Free Online OpenEXR Viewer (No Signup)
Also opens DWG, DXF, STEP, IGES, IFC, SKP, STL, OBJ, GLB, FBX, 3DM and other 3D/CAD files. Drop any file on the viewer.
Works directly in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge
Also from Innerscene: Circadian Lab, a free lighting calculator for room illuminance, melanopic EML, and glare.
What Is an OpenEXR File?
An .exr file stores each pixel as 16-bit half float or 32-bit float numbers. A sky in an HDRI can be tens of thousands of times brighter than a white wall and the file keeps both values exactly. The format was created at Industrial Light & Magic and is now maintained by the Academy Software Foundation. Pixel data is written in scanlines or in tiles (optionally with mipmap levels), compressed with one of several lossless or lossy schemes (ZIP, PIZ, PXR24, DWAA, DWAB, RLE and others).
One EXR can hold far more than one picture. Channels are named, so a render can carry diffuse.R, depth.Z and normal.X next to the beauty pass, and a multi-part file stores several images side by side, each with its own header and compression.
This viewer decodes the file in your browser in a background worker and turns it into a picture a screen can show. A colour image gets automatic exposure (the average brightness lands at middle grey) and a tone curve that keeps highlights and hues, with ACES and other non-Rec. 709 primaries converted first. A normal map is shown as its stored values, the way the PNG of the same map looks, and data such as roughness, displacement or depth is shown linearly from black to white. Every part and layer in the file is listed in a layer picker.
Who Uses OpenEXR Files?
3D artists and lighting designers who render from Blender, V-Ray, Arnold, RenderMan or Houdini and write their passes as EXR; compositors in Nuke; texture artists who download PBR material sets and HDRI skies from libraries such as Poly Haven, where normal, roughness and displacement maps often come as .exr; and anyone who receives one of those files and has no compositing application on the machine in front of them.
Common Use Cases
- Check an HDRI environment map before loading it into a 3D scene
- See which layers and passes a render EXR actually contains
- Preview a PBR normal, roughness or displacement map from a texture download
- Read the compression, pixel type and channel list of a file off the status line
- Turn an EXR into a PNG or JPG for a review email or a slide
- Open an .exr on a laptop or phone with no compositing software installed
Features
Half and Float Pixels
Reads 16-bit half and 32-bit float OpenEXR, scanline or tiled, including mipmapped tiles.
Common Compressions
Uncompressed, RLE, ZIPS, ZIP, PIZ, PXR24, DWAA and DWAB files decode in your browser.
Automatic Exposure
Colour images are exposed to middle grey and tone-mapped with a curve that keeps highlights and hues. The exposure used is shown in EV.
Normal Maps Shown as Stored
A normal map is recognised by its name or its values and shown the way its PNG would look, with no exposure or curve.
Data Passes Stretched to Fit
Roughness, displacement, depth and masks are shown linearly, with a wide value range stretched from black to white.
Layer Picker
Multi-part files and named layers (beauty, diffuse, depth, normals) each appear in a picker, labelled with their channels.
Wide-Gamut Colour Converted
ACES and other non-Rec. 709 chromaticities are converted to the screen’s colour space, with white-point adaptation.
File Details on the Status Line
Pixel size, pixel type, compression, tiling, part count and channel names, plus how the picture is shown.
Large Images Handled
Decoding runs in a background worker with progress. Images past the pixel budget are shown at a reduced step, and the status line says so.
Export to PNG, JPG or PDF
Save the tone-mapped picture as a PNG, a JPG or a PDF from the Export menu.
Nothing Is Uploaded
The image is decoded entirely in your browser. No account, no upload, no copy on a server.
Share and Embed
Send a link that opens the image in any browser, or drop the viewer into your own page with one iframe.
Compatibility & Format Notes
Reads scanline and tiled OpenEXR (for mipmapped tiles, the full-resolution level), in 16-bit half or 32-bit float, uncompressed or with RLE, ZIPS, ZIP, PIZ, PXR24, DWAA or DWAB compression. Single-part and multi-part files both open, and channels are grouped into layers by their prefix: RGB and RGBA layers, greyscale Y layers, XYZ vectors (normals, positions, motion) and single data channels such as Z depth each become an entry in the layer picker. The beauty pass opens first. Integer channels (object and material IDs) are skipped, since they hold no picture. An .exr inside a .zip opens too.
The status line gives the stored size in pixels, the pixel type, compression, whether the file is tiled, the number of parts and the channel names, then how the picture is shown: tone-mapped with the exposure in EV, a normal map shown as stored, or data with the value range stretched from black to white.
Very large images are shown at a reduced step to stay within the browser’s memory: up to about 16.7 million pixels (4096 x 4096) on a desktop, fewer on a phone, and the status line says when every second, third or fourth pixel is shown. B44, B44A, HTJ2K and ZSTD compression, deep data, ripmap tiles, subsampled luminance and chroma channels, and layers mixing half and float channels are not decoded; such a file gets a notice naming the feature. Re-save it from Photoshop, GIMP, Affinity Photo, Nuke or Blender with ZIP, PIZ or no compression. Exposure is set automatically for each image and has no manual control.
Embed on Your Website
Add this viewer to your own site with a single line of HTML. Click Embed in the toolbar to generate an embed code, or use the snippet below with your own file URL.
Your Files Stay on Your Computer
Your OpenEXR files are parsed entirely in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, stored, or shared unless you explicitly click the Share button. Shared files are hosted for 90 days then deleted.
Frequently Asked Questions
▶Why does my normal map look different from the render?
It is shown as the stored numbers, the way a PNG of the same map looks: 0 to 1 straight to black to white, and a signed -1 to 1 map remapped to that range. No exposure or tone curve is applied. A normal map is recognised by its name (nor, nrm, normal) or by its content: values within -1 to 1, mostly blue, and mostly unit-length vectors.
▶How do I see the other passes in a render?
When a file holds several parts or layers, a Layer picker appears. Each RGB layer, depth channel, normal or position vector and other named pass is an entry, labelled with its part, layer and channels. The beauty pass opens first; choosing another entry decodes that one.
▶How is the exposure chosen?
Automatically, per image. An image whose brightest values already sit within 0 to 1 is shown as it is. Anything brighter is exposed so its log-average luminance lands at middle grey, then compressed with Reinhard’s tone curve with the white point at the 99.5th percentile, applied to luminance so colours hold. The status line reports the exposure applied in EV. There is no manual exposure slider.
▶Which compression types open?
None, RLE, ZIPS, ZIP, PIZ, PXR24, DWAA and DWAB, in half or float. B44, B44A, HTJ2K and ZSTD files, deep images and ripmap tiles get a notice naming what the file uses. Re-saving the file with ZIP, PIZ or no compression makes it readable.
▶Is there a size limit?
The file is read in full, and the displayed picture is capped at about 16.7 million pixels on a desktop (a 4096 x 4096 texture opens pixel for pixel). A larger image, such as a 16K HDRI, is shown at every second, third or fourth pixel, and the status line says so. Phones and low-memory devices use a smaller cap.
▶Is this OpenEXR viewer really free?
Yes, completely free. No signup, no watermarks, no file size limits on the viewer (the optional share-link feature has a 100 MB upload cap). Built by Innerscene as a tool for architects, engineers, and designers.
▶Are my files uploaded to a server?
No. All parsing, rendering, and conversion runs in your browser — nothing is uploaded, stored, or transmitted by default. The Share button is the only feature that uploads a file, and only when you explicitly click it.
▶Can I convert to another format?
An EXR is an image, so the export menu offers image formats: click Export to save the picture as shown (tone-mapped) as a PDF, PNG or JPG. There are direct pages for EXR to PNG, EXR to JPG and EXR to PDF. The exported file is 8-bit; the high-dynamic-range values stay in your original .exr.
▶Can I embed this viewer on my own site?
Yes. Click Embed in the toolbar to generate a one-line <iframe> snippet you can paste into any HTML page. You can choose whether the embed shows the viewer’s toolbar.