Built for Speed. Engineered for Geeks.
Direct2D Native • Modern C++23 • Dynamic Scheduling Architecture • Portable
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QuickView is currently one of the fastest image viewers available on the Windows platform. We focus purely on delivering the ultimate viewing experience—leave the heavy editing to professional tools like Photoshop.
Rewritten from scratch using Direct2D and C++23, QuickView abandons legacy GDI rendering for a game-grade visual architecture. With a startup speed and rendering performance that rivals or exceeds closed-source commercial software, it is designed to handle everything from tiny icons to massive 8K RAW photos with zero latency.
🌐 Multi-Language Support: English, 简体中文, 繁體中文, 日本語, Deutsch, Español, Русский
QuickView supports almost all modern and professional image formats:
- Classic:
JPG,JPEG,PNG,BMP,GIF,TIF,TIFF,ICO - Web/Modern:
WEBP,AVIF,HEIC,HEIF,SVG,SVGZ,JXL - Pro/HDR:
EXR,HDR,PIC,PSD,TGA,PCX,QOI,WBMP,PAM,PBM,PGM,PPM,WDP,HDP - RAW (LibRaw):
ARW,CR2,CR3,DNG,NEF,ORF,RAF,RW2,SRW,X3F,MRW,MOS,KDC,DCR,SR2,PEF,ERF,3FR,MEF,NRW,RAW
Release Date: 2026-01-26
- Unified Scheduling & Decoding (Dynamic Scheduling): Introduced a "Fast/Slow Dual-Channel" architecture (
FastLane+HeavyLanePool) that isolates instant interactions from heavy decoding tasks. - N+1 Hot-Spare Architecture: Implemented a "Capped N+1" threading model where standby threads are kept warm for immediate response, maximizing CPU throughput without over-subscription.
- Deep Cancellation: Granular "On-Demand" cancellation logic allowed for heavy formats (JXL/RAW/WebP), ensuring stale tasks (e.g., during rapid scrolling) are instantly terminated to save power.
- Direct D2D Passthrough: Established a "Zero-Copy" pipeline where decoded
RawImageFramebuffers are uploaded directly to GPU memory, bypassing GDI/GDI+ entirely.
- DirectComposition (Game-Grade Rendering): Completely abandoned the legacy SwapChain/GDI model in favor of a
DirectCompositionVisual tree.- Visual Ping-Pong: Implemented a double-buffered Visual architecture for tear-free, artifact-free crossfades.
- IDCompositionScaleTransform: Hardware-accelerated high-precision zooming and panning.
- Native SVG Engine: Replaced
nanosvgwith Direct2D Native SVG rendering.- Capabilities: Supports complex SVG filters, gradients, and CSS transparency.
- 2-Stage Lossless Scaling: Vector-based re-rasterization during deep zoom for infinite sharpness.
- (Requirement: Windows 10 Creators Update 1703 or later).
- Arena Dynamic Allocation: Switched to a TripleArena strategy using Polymorphic Memory Resources (PMR). Memory is pre-allocated and recycled (Bucket Strategy) to eliminate heap fragmentation.
- Smart Directional Prefetch:
- Auto-Tuning: Automatically selects
Eco,Balanced, orPerformanceprefetch strategies based on detected system RAM. - Manual Override: Full user control over cache behavior.
- Smart Skip: Prevents "OOM" in Eco mode by intelligently skipping tasks that exceed the cache budget.
- Auto-Tuning: Automatically selects
- Metadata Architecture Refactor: Decoupled "Fast Header Peeking" (for instant layout) from "Async Rich Metadata" parsing (Exif/IPTC/XMP), solving UI blocking issues.
- Debug HUD: Added a real-time "Matrix" overlay (
F12) visualizing the topology of the cache, worker lane status, and frame timings.
"Speed is a feature."
QuickView leverages Multi-Threaded Decoding for modern formats like JXL and AVIF, delivering up to 6x faster load times on 8-core CPUs compared to standard viewers.
- Zero-Latency Preview: Smart extraction for massive RAW (ARW, CR2) and PSD files.
- Debug HUD: Press
F12to see real-time performance metrics (Decode time, Render time, Memory usage). (First time use: Please enable Debug Mode in Settings > Advanced)
No more manual .ini editing.
A fully hardware-accelerated Settings Dashboard.
- Granular Control: Tweak mouse behaviors (Pan vs. Drag), zoom sensitivity, and loop rules.
- Visual Personalization: Adjust UI transparency and background grid in real-time.
- Portable Mode: One-click toggle to switch config storage between AppData (System) and Program Folder (USB Stick).
Stay fresh, stay fast.
QuickView automatically checks for updates in the background. When a new version is available, a non-intrusive toast notification will appear. You can install the update with a single click—no browser needed.
Don't just view the image; understand the data.
- Real-time RGB Histogram: Translucent waveform overlay.
- Refactored Metadata Architecture: Faster and more accurate EXIF/Metadata parsing.
- HUD Photo Wall: Press
Tto summon a high-performance gallery overlay capable of virtualizing 10,000+ images. - Smart Extension Fix: Automatically detect and repair incorrect file headers (e.g., PNG saved as JPG).
- Instant RAW Dev: One-click toggle between "Fast Preview" and "Full Quality" decoding for RAW files.
- Deep Color Analysis: Real-time display of Color Space (sRGB/P3/Rec.2020), Color Mode (YCC/RGB), and Quality Factor.
We don't use generic codecs. We use the State-of-the-Art libraries for each format.
| Format | Backend Engine | Why it rocks (Architecture) |
|---|---|---|
| JPEG | libjpeg-turbo v3 | AVX2 SIMD. The absolute king of decompression speed. |
| PNG / QOI | Google Wuffs | Memory-safe. Outperforms libpng, handles massive dimensions. |
| JXL | libjxl + threads | Parallelized. Instant decoding for high-res JPEG XL. |
| AVIF | dav1d + threads | Assembly-optimized AV1 decoding. |
| SVG | Direct2D Native | Hardware Accelerated. Infinite lossless scaling. |
| RAW | LibRaw | Optimized for "Instant Preview" extraction. |
| EXR | TinyEXR | Lightweight, industrial-grade OpenEXR support. |
| HEIC / TIFF | Windows WIC | Hardware accelerated (Requires system extensions). |
Press
F1at any time to view the interactive Shortcut Guide.
🗺️ Roadmap We are constantly evolving. Here is what's currently in development:
- Animation Support: Full playback for GIF/WebP/APNG.
- Frame Inspector: Pause and analyze animations frame-by-frame.
- Color Management (CMS): ICC Profile support.
- Dual-View Compare: Side-by-side image comparison.
- Tracing Mode: Semi-transparent overlay mode, designed for designers to reference and trace over other windows.
- Tiling Architecture: Native gigapixel support with on-demand tile rendering for massive datasets (NASA/Medical).
| Component | Minimum Requirement | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| OS | Windows 10 (1511+) | DirectComposition Visual3 required |
| CPU | Intel Haswell / AMD Ryzen | AVX2 support required (compile-time hard requirement) |
| GPU | DirectX 10 Compatible | Any GPU from 2008+ should work |
| RAM | 4 GB+ | Recommended for large images |
⚠️ Important: QuickView is compiled with/arch:AVX2for maximum performance. It will not run on CPUs without AVX2 support (e.g., Intel Sandy Bridge, AMD FX series).
QuickView is 100% Portable.
- Go to Releases.
- Download
QuickView.zip. - Unzip anywhere and run
QuickView.exe. - (Optional) Use the in-app Settings to register as default viewer.
Note
Developer Note
I maintain QuickView in my spare time because I believe Windows deserves a faster, cleaner viewer. I don't have a marketing budget or a team. If QuickView helps you, the biggest contribution you can make is to Star us on GitHub or share it with a friend.
QuickView stands on the shoulders of giants. Licensed under GPL-3.0. Special thanks to David Kleiner (original JPEGView) and the maintainers of LibRaw, Google Wuffs, dav1d, and libjxl.