nFITSview - A user-friendly FITS image viewer for astronomers

Currently nFITSview supports the following formats and features:

8-bit images
16-bit integer images
32-bit floating point and integer images
64-bit floating point and integer images
Exporting image HDUs as PNG/TIFF/JPEG/BMP/PPM files
Bulk exporting of all image HDUs as PNG files
Percentile and stretching support
Image zoom in/out
HDU header syntax view
Raw data hex preview
Both regular and compressed (.fz) FITS files are supported
Command line exporting of FITS file (see -h, -e command line switches)

Note: the console output is not visible on Windows platform. The command line supports image exporting only in “Original” mapping mode.

How to build under Linux

The original development of nFITSview is done under Linux, so the easiest and the fastest way to build is under Linux.

Just build in Qt Creator.
It should be also possible to build using CMake from the command line. Run the following cmake commands:
```
  cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_RELEASE="-O3 -DNDEBUG" -B build -S .
  
  cmake --build build
```
The nfitsview execuatble will be located in the build directory.

The latest version (3.8) of nFITSview install package for Linux 64-bit (Debian-based) is available for download too.

The dependencies for installing are: libboost-iostreams1.88.0 (>= 1.88.0), libc6 (>= 2.34), libgcc-s1 (>= 3.0), libpng16-16t64 (>= 1.6.46), libqt6charts6 (>= 6.6.1), libqt6core6t64 (>= 6.9.1), libqt6gui6 (>= 6.1.2), libqt6network6 (>= 6.1.2), libqt6widgets6 (>= 6.1.2), libstdc++6 (>= 14)

nfitsview3_8-x64.deb

How to build under Windows

Normally there is no need to build under Windows as the install package is provided. Anyway, for building under Windows one would need to download/install/build all the dependencies (boost, zlib, libpng), then fix the corresponding pathes for the libraries in the CMakeLists.txt file and then build the project using Qt Creator.

The latest version (3.8) of nFITSview for Windows 64-bit to download (starting from version 3.6 Windows 10 or later is required):

nfitsview3_8-setup-x64.exe

Experimental (portable) version for macOS will be available soon

Screenshots

nfitsview3_8_screenshot_1 nfitsview3_8_screenshot_2 nfitsview3_8_screenshot_3

About FITS format

The details about FITS format and standards can be found here:

FITS docs

FITS standard