Image Compare is a desktop image comparison and visual diff tool for Linux and Windows. Compare two or more images side by side, in a stacked view, or in a grid layout, and generate luminance SSIM heatmaps to highlight structural differences between two images.
Use it to compare different versions of the same image, choose the best-quality copy from multiple sources, check compression artifacts, inspect scans or image exports, compare edited or upscaled versions, and catch subtle changes in color, sharpness, cropping, scaling, or encoding.
- Open images using drag-and-drop, the file picker, command-line arguments, or a file manager’s Open With action
- Compare two or more images side by side, in a stacked view, or in a grid layout
- Synchronize zoom and pan across all images
- Use relative synchronization to keep the same proportional region visible across different resolutions
- Lock individual images to zoom and pan them independently
- Flip between images in the same position using stacked view
- Generate and export luminance SSIM heatmaps to highlight structural differences between two images
- Switch between color-managed rendering using embedded profiles and raw rendering
- Copy image paths, open containing folders, and close files from image context menus
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
o |
Open images |
f |
Toggle best fit / 100% zoom |
v |
Toggle stacked view |
| Arrow keys | Cycle images in stacked view |
Enter |
Focus the active image |
h |
Toggle relative sync for different resolutions |
l |
Toggle synchronization lock for the active image |
r |
Toggle color-profile / raw rendering |
b |
Build heatmap |
Ctrl+W |
Close active image |
Ctrl+Left / Ctrl+Right |
Move image left / right |
Download release builds from the GitHub Releases page.
Available release builds:
- Linux DEB package for Debian and Ubuntu-based distributions
- Linux RPM package for Fedora and RPM-based distributions
- Linux portable zip
- Windows x86_64 portable zip
- Source tarball
flatpak install flathub io.github.gimletlove.imagecompareyay -S imagecompareDownload imagecompare-<version>-windows-x86_64.zip from GitHub Releases, extract it, and run imagecompare.exe.
The Windows build is distributed as a portable zip with its runtime dependencies bundled.
Local source builds are intended for Linux. Windows packages are produced by the GitHub Actions release workflow.
Build requirements:
- C++20 compiler
- CMake 3.21+
- Qt 6
Build and run:
cmake -S . -B build
cmake --build build
./build/imagecompareLuminance SSIM heatmaps use the vendored rmgr::ssim library by Romain Bailly.
- GitHub Releases: https://github.com/gimletlove/imagecompare/releases
- Flathub: https://flathub.org/apps/details/io.github.gimletlove.imagecompare
- Arch Linux AUR: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/imagecompare-bin
