gThumb is an image viewer, browser and organiser designed for the GNOME desktop environment. It combines conventional image viewing with photo collection management and image editing, providing a useful middle ground between basic image viewers and comprehensive digital asset management applications.
The software has undergone a substantial architectural change, moving to GTK4 and being rewritten in Vala. This development has modernised the interface and underlying technology, while retaining its emphasis on browsing and managing images directly from the filesystem.
gThumb is useful for users who want to navigate image collections, inspect metadata and perform common editing tasks without importing everything into a separate photo database. Some older features have been discontinued during the rewrite, including web album creation, contact sheets, duplicate finding and date adjustment.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Image browser – navigate directories using thumbnail previews and a file-oriented interface.
- Photo organisation – manage images through folder browsing, file operations, bookmarks and searches.
- Image viewing – supports fullscreen display, zooming and navigation between pictures.
- Animated images – plays supported WebP and PNG animations alongside other compatible formats.
- Metadata handling – displays image properties and supports editing tags and keywords.
- Image adjustments – modify colour, brightness, contrast and other visual properties.
- Censor tool – pixelate or blur selected image areas.
- Image transformations – crop, rotate, resize and flip pictures.
- Format conversion – export images in supported formats, including JPEG XL.
- Video metadata – displays available video properties including frame rate, channels and sample rate.
- Slideshows – automatically display image collections with configurable navigation.
- Touchpad gestures – supports image swiping and pinch-to-zoom.
- Customisation – provides configurable browsing and viewing preferences.
Website: gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gthumb/gthumb
Support:
Developer: Paolo Bacchilega, Michael J. Chudobiak and contributors
License: GNU General Public License v2.0
gThumb is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Photo Management Software | |
|---|---|
| digiKam | Image organiser and editor using KDE |
| darktable | Photography workflow application and raw developer |
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| KPhotoAlbum | Tool for indexing, searching and viewing images for KDE |
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Read our verdict in the software roundup.
| Graphical Image Viewers | |
|---|---|
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| Mirage | Fast and simple GTK+ image viewer |
| PixelViewer | .NET based cross-platform image viewe |
| Pix | Image viewer and browser utility which is based on gThumb |
| ImageFan Reloaded | Tab-based image viewer |
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Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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