Английская Википедия:File viewer
Шаблон:Short description Шаблон:Redirect Шаблон:About Шаблон:Multiple issues
A file viewer is a utility application software on operating systems for example; Windows, MacOS and Linux, that handles the user access of files located on data storage devices. File viewers allow the user to open and read content[1] on a Personal Computer (PC) or on a mobile phone.
Overview
File viewer applications can be split into the following categories:
- File Viewer Only applications do not allow the user to edit files.
- File Viewer and Converter applications allow viewing data, exporting data in a different file format, and copying information to the clipboard.
- File Viewer and Editor applications allow the user to view existing files, modify an existing file's content, or create a new file of a specific type.
The difference in file viewers' functionality initially resulted from how proprietary file formats were licensed. While all file formats can be read freely, some software licenses allow only the licensor to create and modify files. For example, the database software DBASE used a proprietary algorithm for creating .DBF files, but Norton Commander had a built-in viewer for .DBF files. A software application such as Adobe Photoshop, LibreOffice, or Microsoft Word is required to create .PDF files, but Acrobat Reader supports viewing of .PDF files.
A file format must have structural information that allows a file viewer to handle different byte orders, code pages or newline styles. In contrast, media file viewers, such as video player applications, may initially support few, if any, file formats. Media file viewers instead rely on video codecs to play various media, allowing users to expand a media file viewer's capability to read and represent media file data.
Some file viewers are filters that translate binary files into plain text (e.g., antiword). However some information may be lost depending on the translating routines.
Image viewers display graphic files on screen. Some viewers, such as IrfanView, can read multiple graphic file formats, while others, such as JPEGview, only support a single format. Common image viewer features include thumbnail preview and creation, image zooming and rotation, color balance and gamma correction, resizing, etc.
A web browser is a type of file viewer that renders HTML markup into a human-friendly presentation. Although HTML is stored in plain text files, viewing an HTML file in a browser and in a text editor produces significantly different results. Web browsers may also view multimedia files such as images, videos, pre-formatted documents, interactive environments, 3D models, augmented reality and virtual reality applets.
Examples
Plain text files
Microsoft Office documents
PDF files
Image files
Video and audio files
Binary files
Programming languages source code files
VRML and 3D models files
Microsoft Project plan files
See also
- Binary file#Viewing binary files
- Electronic document
- Image viewer
- Media player
- Text editor
- Web browser
- Terminal pager
References
