tev is an open source high dynamic range (HDR) image comparison tool for graphics people.
tev allows viewing images through various tonemapping operators and inspecting the values of individual pixels. Often, it is important to find exact differences between pairs of images.
For this purpose, tev allows rapidly switching between opened images and visualizing various error metrics (L1, L2, and relative versions thereof). To avoid clutter, opened images and their layers can be filtered by keywords.
Key Features
- Good command-line and GUI interfaces.
- Playback controls. HDR image sequences can now be played back at a chosen framerate
- Images can be filtered with regular expressions.
- Histogram of image colors.
- File formats supported:
- EXR (via OpenEXR).
- PFM (compatible with Netbpm).
- HDR, BMP, GIF, JPEG, PIC, PNG, PNM, PSD, TGA (via stb_image).
- stb_image only supports subsets of each of the aforementioned file formats.
- Low-dynamic-range (LDR) images are “promoted” to HDR through the reverse sRGB transformation.
- Console output.
- Support for HiDPI scaling.
- Cross-platform support – runs under Linux, macOS, and Windows.
Website: github.com/Tom94/tev
Support:
Developer: Thomas Müller
License: BSD 3-Clause “New” or “Revised” License

tev is written in C++. Learn C++ with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| HDR Imaging Software | |
|---|---|
| RawTherapee | The Experimental Raw Photo Editor |
| OpenEXR | HDR image file format and HDR utilities |
| Hugin | Panorama photo stitching program |
| tev | High dynamic range image comparison tool |
| HyperHDR | Ambient lighting implementation for television and music sets |
| HDRView | Depth-map and high-dynamic range image viewer |
| Luminance HDR | Provides a workflow for HDR imaging |
| Radiance | Lighting simulation and rendering system |
| HDRMerge | Combine two or more raw images into a single raw |
| pfstools | Command line HDR manipulation programs |
| SimpleImageViewer | High-performance image viewer |
| CinePaint | Works with 16-bit and floating point pixels for HDR imaging |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
Explore our carefully curated directory of recommended free and open source software, covering every major software category.The directory forms part of our extensive collection of articles for Linux enthusiasts. It includes hundreds of detailed reviews, together with free and open source alternatives to proprietary software from companies such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. LinuxLinks also covers interesting projects worth exploring, Linux-compatible hardware, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Know a useful free and open source Linux application that we haven’t covered? Tell us about it using our submission form. |


Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.