Gwenview has been KDE’s flagship image viewer for over 25 years. It works, it’s feature-packed, and it’s been modernized repeatedly. Gwenview has served generations of KDE users faithfully and well.
It doesn’t register for some image types that Gwenview does, e.g., jpeg-xl (.jxl), despite no problem displaying them.
Also, probably should register for inode/directory as Gwenview does.
Context: I’m a recent Linux/KDE Plasma user (since 5 months) and haven’t found my go-to image viewer yet. My favorite over the past 23 years has been IrfanView.
Upon trying Koko, I immediately prefer it over Gwenview. Good job!
I urge you to rethink the name “Photos”, as it is paradoxically nondescript and confusing, since it makes it unclear in some situations which app is being referenced (e.g. there’s also Gnome Photos).
I’ve had this issue on Android where I’d have 3 apps each displaying the name “Photos” or “Contacts” or “Calendar” and some dialogues where I select interactions wouldn’t show the icon or unique package name.
Koko is a fine name.
Good job!
This is a very promising project it seems, but still needs more work to be able to replace Gwenview.
I think its weakest side is inefficient use of toolbar, and lack of some basic editing functions that are commonly found in most modern image viewers.
An image viewer app should have a toolbar to let users perform some frequently used basic “editing” functions such as rotating left or right, flipping horizontally or vertically, resizing, cropping, automatic enhancement, converting to grayscale, etc. instead of leaving a blank space (waste) as Photos does now on the left of 4 buttons with fixed horizontal labels (waste), including a button Edit, which still follows the same inefficient use of toolbar space, requiring click after click to perform one of those functions (even leaving out the option to resize image proportionally).
Also, it seems there’s also something wrong with the vertical toolbar of editing tools. For example, when you add an object like arrow, and then wish to change its color, size etc., you clicking Select doesn’t work, you have to click None first and then Select, and repeat this again to see that editing toolbar at the bottom. If you wish to delete that object you’ve just created, pressing Delete button on your keyboard while the object is selected, looks like nothing happened, but actually that image file is moved to trash silently, and you still try to figure out how to get rid of that object you’ve just created and then decided you don’t want it (apparently, dragging it outside the canvas does the trick).
One of the issues I have with Qml apps is the VRAM usage. It is by default currently proportional to the window size, mostly unrelated to its content to some extent.
That’s due to Qt Quick Scene Graph Default Renderer | Qt Quick | Qt 6.11.2
Each application needs a dedicated fix or in Qt framework. What I am trying to achieve with plasmashell: cap the scene graph's texture atlas (!6945) · Merge requests · Plasma / Plasma Workspace · GitLab for plasma and improving breeze and all the themes along the way. That’s a long endeavor.
I think apps can fix this somewhat easily, especially those that don’t launch other applications.
And even with that fixed I bet gwenview would still be more memory efficient with more features (at least for the moment), while never using any VRAM.
So koko is over gwenview, a sleak simplified UI, with some animations, squared image previews instead of aspect ratio driven (not a fan of), at the cost of fewer features (atm) and more resources usage.
That’s a not a bad tradeof, and for many users (most) that’s a perfect match.
For the fast majority of my own use-cases that’s a match. I use visualization and cropping features regularly in gwenview to make screenshots, and koko/Photos is nicer.
And koko startup is sufficiently fast, something I can’t say for another other qml app, I have used.
It lacks a diaporama feature, and when editing a picture “Esc” key does not quit it. Two easily fixable features.
A few features of gwenview would need to be splitted of it, notably the photo camera importer tool and the wallpaper fileitem action.
If Koko is meant to replace Gwenview, then why not just rename it Gwenview?
That would be simpler than ‘Photos’.
And besides, ‘Photos’ sounds just like the way applications are renamed in GNOME: depressing.
I use QView. Its simple, minimal UI is a gargantuan breath of fresh air, and it can handle any format I’ve thrown at it. Also, it uses Qt, so on a technical level it fits right in. File sorting and editing are better handled by other applications. An image viewer should just to its one job well.
Dolphin didn’t “replace Konqueror”. It replaced Konqueror as the default file manager.
what i like:
what’s missing:
in it’s current flatpak form (version 26.04.3) it is not a replacement for my default image view application which is gthumb
but it does take a good run at gwenview which i found early on to be unsuitable for my needs.
#
# image viewers
#
# gwenview does not work directly with files on the desktop but rather uses a /tmp folder
# with symlinks so you cannot delete images directly, looking for another viewer
name(-deleted) pkg rating sel nav thb fit +/- RFC prt del
gwenview default ** sel <-> thb fit mwh RFC prt
photos (koko) flat ** sel < > thb mwh +RFC prt del
gthumb 4 lib **** sel <-> thb fit mwh ++RFC prt del
nomacs 1 lib *** folder <-> thb fit mwh ++RFC prt del
-eye of gnome 4 lib *** sel < > thb fit mwh R prt del
-shotwell 6 lib ** taskmgr < > fit mwh ++RFC prt del
-XNViewMP flat ** tabs <-> bwsr fit c-mwh ++RFC prt del
-Viewnior 0 lib ** sel < > fit mwh RF-C- del
-qimgv 2 lib * taskmgr < > fit c-mwh RFC del
-photoQt * folder < > thb fit mwh R-F- del
-feh synaptic 3 lib * sel < > RF del
-digiKam flat n/a way too complex
# column descriptions:
# sel: opens a selection of images within a folder or opens the entire folder
# nav: can quickly move between images using the arrow keys (<-> wraps around)
# thb: shows a thumbnail navigation bar with previews
# fit: automatically fits the picture to the window (or is configurable to do so)
# +/-: zoom control with the mousewheel or ctrl+mousewheel
# RFC: Rotate, Fit, Crop tools easy to use, + additional tools, - difficult to use
# prt: supports printing images (ctrl-p)
# del: current image is deleted or moved to the trash using the del key
With the forced migration to Gemini, I discovered that ‘Clock’ doesn’t work, but ‘Clock’ does… if I asked Gemini to do simple tasks, it always used the ‘other’ clock.
Damn annoying, but easier to see what’s what on Plasma.
Interesting, QView seems more “unix like”. IMO if all tools would start immediately, it’s feasible to use QView just for viewing and in the rare case that you need editing, right click open in…
I gave it a shot and I don’t like it at all.
What is missing or what I don’t like:
Using this app feels like using windows app through wine. It does not feel like it’s native to KDE.
Maybe I missed some setting page?
I apologize if I sound harsh but I really like Gwenview and it’s been my go to app for viewing photos for many years.
this is a deal breaker for me as well… the thumbnails should show the full image and aspect ratio without any cropping.
for that matter so should the landing page.
the only place you can see the full image is if you click on it and open it.
I can agree with most of these points
I don’t really understand this one, though. It’s hidden when in single-image mode? I don’t particularly have a use for places here either, though, as it seems very focused on ~/Pictures which I don’t really use a whole lot, but I guess that’s very user-dependant.
It’s a bit weird how toggling “Show Controls” also removes thumbnails, and it was even weirder that the “shortcut” for this is just a single left click into the image, that definitely confused me at first.
My main complaint so far is definitely missing hotkeys (configurable hotkeys in particular) since when I start browsing images I always switch to the keyboard. Just left and right arrows aren’t cutting it, I want to be able to use pgDown, Home, etc. Also, + and - for zooming and Shift+Arrow Keys (Shift+HomeBlock) for moving the zoom area. 1,2,3 for specific predefined zoom levels (100%, 200%, 300%, …). Esc for closing the application because I don’t even really need the folder navigation (the image viewer will mostly be started via dolphin). I think a lot of these have been ingrained by irfan view, but it’s really just the gold standard for image viewers for like 30 years now.
I do realize though that usage patterns for image viewers also hugely vary between users. I’m currently using Nomacs which mostly functions the way I like it.
Edit: I do love how Photos includes Spectacle’s Edit mode, by the way, I might keep it around just for that.
Unfortunately, some of us have to use GNOME or GTK apps under KDE Plasma due to the weaknesses (or sometimes mere lack) of their KDE or Qt alternatives, unlike the desktop environment where KDE Plasma is incomparably superior in terms of functionality, feature-richness etc.
I often use two windows of Gwenview opened side by side to compare contents of two folders. I can set the thumbnails to be a bit larger and then I don’t have to open the individual image to compare. It’s much faster this way and having two sidebars makes it much more difficult. Also, with Gwenview I can move the images between folders and it’s very handy.
But I’ve just found even bigger roadblock to my workflow. I can’t open two different instances of Photos! 
This is mobile conventions actively hampering desktop experience.
Oh, that is indeed a deal breaker.
Two more things:
EDIT: I recorded a video to explain what I meant by saying it feels glitchy. I know it’s not very important but it makes the app feel less polished. Or maybe it’s just on my end?
This at least is implemented in the upcoming 26.12 release already.
Are you using an older version of Qt or X11? IIRC that glitch was fixed months ago.
Anyway, thanks for the feedback, everyone. There’s a lot of good stuff there, and I’ve started a discussion about it over at Initial community feedback (#114) · Issues · Graphics / Photos · GitLab . We’ll work on addressing everyone’s concerns, starting with the name! 
