Double Commander

2.8. Built-in file viewer

Content

1. Introduction
2. Main menu
2.1. "File"
2.2. "Edit"
2.3. "View"
2.4. "Encoding"
2.5. "Image"
2.6. "About"
3. Toolbar
4. Status bar
5. Preview
6. Copying/moving files
7. Additional settings

1. Introduction

The built-in viewer is designed to view files of any size in text, hexadecimal or binary format and image files.

Built-in file viewer

The selected text will be automatically copied to the clipboard.

By default, the viewer call is assigned to the F3 key, we can change this in the settings. A quick view mode (Ctrl+Q) is also available: instead of a separate window, the opposite (inactive) file panel will be used.

Supported image formats: BMP, CUR, GIF, ICNS, ICO, JPEG, PNG, PNM (PBM, PGM and PPM), PSD, TIFF, XPM. In addition, if the required libraries are available (near the executable file of Double Commander or in the PATH):

Double Commander supports the TurboJPEG library: it is a JPEG codec that uses SIMD instructions to accelerate the decoding and encoding of images. If the following library file is available: libturbojpeg.dll (Windows), libturbojpeg.so.0 (Linux and other Unix-like systems) or libturbojpeg.dylib (macOS(*)).

The built-in viewer supports saving to the following image formats: BMP, ICO, JPEG (we can choose the quality from 1 to 100), PNG (Double Commander will use the same color depth as in the original image) and PNM (Double Commander will use binary formats, the color depth will be set automatically: 1, 8 or 24 bits per pixel).

Note: When modifying an image, we must save all changes with the Save or Save As commands: Double Commander does not check the status of the file (changed or not) when closing the viewer window or when switching to another file.

We can assign or change hotkeys for commands available in the viewer in the Keys > Hot Keys settings section (switch to the Viewer category). Hotkeys can be set separately for text mode and image viewing mode.

2. Main menu

The appearance and content of the main menu depends on the viewing mode: text, image or WLX plugin.

2.1. "File"

Items Previous and Next are used to load the previous or next file in the directory. The sort order in the file panel is used.

Items Save and Save As... are available only when viewing images.

Print... – opens a system dialog for sending a file for printing. Printing is only available when viewed with plugins that support printing files.

Print setup... – opens a dialog for setting the print borders (left, right, top and bottom page margins).

Reload – Double Commander will forcibly reread the file without closing the viewer window. This is convenient if the file has been modified by an external program.

Auto Reload – only for text mode: if enabled, Double Commander will monitor the file size and if it changes, reread the file and scroll its contents to the end. This is convenient for viewing constantly updated log files. This mode applies only to the current file and is disabled when switching to another file or when closing the viewer window.

Exit – Close the viewer window.

2.2. "Edit"

The menu contains commands for selecting and copying text, as well as commands for searching through the contents of the file being viewed: Find, Find next and Find previous.

Search options:

2.3. "View"

This menu is for switching the viewing mode and contains several additional options.

Preview – Show or hide the preview panel.

The program automatically selects the appropriate file viewing mode, the following items allow to switch it forcibly:

Plugins have priority over the Graphics mode.

Show text cursor – enables the display of a blinking text cursor.

2.4. "Encoding"

When viewing files in text modes: menu with a list of available text encodings, auto-detection is enabled by default.

When using plugins, this menu includes only three items:

2.5. "Image"

The Image menu will not be available when viewing GIF files.

Stretch – resizes the image so it fills the viewer window (the aspect ratio will be saved automatically).

Stretch only large – resizes the image only if it is larger than the current window size (the aspect ratio will be saved automatically).

Center – The image will be displayed in the center of the viewer window instead of the upper left corner.

The Rotate submenu includes several similar actions:

Zoom In and Zoom Out – commands to change the image scale.

Full Screen – switches the window to full-screen mode (the contents of the window without the operating system's typical window-framing interface). This mode is available not only when viewing images, just use hotkeys (Alt+Enter by default).

The Screenshot submenu – creating a screenshot of the desktop, immediately or with a delay (3 or 5 seconds).

When using plugins, this menu includes only three items: Stretch, Stretch only large and Center.

2.6. "About"

Just a viewer name.

3. Toolbar

Several commands of the internal viewer and additional tools, collected in the toolbar. Only when viewing images.

Toolbar

Reload current file – Double Commander will forcibly reread the file without closing the viewer window. This is convenient if the file has been modified by an external program.

Buttons Load Previous File and Load Next File are used to load the previous or next file in the directory. The sort order in the file panel is used.

Copy File – see Copying/moving files.

Move File – see Copying/moving files.

Delete File – will delete the file being viewed with a confirmation request.

Zoom In and Zoom Out – commands to change the image scale.

Rotate -90 degrees – rotates the image by 90 degrees to the left around its center.

Rotate +90 degrees – rotates the image by 90 degrees to the right around its center.

Mirror – The Mirror Horizontally command: reverses the image horizontally, that is, from left to right.

The next group is for GIF animation only:

The next group of buttons is related to selection:

The next group of buttons is related to drawing:

Full Screen – switches the window to full-screen mode (the contents of the window without the operating system's typical window-framing interface) and back. This mode is available not only when viewing images, just use hotkeys (Alt+Enter by default).

Resize – The image resizing tool allows to specify the width and height in pixels (the aspect ratio will be saved automatically).

When the window is expanded to full screen, an additional Slide Show button will become available: we can enable automatic loading the next image in the current directory and set the file display time (from 1 to 25 seconds).

4. Status bar

The appearance and content of the status bar depends on the viewing mode: text, image or WLX plugin.

At the beginning of the status bar, the number of the open file and the total number of files in the current directory are displayed.

Text: position in the file content (in bytes and percentages), file size and text encoding.

Status bar: text

Image: current resolution (in pixels and percentages), real file resolution and selection size (when using the selection tool).

Status bar: image

WLX plugin: plugin name and encoding.

Status bar: WLX plugin

At the ending of the status bar, the full name of the file being viewed is displayed.

5. Preview

Panel in the left part of the window, catalog files are displayed as thumbnails (with the file name below the thumbnail). It looks like the thumbnail mode in the file panel.

Preview

The sort order in the file panel is used. The file with which the viewer was launched will always be the first in the list.

The preview panel can be expanded to display a list of thumbnails in multiple columns.

Separate toolbar with several frequently used functions: Reload current file, Load Previous File, Load Next File, Copy File, Delete File and Move File, see description of similar buttons above.

6. Copying/moving files

The viewer has the ability to copy or move the viewed file using hotkeys or buttons on the toolbar or on the preview panel (internal viewer commands cm_CopyFile and cm_MoveFile). We can specify up to 5 directories and switch between them:

Copying/moving files

This is convenient if we need to put the viewed files into different directories or make an additional copy.

7. Additional settings

See the description of the Double Commander settings sections: Tools > Viewer.


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