Every major camera, decoded fast
CR2, CR3, NEF, ARW, DNG, RAF, ORF, RW2, PEF, X3F, and 20+ more — opened progressively so the first frame appears immediately while full resolution loads in the background.
Windows image viewer
Fast image viewing for RAW, large folders, and modern formats.
Ember opens RAW from any major camera, HEIC and AVIF from phones, comic archives without extracting, and 100+ other formats. Keyboard-driven, lightweight, built for photographers who actually move through their folders.
Built for real photo workflows
A viewer that keeps up with your folder, not the other way around.
Ember is designed around the way photographers and image-heavy workflows actually move: open a folder, fly through it, mark what matters, get out. No editor sprawl, no project files, no account.
HEIC, AVIF, JPEG XL, and friends
Phone photos, modern codecs, JPEG 2000, JPEG XR, PSD/PSB layered files, ORA, KRA, SVG, EPS, and animated GIF/WebP/APNG — all in one viewer.
Open ZIP, RAR, 7Z, CBZ as folders
Browse images inside archives without extracting them. Password prompts, folder-aware navigation, and resume-position memory for large comic books and photo dumps.
Browse photos straight from MTP devices
When you double-click a photo on an iPhone or Android in Explorer, Ember reconstructs the full device folder and lets you navigate it like any other source — without copying everything to disk first.
Equirectangular panoramas, in place
Files with GPano metadata open in a dedicated panorama viewer with drag, zoom, and auto-rotate. Switch between flat and 360° on demand. Mixed folders hand off seamlessly.
100+ megapixel files stay smooth
A tiled rendering path keeps zoom and pan responsive on huge static rasters. ICC color, HDR PQ tone mapping for HEIF, and a working-copy strategy that keeps the original free for delete and rename.
Format coverage
Opens what you actually have.
Photos from a phone, RAW from a camera, screenshots, archives, layered editor files, scientific imagery, multi-page documents — Ember covers the long tail without juggling separate apps.
See the full listPhotos
JPEG · PNG · BMP · TIFF · GIF · WebP · APNG · HEIC · HEIF · AVIF · JPEG XL · ICO
Camera RAW
CR2 · CR3 · NEF · NRW · ARW · DNG · RAF · ORF · RW2 · PEF · X3F · 3FR · IIQ · GPR · SRW · MRW
Creative & vector
PSD · PSB · XCF · ORA · KRA · SVG · SVGZ · EPS · PS · EMF · WMF
Documents & multipage
PDF · multipage TIFF · DCX
Archives
ZIP · RAR · 7Z · TAR · GZ · BZ2 · XZ · LZH · CBR · CBZ · CB7
Technical
EXR · DPX · Cineon · TGA · DDS · HDR · DICOM · QOI · PCX · PPM · SGI · plus more
Quality that ramps up
Ember picks a screen-appropriate resolution first, then upgrades quality progressively. Big files feel responsive instead of blocking on a single heavy decode.
ICC profiles & HDR HEIF
ICC color profile support across decode paths. HDR PQ HEIF from cameras like Canon is tone-mapped to SDR cleanly instead of looking washed out.
Reloads while you edit
Keep Ember open next to Photoshop, Affinity, or Paint. Save in the editor and Ember reloads in place — keeping your zoom, pan, and position exactly where they were.
Designed for the keyboard
Hands stay on the keys.
Ember is built for fast cull-and-review sessions. Every common action has a key, the bottom overlay can be cycled to whatever density fits the moment, and the cursor hides itself while you work.
Mouse wheel zooms or navigates — your choice in settings. Alt+wheel forces navigation, Ctrl+wheel forces zoom. Touch and precision-touchpad gestures work too.
← →Previous / next image
SpaceNext, or page through tall images
F11Fullscreen toggle
F · Shift+TabCycle bottom overlay modes
1 – 5 · 0Star rating (JPEG / TIFF)
Ctrl+GGo to image number
Alt+← / Alt+→Page in TIFF / PDF
Ctrl+NDuplicate window
Why Ember
Made for viewing, not editing.
Ember does one thing well. There is no library import step, no catalog, no project files, no cloud account. Open a file, browse the folder, and close it. Settings and ratings live in standard places so other tools can read them too.
- Star ratings written through the Windows property system, so Explorer, Lightroom, and Bridge all see the same value.
- Same file order Explorer is showing — including search results, recents, and custom sorts — instead of forcing its own sort.
- File associations registered without admin rights. Portable build available if you want zero install.
- Self-contained build. No separate .NET runtime install required.