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sxiv vs pqiv

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When comparing sxiv vs pqiv, the Slant community recommends sxiv for most people. In the question“What are the best small and lightweight image viewers for UNIX-like systems?” sxiv is ranked 6th while pqiv is ranked 8th. The most important reason people chose sxiv is:

Anti-aliasing is usually enabled on startup and can be toggled with 'a'. Disabling anti-aliasing means faster operation due to less CPU load. Changing the default is possible by compiling with this setting: # config.h static const bool ANTI_ALIAS = false;

Specs

LicenseGPL-2.0

No specs yet!

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Common Questions

What are the best small and lightweight image viewers for UNIX-like systems?

Pros

Pro
Anti-aliasing can be toggled

Anti-aliasing is usually enabled on startup and can be toggled with 'a'.
Disabling anti-aliasing means faster operation due to less CPU load.

Changing the default is possible by compiling with this setting:

# config.h
static const bool ANTI_ALIAS = false;

Pro
Supports embedding into other X windows

Via option -e.

Pro
Basic support for multi-frame images (aka animations)

Load all frames from GIF files and play GIF animations.

Pro
Acts as a filter for images that interacts with the command line

Option -i (input) takes filenames from stdinput and outputs marked images to stdoutput via option -o (output).

Pro
Userscripts can be applied to single images or thumbnail mode selection

Examples of how to use the key-handler are found here:
/usr/share/sxiv/exec/key-handler

Pro
Image infobox can be configured

Can be configured in ~/.config/sxiv/exec/image-info. See also here.

Pro
Rudimentary viewing manipulation

Images can be rotated (<,>), flipped (|,_) and scaled (w,W,e,E,=).

Pro
View mode with marked files

Keys 'N' and 'P' move in list of marked files. This can be useful.

Pro
Thumbnail mode

Pro
Fast

Pro
Configuration via command line flags or configuration file

Configuration based on one file (~/.config/pqivrc).

See manual page:
"
[options]
fullscreen=1
sort=1
command-1=|convert - -blur 20 -
...

[keybindings]
q { goto_file_relative(-1); }
w { goto_file_relative(1); }

Similarly, you can also specify (multiple) actions to be executed each time pqiv is started in a section called [actions].
"

Pro
Has a jump mode in thumbnail mode (montage mode) thats similar to vim-easymotion

See "montage_mode_follow(KEYS)" in the man page.
By default g activates jump mode.

Pro
Can pipe images through external filters

Pro
VIM-like key sequences, action cycling and binding multiple actions to a single key

Pro
Keys are easily configured to a user command.

Keys can even be configured on the command line.

Pro
Powerful collection of so called actions

Actions can be used to configure the interaction with the program (e.g. moving, file selection, view manipulation, UI appearance, simple image manipulation).
Actions can easily be used in the configuration.

Pro
Rudimentary viewing manipulation

h/v: Flip the image horizontally or vertically.
k/l: Rotate the image right or left.
Plus/Minus: Zoom.

Pro
Comes with transparency support

Pro
Can watch files and directories for changes

Pro
Quick jump dialog based on filename mask

j: Show a dialog with a list of all files for quick selection.

Pro
Has infobox out of the box

Ad
Cons

Con
Browsing a directory after opening a single file needs fixing

See here

There is a workaround implemented in ranger that works more or less out of the box

    # This hook allows image viewers to open all images in the current
    # directory, keeping the order of files the same as in ranger.
    # The requirements to use it are:
    # 1. set open_all_images to true
    # 2. ensure no files are marked
    # 3. call rifle with a command that starts with "sxiv " or "feh "
    def sxiv_workaround_hook(command):

Con
Jumping in thumbnail mode possible, but limited

By entering a number, followed by capital G the focus jumps to that image in the list counted from beginning. (G is default key for 'g_n_or_last'-action (see config.h in source).)
It has to be noted that prefixing a motion with a number also works as espected (vim style).
Alas, a jumping mode with lables (like with pqiv) would be an advantage.

Con
It doesn't have pong

Con
Thumbnail mode only with simple marking

Key 'm' marks files.

Con
Keys not configurable except via keyhandler mode or compilation

Keys can be associated with userscripts, which can be defined in ~/.config/sxiv/exec/key-handler. Every associated button needs to be prefixed with the key combination C-x (although that prefix can be configured to another key or key combination in config.h).

It has to be noted that key configuration apart from the key-handler is possible via compilation (Customizable key and mouse button mappings in config.h), which must not be a bad way to configure buttons, but certainly means a barrier for the not so tech-savvy.

Easy instruction for compilation:
1) Enter in terminal: "git clone https://github.com/muennich/sxiv.git"
2) Edit file "config.h" according to this
3) Compile and install, namely enter directory and enter in terminal: "make && sudo make install" (beware of sudo/root unless you know what you do)
( 4) Iterate: 2), then: enter directory and enter in terminal: "make clean && make && sudo make install" )

See an example for remapping the navigation buttons:

// navigate thumbnail+image
    { 0,            XK_Left,          i_navigate,           -1 },
    { 0,            XK_Left,          t_move_sel,           DIR_LEFT },

    { 0,            XK_Right,         i_navigate,           +1 },
    { 0,            XK_Right,         t_move_sel,           DIR_RIGHT },

    { 0,            XK_Down,          t_move_sel,           DIR_DOWN },
    { 0,            XK_Up,            t_move_sel,           DIR_UP },

    { ShiftMask,    XK_Right,         i_navigate,           +10 },
    { ShiftMask,    XK_Left,          i_navigate,           -10 },