Why cant I view certain images?

Hi Ive wondered for a while why some images cant be viewed directly in the browser? Instead of showing the image the download box pops up to download / open it??? My guess is that these files dont have executable permissions… But then why can they be seen from another page and just not viewed directly?

Example just to be clear: Browsing google images you see a great image of a dude in a pink spandex, so you decide to try and get a better view and when you click this file and then click "see full size image" it goes to "xxx.com/images/pinkSpandex.jpg" and instead of showing you the image it pops up asking for download why is that??

It's probably because of the way the headers were sent/interpreted by the server/browser. Try using a sniffer or LiveHTTPHeaders, and get the headers for one that lets you see the image in the browser vs one that prompts you to download and compare. Or maybe even try looking at the set of images in a different browser.

moshbat wrote: Sometimes, that happens in firefox, but not IE… So if you must view an image in your browser, try IE… Traditionally, IE has had problems with PNG images. Not sure if this is still the case, but something to keep in mind.