Open Image Viewer

Open Image Viewer is a hardware-accelerated, open-source C++26 image viewer focused on accurate image presentation, fast navigation, and efficient keyboard-driven workflows.

It aims to present images accurately instead of simply displaying image data through the monitor color space.

For more information visit www.openimageviewer.com.

A Word from the author
Highlights and features

Features

• Hardware-accelerated rendering with D3D11 and OpenGL renderer support.
• Fast folder browsing, sorting, slideshow playback, zooming, panning, and fullscreen viewing.
• Keyboard-first operation with the active key bindings available from F1.
• Image inspection tools including image information, texel grid, pixel inspection, and selection workflows.
• Common image actions such as crop, copy selection, paste image, rotation, flipping, and color correction.
• Codecs and third-party dependencies are built from source via repository submodules.

Supported Platforms

Windows is the supported viewer target. 64-bit builds are the official release path. 32-bit builds may compile and run but are not part of the official release flow.

Non-Windows viewer clients are not implemented yet. Core library and test builds may be configured with -DOIV_BUILD_CLIENT=OFF when working outside Windows.

Windows Runtime Notes

Windows 7 SP1, 8, 8.1, 10, and 11 are supported targets.

When using Windows 7 SP1, install:

• KB2670838 - Windows 7 platform update
• KB4019990 - D3DCompiler_47
• Universal C runtime

Build From Source

Prerequisites

• Git
• CMake 3.24 or newer
• Windows SDK
• One supported Windows build setup:
  • Ninja with a C++26-capable clang/clang-cl or MSVC toolchain
  • Visual Studio Build Tools 2026 or newer with MSVC

Recommended Windows development stack: CMake, Ninja, clang-cl, VS Code, and the Windows SDK. This stack does not require Visual Studio Build Tools or MSVC.

Clone

git clone --recursive --depth 1 https://github.com/OpenImageViewer/OpenImageViewer.git
cd OpenImageViewer

If the repository was cloned without submodules, initialize them before configuring:

git submodule update --init --recursive

Configure and Build

Run one of the following from an environment where the selected compiler and Windows SDK are available.

cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build

Or use the Visual Studio generator:

cmake -S . -B build
cmake --build build --config Release

The viewer executable and copied resources are generated under the build tree's bin directory.

Packaging

For a release-style Windows package, run:

.\publish.ps1

The publish script uses Ninja internally and requires 7-Zip when packaging is enabled.

Tests

Tests are built by default with the main CMake configuration.

cmake --build build --target tests
build\bin\tests.exe

License

OIV is distributed under the OpenImageViewer License.