Image Compare — Linux Image Comparison & Visual Diff Tool

Image Compare is a Linux desktop app for comparing two or more images side by side, in a stacked view, or with perceptual heatmap differences. It supports synchronized zoom and pan, grid layouts, multiple image formats, faithful color-profile rendering, and fast image loading with Qt6 and libvips.

Use it to compare screenshots, rendered images, exports, design revisions, before/after edits, and subtle visual differences between image versions.

Screenshots

Features

• Compare two or more images side by side
• Stack images and cycle between them with arrow keys
• Focus the active image with Enter, and reorder images with Ctrl+Left / Ctrl+Right
• Match zoom and pan across images with different dimensions
• Generate perceptual heatmap differences between two same-size images, with overall and peak dE00 readouts
• Export generated heatmaps
• Use pane context menus to copy paths, open containing folders, move images, and close files
• Use a grid layout when four or more images are loaded
• Render images faithfully with embedded color profiles, or view them in raw mode
• Open images with drag-and-drop, file picker, command-line arguments, or your file manager’s Open With menu
• Load, zoom, and pan large images efficiently

Install

Flathub

flatpak install flathub io.github.gimletlove.imagecompare

Arch Linux AUR

yay -S imagecompare-bin

How To Use

• Drag and drop image files into the app, or use Open or press o in the toolbar.
• Pass image paths on the command line when launching the app.
• Use Open With from your file manager, if supported, to open selected images in Image Compare.
• Use the zoom readout or press f to toggle between best fit and 100% zoom.
• Use Stack or press v to stack images and cycle between them with the arrow keys.
• Use Match Zoom or press h to normalize zoom and pan across images with different dimensions.
• Use Faithful / Raw or press r to switch between embedded color-profile rendering and raw display mode.
• Use Build Heatmap or press b to build a perceptual heatmap of differences from 2 images with the same dimensions.
• Right-click an image pane to open the context menu for further actions.
• Use Ctrl+W on the active pane to close it.
• Use Ctrl+Left and Ctrl+Right to move the images.

Use Cases

Image Compare is useful for:

• Spotting subtle visual changes between image versions
• Spotting subtle differences between different compression methods, such as JXL or AVIF
• Creating a heatmap of differences between images

Runtime Requirements

• Qt6 runtime libraries
• libvips runtime libraries

Build Requirements

• C++20 compiler
• CMake 3.21+
• Qt6
• libvips and vips-cpp

Check installed dependency versions:

pkg-config --modversion Qt6Core
pkg-config --modversion vips
pkg-config --modversion vips-cpp

Build

cmake -S . -B build
cmake --build build

Enable Flatpak-specific portal integration for Flatpak builds:

cmake -S . -B build-flatpak -DIMAGECOMPARE_FLATPAK=ON
cmake --build build-flatpak

Flatpak builds also require Qt6 DBus and KDE Frameworks 6 CoreAddons.

Run

Open the app:

./build/imagecompare

Project Links

• Flathub: https://flathub.org/apps/details/io.github.gimletlove.imagecompare
• Arch Linux AUR: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/imagecompare-bin