# QuickLook
[](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-3.0.en.html)
[](https://ci.appveyor.com/project/xupefei/QuickLook)
[](https://github.com/xupefei/QuickLook/releases)
[](https://github.com/xupefei/QuickLook/releases/latest)
*This project is currently under heavy development. Come back often to see what's new.*
## Background
[Quick Look](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quick_Look) is among the few features I missed from Mac OS X. It enables *very* quick preview of file by pressing Space key while highlighting it, without opening its associated application. Then I decide to add this feature to Windows by myself, which results this “QuickLook” project.
You may ask, why you write this when there several alternatives available on the Internet (e.g. [WinQuickLook](https://github.com/shibayan/WinQuickLook) and [Seer](https://github.com/ccseer/Seer))? The answer is that, they are all among those which no longer actively developed, lack of support of file types and plugins, or asking user for amounts of $$$.
## Usage
### General usage
1. Download either installer or portable archive from [GitHub Release](https://github.com/xupefei/QuickLook/releases) page
2. Run `QuickLook.exe`
3. Select a file/folder on the Desktop / in a File Explorer window / in an Open- or Save-File dialog
4. Press Spacebar
5. Select another file/folder in the same manner
6. When you're done, click on the `❎` button, or press Spacebar again
### Hotkeys
- Spacebar Show/Hide the preview window
- Esc Hide the preview window
- Enter Open/Execute current file
- Mouse️ ↑ ↓ ← → Preview another file
- Ctrl-Wheel Zoom in/out images
### Integration
- You may set up a custom hot key that fires event `QuickLook.exe C:\path\to\your\file.txt`.
- For developer: Send **a line** (ends with `\r\n`) of UTF-8 string which contains the file path to the [named pipe](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa365590(v=vs.85).aspx) named `\\.\pipe\QuickLook.App.Pipe`.
## Features
Till now, QuickLook supports the preview of
- Images: e.g. `.png`, `.jpg`, `.bmp`, `.gif`, `.psd` and Camera RAW formats
- Compressed archives: `.zip`, `.rar`, `.tar.gz`, `.7z` etc.
- Pdf file
- All kinds of text files (determined by file content)
- Microsoft Word (`.doc`, `.docx`), Excel (`.xls`, `.xlsx`) and PowerPoint (`.ppt`, `.pptx`) files (requires MS Office installation)
- OpenDocument (`odt`, `.ods` and `.odp`) files (requires MS Office installation)
- Video files (`.mp4`, `.mkv`, `.m2ts` etc.)
- HTML files (`.htm`, `.html`)
- Markdown file (`.md`)
- Other files and folders will be shown in a information box
## Development
The previewing ability can be extended by new plugins. Read the [plugin interface](https://github.com/xupefei/QuickLook/blob/master/QuickLook/Plugin/IViewer.cs), [context object](https://github.com/xupefei/QuickLook/blob/master/QuickLook/Plugin/ContextObject.cs) for more information. [Out-of-box plugins](https://github.com/xupefei/QuickLook/tree/master/QuickLook.Plugin) contain more detailed implementation.
Note that any plugin must be under the `QuickLook.Plugin` namespace, has the filename similar to `QuickLook.Plugin.YourPlugin.dll` and placed under `\Plugins\QuickLook.Plugin.YourPlugin\` subfolder.
## Related projects
QuickLook is standing on shoulders of several open-source libraries, named
- [AvalonEdit](https://github.com/icsharpcode/AvalonEdit): the WPF-based text editor component used in SharpDevelop
- [dcraw](http://www.cybercom.net/~dcoffin/dcraw/): decoding raw digital photos in Linux
- [ExifLib](https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/36342/ExifLib-A-Fast-Exif-Data-Extractor-for-NET): a fast Exif data extractor for .NET 2.0+
- [FFmpeg](https://ffmpeg.org/): a complete, cross-platform solution to record, convert and stream audio and video
- [FFmpegMediaElement](https://github.com/unosquare/ffmediaelement/tree/master/Unosquare.FFmpegMediaElement): WPF MediaElement replacement based on FFmpeg
- [Font-Awesome-WPF](https://github.com/charri/Font-Awesome-WPF): WPF & UWP controls for the iconic font and CSS toolkit Font Awesome
- [github-markdown-css](https://github.com/sindresorhus/github-markdown-css): The minimal amount of CSS to replicate the GitHub Markdown style
- [ImageMagick](http://www.imagemagick.org): convert, edit, or compose bitmap images
- [Magick.NET](https://github.com/dlemstra/Magick.NET): The .NET wrapper for the ImageMagick library
- [markdown-it](https://github.com/markdown-it/markdown-it): markdown parser, done right. 100% CommonMark support, extensions, syntax plugins & high speed
- [MuPdf](https://mupdf.com/): lightweight PDF, XPS, and E-book viewer
- [PreviewHandlerHost](http://www.brad-smith.info/blog/archives/79): IPreviewHandler Revisited
- [SharpCompress](https://github.com/adamhathcock/sharpcompress): a fully managed C# library to deal with many compression types and formats
- [Sumatra PDF](https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org): a PDF, ePub, MOBI, CHM, XPS, DjVu, CBZ, CBR reader for Windows
- [WpfWebBrowserWrapper](https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/555302/A-better-WPF-Browser-Control-IE-Wrapper): a better WPF-Browser-Control (IE-Wrapper)
- [XamlAnimatedGif](https://github.com/XamlAnimatedGif/XamlAnimatedGif): a simple library to display animated GIF images in XAML apps
## Licenses
Application icons made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com. Used under the [Flaticon Basic License](http://file000.flaticon.com/downloads/license/license.pdf).
All source codes, except which are from other projects mentioned in “Related projects” section, are licensed under [GPL-3.0](https://opensource.org/licenses/GPL-3.0).
If you want make any modification on these source codes while keeping new codes not protected by GPL-3.0, please contact me for a sublicense instead.