Supported file formats

What files can they read and display?

Almost all the managers in this Roundup can read and display the popular formats and work with RAW images from DSLRs.

DigiKam can read and edit all types of images and while it can recognise and play video files in many formats, including AVI, MPG and 3GP, it won’t allow you to edit them. However, DigiKam can work with RAW images thanks to the dcraw tool.

In addition to regular images, Fotoxx can import RAW files in most formats and can edit with deep colour, but it can’t read any video files. In a similar way, XnViewMP claims to support over 500 image formats, including all RAW formats, and displays animated GIFs, but it can’t open video files.

KPhotoAlbum supports all the normal image formats and, thanks to dcraw, that includes RAW formats produced by most digital cameras and scanners. It renders RAW images faster than the others too, since it can use the thumbnails embedded in RAW images rather than waiting for the whole image to decode.

Shotwell supports popular image formats but fails to pick up some such as GIF. It also supports video files in a format supported by the GStreamer media library, including Ogg, MP4 and AVI. Shotwell has limited RAW support. It doesn’t display the real thing but works with a JPEG file derived from the original. While importing RAW files, you can choose to either use the camera’s JPEG or Shotwell’s version.