App Addict
April 30th, 2024

ToyViewer - A Preview Replacment

Mac Apps
ToyViewer Icon
ToyViewer Icon

Sometimes you don't need or want the latest and greatest app. You'd rather have something tried and tested, something venerable or even iconic. ToyViewer, a free graphics viewer and editor, has been part of the Mac ecosystem since 1995. It's fast, dependable and flexible. On my Macs, I use it as the default app for opening graphics instead of Preview. (I use something else for PDFs) It can open TIFF, GIF, BMP, PNG, JPG, BIE (JBIG), PCX, PCD, PICT, PNM (PPM, PBM, or PGM), XBM, MAG, SUN Rasterfile, JPEG2000 (JP2, JPC, J2K), WEBP and other formats supported by macOS. It supports exporting (save as) as TIFF, PDF, GIF, BMP, PNG, JPG, JPEG2000, BIE (JBIG), PNM, or XBM.

ToyViewer Features:

  • ToyViewer can attach a custom icon to any file as well as newly saved image file.
  • ToyViewer can read and write GIF or PNG files with transparent color, and also can read and write interlaced (progressive) GIF, PNG, or JPG files.
  • ToyViewer can scan (auto-display) image files in a folder.
  • You can also display images in full-screen size.
  • Displayed images can be scaled (enlarge/shrink).
  • You can rotate, flip, or clip images.
  • ToyViewer has ability to adjust brightness, contrast, color tone of images, and has some typical operations to images, such as enhancement, embossing, and so on.
  • You can replace specified color with other color or transparent color.
  • Full color images can be reduced into 256, 64, or 8 colors. Also, each color value of images can be cut down to 4-, 2-, or 1-bit.
  • ToyViewer can make images monochrome (8-bit gray, 2-bit gray, or bi-level). Images can be printed.
  • You can set ToyViewer to display any image format if there is a filter program to PPM format.
  • ToyViewer provides image-conversion filter services for other applications.
  • You can add comments to images (comments are written into only GIF, PNG, JPG, or PNM formats).
  • You can make Aqua-button-like images.

It hasn't been updated since 2022 but is fully compatible with Sonoma. ToyViewer is available in the App Store. It is not abandonware. 

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