A desktop photo and video browser for your local folders, built on Chromium 150. Explore your collection in a masonry timeline, view photos and videos in one application, and keep favorites close at hand.
Browse portrait photos, landscape shots, screenshots, and videos together in an aspect-ratio-aware grid. Adjust Grid Size from two to six columns to choose between larger previews and a denser overview.
Photo thumbnails show file size in the upper-right corner. Video thumbnails show duration and a play symbol in the same position. File-size units advance at multiples of 1024; unavailable video durations appear as --:--. MP4/MOV duration is read during scanning, so an existing library may need a rescan to populate it.
The date beside Timeline follows the visible collection. When visible media have GPS coordinates that resolve to a city, the heading shows the date and city of the first matching item in visual order. If the first visible item has no location, later visible items are checked. If none matches, only the first visible item's date is shown.
The timeline uses available capture dates, with MP4/MOV container creation time as a video fallback, then file creation time when no embedded date is available. Container dates can reflect an export rather than the original recording.
Open Settings → Library to add folders. Each folder appears immediately, with photo and video counts updated during scanning. Choose whether to include photos, videos, or both, and right-click a folder to remove it from the library configuration.
Folder choices persist between sessions. Folder monitoring picks up newly added media, and a scan-completion toast reports progress. On first use, the setup page offers default media folders; review the list and choose Done to start browsing.
Use the top search field and Filter media to narrow the view by media type, library folder, or Starred, or open Trash. Filter menus stay open while you make multiple choices.
Search file names and readable embedded metadata, including camera or phone model, lens, capture date, ISO, exposure, aperture, and focal length. Known dimensions, GPS coordinates, and approximate city, province/state, and country names are searchable too. This searches metadata, not text inside screenshots or photos.
| Input | Matches |
|---|---|
han |
Word prefixes such as Hangzhou, rather than the middle of Shanghai or Shang |
hangzhou or 杭州 |
Media whose GPS resolves to Hangzhou, or whose other searchable fields match |
Pixel8 |
Device names such as Google Pixel 8, including Pixel 8 Pro |
Pixel |
Pixel models across generations |
Pixel8 hangzhou |
Items matching both the device and location terms |
2026-09-10 |
Matching capture or catalog dates |
Matching ignores case. English terms match word prefixes, while Chinese and numeric terms use substring matching. Spaces within a field can be skipped, so Pixel8 matches Pixel 8. Separate query terms must all match, but can match different fields. A catalog date may come from a file timestamp when an embedded capture date is unavailable.
Place search includes English and all bundled translations, independently of the interface language. City matching requires embedded GPS and uses the approximate offline lookup described below; missing GPS does not prevent searches by other metadata.
The local search index is built in background batches. On first use, results fill in as indexing completes; subsequent sessions reuse the saved index. File size or modification-time changes and index-format upgrades trigger reindexing. Typing does not read original media files or send online requests. Trash metadata is read during its background load.
Open an item without leaving the application. Zoom and pan through photos, or play videos with seeking, volume adjustment, one-click mute, and fullscreen controls. The volume slider position and the volume used before muting are saved between sessions.
For videos, use the mouse wheel over the picture to zoom around the pointer, from the fit-to-window size up to 4×. Drag with the left mouse button to pan when enlarged; double-click to return to fit-to-window. Panning is constrained to the picture edges, and switching videos resets zoom. Playback controls keep their normal size.
While playing, the bottom controls begin fading out after approximately 2.5 seconds without interaction outside the controls area. They remain visible while paused or while the pointer is in the bottom controls area. Moving into that area reveals them again.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Left / Up in the viewer | Previous item |
| Right / Down in the viewer | Next item |
| F in the viewer | Toggle fullscreen |
| Esc / Q in fullscreen | Return to window mode |
| Space in the video player | Play or pause |
| Space / Shift + Space in the grid | Scroll forward / backward by a page |
| Ctrl + A in selection mode | Select all displayed items |
| Delete in the viewer | Delete the current item without confirmation, then show the next item |
| Ctrl + Q in the main window | Quit |
Viewer deletion moves ordinary library files to crPhotos-managed Trash. Viewing an item in Trash and pressing Delete permanently deletes it without confirmation. If the deleted item was last, the viewer opens the previous item; if none remain, it returns to the grid. A failed deletion does not advance the viewer, and holding Delete does not repeatedly delete items.
A directional bounce indicates the beginning or end of the collection. Switching items preserves fullscreen, returning to the grid keeps browsing context, and videos return to the beginning when playback finishes.
Click the selection circle on a thumbnail to enter selection mode. Select individual items or hold the left mouse button and drag across thumbnails. The heading shows the selected count and combined file size, while a floating toolbar provides batch actions.
Mark favorites with Starred, copy selected files to the clipboard, or review thumbnail previews before moving a selection to Trash. The Trash grid offers Restore and Delete permanently with confirmation. This batch flow is separate from the viewer's immediate Delete shortcut. Expired trash entries are cleaned up after a 30-day retention period while crPhotos is running. This is application-managed storage, not the Windows Recycle Bin.
Open Details to inspect dimensions, file size, path, and available camera or video information. Supported embedded metadata includes capture time, camera/phone model, lens model, ISO, exposure time, aperture, and focal length. Android/Pixel manufacturer and model tags are supported in MP4 metadata. Missing capture fields are hidden. A copy button copies the displayed metadata and confirms with Copied.
Details can show WGS84 latitude/longitude and the approximate city, province/state, and country. Supported sources include EXIF GPS, supported HEIC Exif metadata, and QuickTime ISO 6709 decimal-coordinate tags in MP4/MOV files.
City lookup uses bundled GeoNames data and requires no online geocoding or runtime database download. It selects the nearest retained city point within 100 km; this is an approximation, not an administrative-boundary or landmark lookup. Coordinates remain available even when no city matches.
Place names follow the interface language where translations are available, with fallback names otherwise. The GeoNames data is embedded in the application resource pack. Data attribution: GeoNames, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Configure nearby sharing in Settings to discover devices on the local network or connect manually by address. Send selected files, review pairing and transfer approval prompts, choose a receive directory, and monitor or cancel transfers. Trusted devices can be remembered, with an optional setting to automatically accept their transfers.
The Trusted devices window lists remembered devices and transfer statistics. It is modal to the main window; close it to resume browsing. The red delete icon forgets a device's trusted status.
Local JavaScript extensions add actions to the selection toolbar after Share and to the photo/video right-click menu. Each extension can support selection mode, viewer mode, or both. Selection extensions are not shown in the Trash toolbar.
Open Settings → Extensions and click + Add Extension, then choose an unpacked extension folder containing manifest.json and main.js. The application validates and copies the package into its local extension directory. Extensions are not installed automatically.
Each list item shows its icon, name, version, description, enable toggle, and configuration gear. Drag the left handle to reorder extensions; the saved order also applies to the selection toolbar, overflow menu, and viewer menu. Right-click an item and choose Delete this extension to remove the installed package and its configuration. The gear opens a JSON configuration editor; Save becomes available after an edit.
Extensions can use a native processing dialog with media previews, progress, and text output. Double-click an output line associated with a file to select that line and enlarge its preview. Cancel stops pending work; the button changes to Done when processing finishes. Extensions can also run without a dialog and show a short completion toast.
The source tree provides these example packages under crPhotos/extensions/examples/:
| Extension | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Copy File Path | Copies selected file paths without opening a dialog and shows a completion toast, such as “2 files copied”, for about three seconds |
| Archive as zip | Saves selected originals into a ZIP at a location chosen in a native Save dialog, with progress and cancellation |
| Upload to Imgur | Uploads supported original files through HTTPS, with progress and returned links; requires your own API configuration |
| Media Summary | Demonstrates metadata processing and dialog output |
Archive as zip creates a new archive or replaces the chosen destination after successful compression; it does not append to an existing ZIP. Duplicate file names receive numeric suffixes. It needs no network access or account.
The Imgur example accepts a Client ID or an existing OAuth access token. It does not provide an OAuth login or token-refresh flow. Credentials are stored locally in plaintext config.json. Uploads include original embedded metadata; cancelling cannot remove uploads already accepted by the service.
For extension developers, the host uses V8 with a crPhotos-specific API. It supports declared permissions for selected-file access, HTTPS requests, POST/PUT uploads with progress, clipboard file paths, and saving ZIP archives. This is not a Chrome extension or Node.js environment: HTML/DOM, arbitrary shell commands, and arbitrary filesystem writes are not exposed. SVG icons and localized names, descriptions, and output are supported. See crPhotos/extensions/README.md in the source tree for the API and package format.
Default installation directories are ~/.config/crPhotos/extensions/ on Linux and %LOCALAPPDATA%\crPhotos\extensions\ on Windows. An alternative directory can be selected with --extensions-dir=/absolute/path/to/extensions.
Choose system, light, or dark appearance. The interface supports English plus Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese (Hong Kong and Taiwan), Arabic, French (France and Canada), Russian, Spanish (Spain and Latin America), and Portuguese (Brazil and Portugal).
On Linux, select Install on device from the application menu to create a launcher and icon for the current user. The launcher points to the current executable; keep the extracted application directory in a stable location, or repeat the action after moving it. Installation reports success or failure in a notification bubble.
crPhotos uses Chromium's native C++ Views toolkit and compositor. Video playback connects Chromium's media pipeline to video layers without a Blink page or HTML video element. Hardware video decoding depends on the build, codec profile, GPU, and driver; supported Linux configurations can use VA-API. JPEG/PNG and HEIC decoding are separate from this video hardware path.
A virtualized grid limits active thumbnail views to the relevant browsing region. Background scanning, a persistent SQLite catalog, and thumbnail caching reduce repeated work. Video thumbnails handle rotation, mirroring, and HDR-to-SDR tone mapping. Suitable GPU-backed frames can use GPU thumbnail tone mapping, with fallback paths when unavailable.
The static single-image path supports container rotation, mirroring, cropping, color-profile conversion, and supported HDR-to-SDR tone mapping. Suitable embedded thumbnails are preferred for SDR images; HDR thumbnails are generated from the primary image and its color metadata. A cached preview can appear before full-resolution decoding completes, preserving the viewer's zoom and pan when replaced.
- Linux: requires system
libheif.so.1version 1.19.8 or newer and an HEVC decoder backend. - Windows x64: requires a compatible
heif.dlland its decoder dependencies alongside the application. A package may omit this optional runtime.
Missing HEIC dependencies leave other supported formats available. The decoder bounds input to 128 MiB, 64 million pixels, and 16384 pixels per dimension. Multi-image collection browsing and animated HEIC sequences are not supported. Video codec availability depends on the decoders included in the build and available on the device.
Extract the complete ZIP into a stable directory and run ./crPhotos from that directory. Keep the executable together with its resource PAKs, icudtl.dat, snapshot_blob.bin, graphics libraries, and crphotos_resources/ directory. The V8 snapshot must come from the same build as the application; it is required when running JavaScript extensions.
The Linux archive is not a fully self-contained distribution. It uses system libraries for the desktop, fonts, graphics, audio, and networking, including GLib/GIO, NSS/NSPR, ATK, Pango/Cairo, X11/XCB, xkbcommon, GBM, D-Bus, and ALSA. HEIC additionally needs the runtime described above. Supported codecs and GPU acceleration depend on the installed environment.
Example extension folders must be obtained separately if they are not included in the release archive. Install each unpacked package through Settings → Extensions. The executable alone does not install example extensions or configure upload credentials.
This README describes the current source implementation; available features depend on the version and runtime dependencies of the package you use.