Why another image viewer? Developer Sven Janssen too thought you'd ask that when he created this truly useful and feature-packed viewer that does an even better job than Apple's own Preview app. The program hasn't been updated in a long time, but it's as good today as it was in 2007.

Mac users have long craved for an IrfanView-like browsing style – accessing a directory, double clicking a picture to open with the default viewer and eventually being able to use the arrow keys to browse through them. Apple's Preview requires the user to select all the pictures in a folder to achieve this. CocoViewX doesn't!

But that's the least of what this app can do. The program's UI is divided into two areas: the left area / pane, where you can browse your entire system's folder tree, and the right area, where results (pictures) are displayed once clicked on in the folder tree. An additional third area, a sidebar, is the DropBox. The DropBox is a place where you can drop all your favorite picture folders for even easier access. There's more!

Using the Slideshow feature, accessible through a single click, users can instantly view the pictures in a given directory as Slideshows. Your Mac's screen will turn black for a Front Row-like Slideshow experience. You can also use a Full Screen view and browse away with no distractions whatsoever.

As you may have already noticed, CocoViewX is your typical Mac OS X application - all the features you need are right there in the main window, and it complements the Aqua interface. While the app isn't an image editor, it does a great job at previewing everything saved as BMP, TIFF, TARGA, GIF (animated), PNG, JPG, PICT, PDF, EPS, ICNS, JP2, SGI etc. You can, however, scale thumbnails (16px to 128px), or export files to JPG, PNG, TIFF, BMP and GIF. HTML export is also possible with preset. File manipulating options include move, delete, copy, duplicate, create new folder, create alias, and you can drag & drop files from or into Finder or other applications.

A few tips and then you can run off to the screenshot gallery and then the download.

To enlarge the thumbnails – Just resize the column with the thumbnail.
To start the slideshow – press "S" in the full-screen-view or COMMAND+2 in browse-view / double click any picture in the folder tree, or simply select one picture in the desired folder and hit the Slideshow button.
To start the random slideshow – press COMMAND+S in the full-screen-view or COMMAND+3 in browse-view.
To create thumbnails faster – disable Anti-Aliasing in the preferences.




Download CocoViewX (Free)
(CocoViewX is freeware, but Sven Janssen asks that users who enjoy the software consider a donation)