IDLE Python / PIL Module - Default Image Viewer

Question

I'm using IDLE Python on Win7 x64 (x86 version of Python though as PIL doesn't work with x64) and it's working properly, but I have a problem in that the show() method for an image opens in what it must think is the default image viewer (in my case, Photoshop).

The documentation for the PIL module states that show() "displays it using an external viewer (usually xv on Unix, and the paint program on Windows)". [link]

Photoshop is not my default image viewer in Windows (Picasa is), so that doesn't explain it.

I have a netbook running Ubuntu and that works fine - it opens a small image viewer window, not a massive 64-bit image editing application!

Does anyone know of a reason for this, and how I can change the image viewer IDLE uses to a more sensible one?

Answer 1

PIL show() converts images to Bitmap files and opens them with the default program that is associated with .bmp files, in this case Photoshop.

Solution: change the default viewer for .bmp files to an image viewer.