Mirada
Open a photo. The folder comes with it.
A fast image viewer for macOS, Windows and Linux. The photo you opened is on screen in about an eighth of a second, and every other image in its folder is one arrow key away, in the order you'd number them. JPEG, PNG, WebP, HEIC, AVIF, JPEG XL, TIFF and PSD, turned upright and animated where the file is. No library, no import, no account.
The command palette over a photo, in the light or dark of the theme you pick above. Every command is in it, with its key and what it does.
A look at the window
The real thing, laid out as GNOME's Image Viewer is: the photo fills the window, the header says which folder and which file, the properties sidebar says how large it is and what took it, and the thumbnail strip shows where it sits in the folder. Both panels are a key away, and closed until you want them.
Why Mirada
An image viewer is the app you open a hundred times a day for three seconds each. Mirada is built for those three seconds.
Fast before anything else
A native executable, not a Java start-up: on Linux, about 125 ms to a small JPEG and 170 ms to a 24-megapixel one. The first image decodes while the window is still being built, and the images either side are ready before you press the arrow.
The folder is the document
Open one photo and the rest of the folder is there, IMG_9
before IMG_10, or by date or size. Go to any image by typing
part of its name; rename, trash or copy it without leaving the window.
Nothing to import, and no catalogue to keep.
Every command, by key or by name
Arrows step, + and - zoom, R turns, E edits, and the command palette finds the rest as you type, with its key beside it. The same palette as Editora and Termina, and its keys are yours to choose.
The codecs are built in, and built from source
Behind the window are the reference decoders, called directly: libjpeg-turbo for JPEG, libwebp for WebP, libheif with libde265 and dav1d for HEIC and AVIF, and libjxl for JPEG XL, on every core. They are compiled from pinned sources for each platform and bundled, 3 to 4 MB, so there is nothing to install and every machine decodes with the same versions. TIFF and PSD are read in pure Java. What opens, and how.
Download Mirada Free and open source, for macOS, Windows and Linux.
What's new
The highlights of 0.3.0 and the releases just before it. See the changelog for everything.
- Mirada 0.3.0 : Out for macOS (Apple silicon and Intel), Windows (x64) and Linux (x64 and ARM64). On Windows it now starts on a PC without the Visual C++ runtime installed.
- Thumbnails four to fifty times faster : A camera's JPEG carries a small copy of itself, and the strip now shows that instead of decoding the photo; the thumbnails on screen are made first.
- The palette on M-x too : Alt+X (Option+X on a Mac) opens the command palette besides Ctrl+Shift+P and F1, and its keys are yours to choose in Settings → Keys.
- A menu bar on the Mac : Since 0.2.0: File, Image, View, Go and Help, with Preview's ⌘ keys, and Finder's ⌘⌫ to move to the Trash.
- Go to Image and Open Recent : Since 0.2.0: the palette over the folder's file names (Ctrl+P), or over the last ten folders (Ctrl+Shift+O).
- Copy, drag out, Show in Folder : Since 0.2.0: copy the picture as it stands on screen with its file, drag a photo into a chat or a folder, and undo Move to Trash on Linux.
In development
- Bookmarks and notes : B bookmarks an image and N writes a note on it, kept by Mirada and never in the file; ] and [ step between bookmarks, and Go to Bookmark finds any of them by name or note.
- A menu for the thumbnail strip : Right-click it to stand it at the side or along the bottom, or show names instead of pictures. At the side, Up and Down step through the folder.
- Open Folder : Ctrl+Shift+F, and Open Image and Open Folder buttons in an empty window.
- An AppImage for Linux : One file that runs on any distribution with GTK 3, without installing anything.
- More metadata kept in a saved edit : The photo's XMP (title, keywords, rating, rights), and in a saved TIFF the EXIF and colour profile too.
Features
Looking
On screen in an eighth of a second
A native executable, not a Java start-up: about 125 ms from launch to a small JPEG on Linux, with the first image decoding while the window is still being built.
Instant stepping
The images either side are decoded before you press the arrow, the window never flashes empty, and going back further shows a preview at once.
Zoom, pan and turn
Fit, actual size and the steps between, a wheel that zooms about the pointer, crisp pixels above 200 %, and a zoom that can stay put while you step through a burst.
Full screen and slideshow
The image on black, the pointer and the controls out of the way; a slideshow at the speed you set; and an Escape that knows which platform it is on.
The properties sidebar
Which folder and where in it, the size and format, the dates, and for a photo the camera, lens, exposure and location, with every metadata tag beneath.
Every format
The modern formats, built in
HEIC from an iPhone, AVIF and WebP from the web, JPEG XL, TIFF and PSD, beside JPEG, PNG, GIF and BMP. Nothing to install: the codecs come with Mirada.
Animations play
Animated GIF, WebP, AVIF, HEIC sequences and JPEG XL play, without making the step onto them any slower.
Always upright
Photos are turned from the orientation the camera wrote, the four mirrored ones included, and a HEIC is never turned twice.
The folder
The folder is the document
Open one photo and the rest of the folder is there, in the order you'd number it: IMG_9 before IMG_10. Or by date or size, either way round.
Go to Image
Type part of a file name and press Enter: the command palette, over the folder's images, with the current one under the cursor.
The thumbnail strip
The folder along the bottom or down the side, as pictures, pictures with names, or names alone. Filled from the camera's own small copies, four to fifty times faster.
Rename, trash, copy, drag
Work on the file without leaving the window: rename it, move it to the Trash (and back, on Linux), copy the picture and the file, drag it out, show it in the file manager.
Changing a photo
Crop, turn and flip
A small editor for the quick fix: crop freely or to a shape, turn and flip, undo any step, and save a new JPEG, PNG, TIFF or BMP. The original is left alone.
A saved edit keeps its metadata
The camera, lens, exposure, date and location, and the colour profile of a wide-gamut photo, carried into the edited copy, with maker notes intact.
Keyboard
The command palette
Every command by name, with its key and a line on what it does, matched as you type. Greyed, with the reason, when it cannot run. Opened by keys you choose.
Everything from the keyboard
Bare keys for looking, Ctrl for files and windows, the Mac's own keys where its keyboard differs, and a shortcuts window read from the same table the keys run on.
Your desktop
At home on a Mac
A real menu bar with Preview's keys, Finder's double-click and Open With, the system accent colour, and a trackpad that pans and swipes.
Windows and Linux
A GNOME-style header bar where the platform allows, Windows' accent colour and Recycle Bin, Linux's freedesktop Trash with undo, and packages for every major distribution.
Light, dark, or the system's
Follow the system's light or dark setting as it changes, or choose one. The floating controls stay dark pills over the photo either way.
Yours, quietly
No account, no library, no telemetry, no network at all. A plain settings file you can read and edit, and files changed only when you ask.
Look without reaching for the mouse
There is no text to type into, so most keys are bare letters. Each is declared once, on the command, so the palette, the menus and the shortcut window can never disagree. A few to start with:
- Next Image Right
- Previous Image Left
- Command Palette Ctrl+Shift+P
- Go to Image… Ctrl+P
- Zoom to Fit 0
- Actual Size 1
- Rotate Right R
- Edit… E
- Image Properties I
- Thumbnails T
- Full Screen F
- Keyboard Shortcuts Ctrl+?
Download
Installers for macOS, Windows and Linux are attached to each release. Each carries everything Mirada needs, codecs included, and registers it for the image types it opens.
On Linux, install with sudo apt install ./Mirada-*.deb or
sudo dnf install ./Mirada-*.rpm; the .tar.gz runs
from wherever it is unpacked, as bin/Mirada.
The macOS and Windows installers are not signed yet. On macOS the first launch is blocked: open System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway. On Windows, if SmartScreen appears, choose More info → Run anyway. Each release lists SHA-256 checksums, signed with the key published beside them, and the Linux packages are signed too.
Build & run from source
Requires JDK 25. A Maven wrapper is bundled, so no local Maven install is needed, and the build downloads the codec bundle for your platform.
# Clone
git clone https://github.com/adriandeleon/Mirada.git
cd Mirada
# Run the app, on a photo and its folder
./mvnw javafx:run -Djavafx.args=/path/to/photo.jpg
# Tests, null checks and formatting
./mvnw verify
# The JVM app image in target/dist, on any JDK 25 (clean is required)
./mvnw clean -Pdist -DskipTests package
# The native app, as it ships (Oracle GraalVM 25.4)
./mvnw clean -Pdist,native -DskipTests packageBuilt in the open with the help of AI coding tools. Every change lands as a reviewed, tested commit on GitHub.