What’s new in PicView 5.0

This release introduces a new tabbed interface alongside a major architectural overhaul. Window sizing has been completely rebuilt for more intuitive behavior, while the navigation system now shares image caches across tabs and windows to reduce memory usage.

Highlights

• 🗂️ New tabbed interface
• 🪟 Completely redesigned window sizing
• ⚡ Lower memory usage through shared image caching
• 🖼️ Dockable image gallery
• 🔍 Searchable Settings window
• 📦 Instant archive preview while extraction continues

⚠️ Important Upgrade Notes

• Settings reset: Gallery settings will not be preserved because they have been completely reworked. Auto-fit window is also now disabled by default.
• Shortcuts: Tab shortcuts (Ctrl+T/W) must be manually re-added to prevent overwriting your custom bindings.
• Current Limitations: Tab creation is currently unavailable when the gallery is docked, and multi-page TIFFs may not render correctly in Side-by-side mode.
• Secondary Windows: The Print, Image information, and Image effects windows only support a single tab (the active tab from which they were opened).

What’s new

Tabbed interface and window behavior

• Introduced a redesigned interface with support for tabbed navigation. When no additional tabs are open, the UI hides the tab panel so it effectively functions as a single image window (just like in prior releases).
• Auto-fit window no longer prevents you from resizing the window manually, and the macOS traffic light buttons are now available by default.
• The bottom toolbar has been rebuilt with a focus on zooming and rotation, fixing usability issues on touch-only devices.
• Added a new Rename dialog that shows up when the title bar is not visible. So you can still rename files while the UI is hidden, or when viewing in full screen.
• The minimum window size has been lowered from 450 to 315 pixels. The window also dynamically adjusts to lower window sizes by hiding some buttons and automatically adjusting button sizes to fit.
• When the UI is hidden, a new toolbar displaying the file name appears when hovering the cursor at the top. Dragging it allows you to move the window.

Zoom and image stretching

• The displayed zoom percentage is now calculated relative to the image’s original dimensions, rather than starting at 100% when the image is automatically fitted to the window.
• Renamed Stretch image to Zoom to fit for better clarity (behavior remains unchanged).

Image gallery

• The image gallery can now be docked to the top, left, or right side of the window, instead of being locked to the bottom.
• Renamed the Show bottom gallery setting to Show docked gallery at bottom.
• Added an option to control whether the mouse wheel in the docked gallery navigates between images or scrolls the gallery itself.

Side-by-side view

• The Side-by-side view has been rewritten for improved performance and stability.
• Viewing animated images Side-by-side (GIFs, WEBP) now works correctly.

Settings window

• Added a search bar to quickly find individual settings within the Settings window.
• The window is now resizable and remembers its size and position between sessions.
• The layout is now fully scrollable rather than being restricted to fixed, rigid categories.
• Added new settings to customize mouse side-button behavior. You can now set them to navigate between archives, folders, or stick to standard image navigation.
• Added a new dark background color that matches the toolbars in the dark theme.
• Added a setting to choose whether the title bar displays the full file path or only the current file name.

Print

• The print window is now resizable and remembers previously used settings, printer selections, and window positions between sessions.
• Added a new Export to PDF option that converts the current image to a PDF using your last selected print settings.
• The print preview now dynamically updates as you navigate through images.

Performance

• Navigation now shares image caches between tabs and windows, significantly reducing memory usage when working with multiple tabs or windows.
• Archive loading has been redesigned, so the first image appears immediately while remaining files continue extracting in the background.

Windows

• Fixed an issue where the title bar menu could be truncated when using languages with longer words.
• The window now uses system borders and native shadows.
• Fixed a bug where the group type checkboxes were not selecting and unselecting correctly in the File Associations window.

macOS

• Updated default keyboard shortcuts to better align with native macOS user expectations.
• Fixed the native top menu bar having blank and unclickable items.

Bug fixes

• Fixed embedded ICC profile rendering.
• Fixed an issue where navigating between multiple multi-page TIFF files could result in a blank view.
• Fixed various issues when starting Crop mode while the UI is hidden.
• Fixed an issue where the hover bar occasionally failed to appear.
• Fixed an issue with incorrect window sizing, when rotating when Auto-fit window is enabled.
• Fixed an issue where the bottom half of the toolbar was not reacting correctly.
• Fixed the mouse-side buttons triggering left-button behavior.
• Fixed the Effects window not being accessible in the Application shortcuts window.
• Fixed certain animated GIFs not playing.

Miscellaneous

• The Previous and Next buttons are now disabled when the beginning or end of the image list is reached.
• The Image Effects window now remembers its previous window position.

Internal updates

• Updated Avalonia to 12.1.0.
• Updated to .NET 11.
• Updated Magick.NET to 14.15.0.
• Updated R3 to 1.3.1.
• Updated SharpCompress to 0.49.1.
• Updated ZLinq to 1.5.6.