PhotoQt v4.2

Published: 18th of January, 2024

Another month, another release - PhotoQt v4.2 is now available for download. It brings some exciting new features including support for some new types of images, and several improvements and bug fixes. In addition, the logo has been tweaked slightly.

Support for some new types of images

Google Motion Photos, sometimes also called Micro Videos:
Whenever an image is loaded PhotoQt checks in the background if the file has an embedded video file. These are the ones you sometimes see when viewing a photo taken on a smartphone on a phone. If an embedded video is found PhotoQt extracts it and plays it once on top of the normal image.
Apple Live Photos:
Apple Live Photos don't embed a video in the file itself but come with a MOV file with the same filename stored in the same location. PhotoQt can detect those and show them once whenever the associated image is loaded. It will also hide the video file from the list of available files.
Photo spheres and 360-degree panoramas:
PhotoQt is now capable of loading photo spheres, both partial spheres and 360-degree panoramas, using equirectangular projection. These can be created, for example, by some smartphone cameras, and typically store some information about the sphere in their metadata. If that metadata is missing, 360-degree panoramas can still be loaded by setting a custom shortcut to that action.

Some other new features in this release

Editable path in file dialog:
The path shown at the top edge of the file dialog can now be edited freely. When typing, PhotoQt suggests possible matches for a typed folder or filename. It is also possible copy or paste a path this way. If a path to an existing image is pasted, PhotoQt will close the file dialog and load said file. Hint: You can focus on the edit bar also through the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+L.
Custom window handles without window decoration:
If the window decoration has been disabled PhotoQt will provide its own (invisible) handles for resizing the window and for moving it around.
RAW images and embedded thumbnails:
Some RAW images embed a thumbnail of the image in its metadata. If that exists PhotoQt can simply load that embedded thumbnail instead of generating it from scratch. Sometimes the embedded thumbnail is as large as the main image. In that case PhotoQt can also load the embedded image as normal image for faster speed.
Touchscreen handling:
The touchscreen handling has been improved. The rate of zoom now follows the extent of the pinch allowing for a lot more control of the image and its zoom level.

Some notable bug fixes in this release

Images stored inside archives are now loaded at their proper size again.
It is now possible to assign a custom shortcut to the Escape key.
Actually hide the status bar when disabled.
Fixed drag-and-drop for bookmarks in file dialog.
Improved popout handling.

Tweaks to the logo

The logo so far had one clear downside: It was not very legible on dark backgrounds. The tweaks to the logo (thanks to @hadoukez for their help) makes the logo legible with both light and dark backgrounds. This applies to both the full logo but also the smaller icon without text.

These are just some of the highlights. You can find a more complete list of everything that has changed in this release in the Changelog.

Get involved

I love to hear from people using PhotoQt. In order to get in touch with me for feedback/support/etc., there are a few different ways you can do so:

Email: You can always send me an email: (you need to enable javascript to see the email address)
GitLab: Feel free to open an issue over in the GitLab repository.

If you want to help PhotoQt, there are a few ways you can get involved:

Join the translation team over on Crowdin. If your language is missing you can simply request it directly on Crowdin or send me an email and I can add it to the project.
Give feedback of what you like/don't like, or what you think is missing from PhotoQt. To give feedback, send me an email or open an issue on GitLab.

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 PhotoQt,

Lukas