Introducing PreviewQt

Published: 12th of March, 2024

I would like to present a new member of PhotoQt's family, its little sibling PreviewQt. PreviewQt is a much simpler application than PhotoQt, intended – as the name suggests – to preview all kinds of files. Its focus is on speed and lightweight, aiming to provide as instantaneous of a preview as possible.

Being a member of the PhotoQt family, PreviewQt is able to open the same wide range of files as PhotoQt. Its intentionally kept very simple and does not have a lot of features (that's PhotoQt's job after all), but it does one job and does it well: Previewing files.

When not in use, PreviewQt sits idly in the system tray, ready to display anything you throw at it. Pressing the Escape key or closing the window will hide it to the tray and reset it to its initial state. It also has an optional feature to hide itself whenever its window loses focus.

Double-clicking on the loaded content toggles the fullscreen mode, allowing for a very quick and easy way to see anything you might need to know about a loaded file. It does not support thumbnails or navigating between files in a directory (please use PhotoQt for that), but if a document or archive is loaded, it does allow for navigating through the pages or content.

If after previewing a file you want to open it in a more fully featured application, you can pass a file on to an external application either through a button in the toolbar or through a (customizable) shortcut (by default: E). The external applications for the different categories (images, documents, archives, etc.) can be freely adjusted in the settings, with some common options available from dropdown menus for convenience.

Since PreviewQt is very new, I welcome any feedback or comments you have. What do you (not) like? Anything you think should be changed? Please let me know either by email, or open an issue in its GitLab repository.

You want to help out? Why not join the translation team for PreviewQt/PhotoQt over on Crowdin. If your language is missing you can simply request it directly on Crowdin or send me an email/message and I will add it to the project.

If you are considering supporting PhotoQt by donation, please consider donating to the humanitarian relief in Ukraine instead, for example to the Ukrainian Red Cross.

Enjoy PreviewQt,

Lukas