Best Image Browser for Affinity Photo

[LK23]

What is the best image browser that recognizes Affinity Photo images?

I am finding that ApolloOne and other image browsers do not recognize the AF image format.

[Paul Mudditt]

On 1/9/2022 at 3:53 AM, LK23 said:

What is the best image browser that recognizes Affinity Photo images?

I am finding that ApolloOne and other image browsers do not recognize the AF image format.

Are you using a PC, since on a Mac or iPad the Finder and Files apps provide the usual thumbnails for .afphoto files to browse through them.

You should probably ask this question in the appropriate support forum

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/forum/50-affinity-support-questions/

[PaulEC]

31 minutes ago, Paul Mudditt said:

Are you using a PC, since on a Mac or iPad the Finder and Files apps provide the usual thumbnails to browse through them.

So does Windows File Explorer on a PC!

[Catshill]

10 minutes ago, PaulEC said:

So does Windows File Explorer on a PC!

If only Windows 10 was able to reliably display a preview for every folder.

[PaulEC]

5 minutes ago, Catshill said:

If only Windows 10 was able to reliably display a preview for every folder.

What's unreliable about it? (Do you mean for every folder, or for every file type?)

[NotMyFault]

41 minutes ago, PaulEC said:

What's unreliable about it? (Do you mean for every folder, or for every file type?)

My experience with Windows 10 explorer and „exotic“ file formats like heic, heif, and af* are less than stellar.

I have a cloud service syncing images from smartphone into one folder on PC. Several thousands.
Installed all the official (and none non-official) apps to enable camera RAW, cr3, heic/heif, …. And latest Windows updates and patches. Added a column to show capture time, „program“ or other metadata to allow sorting / filtering.

Never the less:
Explorer always hangs and finally crashes every time. It first shows a preview without thumbnails , then a blank screen, than one line (file) per 10 seconds until it stops doing anything.

The main issue is access to metadata (exif) is so slow that it freezes every time.

PC itself is quite beefy and powerful.

[PaulEC]

15 minutes ago, NotMyFault said:

My experience with Windows 10 explorer and „exotic“ file formats like heic, heif, and af* are less than stellar.

You're probably right that Catshill was talking about file types rather than folders. I couldn't see why it would matter what folder the files are in!

I don't really use any "exotic" file types myself, so don't have any problems. I used to use Sagethumbs to view a few that aren't supported natively by Windows, but discovered it caused a problem with some batch jobs in APh. I usually use XnView MP to view file types that I can't view in Explorer (hdr/exr), but unfortunately it doesn't seem to work with Affinity files. (Although I thought I had seen somewhere that it  does!)

[AlanPickup]

I have started using Eagle following a recommendation from someone in the forum. It is reasonably priced and displays all affinity file types as well as jpg, png, cr2 heic etc. It also syncs across One Drive so I can access the files on my laptop & PC. The only problem is that it creates it's own copy of the file in folder / directory but as storage is not a problem for me I have no worries. You can apply tags for searching and set auto tag for drag & drop. I currently have around 10k of files stored and it is quite responsive. The files can be opened directly in the default app. https://eagle.cool/ 

[IanSG]

8 hours ago, LK23 said:

What is the best image browser that recognizes Affinity Photo images?

I am finding that ApolloOne and other image browsers do not recognize the AF image format.

I don't think there's a viewer that can display the Affinity format.  Have a look at XnViewMP - it can display the embedded jpeg, so it's better than most.

[v_kyr]

Best? - Well that's always a matter of personal/individual taste and opinions, meaning everyone prefers slightly different tools here.

However, also take a look at the following threads which dealt with that theme before ...

• Comprehensive image viewer program?
• Photo Viewer that will open Affinity Photo files
• Photo: Can any DAM read .afphoto files?
• Image Browser for Affinty Photo (dpreview)
• Using Affinity Photo with Adobe Bridge
• ... and so on, do a Google & forum search after that topic ...

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, PaulEC said:

You're probably right that Catshill was talking about file types rather than folders. I couldn't see why it would matter what folder the files are in!

Sometimes the folder can matter, though. There have been a number of reports, for example, that in a folder managed by OneDrive you won't see the Affinity file thumbnail images.

[LK23]

Thanks for all the posts. As the original poster I should have provided more information.  I am using Mac OS.  I am seeking a photo browser/image viewer that will show a thumbnail of my images with a sidebar of image information.  I like the format of ApolloOne but found it will not display an AF photo thumbnail in its image viewer.

[LK23]

On edit, XnView MP looks pretty good but AF files show a blank image box instead of a thumbnail.  Anyone know of a way to correct this in Preferences?  I looked but could not find anything.

[PaulEC]

20 minutes ago, LK23 said:

On edit, XnView MP looks pretty good but AF files show a blank image box instead of a thumbnail.  Anyone know of a way to correct this in Preferences?  I looked but could not find anything.

I think I've sussed the thing with XnView MP, you have to enable "Show all graphic formats" under Tools - Settings - General. (This is in the latest version.)

[LK23]

Thank you!!  That worked.  It's under Preferences, General, "Show All Graphic Formats."

[thomaso]

1 hour ago, LK23 said:

I am using Mac OS.  I am seeking a photo browser/image viewer that will show a thumbnail of my images with a sidebar of image information.

In the macOS Finder the Column and the Gallery views display file previews + information aside.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201732
https://www.macworld.com/article/231525/article-604.html

In case you want a cataloging app (DAM) there is, besides the already mentioned, for instance NeoFinder:

https://www.cdfinder.de/en/en/screenshots.html

[v_kyr]

• 16 Best Photo Viewers For Mac 2022

And then there is of course GC, which offers much more than just image browsing!

[Catshill]

22 hours ago, PaulEC said:

What's unreliable about it? (Do you mean for every folder, or for every file type?)

No it’s not a file type issue. Some folders fail to show the image preview despite the option being set. Resetting folder options will sometimes work but it’s been an issue for a number of years. I think it is related to the number of folders on your system and there was a registry hack to increase the number of folders that Windows could remember. 
E.g https://www.guidingtech.com/fix-preview-pane-not-working-in-windows-10/

[henryg]

19 hours ago, PaulEC said:

I think I've sussed the thing with XnView MP, you have to enable "Show all graphic formats" under Tools - Settings - General. (This is in the latest version.)

😎 XnView is my browser of choice, so this is a great find!

[PaulEC]

5 hours ago, Catshill said:

No it’s not a file type issue. Some folders fail to show the image preview despite the option being set. Resetting folder options will sometimes work but it’s been an issue for a number of years. I think it is related to the number of folders on your system and there was a registry hack to increase the number of folders that Windows could remember. 
E.g https://www.guidingtech.com/fix-preview-pane-not-working-in-windows-10/

That's interesting. I've never had the problem myself, I didn't realise that there is a limit to the number of folders you could have. The only, similar, problem I've come across is having too many levels of sub-folders within each other so that the file path becomes too long.