Improve default picture viewing on Slackware
Linux with XFCE as Desktop environemnt
Default XFce picture viewer on Slackware Linux is GIMP (GNU Image
Manipulation Program). Though GIMP is great for picture editting,
it is rather strange why Patrick Volkerding compiled XFCE to use
GIMP as a default picture viewer? The downsides of
GIMP
being default picture viewing program for Slackware's XFCE are the
same like Xubuntu's XFCE
risterroro, you can't switch easily
pictures back and forward with some keyboard keys (left, right
arrow keys, backspace or space etc.). Besides that another
disadvantage of using GIMP are;
a) picture opening time in GIMP loading is significantly higher if
compared to a simple picture viewer program like Gnome's default,
eye of the gnome -
eog.
b) GIMP is more CPU intensive and puts high load on each picture
opening
A default Slackware install comes with two good picture viewing
programs substitute for GIMP:
- Gwenview
- Geeqie
Both of the programs support picture changing, so if you open a
picture you can switch to the other ones in the same directory as
the first opened one.
I personally liked more
Gwenview because it has more
intutive picture switching controls. With it you can switch with
keyboard keys
space and backspace
To change GIMP's default PNG, JPEG opening I had with mouse right
button over a pic and in properties change,
Open With:
program.
If you're curious about the picture on on all screenshots, this is
Church - Saint George (situated in the city center of
Dobrich, Bulgaria).
St. Georgi / St. George Church is built in 1842 and is the
oldest Orthodox Church in Dobrich.
In the Crimean War (1853-1856) the church was burned down and was
restored to its present form in 1864.
gpicview is another cool picture viewing program, I like.
Unfortunately on Slackware, there is no prebuild package and the
only option is either to convert it with
alien from deb
package or to download source and compile as usual with
./configure && make && make install .
Downloading and compiling from source went just fine on
Slackware Linux 13.37 gpicview has more modern
looking interface, than
gwenview and
geeqie. and is
great for people who want to be in pace with desktop fashion
:)