I'm happy to say there are more and more tools with transparent security, meaning you can attach a good password to basically anything now. Office documents and PDF files are drastically more secure than what was available 10 years ago. And now, from what I'm seeing, lots of image programs have this feature and it's seamless.
There's really no reason to worry about sharing all your family photos with JUST your family. And not wonder if you've got the complicated privacy controls setup right or whether there will be weird-creepy facial recognition software attached to it.
This situation owes a lot to the interest in comics viewers over time, a group that naturally wants the highest quality, smallest, and best images all stored in one file. The password protection was just a ride-along, but I'm glad to have it.
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Program listing
Viewer programs
All of the following support password-protected 7zip files. I mention it because the archives are generally smaller and more secure (standard ZIP passwords are very breakable). I didn't come close to checking all the image viewers here on the site, but here's a few tools that worked great:
- Gonvisor - Really solid but not portable - allows saving the file password. (My favorite so far.)
- Honeyview - Thumbnail view is available but low-quality and inside the the load screen.
- ComicsViewer - only works with ZIP and RAR files but includes a password list. Does have a thumbnail view via "Toggle File List" in the toolbar.
- Pixx - No thumbnail view, no subfolders and no longer in development.
- ACBR - active development, no support for subfolders
Creator programs
Really any "zip" or "7zip" program that supports passwords. I like 7zip and Peazip because (as mentioned above) they support newer compression standards and security.
Example compression of a full folder of images:
Example compression of a full folder of images:
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I'll try to update this over time as I come across more tools. Feedback welcome.