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Image

The image preview opens common raster and vector formats in the preview area or fullscreen. For supported raster types you can crop, resize, annotate, convert format, and save, either over the original file or as a new copy.

What opens in this preview

Phials uses this preview when a file looks like an image, including extensions such as PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, BMP, TIFF, SVG, ICO, HEIC/HEIF, AVIF, and DDS (see the app’s behavior for your platform). AI-generated PNG/JPEG/WebP with ComfyUI-style metadata may use the dedicated AI image preview first, and you still get the same viewer controls.

Open the preview

  1. Select an image file in a file list.
  2. Use the preview sidebar or a preview tab so the preview shows the picture.

For images, double-click usually opens the fullscreen preview tab (see Default behaviors).

Fullscreen

  • Open fullscreen from the preview toolbar, or via double-click when that is your default for images.
  • In fullscreen, click the image to zoom, and use Escape to leave. When you have unsaved edits, leaving may ask you to confirm.

Edit mode

  1. Click Edit (available only when the image is editable; see limits below).
  2. Use the tools: Annotate, Crop, Resize, and Convert. Click a tool again to leave that tool and return to the general edit toolbar.
  3. Save opens a menu: Overwrite (replace the file on disk) or Save as Copy (write a new file).
  4. Cancel exits edit mode. If you have unsaved changes, you are prompted before discarding.
  5. While editing, an Unsaved indicator appears when there are pending changes.

Keyboard shortcuts (when focus is on the editor): Escape backs out of editing or fullscreen; ⌘ S / Ctrl S saves when you are in edit mode with changes; ⌘ Shift S / Ctrl Shift S saves as copy; E enters annotate when you are not already editing and the image is not too large.

Undo and redo for edits are available from the toolbar in annotate mode.

Edit limits

  • Editable formats for tools and save include PNG, JPEG, WebP, BMP, TIFF, and GIF.
  • Images whose width or height exceed 6000 pixels cannot be edited in the preview. You see a message with the limit and a Close action.
  • Very large or unusual files may fail to decode, and errors are shown in the preview.

Thumbnails

List and gallery thumbnails for images respect Settings → Media → Thumbnails (including cache). See Caches and thumbnails.