> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/sepinf-inc/IPED/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Built-in Viewers

> Comprehensive guide to IPED's integrated file viewers for examining evidence

IPED includes powerful built-in viewers for previewing and analyzing evidence without requiring external applications. All viewers support hit highlighting for search terms and provide quick access to file metadata.

## Viewer Overview

IPED's viewer architecture provides specialized viewers for different file types:

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Text Viewer" icon="file-lines">
    Plain text, extracted content, hit highlighting
  </Card>

  <Card title="Hex Viewer" icon="binary">
    Raw binary data, hex editor functionality
  </Card>

  <Card title="Metadata Viewer" icon="tags">
    Technical properties, EXIF data, file attributes
  </Card>

  <Card title="MultiViewer" icon="layer-group">
    Format-specific viewers: images, videos, documents, HTML
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Viewer Panel Layout

Viewers are organized in dockable panels:

<Frame>
  <img src="https://mintlify.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/sepinf-inc-iped/images/viewer-panels.png" alt="Viewer Panels" />
</Frame>

### Viewer Controls

Each viewer panel includes toolbar buttons:

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Navigation">
    * **Previous Hit**: Jump to previous search match (Ctrl+↑)
    * **Next Hit**: Jump to next search match (Ctrl+↓)
    * **Pin Viewer**: Keep current file loaded when selecting other items
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Actions">
    * **Search in Viewer**: Find text within current file (MultiViewer)
    * **Copy Screen**: Copy visible content to clipboard
    * **Export**: Save current view or extract file
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

<Info>
  Enable **Pin Viewer** to compare multiple files by switching between them without automatic updates.
</Info>

## Text Viewer

The primary viewer for text content extracted from all file types.

### Features

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Content Display">
    * Displays extracted text from any file format
    * Syntax highlighting for source code
    * Word wrap and formatting options
    * Unicode support for multiple languages
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Search Hit Highlighting">
    * Automatic highlighting of search terms
    * Color-coded matches
    * Jump between hits with toolbar buttons
    * Context display around matches
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Text Selection">
    * Select and copy text
    * Search selected text
    * Context menu actions
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Large File Handling">
    * Efficient loading of multi-megabyte text files
    * Pagination for very large documents
    * Quick navigation to specific hits
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

### Hits Table

The **Hits** tab shows all search term matches in the current file:

| Column | Description |
| - | - |
| # | Hit number |
| Context | Text excerpt around the match |

**Usage:**

* Click any row to jump to that hit in the text
* Hits are ordered by position in file
* Useful for quickly scanning match locations

<Tip>
  Use the hits table to quickly assess if a file contains relevant information before detailed review.
</Tip>

## Hex Viewer

Low-level binary file viewer for examining raw data.

### Interface Layout

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Hex Display">
    ```text theme={null}
    Offset    00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F

    00000000  4D 5A 90 00 03 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 FF FF 00 00  MZ..............
    00000010  B8 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ........@.......
    00000020  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
    ```

    * **Offset**: Byte position in file
    * **Hex Values**: 16 bytes per row
    * **ASCII**: Printable character representation
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Features">
    * **Search**: Find hex patterns or ASCII text
    * **Go to Offset**: Jump to specific byte position
    * **Copy**: Copy selected bytes as hex or text
    * **Data Inspector**: Decode values as different types
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Hit Highlighting">
    * Search term matches highlighted in hex view
    * Navigate between hits
    * View context in both hex and ASCII
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

### Use Cases

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="File Signature Analysis" icon="fingerprint">
    Verify file headers and magic bytes
  </Card>

  <Card title="Binary Data Examination" icon="microscope">
    Analyze unknown or corrupted files
  </Card>

  <Card title="Data Recovery" icon="life-ring">
    Extract embedded data or examine carved files
  </Card>

  <Card title="Malware Analysis" icon="bug">
    Examine executable headers and structure
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

<Warning>
  The hex viewer loads files into memory. Very large files (>100MB) may take time to load.
</Warning>

## Metadata Viewer

Displays comprehensive file properties and metadata.

### Metadata Categories

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Basic Properties">
    * File name and path
    * Size (bytes, KB, MB)
    * Timestamps (created, modified, accessed)
    * Hash values (MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256)
    * File type and MIME type
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="File System">
    * Permissions and attributes
    * Owner and group
    * Deleted status
    * Carved/recovered status
    * Parent container
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Format-Specific">
    **Documents:**

    * Title, author, subject
    * Creation application
    * Page count, word count
    * Last modified by

    **Images:**

    * Dimensions (width × height)
    * Color depth and format
    * EXIF data (camera, GPS, etc.)
    * Thumbnail embedded

    **Videos:**

    * Duration and bitrate
    * Codec information
    * Frame rate and resolution
    * Audio tracks
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Forensic Data">
    * Evidence source
    * Evidence path
    * Lucene document ID
    * Bookmark/tag status
    * Categories assigned
    * Duplicate information
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

### Interactive Features

* **Click Metadata Values**: Filter results by that value
* **Copy Properties**: Right-click to copy specific fields
* **Export Metadata**: Save to CSV or JSON

<Info>
  The metadata viewer is automatically updated when selecting different items.
</Info>

## Image Viewer

Specialized viewer for image files with zoom and enhancement features.

### Capabilities

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Image Display">
    * Support for hundreds of image formats
    * Automatic sizing to fit panel
    * High-quality rendering
    * Rotation and flip controls
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Zoom Controls">
    * Zoom in/out with buttons or mouse wheel
    * Fit to window
    * Actual size (100%)
    * Pan with click-and-drag
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Filters">
    * **Grayscale** (Ctrl+W): Convert to black and white
    * **Blur Filter** (Ctrl+Q): Obscure sensitive content
    * Filters apply in viewer without modifying original
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="EXIF Display">
    * Camera make and model
    * GPS coordinates (if available)
    * Capture date and settings
    * Overlay on image or separate panel
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

### Supported Formats

* **Common**: JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, WebP
* **RAW**: CR2, NEF, ARW, DNG, RAF, ORF
* **Advanced**: PSD, SVG, ICO, HEIC

<Tip>
  Use the image viewer's blur filter when reviewing potentially sensitive content in group settings.
</Tip>

## Gallery View

Grid-based thumbnail view for browsing multiple images:

### Gallery Features

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Display Options">
    * Adjustable thumbnail size (± buttons)
    * Multi-column grid layout
    * Video frame thumbnails
    * Lazy loading for performance
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Filters">
    * Global grayscale filter
    * Global blur filter
    * Applies to all thumbnails
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Selection">
    * Click to select single image
    * Shift-click for range selection
    * Ctrl-click for multi-select
    * Arrow keys for navigation
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Actions">
    * Similar image search
    * Similar face search
    * Batch operations
    * Quick preview
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

<Info>
  Toggle between **Table** and **Gallery** views using tabs at the top of the results panel.
</Info>

## Video Viewer

Built-in video playback with frame extraction:

### Video Controls

* **Play/Pause**: Standard playback controls
* **Seek**: Jump to specific timestamp
* **Frame-by-Frame**: Step through video frame by frame
* **Speed Control**: Adjust playback speed
* **Volume**: Audio level control

### Frame Extraction

* Automatic thumbnail generation
* Multiple frames extracted per video
* View frames in gallery mode
* Export specific frames

### Supported Formats

* MP4, AVI, MOV, MKV, WMV, FLV
* MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4
* H.264, H.265 codecs

<Note>
  Video frames are extracted during processing and cached for quick access.
</Note>

## HTML Viewer

Web content viewer with link extraction:

### Features

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Rendering">
    * Display HTML emails
    * Render web pages
    * JavaScript execution (sandboxed)
    * CSS styling support
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Link Viewer">
    * Extract all links from HTML
    * List URLs in separate panel
    * Click links to filter or open
    * Export link list
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Attachment Handling">
    * Display embedded images
    * List attached files
    * Preview attachments
    * Extract attachments
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Email Display">
    * Headers (From, To, Subject, Date)
    * Body with formatting
    * Inline images
    * Attachment list
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

### Security

* External content blocked by default
* Sandboxed execution environment
* No automatic script execution
* Safe preview of potentially malicious emails

## Document Viewers

### PDF Viewer

Integrated PDF rendering:

* **Multi-page Navigation**: Previous/next page, jump to page
* **Zoom Controls**: Fit width, fit page, custom zoom
* **Search**: Find text within PDF
* **Annotations**: View PDF annotations and comments
* **Text Selection**: Copy text from PDF

### Office Document Viewer

View Microsoft Office and LibreOffice files:

**Supported Formats:**

* Word (DOC, DOCX)
* Excel (XLS, XLSX)
* PowerPoint (PPT, PPTX)
* LibreOffice (ODT, ODS, ODP)

**Features:**

* Native rendering with LibreOffice
* Preserve formatting and layout
* Multi-page/sheet support
* Extract embedded objects

<Warning>
  Office viewer requires LibreOffice installation. See the [Installation](/installation) guide for requirements.
</Warning>

## Audio Viewer

Audio file playback with transcription support:

### Audio Controls

* Play/pause/stop controls
* Seek bar with timestamp
* Volume control
* Waveform visualization (if available)

### Transcription Display

If audio transcription was enabled during processing:

* View text transcript
* Timestamp synchronization
* Click transcript to jump to audio position
* Search within transcript
* Export transcript text

### Supported Formats

* MP3, WAV, OGG, FLAC, AAC
* M4A, WMA, AIFF

## Referenced File Viewer

Special viewer for handling file references and links:

* Display shortcuts and symbolic links
* Show reference metadata
* Link to referenced item in case
* Navigate to referenced file

## Viewer Tips and Shortcuts

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Keyboard Shortcuts">
    * **Ctrl+F**: Search in viewer
    * **Ctrl+↑/↓**: Previous/next hit
    * **Ctrl+Q**: Toggle blur filter
    * **Ctrl+W**: Toggle grayscale
    * **Space**: Check/uncheck item
    * **Arrow Keys**: Navigate items
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Performance">
    * Viewers load content on-demand
    * Large files may have load delay
    * Use thumbnail cache for faster gallery browsing
    * Pin viewer to prevent reloading
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Workflow">
    * Keep multiple viewers visible simultaneously
    * Compare text content while viewing images
    * Review metadata alongside content
    * Use hits table for quick scanning
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

## Multi-Viewer Tab

The MultiViewer automatically selects the best viewer:

### Automatic Viewer Selection

IPED detects file type and chooses appropriate viewer:

```text theme={null}
Image file → Image Viewer
PDF file → PDF Viewer
Video file → Video Viewer
HTML file → HTML Viewer
Office doc → LibreOffice Viewer
Unknown → Hex Viewer
```

### Manual Viewer Selection

Force a specific viewer:

1. Right-click the file
2. **View As** → Choose viewer
3. Override automatic detection

## Related Items Tables

Additional viewers for related evidence:

### Subitems Table

View items extracted from the selected file:

* Attachments from emails
* Archived files from ZIP/RAR
* Embedded objects from documents
* Carved files from containers

### Parent Table

View container files:

* ZIP archive containing file
* Email containing attachment
* Disk image containing file
* Folder hierarchy

### Duplicates Table

All files with identical hash:

* Same content, different paths
* Useful for tracking file copies
* Data exfiltration analysis

### References Tables

**Referenced Items:**

* Files that this item references (links, shortcuts)

**Referenced By:**

* Items that reference this file (backlinks)

## Next Steps

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Bookmarks" icon="bookmark" href="./bookmarks">
    Tag important evidence found during viewing
  </Card>

  <Card title="Bookmarks" icon="bookmark" href="/analysis/bookmarks">
    Tag and organize evidence
  </Card>
</CardGroup>


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