FlashView
Browse 100,000 photos. At the speed of thought.
A fast, lightweight photo viewer for Windows — built for photographers who want to see and cull huge archives at speed. Ratings, color labels, picks — all written as standard XMP.
What FlashView is
FlashView is a fast, lean photo tool for Windows. Open a folder with thousands of photos and scroll through smoothly. Rating comes on top: keepers with a single keystroke, reject the rest, filter down to what matters. Ratings are stored as standard XMP — readable in Lightroom, Bridge, Photo Mechanic, or digiKam.
Stays responsive across archives of 100,000+ photos — runs on any machine.
What sets it apart
Built for the half of your archive that other viewers give up on.
Built for massive folders
No pre-indexing wait — open the folder and start scrolling immediately. Stays responsive across archives of 100,000+ photos.
Speed of thought
Cursor keys, mouse wheel, scroll — every input moves to the next image without perceptible lag, even on large, high-resolution JPEGs. That's the Flash in the name.
Native Windows workflow
Right-click any image → Open with FlashView → you're in the Loupe right away, with the entire folder already loaded. Press G for the grid.
Features
XMP metadata
Stars, color labels and flags written as standard XMP — readable in Lightroom, Bridge, Photo Mechanic, digiKam.
Batch-rate hundreds
Select 1,000+ files, press 3, done. Ctrl+Z undoes the last batch.
Live filtering
By rating, color label, pick, reject, or hide RAW entirely.
Keyboard-first
0–5 rate, P pick, X reject, G/L grid/loupe, F fullscreen, I EXIF. Every action works across many files at once — Ctrl+Z to undo. F1 shows the full list.
Sort and group
Name or date, ascending/descending. Group a parent folder by shoot with configurable depth.
Five color labels
Red, yellow, green, blue, purple — written as standard XMP.
Wide RAW support
Canon (CR3, CR2), Nikon (NEF, NRW), Sony (ARW, SR2), Adobe DNG, Fujifilm (RAF), Panasonic (RW2), Olympus (ORF), Pentax (PEF), Hasselblad (3FR, FFF), Samsung (SRW).
Zoom and inspect
1:1 pixel view, fit-to-screen, pan.
EXIF panel
Camera, lens, focal length, aperture, shutter, ISO, date, pixel size, artist, copyright — toggle in the loupe with I.
Open metadata
We write standard XMP. No lock-in, no proprietary format.
Stars, color labels and picks are embedded directly in JPEGs or written as XMP sidecars next to RAW files — as standard XMP, the way Adobe defined it. Any program that reads XMP shows your ratings: Lightroom, Bridge, Photo Mechanic, digiKam — and everything else that speaks XMP.
Works with StarRate
FlashView works hand-in-hand with StarRate. Shoot → FlashView for your own first pass → upload to Nextcloud → StarRate collects external ratings → back in FlashView you see your own and the guest ratings consolidated, all in standard XMP.
Ready for the Beta?
FlashView is in closed beta. The project site has all details and beta access.