JCDSee

The default Windows image viewers is decent enough to be able to easily navigate through your picture collection in a clean environment. However, third-party alternative provide extended file support, and more comfortable sets of options. One example in this regard, is JCDSee, which can also be carried around on a thumb drive.

The application was developed with the idea of being an open-source project which provides similar sets of options to the popular image viewer ACDSee. This one, however, relies on Java Runtime Environment to function, which is not necessarily a bad thing, considering it can be launched from other platforms as long as Java is installed.

Image selection is only possible through the built-in navigation panel. Fitted with two sections, one allows you to browse through all drives, and folders, while the other is used to select target files. The second section can be forced to show thumbnails, so you don’t spend time blindly selecting files until you find the one of interest.

Upon selection, a picture is shown in a large preview area. Related options can be used to force the application into full size view, or automatic adjustment of size, according to the window position, and element spacing. You can start preview in a slideshow mode, with configurable slide intervals, and display order.

Sadly, there are no sorting options, such as the possibility to create custom galleries, or even save some pictures as favorites. Quitting the application discards all changes, so you need to navigate to your collection every time the application runs.

General options don’t provide much help either. Image scaling quality is set to one of three quality setting, for more performance, or quality, while thumbnail size is configured through width and height sliders. You can switch to an alternative panel arrangement from a dedicated options tab.

All things considered, we can safely state that JCDSee comes with the intention of providing an open-source alternative to ACDSee. However, the set of features it comes with leaves more to be desired overall. Navigation becomes frustrating, while the lack of any bookmarks, or organization options have an impact on practicality.