Windows 8 Photo Viewer, Video Viewer, Slideshow Maker: Gallery HD
Gallery HD is a free Windows 8 Photo Viewer and Video Viewer app that lets you view photos and videos on your Windows 8 system. The app also lets you play slideshow of your photos with beautiful transition effect (fade and zoom), and gives detailed information about the photos. There is an interesting option of 4 x zoom available. Gallery HD supports almost all popular image and video file formats, including JPEG, PNG, BMP, WMV, MP4, 3GP, etc.
This free Windows 8 photo viewer app is an easy to use app with a simple interface. It can also be assigned as your default photo and video viewer app. The free version of this app is available in the Photo category of Windows Store, which is ad supported. You can also buy the full ad-free version of Gallery HD app at a very nominal cost.
Let’s get into the details of how this app works.
View Photos, Videos, Play Slideshow using Gallery HD:
Once you install and launch this app, you will see the Start screen of the app where two buttons are placed at the top right corner: one to browse a source photo or video folder and another to add any folder to Favorites.
The Add to Favorites option lets you add any folder to your Favorites list, so that it will always appear on the app’s screen and you won’t have to browse for it again and again.
The Browse Folders option lets you select a particular folder which contains the desired photos and/or videos. Once you choose a folder, you will be able to see thumbnails of all photos and/or videos with details like name, date and time, available in that folder. On clicking any of these photos or videos, you will be able to see it in full screen. You can use the left and right headed arrows at the extreme ends of the screen to navigate through the photos or videos. You can also double-click anywhere on the photo to bring the Zoom option, which lets you zoom in the photo up to 4 times.
While viewing a photo or video, right click with your mouse and you will see a top flyout and a bottom flyout. The top flyout shows details like photo name, pixels, and date on which it was taken.
On the left side of the bottom flyout, you will see options of Properties, Share, Slideshow and Zoom In. If you click on Properties, the details like name of the image, date, dimensions and the camera from which the photo was taken, are displayed. Using the Share option, you can share images via e-mail or SkyDrive. The right side of the bottom flyout has options of Album Cover, Buy, and Settings. The Album Cover option lets you set any photo within a folder as its album cover. By going into the Settings, you can change the time interval of transition in slideshow to 5, 10 or 15 seconds. Buy option is for buying the ad-free version of the app.
Key Features of this Free Windows 8 Photo Viewer App:
- Free Windows 8 photo viewer app to view photos, videos.
- Browse and show photos and videos from any folder, SD card, or SkyDrive.
- Play Slideshows with transition and zoom effect.
- Adjustable transition time for slideshow.
- Full screen view.
- Display details of photos and videos.
- 4 x zoom available.
- Add to Favourite option
- Can sort folders by date or name.
- Can be set as default photo,video viewer app.
- Live tile support.
- Easy to use.
Also check out some free photo editors and photo collage maker apps.
My Verdict:
Gallery HD is a nice photo and video viewer app that lets you view photos and videos in almost all popular formats on your PC. The slideshow and zoom in options give a better view of the photos. However, this app could have had a few more functions available to play with. But for those who love to see their capturings near to their original form, its worth trying. Go ahead and check this out!