Windows Picture and Fax Viewer

Infobox_Software
name = Windows Picture and Fax Viewer



caption = Windows Picture and Fax Viewer on Windows XP.
developer = Microsoft
latest_release_version =
latest_release_date =
latest_preview_version =
latest_preview_date =
operating_system = Windows XP and Server 2003
genre = image viewer
license =
website = [http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/image_overview.mspx?mfr=true Windows Picture and Fax Viewer Overview]

Windows Picture and Fax Viewer is an image viewer. It is a part of the Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 operating systems. It is based on GDI+ [http://support.microsoft.com/kb/329270 You Cannot View TIFF Images Using Windows Picture and Fax Viewer] ] and is capable of viewing images format supported by GDI+, namely, JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF (including animated GIFs), ICO, WMF, EMF and TIFF format files.

This program superseded part of the functions of Imaging for Windows in previous versions of Windows.

General

Apart from its rudimentary image rotating tool and its TIFF annotation feature, the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer only views, and does not edit images. It can print images using the "Photo Printing Wizard" introduced in Windows XP. It is a color-managed application which recognizes embedded ICC color profiles (V2 only)Fact|date=December 2007 in JPG and TIFF files. Windows XP contains other programs that are capable of basic image editing and scanning, such as Microsoft Paint.

The viewer program starts up if any of the picture format files is double clicked. It is not accessible from the Windows Start menu and is implemented as a dynamic-link library file called shimgvw.dll; there is no executable file.

Viewer capabilities

The viewer is capable of displaying all image formats listed above. By default, an image is shown at actual size. However, if an image would be larger than the viewing area, the image is scaled to fit the viewing area, a feature called "Best Fit". Images can be magnified beyond the native size of the viewing area. When this is done, scroll bars allow for viewing of all areas of the image.

Features

The following features are available by selecting the applicable toolbar icon:
* Successive viewing of all images in current folder and looping through images, that is, after viewing the last image in a directory, it again shows the first image and vice versa.
* Zoom in or out on the image being viewed.
* Allow a large image to be viewed full size by scrolling.
* Basic file management from within the viewer: "Delete", "Save", "Copy", "Print" and "Open with".
* Save/convert an image to a different format supported in GDI+, that is, JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF or PNG using the "Copy To" (Save) button.
* Set an image as the desktop wallpaper/background from the context menu.
* Print photos using the "Photo Printing Wizard" which allows printing images with the picture titles using various page layouts such as full page prints, wallet prints, contact/index sheets or certain fixed dimensions with the images cropped or rotated to fit the page. The wizard shows a preview of what the printed page will look like with the currently specified options. The wizard though, is not part of the viewer application and can also be launched from Windows Explorer.
* View a slideshow of all, or selected images in the folder.
* Rotate images right or left by 90 degrees. Rotation however is lossy. ]
* Annotate TIFF images.
* Close the viewer and open image the image in the default image editor registered for that image type (Microsoft Paint by default).
* Any image can be e-mailed by selecting the "Send To" option. Further options allow the image to be mailed full size, or in pixel dimensions of: 640x480, 800x600, and 1024x768.
* The viewer saves and remembers its window position and size.
* Supports keyboard shortcuts for all of its operations.

Handling of TIFF files

If a TIFF formatted file is opened in Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, a new toolbar will appear at the bottom of the screen. This toolbar has icons that allow other operations to be performed. Lines can be drawn on the image and text added to it. Areas of the image can be selected and concealed. The Windows Picture and Fax Viewer is also capable of viewing multi-page TIFF files.

Known issues

A buffer overflow vulnerability was discovered in the underlying graphics rendering engine, which could allow an attacker to execute code remotely by getting the user to view a specially crafted WMF file. Microsoft released a patch for this Windows Metafile vulnerability in January 2006; their bulletin also states that a valid workaround is to disable the viewer. The viewer can be disabled by using this command: regsvr32 /u %windir%system32shimgvw.dll

It can be enabled again using the following command:

regsvr32 %windir%system32shimgvw.dll

If a picture is advanced to the next in a series after the application's window has been maximized from a restored state, then the new image appears centered around the previous, instead of within the resized window's bounds.Fact|date=March 2008

The basic transformation functions are lossy ] ,and the viewer re-saves (and therefore re-applies the compression algorithm), with every change. The program does not allow the user to select the level of quality when re-saving an image. [ [http://www.sqrtpi.com/jpeg/JPEG%20research.doc Research on JPEG compression] ]

Windows Vista

The picture viewer in Windows Vista, renamed Windows Photo Gallery Viewer, is completely rewritten and is based on Windows Photo Gallery which uses the Windows Imaging Component (WIC). The underlying graphics engine pipeline has been overhauled [ [http://blogs.msdn.com/pix/archive/2006/05/30/611101.aspx Viewing photos in Windows Vista] ] with support for large and high bit depth HDR images. Windows Photo Gallery has native metadata handling and tagging support and since the Windows Imaging Component is extensible, it can organize and view any image format for which a third party WIC codec is installed. By default, it can view JPEG, BMP, PNG, TIFF and HD Photo images, as well as video. RAW image formats used by high-end professional cameras are also supported by installing their respective WIC codecs. Basic photo editing such as adjusting exposure, color, red eye and cropping can be done right within the application. Windows Photo Gallery also supports ICC V4 embedded color profiles and has Windows Color System support. However, legacy image formats such as WMF and EMF do not have their respective codecs available in WIC, and therefore cannot be viewed by default. The viewer can also view GIF images, but cannot show animated GIFs; clicking on a GIF images directly will cause it to open in Internet Explorer. In Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate editions, slideshows can be viewed with visual effects and transitions.

ee also

* QuickView
* Comparison of image viewers
* XnView

References

External links

* [http://kb.iu.edu/data/alqi.html Changing graphic file associations]
* [http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/image_overview.mspx Windows Picture and Fax Viewer Overview]
* [http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS06-001.mspx Related Microsoft Security Bulletin] (See the "Vulnerability Details" section)
* [http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,119993-page,1/article.html Windows' Hidden Image Viewer]
* [http://ccgi.martinbc.co.uk/wordpress/?p=107 Creating a shortcut to the Picture and Fax Viewer]