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PhotoQt 1.2 was released recently and it includes some important improvements, like better SVG support, XCF support, better handling of large folders (15,000+ files), shuffle and loop options for the slideshow and much more.

PhotoQt 1.2

For those not familiar with PhotoQt, this is a fast, Lightbox-style Qt5 image viewer which uses GraphicsMagick under the hood (so it supports over 80 file types).

Besides its image viewing capabilities, PhotoQt can be used for some basic image manipulation (flip, rotate, zoom) and file management (rename, delete, move, copy).

PhotoQt also features customizable keyboard and mouse shortcuts, thumbnail cache, can display EXIF information, image slideshow and more.

Changes in PhotoQt 1.2:
  • GraphicsMagick: more thorough testing and fixing;
  • intelligent detection of supported fileformats on first start;
  • color filetype tiles of unsupported formats orange (Qt formats only);
  • better SVG support;
  • added XCF support (depending on XCFtools);
  • added PSB/PSD support (depending on libqpsd);
  • added Loop and Shuffle options in Slideshow;
  • smart preloading of folder, better support for large directories (15,000+ files);
  • add sorting criteria for files (name, natural name, filesize, date);
  • restore support for Trash on Linux;
  • re-worked thumbnail handling: faster, more reliable, new "smart thumbnails" mode;
  • option to stay centered on active thumbnail;
  • dynamically detect supported context menu entries;
  • remember zoom levels/rotation per session;
  • option to fit smaller images in window;
  • improved handling of windowed/fullscreen mode;
  • automatic language detection on first start-up (system locale);
  • change: Main animation is now 'fade-in' (+Possibility to disable altogether)
  • wheel sensitivity settings;
  • opt-in to High-DPI pixmaps (Qt >= 5.4.0);
  • re-ordered settings and quicksettings;
  • many other improvements and bug fixes.

For PSD/PSB support, you need libqpsd, which isn't available in the Ubuntu repositories to if you want to use this feature, you'll have to compile and install libqpsd manually.

PhotoQt Quick Settings

PhotoQt doesn't come with a traditional menu and its Quick Settings, General functions and info panes/widgets are displayed on mouse over, so here's how to access them:
  • Quick Settings -> right edge of the app window;
  • General functions -> top-right (top edge of the app window, near right);
  • File / Exif info -> left edge of the app window.

Also, the application runs in full screen by default but you can set it to run in window mode from the Quick Settings (see above), by enabling "Window mode" and optionally, "Widow decorations".


Install PhotoQt in Ubuntu 14.04 / 14.10 or Linux Mint 17 / 17.1


Ubuntu 14.04 / 14.10 / 15.04 and Linux Mint 17 / 17.1 users can install the latest PhotoQt by using Sam Rog's PPA (for Ubuntu 12.04, there's a older PhotoQt version - 1.0). Add the PPA and install PhotoQt using the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:samrog131/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install photoqt
If you don't want to add the PPA, you can simply grab the PhotoQt deb from HERE.

For other Linux distributions and Windows, see the PhotoQt downloads page.

Report any issues you may find @ GitHub.