PicViewer is a small application used to browse through and display graphic files under any Windows operating system.
There are many paint programs that can accomplish this; in fact, even Windows itself now has a thumbnail view in its
Explorer. So why the need for this program?
It was created originally as a slide-show type application to display a directory full of scanned or digital photgraphs,
and work well on an under-powered laptop that did not have enough CPU or RAM to run Microsoft PowerPoint effectively.
Eventually, other benefits became obvious: it is small, loads quickly, and is geared for easily navigating various
directories filled with graphic files. With a few extra features and command-line arguements added, it has become a
tool I use often. And one I have not found elsewhere.
PicViewer is written in Delphi 6 using only standard components and one open source graphics library, GraphicEx (http://www.delphi-gems.com/Graphics.php).
It was originally posted to SourceForge in 2005: http://sourceforge.net/projects/picviewer.
Possible command-line parameters include:
-maximize This maximizes the application''s window to the full height and width of your screen.
-fullscreen This hides the toolbar buttons, drive, directory, and file list and sets a black background. Also, the scroll bars and mouse pointer are hidden. The shortcut is F12.
-fitinwin This scales the pictures to the size of the viewable area. The shortcut is F11.
-movie This starts stepping through the pictures, loading the next one every 7 seconds. At the end of the list, it starts over at the beginning. Any key except F5 (the shortcut) leaves movie mode.
-directory= This starts the application in the specified directory. If the directory has spaces in it, enclose it in quotes.
While this code has not been worked on for several years, I have confirmed it compiles in Delphi 2010.
David Cornelius, July, 2013