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Why show only part of a picture?
 technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

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What 'Preview' can't do, ACDSee and Shomi handle with ease


Sept. 8, 2004


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2004, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2004, The Post-Standard

   Preview, the OS X image and PDF viewer, can't seem to get off its duff when you need to view an image quickly. As I explained last week, Preview is lazy -- dreadfully slow to respond -- and it's never able to do the one thing a good image viewer should take care of: You can't simply double click on an image and have it instantly show up full screen in Preview
   You might be wondering why this matters. Let me explain.
   You probably view your digital images using a photo editor. Take it from me, that's a bad idea. Using a photo editor when all you want to do is view an image is like using a sledgehammer when all you want to do is center a tack.
   Photo editors are not viewers; they take their time loading an image, usually have to fire up a lot of extras in the process and usually can't show your picture full-screen by default.
   Ah, you can see where I'm heading. A good image viewer is a single-purpose tool. It's the thing you should be using when you just want to look at a picture. Double click to see the picture. Hit a key to get back your desktop. That kind of thing.
   So the first requirement is simplicity. The second, of course, is speed. An image viewer that's porky is next to useless.
   The third requirement can be explained simply: Why show only part of a picture, with the rest of it viewable only if you scroll around? And why waste the space on your expensive computer monitor by showing a tiny image with oodles of empty screen all around it? A viewer with a full-screen display is the answer.
   As you can see if you've used Preview often, Apple's Preview application just doesn't qualify. Fortunately, other programs fill its gaps nicely.
   My overall favorite remains ACDSee 1.6, one of the fastest image viewers I've ever used on any platform. ACDSee 1.6 is the Macintosh version of the popular Windows viewer from ACDSystems. ACDSee 1.6 costs $40. You can try it free or buy it from www.acdsystems.com/english/products/downloads/ACDSeeMac-Download.asp?LAN=englishX16.
   To get ACDSee to open images full screen every time you double click an image, you must set its preferences a special way. Do the following: Open the ACDSee preferences. Choose the "Browser" tab. Under "Window Size and Position," click "Don't save size or position." Click the "Viewer" tab. Under "Windows Attributes," click "Full-screen." Under "Auto Image Size," click both entries. (Other entries can be set to whatever you want in any of the tabs.)
   The next part is critical. Find an image in a Finder window. Click on it once and press Cmd-I. In the small window that opens, click inside the "Open with:" dropdown list. Click the ACDSee entry. Then click the "Change All ..." button and click the confirmation button in the next window. Do this for ALL image types.
   A last ACDSee tip: Simply double click on any image to view it full screen. To close it, press Cmd-W. ACDSee will remain running out of sight, taking up very little memory, ready to show you another picture.
   Another good image viewer that knows how to show pictures full screen is Shomi, a $20 viewer with a lot of smarts. You can try it free. Get it from www.goat.demon.co.uk/shomi.html.
   Put Shomi in the Dock and drag any number of images to it all at once. It shows ALL of them on one screen. A single image is shown full screen, of course. Or drag two or more images to the Shomi icon to compare them side by side.