4chan Downloader is on first glance just another tool for the job. The program takes a single url that points to a 4Chan thread, scans it for images and downloads them automatically to the selected location on the local hard drive.

But there is more to the software. The software can for instance be configured to automatically rescan the 4Chan.org thread to find and download new images that have been posted since the time of the last download.

Many images are shown as thumbnails in the program interface. Many? Yes, not every image is shown there. I’m not sure if this is a bug or a limitation. The screenshots on the project page paint a different picture. It is not a huge problem but makes the software look inconsistent. All images, regardless if a thumbnail is shown or not, are downloaded to the local hard drive. They can be opened from within the program interface, or from the local directory they have been downloaded to.

Another interesting option is to create a new download tab to download pictures and images from a different 4chan thread as well.

A user could theoretically create download tasks for an unlimited amount of 4chan urls. On top of that, all could be monitored by the application for new images.

What’s missing? The developer needs to work on the thumbnail display. Either display all images as thumbnails or none, the current solution is not satisfactory. An option to add multiple threads at once, or a whole board, would be welcome as well to automate the downloading further.

4chan Downloader is a portable Open Source software for Microsoft Windows PCs and Linux. Downloads are offered at the Sourceforge project website.

The 30-or-so boards cater to a specific audience, and is largely concentrating on Japanese culture, adult contents, creative categories and interests. The 558 million posts speak for themselves.

Many threads offer a wealth of images that are posted by 4Chan users, and while it is perfectly possible to download them one-by-one in the web browser, it usually makes more sense to automate the process as much as possible.

The free software 4Chan Thread downloader is an application for the Microsoft Windows operating system. It can be used to add threads from 4Chan, which are then automatically downloaded to the local computer system.

New download jobs can be started from the Add 4Chan thread button in the application interface. The program automatically fills out the 4Chan url with the clipboard contents to simplify the process. Downloads begin automatically once the url has been added and a download directory selected.

Download jobs are displayed in a queue on the left side, while preview images of the downloaded images are shown on the right.

4chan thread downloader

One interesting aspect of the program is that it will continue to check the threads for new images after the initial download, for as long as the threads remain in the download queue, and the program is running.

That’s a good option to never miss a single picture posted to favorite threads.

The 4Chan Thread Downloader is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows. It requires not installation and can be run from the directory it was saved to. The portable program can be downloaded from the developer website.

This is the main difference to 4Chan Grabber which we reviewed earlier this year which allowed users to download all photos and images of a selected 4Chan forum to the computer system. The 4Chan Downloader is therefor for users who do not want to download all photos or images from a forum but only selected ones from threads that they specify.

The downloader is ready for use after a quick installation. It consists of five interactive interface elements. The two forms can be used to paste the url of the 4Chan thread and to specify the download location on the local computer. The other three are buttons that can start the download, perform a check or open the folder containing the images.

The program will automatically create a folder based on the thread number at 4Chan to avoid ending up with a massive amount of unsorted photos and pictures if multiple threads are downloaded. 4Chan Downloader should be compatible with most versions of the Windows operating system. It can be downloaded at the developer’s website.

Update: 4Chan Thread Downloader has been renamed to 4chan Watcher. Check out the new 4chan Downloader review here.