pleased with iView Media (the cut-down program that ships with Adaptec/Roxio Toast 5). It doesn't handle everything I'd like, but it's clean and simple for a quick view.

Bruno