Wimpies Software Corner

SideViewer is a simple but nice looking Image Viewer for pictures. It displays a main Image and a sidebar with smaller thumbnails of all images in one single folder.

Main design principles:

• Minimal chrome / User Interface, maximal content / area for Images.
• Compact presentation, the principle of using negative space (see here) to give everything enough space is not used.
• Fluent resizing of the images in the viewer and the thumbnails.
• Enlarged user experience by the mouse point-and-zoom, move-and-drag principle.

Note that the program, especially in full screen mode without the taskbar, looks much nicer and cooler then the picture shows. Some properties to note:

• Minimal interface (Image direct under title bar, thin scrollbar, small play buttons with no colors), maximal area for displaying images
• Fluent scaling. You can scale the Window by dragging the borders of the window, use the Yellow maximize button which toggles to full screen without taskbar. You can also make the thumbnails smaller or bigger by dragging the blue line along the scrollbar ("Grid Splitter"). Because the interface is minimal and the image and thumbnails scale automatically it looks good in full screen mode but is also usable in a smaller Window.
• Point and click with left mouse button on a new image for zoom, drag to move the image. On a new image the zooming stops if the mouse is released.
• Mouse wheel if image selected for permanent zoom till next image. If an image is zoomed, left mouse button drags the image. Right mouse button always drags the image. Just try.
• Thumbnail images for preview.
  • Set the width of the thumbnails by dragging the blue line along the scrollbar
  • Sorting up/down to date, filename and random (using the combo box on top of the thumbnail list).
  • Filter list by string that the filename must contain, like DOG, BMW or FLOWER. Filters once when the < Enter > key is pressed. Pressing the refresh button restores complete list with sorting option
  • If list of thumbnails is selected standard listbox behaviour like click to select, scroll using mouse wheel, arrows up and down, Page UP, Page Down, HOME and END list keys. Position scrollbar directly by using context menu.
  • Lazy loading for speed.
• Buttons below the main image: Start/Play slide show (key: Cntrl+P) , move to previous thumbnail (Arrow Left), stop/pause slide show (key: Cntrl+S), next thumbnail (Arrow right or space), next random thumbnail (key: Cntrl+Q) for selecting start of slide show, reset zoom/rotation, rotate 90 degrees left (key: Cntrl+P), rotate 90 degrees right (key: Cntrl+R), tilt/rotate image a little to left for postcard impression (key: Cntrl+/, Key Cntrl+\ also implemented) rename in folder, delete current file.
  
  Keys can also be found in the hints that appear when you put the mouse over a button some time. If a Slide show is started feel free to use all buttons, zoom, rotate etc., the show must go on.
• SideViewer displays all pictures in a single folder. Best way to select a folder is to use file explorer, drop single folder on the thumbnail list. In the fole.. menu it is possible to save the current folder and sorting option for the startup folder.
  
• An experimental bonus option under the file.. menu is to find double pictures or pictures that are quite similar. This is a time consuming operation. When selected a pop-up window will appear, see figure below. Click on upper button to start preprocessing, wait until progress bar between the buttons says it is done, click on lower button to show the found groups, double images (bug- if the lower button is not enabled after the processing, click twice) and if double pictures are found they will be grouped in the thumblist. If the list is empty no doubles are found. With the slider at the bottom it is possible to have more strict clustering or more loose grouping, only part of computation has to be repeated. Refresh button returns to normal thumblist.

Known Bugs and shortcomings

• If image is rotated a click with the mouse button zooms the image, but the pixel under the mouse point is not the same as clicked on.
• The combobox does not refresh the thumbnails if the previous selected value is chosen. Use the refresh button.
• Not many user options.
• Finding double pictures is experimental and somewhat provisional. Operation is slow, reading all images takes time (dependant image sizes).
  When computation on background is started it cannot be stopped even if Popup window is closed.
  Lower button is not enabled if progress bar is done, just click 2 times on lower button (or drag on little hand, or open and close the popup).

See the Download Page for more detailed install information. Current status: See the home page. As it is, please feel free to try at your own risk. As always, bugs, suggestions or donations in moderate amounts are welcome, see the Contact page.

The SideViewer is written in C# (WPF) for Windows 7 in Visual Studio 2012 Express and uses Net 4.0. Note the incredible rotational speed when pressing the rotate right button (Cntrl+R). WPF is designed for this kind of presentation.

P.S. I recently found that Windows XP users can only upgrade to Net4.0 so I refactored the solution from Net 4.5 to Net 4.0. I also experimented with ClickOnce deployment but for these simple programs I decided to use a standard installer.