Documentation

LiteView documentation

How LiteView decodes images, its keyboard shortcuts, install steps per platform, and fixes for common issues.

How image decoding works

LiteView is built on Neutralinojs: a small native window hosts the operating system's own web rendering engine — WebView2 on Windows, WebKitGTK on Linux, WKWebView on macOS — and that engine decodes every image. Because SVG, WebP and AVIF are formats modern web engines can understand, LiteView does not bundle a separate codec pack or Electron/Chromium runtime. Windows 10/11 and macOS 13+ provide the required runtime; Linux requires WebKitGTK 4.1 or a compatible package.

Supported formats

SVG, WebP, AVIF, PNG, JPEG, GIF, BMP and ICO.

Keyboard shortcuts

Key	Action
`← / → / Space`	Previous / next image
`Home / End`	First / last image
Mouse wheel	Zoom at cursor
Drag	Pan
Double-click	Toggle fit / 100%
`+ / -`	Zoom in / out
`0 / 1`	Fit to window / actual size
`R`	Rotate 90°
`G`	Grid view
`F`	Fullscreen
`Ctrl+O / Ctrl+Shift+O`	Open folder / open file
`Esc`	Leave fullscreen / grid

Installation

Windows 10 / 11

Download and unzip the Windows release, then run install.ps1 (powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File install.ps1). This installs per-user to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\LiteView with no admin rights, adds a Start Menu shortcut, and registers LiteView under "Open with" and Settings → Default apps. Windows requires you to manually confirm the default app per file type: right-click a file → Open with → Choose another app → LiteView → Always. Uninstall with uninstall.ps1.

Linux

Install the WebKitGTK dependency (libwebkit2gtk-4.1-0 on Debian/Ubuntu, webkit2gtk4.1 on Fedora, webkit2gtk-4.1 on Arch), then run packaging/install-linux.sh. This installs per-user, registers a desktop entry, and sets LiteView as the default viewer for AVIF, WebP and SVG automatically. Uninstall with packaging/uninstall-linux.sh.

macOS 13+

Run packaging/build-macos-app.sh to assemble a universal LiteView.app (Intel + Apple Silicon), then drag it into Applications. The bundle is unsigned, so the first launch needs right-click → Open.

Command line usage

Run liteview <image-or-folder> to open a specific file or folder directly. Opening a single image loads its entire parent folder into the filmstrip so you can navigate between neighboring files.

Troubleshooting

LiteView isn't offered as an option when I right-click a file

Reinstall via install.ps1 (Windows) or packaging/install-linux.sh (Linux) to re-register file associations, then try Open with again.

macOS won't launch the app

The app bundle is unsigned. Right-click LiteView.app → Open (instead of double-clicking) the first time to bypass Gatekeeper's warning.

A format doesn't seem to decode

Rendering depends on the OS's web engine version — very old Linux distributions may ship a WebKitGTK build without AVIF support (AVIF needs WebKitGTK ≥ 2.32). Updating your system's WebKitGTK package resolves this.

Source & license

LiteView is MIT-licensed and open source. Full source, issues and releases are on GitHub.