Caffeine Browser, Both Image Browser and Editor in One

Image browsing applications are a touchy issue. Some prefer viewing the images almost full screen, others like thumbnails, while others swear by slideshows. Then there is the issue of how the program handles the content, and browsing it, if at all, and how fast it is. Then there are the additional functions of the program, some liking those image browsers that also allow modifications to be made right from within them, while others prefer powerful, dedicated image editing applications.
This subjective quagmire is best left untouched and to each his own, however, today's program is square in the middle of all this mess, as an image browser that also lets you edit the image, namely Caffeine Browser.

What it does
Caffeine Browser is a image browsing application that also lets you perform small modifications to the image. On each of these two areas, taken separately, the program is less than amazing, falling somewhere in the mediocre range, however, as a combination of the two, it becomes a one stop solution that is very nice and can hold its own against other programs that can only do one of the two, albeit far better.

As an image browser
When used as an image browser, Caffeine Browser is similar to a great many other programs out there. On the left side of the screen he have the list view, which you have to go through to find the images you are looking for, and on the right you have the thumbnails of the images found at the current location.

Those who like this sort of applications will rejoice as they will feel right at home with it. Those used to ViewIt's way of opening a folder and having it automatically parse all nested folders and show all the images found will cringe at the list view which stretches into eternity.

The thumbnails themselves are a pain. Sure, they are great for seeing a great many images on screen, however, when you want to see more of the image, and make them as big as the program will let you, it will only show one column of thumbnails, despite there being more than enough room on screen for two columns. In fact the program makes pretty poor use of the available screen real-estate at all times, with absurdly large spaces between the images which could be better spent by showing more thumbnails.

Those who view primarily photos and are used to keeping an eye on the EXIF information will find it below the file list. You can see all of the information embedded in the image, grouped under several categories that can be shown and hidden at will. Unfortunately for those who are not into EXIF information, there is no way to make the file list longer than half of the vertical space, meaning that you will always be stuck with a lot of wasted screen space, which is even more of a crime considering how long the hierarchical list view can become.

As an image editor
Unlike most of the other image browsers that give you powerful tool such as crop and rotate as well as the almighty flip, Caffeine Browser actually offers some very useful editing tools.

When you edit a photo, beside the needed rotate buttons, you have a drawer full of 'Effect' sliders for tweaking the image. Most of these are for the manipulation of digital photos, and are obviously best suited for this and less appropriate on other kinds of images.

The first set of sliders is labeled 'Color Control' and lets you adjust the Contrast, Brightness and Saturation of the image, as well as the Exposure and Sepia. These sliders are a small wonder and let you perform the tweaking you need to get those images looking perfect without having to use an expensive piece of software such as Photoshop. It might sound like blasphemy, but unless you have some very advanced tweaking in mind, those sliders are more than enough for the average user to retouch the photo and get more out of it.

Other sliders present here let you apply Gaussian Blur, as well as Motion Blur, Sharpen and Bloom Effects.

Overall, the program is great for tweaking images without having to buy expensive software, the only minor annoyance being how you cannot type in exact values, having to rely on the sliders which are often imprecise, and how you cannot undo a bad slider move.

The Good
A good mix of image browsing and photo retouching in one single application. Simple to use and much more accessible than other dedicated applications.

The Bad
It is brought down by all sorts of strange design choices such as the poor use of available space and the lack of undo or the ability to drag and drop files from the Finder.

The Truth
If you want one single application for both browsing and making small modifications to your digital photos, then this is the program for you. If you already use two different dedicated programs for this, then this might seem like a strange mix between the two. Definitely worth a look in any case.

Here are some screenshots, click to enlarge: