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Countless file/document formats exist. Viewing them requires that you have a file viewer. While some are designed specifically for viewing certain files, others are universal. There are hundreds of file viewers available on the net. Selecting an efficient one is never a walk in the park, as no one fits all needs. To help you out, we created a list showing the best 6 file viewers. Without further ado, dive in.
In this article
Part 1. What Is a Free Universal File Viewer?
Before sharing our top 6 file viewers, let's look at what a universal file viewer is.
A universal file viewer is a tool that opens all file formats without restrictions. It helps you open document formats such as PDF, Word, Excel, PPT, and others. You can also use it to open other file formats like images, videos, presentations, HTML, and more.
Part 2. Top 6 Free File Viewers
Here are some of the top-quality free file viewers to use on your computer systems:
File Viewer Plus – Free Trial Offered
Ratings From G2: 4.3/5
Editor's Verdict: File Viewer Plus is a fast file viewer with high utility. This tool can open and view multimedia files, spreadsheets, archives, and others.
Pros
Allows you to access over 400 file formats.
It supports viewing features like find tools, advanced search, freehand drawing, rotation, and more.
Cons
It takes a while to load large files.
File Viewer Plus is a simple program designed to open and view over 400 file formats. It lets you view images, documents, and archives. Also, it could be used to view the data on spreadsheets, presentations, and more.
It's nicely customized with a multi-tab interface so that you can view multiple files simultaneously. Zoom in and zoom out files for better viewing. It allows you to rotate files in different directions, select texts, and more. It also has a freehand tool to help you annotate your files.
File Viewer Lite - Free File Viewer for Windows
Ratings From G2: 4.1/5
Editor's Verdict: Viewing files on a computer became easier with File Viewer Lite. This tool is nicely customized with a handful of features to optimize file viewing.
Pros
It is free.
Adjust file display settings such as brightness, contrast, cropping, rotation, and more.
View file formats like text, PDF, videos, audio, images, and a hundred (100) more without difficulty.
Cons
File Viewer Lite does not support any editing tool.
Frequent issues during the installation process.
File Viewer Lite is another quality program you can employ to open files on your computer systems. With this file viewing system, you can view over a 150 file formats. It's lightweight, simple to use, and supports fantastic viewing features.
It offers different file viewing modes. File Viewer Lite lets you view files in hex, icons, and text forms. Besides showing the content in a file, this file viewer also displays metadata. Save a file's metadata in text format using the built-in Export File Info tool tucked into the program.
FreeFileViewer
Ratings From G2: 3.8/5
Editor's Verdict: FreeFileViewer is an open-source program designed to open files freely. This lightweight file viewer grants you access to more than 200 file formats. It has a streamlined interface so that you can operate it efficiently.
Pros
FreeFileViewer is a multi-featured program that allows you to easily open, print, and edit files on a computer.
It comes with several viewing options to enhance your reading experience. For instance, it supports zoom-in, zoom-out, advanced search tools, and more.
Use the preference option to edit files to suit your requirements.
Cons
FreeFileViewer does not work with Mac computer systems.
Like File Viewer Plus, FreeFileViewer is another universal tool that enables you to open files on Windows operating system. This program allows you to open documents like DOC, DOCX, TXT, PDF, etc. It can also access multimedia file formats like AAC, OGG, WMA, MPG, FLAC, MOV, and many others.
FreeFileViewer has a plethora of great features to enhance your reading experience. From the built-in editing menu, several viewing modes, printing functionality, and more. It's a simple file-viewing system with an easy-to-use interface for quick navigation.
Universal Viewer
Ratings From G2: N/A
Editor's Verdict: Universal Viewer is an excellent file viewer that enables you to access all file formats, including images, documents, and more.
Pros
It's a universal viewing tool as it lets you launch countless files.
Provides you with different options, such as Show Exif, Show Info Label, Flip, etc., to view images.
Universal Viewer allows you to open files with sizes of up to 4GB.
Cons
Not suitable for opening all video and audio files.
Universal Viewer supports only basic features with no edit options.
With Universal Viewer, you can open and view several file types. This intuitive program lets you open graphics files, raw images, audio, videos, spreadsheets, and PDFs. Unknown file formats are opened in TXT format. It lets you open over 200 file formats with complete ease. You can use it to view DOC, PNG, XLSX, JPG, BMP, and other formats.
Universal Viewer lets you toggle between different viewing modes. From text to binary, hex, and more. Aside from viewing files, it can also be used for saving files. Universal Viewer lets you export your files in different formats. For instance, you can store PNG files in JPG format.
File Viewer for Mac - Free File Viewer for macOS
Ratings From G2: N/A
Editor's Verdict: File Viewer for Mac is a universal file opener allowing you to view audio, videos, images, and text documents. It is a free tool to help you view over 60 types of files.
Pros
File Viewer for Mac grants you access to more than 60 file types, including documents, images, audio, and videos.
It's designed specifically for Mac operating systems.
Cons
Not suitable for manipulating files as it doesn't support editing tools.
File Viewer for Mac is another feature-rich tool dedicated to only opening files on Mac computers. It comes with simple features like the drag-and-drop tool for adding files from your local drive. This tool can view or play several video and audio formats. Open unknown file formats on your Mac without hassles using File Viewer. This tool also supports text, icons, and hexadecimal viewing modes.
Online Document Viewer - Free File Viewer Online
Ratings From G2: N/A
Editor's Verdict: Online Document Viewer is capable of opening files freely without operating system limitations. It's a multipurpose tool with rich file-viewing features.
Pros
All-in-one file viewer as it allows you to open documents, images, excel, and multimedia files.
Upload files with sizes up to 1GB.
Online Document Viewer is cloud-based and does not require installation. Hence, there is no need to worry about compatibility or memory space.
Cons
Unless you are connected to a data source, you cannot use Online Document Viewer.
Online Document Viewer hits the bottom of our list. However, it's one of the best file viewers available on the net. It's a web-based file viewer designed for unlimited users. Beginners and professionals can navigate around this tool because of the clean interface.
This tool can also be used to open image files. Access your XML and JSON files quickly using Online Document Viewer. You can also use it to convert your files from one format to another. Convert PNG to PDF, JPG to PDF, Excel to PDF, AVI to WMV, and more. It has robust editing features, such as an image editor, Latex editor, etc.
Part 3. [Bonus] PDFelement - An Easy-to-Use PDF File Viewer
Apart from universal file viewers, there are file viewers which can only recognize one or certain specific file formats. For example, image viewers, like IrfanView, can display graphics files, such as JPG, PNG, etc. Media Player Classic, as a video and audio file viewer, can play music and videos on your screen. Speaking of PDF file viewers, you may be familiar with Adobe Acrobat Reader, which supports viewing .pdf files. In this article, we will recommend another fantastic PDF viewer – Wondershare PDFelement.
PDFelement is an effective PDF utility that opens several file types on Windows and Mac computers. It's one of the fastest PDF editing tools for novices and professionals. This tool can open, view, and print your desired documents offline.
This software program has rich features, from the essential features to the comprehensive interface, multiple display modes, etc. Wondershare PDFelement allows you to convert, compress and merge files effortlessly. Additionally, you can use it to import watermarks to your documents.
Wondershare PDFelement supports annotation tools that you could be used to markup your files while reading. Add signatures without hassles using this PDF editing software. Another feature tucked into this software is the batch processor. The batch processor can process multiple files simultaneously without losing quality.
Part 5. Conclusion
Having an efficient file viewer is crucial. Our team of experts has introduced some of the leading universal file viewers supporting multiple file formats and also recommended an amazing PDF file viewer – Wondershare PDFelement. Choose the one that suits your requirement for your next project.
