RoboReader is a free image viewing program that handles images as floating objects on the desktop.
But more than that, it is also a comics viewer for CBR or CBZ ebook formats (or other compressed image archives) , and supports dual page image view, which is well suited for viewing comics.
RoboReader is geared for fast-loading image display with minimal visible user interface and doesn’t offer much in the way of editing.
It can display multiple images simultaneously as floating objects on the screen, and offers quick resizing (via mousewheel or keyboard shortcuts) and quick tweaking of on screen placement. Also, an excellent slideshow option that includes (optional) image filtering via filename or image tags.
Formats supported: CBZ, CBR, RAR, ZIP, 7z, animated GIF, JPG, JPEG, JPE, JFIF, BMP, PNG, TIFF, TIF, and ICO.
Here are some notes on this one:
- Nice effect: I just really like the effect of images floating on the desktop.
- Quick image manipulation: of on-screen sizes and placements, can easily switch to a black background rather than the desktop, supports dual page.
- Comics and image viewer: in one. Supports most common image formats as well as CBZ, CBR comics formats. Also views zipped image archives in ZIP or RAR formats.
- Filtering: filename, file age and tag filtering supported for customizing slideshows.
- Hardware acceleration: according to the website, as well as fast loading speeds.
CONs:
- Can be a memory hog: depending on what you are viewing. I expected a nice and reasonable 20-25megs in memory but each instance of RoboReader was easily double that.
- No editing/image management functions: but anyway its not made for this and there are plenty of free image editors/image managers out there.
- I wish it had the option to display current display and/or on-disk/original resolutions when opening an image.
The verdict: a nice little viewer in the manner of previously mentioned image viewing apps VJpeg and Osiva. I’ve been using it for a while and will likely continue to do so rather than go back to my previous viewer. Lacks image organizing and editing functions, but these days that is the purview of “image managers” rather than image viewers. If you are an occasional reader of CBZ or CBR comics that you view this is perfect for you and precludes the need to install a separate comics viewer such as CDisplay or ComicRack.
Version Tested: 1.5.2
Compatibility: WinAll
Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 524K).
