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Best Free Digital Image Viewer

Updated Tue, 07/20/2010 - 18:28 by marcdarkin
 
In a Hurry?
  Go straight to the Quick Selection Guide
Introduction

Image viewers belong to a software category where the quantity and quality of free programs makes it difficult to select just one product as a top pick. So, personal convenience will unavoidably appear as the ultimate factor for this review of free applications. And there's also the question of what exactly we mean by an "image viewer", as the name may sound a bit too restrictive.

Digital photography has become so widely available that most pictures these days will linger in a memory drive and never be printed, because we can see them on screens. As a consequence, hundreds of tools are developed for the task, ranging from the ones that offer just the most basic handling to others with loads of features nobody will ever use. However, nowadays' average users are likely to demand some additional capabilities apart from the simple viewing and browsing functions.

Thus, many imaging applications overlap categories and we have a perfect example in photo organizers, where a viewer is obviously needed to manage albums and the like. Therefore, the differences for this review should be based mainly on the aspects of loading speed, zooming capabilities, batch processing options and other operations not directly related to image editing, tagging or organizing, although this is a definite advantage in some cases like the current Top Pick.

JPG is the most widely used format today because of its quality/size ratio and is supported by every viewer I know of. Though it is quite old and others seem to do the job much better, it has managed to prevail overwhelmingly, both online and in digicams. But there's a steadily increasing amount of people who shoot RAW in their quest for better image quality. Pity that all camera manufacturers use their proprietary RAW formats, of course not supported by the others. Then, after being processed, those files are usually saved as TIF or other lossless formats, including Adobe DNG, Photoshop PSD, etc. Therefore, compatibility is a point which can't be overlooked, as those people will need to view and convert a variety of files without having to open an external editor or the specific software included with the camera.

Note that file size (in bytes) as well as image dimensions (in pixels) all have an influence on speed, and hardware is another important factor. Obviously, the better your machine (especially the graphics card, rather than the processor), the better the performance and loading times.
 
Discussion

Zoner Software are the developers of one of the commercial programs I've been using for a long time to view and manage my huge collection, so when I saw they released Zoner Photo Studio Free, I guessed it was going to qualify high enough for its inclusion here. It certainly did, but who knew it would climb up to be the Top Pick! It brings to my mind an inevitable remembrance of ACDSee in several aspects, but this interface looks more attractive to me. Actually, it appears very professional and can even seem a bit daunting with all those menus, tabs and icons, but it's very intuitive and tooltips show up for everything. Comprehensive help and links to video tutorials are provided as well. It's organized into a manager (a thumbnail view with a folder tree and general information), a fullscreen viewer and an editor, which is quite stripped down compared to the paid version but still very functional. ZPSF generates thumbnails in a blink, much faster than any other I've seen, and general speed is outstanding, though the zoom system should be more flexible in full screen. There's a powerful search with many filters, a lot of display options and full shortcut customization. The functions are too many to be mentioned and generally very useful, but a couple of them alone make it worth using the program: one is the ability to temporarily rotate pics and the other allows to straighten them by drawing a horizontal line. Apart from this one, the editor has a variety of tools like a handy clone stamp, a funny morph mesh and great effects that can be applied on selected areas. You can also organize into albums, geotag, build calendars, stitch panoramas, make 3D pictures and a lot of other things. Moreover, it reads many formats, including RAW, and writes to the ten most commonly used. It doesn't support video from within the program but it can call your default player when needed. Advanced batch processing options are only available in the paid version, except for renaming, though most individual operations can be carried out on more than one file at a time by selecting a number of them in the manager, opening the specific dialog and then clicking 'Apply to all'. Photo Studio is perfect for the needs of average users.

XnView Tumbnail ViewXnView used to be my Top Pick till the release of Zoner Photo Studio Free and I would really keep it as such if there could be two of them. It's probably the most versatile of all viewers because it can read nearly 400 types of graphic files and convert any of these to more than 50 formats. It displays images very quickly and these may be viewed in full screen, as slideshows or as thumbnails. It's quite capable at processing images, too; you can rotate, crop, resize, adjust brightness and color, apply filters or effects, create a web page and much more. Most of these operations can also be carried out from a batch file, which is ideal for converting or processing multiple images with custom adjustments, and the thumbnail window can fit your preferences with several layouts and sizes; this is especially useful when displaying panoramic images in preview mode (see screenshot). It offers nearly instantaneous hotkey and wheel zooming, and dragging the image around at any zoom level is perfectly smooth. It also allows having several images open at the same time and even running multiple instances of the program if you like to browse in different windows. It supports drag and drop, lots of plug-ins, is available in 44 languages and has full cross-platform support, including Mac and Linux (unlike its competitors reviewed here). A heavyweight champion.

IrfanView Thumbnail ModuleOne of the best choices is the classic IrfanView. This is a first-class product, but one for which I have mixed feelings. It's an amazingly capable application and quite fast at displaying images. It offers plenty of functions for editing, converting, batch processing, slideshow exporting, etc. and supports almost any graphics plug-in. Some of the features (its resizing algorithm, for instance) are outstanding and even rank above a big fish like Photoshop. But, although many users just love it, it just doesn't work the way I'd like it to. It's quite simplistic, but not really intuitive and the interface has been almost the same since early versions. As a personal "inconvenience" I'll say wheel zooming requires a press of the Ctrl key, and I don't see the point in having a separate module for thumbnails. This, however, may be exactly what others prefer, and the same applies to the interface, which looks a bit too outdated to me. But, obviously, this program is a real winner.

FastStone Thumbnail and Preview windowMy fourth choice is FastStone Image Viewer. There are various reasons to choose this, but the main one is its superb interface, especially in full screen mode, with different pop-up panels appearing when the mouse pointer reaches any side of the screen. You can easily access every function of the program from this window with no other element disturbing you until you decide it with just a mouse move, including a very handy thumbnail slider to browse your images. Even the smallest menus or panels in any of the modes are clear and well designed, and there are several skins available. Aside from the usual wheel zooming, the zoom system has a very clever feature: it magnifies to a custom preset level with just one click and average files are displayed quickly, the same as their thumbnails. But it's slower showing bigger files (>20MB, depending on the format and resolution) and others perform much better in this field, though for most users that won't be an issue. It may be a good idea to disable the preview pane in the thumbnail window to speed things up. It also supports all major graphic formats and popular digital camera RAW formats as well, and offers good basic image editing facilities, an excellent cropping module, full batch processing options, great slideshow capabilities and now GPS location with Google Earth. Much to like here.

These three programs also support basic video viewing for the most common formats. An in-depth comparative review of FastStone and XnView with my own tests can be found in the comments section below. It may seem a bit outdated (2008), but the results haven't changed that much since it was written.

WildBit Thumbnail View I can recommend another program, after most of my initial objections were overcome by the evidence and the author, who showed a very positive response to my feedback. This special mention goes to WildBit Viewer, an outstanding application that can rival the ones reviewed above in many aspects. In spite of some minor concerns about speed, the program is highly manageable and functional enough to earn the respect of many users. Apart from the usual features you'd expect, it offers small-increment wheel zooming, a very intuitive image editor with a full array of editing tools, a superpowerful search function that can track any metadata or EXIF information, an excellent geotagging tool to embed geographical co-ordinates in the files, and the most comprehensive help you can imagine. There's also a function for side-by-side image comparison with difference calculations, and a highly customizable slideshow mode. It supports around 70 formats (no video) and runs on Windows 98SE through W7. From version 5.4 on, it includes thumbnail generation for RAW files, aspect ratio information and other improvements. WildBit Viewer is a very competent alternative.

Please help us by rating this review

 
Related Products and Links
I've tested quite a few other applications (too many to be mentioned), but none of them made it to the top. That includes all of those suggested by readers. When this was the case, I usually replied with a post in the comments section with my reasons. Maybe your favorite program is among them, but please don't hesitate to submit any product you think might deserve a try. There are some decent ones and even Windows' built-in viewer performs acceptably when browsing through average images, although it's very limited. Anyway, all of my working PCs run Windows XP, though I have tried Vista's capabilities for the matter on several other machines and things don't seem to have improved much. I don't know about Windows7 yet. But it wouldn't be fair to end this review without mentioning some other freebies that offer a few remarkable features. (Thanks to those anonymous visitors for letting me know.)
 
One of our users suggested cam2pc and, after giving it a try, it has proved to be an excellent program in many aspects. As the name suggests, cam2pc provides a handy way to download pictures and videos from your digicam to your drives, allowing you to use lots of options for renaming, saving, etc., and has specific support for the widely used Canon EOS cameras (separate download). The interface is intuitive and easy to use, with a folder and thumbnail view that recalls FastStone. As with this, I recommend to turn the preview panel off, though thumbnail generation is really fast. Actually, speed is outstanding in almost every aspect of this app. The feature that impressed me most was its ability to quickly display LZW-compressed TIFs, something unusual in its competitors, although these perform better with Photoshop PSDs. The only reason why I don't include cam2pc along with the top programs is that the freeware version lacks quite a lot of features that can only be found in its commercial sibling and which the others offer for free. But I guess most users could perfectly do without those.
 
Imagine is a very fast viewer vaguely resembling Irfan in its simplistic interface. Similarly, wheel zooming needs pressing the Ctrl key and the program also uses a separate window for thumbnails, but Imagine adds more functionality for people who like it this way and several thumbnail windows can be open at the same time. Besides, it lets you customize various mouse modes with different configurations and select any of them instantaneously to fit your workflow, allows frame extraction from animations, reads a lot of formats, has multilanguage support and is portable. On the downside, it's quite limited in other areas. To name but a few, the editing and batch processing options are insufficient (I haven't been able to find a cropping feature!), certain Photoshop PSD files aren't properly displayed, no RAW or video formats are supported and it doesn't keep a database, so the thumbnails have to be generated again every time you visit a folder, although it's quite fast at doing this.
 
Pictomio is a good representative of the recent trends in this category, which pay greater attention to "fancy" interfaces and presentations to improve user experience. The main drawback with this is the usually high resource consumption and graphics card requirements, and the program is no exception, as it uses DirectX hardware acceleration. I'd say it is mainly geared to organizing, with a great number of options for tagging, metadata editing, rating and grouping, but it performs very well as a viewer, too. It's really fast once the thumbnail indexing has finished and displays an image preview instantly, and you can zoom in and out to any level. It supports some video formats as well. The interface is really nice and its many tabs show a lot of information. Pictomio, however, is not intended to edit and there are no options for this other than lossless rotation. There's no support for RAW, PSD or animated GIF formats either. Moreover, indexing should be faster and it fails to generate a thumbnail for some really big files, but the picture is displayed perfectly if you click on its blank rectangle.
 
Although their names look nearly identical, Imagina has nothing to do with Imagine, reviewed above. Actually, that's where similarities end. This application ('a next-generation image viewer and editing tool', the developers claim) is a perfect example of the new concepts based around 3-D technology, but much lighter on resources than Pictomio and others of this kind, because it doesn't use hardware acceleration, as far as I know. Thus, browsing speed isn't as fast either, even compared to "normal" viewers, and this is especially noticeable with bigger files. For instance, when opening my EOS 7D's 18-megapixel JPGs the program clearly stays behind the top performers, though this should mean no issue for average users, as their files will be half that size or less, typically. There may be some things I really miss (more customization for certain basic aspects, a built-in folder tree, support for PSDs, more straightforward management of some files like TIFF, etc.) and many other reasons why my workflow as a photographer won't (yet) fit what Imagina proposes at this seemingly early stage in its development. But photo pros are only a few among the vast lot of digicam users who just shoot JPG. And these will love it! I do love it too, believe it or not. Its absolutely outstanding features have captivated me. User experience is excellent and no other viewer I've seen shows that image quality or that zoom and pan smoothness. Both 2-D and 3-D graphics are amazing and even videos can be watched in this environment (with zooming and panning!). It offers state-of-the-art RAW support by using David Coffin's DCRAW along with its own algorithms, top quality editing functions, real color management and some useful tools, like the 'straighten picture along a line' that many users have been craving for. So many good things make it at least a must-try. Well, just in case it's not clear, I have no connection at all with the developers. It's obvious I like Imagina but, as you can see, it hasn't reached a place at the top. It might one day, though, if the already good work keeps improving and the drawbacks I mentioned above are ironed out. They are very near. (Requires .NET 2.0 or higher)
 
After some debate in the comments section I've decided to mention FastPictureViewer, but just because of one single feature. This claims to be (and probably is) the fastest viewer ever, especially indicated for quick browsing and culling. Like Pictomio, it uses hardware to speed things up and requires a lot of system resources and graphic capabilities. It has a nice interface as well. Anyway, the program offers no other functions and is limited to just viewing, and the free version supports JPGs only. It does support full color space awareness, though, and there's also a standalone codec package that allows functionality for 20 RAW formats from the most important camera manufacturers under 32/64bit Vista or Windows 7 and provides thumbnail view for XP.
 
Finally, one of our site users, Mythril, suggested two programs which work with a very different approach, but with a special focus on speed. These are Vjpeg and Osiva. I just quote Mythril's comments because they are right on spot (original 06/02/09): "Both work by opening images in a borderless window that you can drag around and zoom in/out at will, practically without any lag, and you can open as many images as you want at the same time. Both programs load very quickly, but don't have any features to speak of. Another drawback is that there doesn't even seem to be a way to cycle through images in a directory... Osiva is slightly better in that you can easily drag and drop a bunch of images and have it open all of them for a superquick overview". I'll add they support very few file formats and are a bit awkward to use, but Vpej and Osiva are quite different from what I had seen so far.
 
This impressive entry in the Wikipedia features a chart comparing a considerable amount of free and commercial image viewers. Most of these products are also given detailed individual entries and include links to their websites.
 

Best Free Digital Photo Organizer
Best Free Digital Editor
Best Free Media Player
Quick Selection Guide

Zoner Photo Studio Free    Rating 10 of 10    Gizmo's Top<br /> Pick
Pros   Nice interface, very customizable, fast, lots of features, good editor, geotagging
Cons   Limited batch processing options, available in English only
Developer Home Page   http://free.zoner.com
Download link   http://free.zoner.com/download.asp
File Size   20MB   Version 12  License Type Private Freeware (not free for commercial use)   Installation Requirements Windows XP - W7

XnView     Rating<br /> 10 of 10
Pros   Fast, lots of features, very manageable, many plug-ins, supports nearly any OS
Cons   The batch processing options could be better implemented
Developer Home Page   http://www.xnview.com/
Download link   http://pagesperso-orange.fr/pierre.g/xnview/endownloadwin32.html
File Size   4.36MB   Version 1.97.6   License Type Private Freeware (not free for commercial use)   Installation Requirements All Windows, MacOS X, Linux x86, Linux ppc, FreeBSD x86, OpenBSD x86, NetBSD x86, Solaris sparc, Solaris x86, Irix mips, HP-UX, AIX
Portable version available   Portable version available
Info   Supports dual-monitor configurations.

IrfanView    Rating 9 of 10  
Pros   Fast, lots of features, many plug-ins
Cons   Simplistic and a bit less manageable
Developer Home Page   http://www.irfanview.com/
Download link   http://www.irfanview.com/
File Size   1.33MB   Version 4.27   License Type Private Freeware (not free for commercial use)   Installation Requirements Windows9x - W7
Portable version available   Portable version available
Info   Multi-monitor support

FastStone Image Viewer    Rating 9 of 10
Pros   Very nice interface, good functionality, excellent batch processing options, GPS location in Google Earth
Cons   Slower for larger files
Developer Home Page   http://www.faststone.org
Download link   http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDownload.htm
File Size   5MB   Version 4.2  License Type Private Freeware (not free for commercial use)   Installation Requirements Windows98 - W7
Portable version available   Portable version available
Info   Supports dual-monitor configurations

WildBit Viewer    Rating 9 of 10
Pros   Very manageable, excellent editor, geotagging capabilities
Cons   Slower than the three above sometimes, no video support
Developer Home Page   http://www.wildbit-soft.fi/software.html
Download link   http://www.wildbit-soft.fi/software.html
File Size   8.8MB   Version 5.7  License Type Private Freeware (not free for commercial use)   Installation Requirements Windows98SE - W7
Info   Multi-monitor support

This software category is maintained by volunteer editor Marc Darkin. Registered site visitors can contact Marc by clicking here.

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Comments

by Shubhendu Pal (not verified) on Tue, 08/17/2010 - 10:40  (#56179)

Shutterfly Studio is a good one - though best is Farstone in my opinion.

by Scottie33 (not verified) on Mon, 07/26/2010 - 15:03  (#54950)

Zoner has a very nice interface and a lots of features, but I hate any application which requires installation (no portable or zip version). For the same reason I do not use Picasa. In sum, the best ratio of features to portables has FastStone Image Viewer!!

by Kaihekoa (not verified) on Tue, 07/20/2010 - 17:14  (#54594)

I came here to find a light Windows Live Photo Gallery with fairly advanced batch processing options. Zoner and Irfanview did not have many advanced batch processing options. I neglected to try Wildbit because it was reported as being slower than the rest. That leaves Xnview and FastStone which I thought were equal in features and functionality with Xnview having a speed advantage and FastStone having a cleaner UI. So I ran a batch processing test on 120 JPEG images that required resizing, rotating, and a watermark.

It was during this test that Xnview repeatedly failed to display any output format options and then crashed as I was going through the format options. I can't say how much faster it was compared to FastStone and did not want to spend time troubleshooting when there's an equal alternative. FastStone took 26 seconds to complete the operation which is fast enough for me. In conclusion, based on my limited experience FastStone is the best choice here if you're looking for a combination viewer with many features and fast, advanced batch processing.

by marcdarkin on Tue, 07/20/2010 - 17:51  (#54597)

Thanks for sharing. Although I haven't had those problems with XnView even under heavy testing, your experience confirms my own thoughts about FastStone being the best in batch processing. Simple and effective, especially in the latest versions.

Just a clarification: Wildbit isn't that much slower. If you have a modern machine, the difference is hardly noticed. And its batch options are just fine.

by Kaihekoa (not verified) on Tue, 07/20/2010 - 18:03  (#54598)

I see; my PC has plenty of "horsepower" so I will give Wildbit a try. Thanks for clarifying.

by entropy96 (not verified) on Thu, 07/01/2010 - 17:20  (#53585)

My only gripes with Zoner Studio Free is it is incredibly slow in loading even JPG files, especially in folders with more than a thousand picture files.

It analyzes the total number of readable files in the folder before opening a picture file.

I'm more focused on performance and speed, so I ultimately decided to keep IrfanView as my primary image viewer.
Sure, it doesn't have as many bells-and-whistles as Zoner Studio Free, but for regular picture browsing, it gets the job done.

by Anonymous on Sun, 06/20/2010 - 12:32  (#52526)

I've been using XnView for years
Love this free software.
Fast image browser, light, and support various image formats.
Some other nice features I like :
- watermark (supports transparent psd!)
- cleaning up metadata, whole or partially. I use it for deleting Adobe Lightroom XMP metadata
- an option to whether or not scan file headers (great for old PC or laptop)
- batch renaming with data from photo EXIF

Thanks to the developer who keep developing and improving this software.
Just downloaded the newest version : 1.97.6
TIFF can write EXIF ... great!

by George on Tue, 06/15/2010 - 17:16  (#52184)

Question to Zoner:
Do you have any plans to make it portable?

Answer by Zoner:
You can make a copy of an installed Zoner Photo Studio and run it from an USB stick, but it won't be able to run without affecting the target machine - it saves its settings to registry and creates some folders and temporary files in user's directory. We do not plan a fully portable version, but we might consider some enhancements that would make it a bit easier.

by marcdarkin on Tue, 06/15/2010 - 17:26  (#52187)

Thanks for the info, George.

by Cide on Tue, 06/15/2010 - 14:55  (#52165)

Zoner Photo Studio Free would be perfect for me if it didn't display animated gifs at half the speed of what they should be.

by George on Tue, 06/15/2010 - 17:25  (#52186)

Same here.
I have placed a post about that in the Zoner forum.

by George on Thu, 06/24/2010 - 16:38  (#53012)

I heard back from Zoner:

"Zoner Photo Studio doesn't display animated GIFs with exact timing (it is for preview purposes only as ZPS's primary target is digital photography), but there shouldn't be that big difference. Can you upload such picture please?"

I replied that I feel the difference is considerable and I have uploaded a sample so they can check it out.

by Anonymous on Tue, 06/15/2010 - 16:32  (#52179)

this is true for me as well

by Anonymous on Thu, 06/10/2010 - 08:00  (#51811)

This is the best reweiv i ever read!
Jan

by George on Wed, 06/09/2010 - 16:10  (#51727)

Zoner Photo Studio Free is amazing - rightfully the Top Pick here. Does anybody know whether it is available in other languages as well like its big brother?

by marcdarkin on Wed, 06/09/2010 - 16:34  (#51733)

I'm afraid it isn't, George. This page on their site under 'system requirements' clearly states "Zoner Photo Studio Free is available in the English language only." An inconvenience I mention in the quick selection guide.

http://free.zoner.com/support.asp

by torresmagnifico on Wed, 06/09/2010 - 15:28  (#51723)

Marc,

Many thanks for the Zoner Photo review and link, I have been meaning to look for a free equivalent for ACDSee for some time and this software is par excellence!

Top work in your chosen category. ;-)

by Anonymous on Wed, 06/09/2010 - 13:33  (#51714)

Zoner Photo Studio Free:
> "batch processing options are completely missing except for renaming..."
Actually you CAN apply most of the adjustments and effects on more files at once. Just select more files in the Manager module and select e.g. Edit | Resize... Just set your parameters and press Apply to All.
Clicking on the images in the thumbnail panel shows preview of the selected adjustment on the selected file.

by marcdarkin on Wed, 06/09/2010 - 15:36  (#51725)

Thanks for pointing this out. I was misled by the pro version, which has advanced batch options, and I didn't realize this possibility. My article has been corrected accordingly. Thanks again.

by Anonymous on Wed, 06/09/2010 - 04:19  (#51693)

We are so immersed in the nitty gritty, we overlook one glaring omission/ deficiency in most if not all of the programs: when cropping a picture, the embedded thubnail (EXIF?) is not updated. Whenever we crop a picture, it means we do NOT want to show the rest of the picture, but the thumbnail betrays us. Imagine the potentially embarassing situation!

by davy on Wed, 06/09/2010 - 12:14  (#51708)

Been using zoner free for a few weeks now and it is the best of its type.Comes into the category of i cant belive it is free.editing tools are great for a free program,the iron tool that smooths the skin to take out wrinkles and crows feet is a godsend when retouching the family snaps.Overall a great freebie.

by Anonymous on Wed, 06/09/2010 - 01:40  (#51678)

Been using Irf for a long time now...
For general viewing, image format conversions, speed, light resource usage,nice command line options, contact sheet maker and so forth, there's IrfanView... Oh yeah did I mention it has nice command line support...hehe. For everything else there's $$$Photoshop$$$.

binaryweasel

by Gecko on Thu, 05/20/2010 - 04:26  (#49975)

I operate on a cross-platform basis between Win XP, Win 7 and Mac OS X.

Is there a utility that allows me to view both RAW (esp. CR2, NEF and DNG) and JPEG files, and which share the same star-rating system?

On the Mac, I use
- Bridge CS3 that came with Photoshop Elements 6.
- Canon Image Browser
- Nikon ViewNX

On the PC, I use
- Nikon ViewNX
- Canon Zoom Browser

My problem with FastStone ImageViewer, XnView, Canon software, iPhoto, Picasa, etc., is that pictures that I tag / rate / export from them don't seem to be able to bring my star ratings over to the next programme.

So far, I have found that Bridge and ViewNX share the same 5-star rating system, but that's about it. I'm not even sure that I can get LightRoom to share the same rating system.

The rating system appears to be based on XMP data written into the file or via a sidecar.

Does anyone have a recommendation?

Cheers,
Gecko

by marcdarkin on Thu, 05/20/2010 - 13:27  (#49995)

I'm afraid I can't help you much with this, Gecko. I don't know about Mac because I'm just a Windows user. But as you note, "The rating system appears to be based on XMP data written into the file or via a sidecar". Obviously, not all image apps can read XMP, let alone sidecars. And only a few of them can attach these files automatically along with the original images in the event you want to move or copy them to another folder.

I gave up using ratings a long time ago, except in Lightroom, Camera Raw and Bridge. But the free image viewers in my review that allow some kind of tagging or rating don't seem to handle each other's system. The exception is Pictomio, which usually reads the ratings from LR, CR and Br, but not in every case and it runs only in Windows.

So I can't give a solution :( Let's see if someone knows more about this and posts something here.

by Anonymous on Mon, 05/10/2010 - 13:24  (#49464)

I'm surprised still nobody has mentioned XnViewMP.

From wikipedia:

"XnView MP (XnView Multi Platform) will eventually replace all other versions of XnView (*nix and Mac OS X and Windows) using the same source code for all platforms and is intended to have a unified look and feel. It will have native unicode support and be able to load full bit depth pictures (8/16/32 bits per component), easier handling of native language support (text based files) and a better database. Currently the newest version is 0.26."

by marcdarkin on Mon, 05/10/2010 - 15:00  (#49471)

XnView MP is still a beta version. I'll wait for a final release before including it in my review if it deserves so. (It will, AFAIK.)

by Anonymous on Fri, 04/30/2010 - 16:51  (#48831)

XnView is really good.
The reason I like it compared to other image browsers is that I can disable file header scanning. This is very important feature for me.
I shoot digital, mostly in RAW.

by Anonymous on Fri, 04/30/2010 - 09:57  (#48809)

I miss Picasa

by marcdarkin on Fri, 04/30/2010 - 12:26  (#48812)

There's an old thread about Picasa in these comments. And it's also reviewed in the Best Free Digital Photo Organizer section:

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-digital-photo-organizer.htm

For an explanation of why I don't include it in my review see this comment:

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-digital-image-viewer.htm?page=...

by Anonymous on Wed, 06/09/2010 - 11:12  (#51706)

Marc - can't find comment (#4220) by date or # in the referenced page.

by marcdarkin on Tue, 06/15/2010 - 11:03  (#52156)

Thanks. I've provided a link to that comment above and here it is again:

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-digital-image-viewer.htm?page=...

by Anonymous on Mon, 06/14/2010 - 22:36  (#52119)

Post #4220 exists, click the last page of comments, scroll up, it is between #4316 and #4392, the date is 07/14/2008.

I tried to post the link but a 'spam' warning apparently blocked it.

Mike

by Anonymous on Thu, 04/29/2010 - 23:35  (#48782)

Would you compare with the Windows Live Photo Gallery for Windows users? I like that program, because the stability working with Windows :)

by marcdarkin on Fri, 04/30/2010 - 12:03  (#48810)

All the products reviewed here are intended for Windows users and I've forgotten about the last time I had a crash with any of the ones I use more often. So stability isn't an issue, as most of them have a solid development history and bugs are scarce.

As for WL Photo Gallery, I tried it quite a long time ago but unfortunately I've mislaid my notes about it and now I don't remember exactly the data I collected. But I remember my conclusion wasn't very positive in terms of speed, usability and customization. This aside from the concerns about whether image rotation within the program is really lossless, the delayed data writing (for example, if you rotate a picture, the new one overwrites the old one WHEN YOU QUIT the program and with no prompting) and other technical issues. So I decided I didn't need it anymore and went to uninstall it. And guess what. I remember this perfectly: there's no straight way to remove it from the machine! No uninstall command or whatever. You must delete some .dll's and other junk yourself. To top the pie, some of its tools aren't supported in Windows XP!

We are used to Microsoft's odd procedures and they probably think the program is so good nobody would ever want to remove it, but clearly this isn't a fair way to work. Photo Gallery may be a good product for Windows Live users because of its straight integration, but I'm not one of them.

It's been a while since I tried it, but of course I don't want to see if it's still like that installing it on my computer, nor use a virtual machine to try it again. At least until somebody assures me there's an uninstaller included. Sorry.

by Anonymous on Thu, 04/29/2010 - 15:56  (#48710)

I am really impressed! This opens and manipulates raw Hasselblad images that even Photoshop CS4 cant do and even for the ones that PS can handle Wildbit is quicker.

by Anonymous on Thu, 04/29/2010 - 13:35  (#48695)

I've used FastStone for years and was very satisfied until I got a camera that also shoots video. FastStone does not support video. So now I am looking for a viewer that supports both video and photos; can crop, resize and sharpen, but with me deciding how much to sharpen; and allow me to quickly and easily compare photos side by side like I can on FastStone.

by Anonymous on Thu, 04/29/2010 - 14:18  (#48698)

Am trying now Xnview. So far, looks to be just what I need. FastStone has been removed from my computer.

by marcdarkin on Thu, 04/29/2010 - 16:04  (#48712)

XnView is a good pick (it's my top pick!) but FastStone DOES support video, although it hasn't got a built-in player.

Obviously you have overlooked a feature in the program's toolbar that lets you select the option to show 'images' only, 'videos' only or 'both'.

by Anonymous on Mon, 04/12/2010 - 22:39  (#47517)

XnView is my personal fave, although it is good that there are so many strong options.

For basic editing pretty much the only feature that I need to open photoshop for is arbitrarily rotating an image along a line using the measure tool. If there is a lightweight viewer that can do this I may consider switching elegances.

Any ideas?

by marcdarkin on Thu, 04/29/2010 - 16:11  (#48715)

You may have a look at Imagina, my latest addition in the review. It can do what you're looking for and has some other quality tools.

by Anonymous on Mon, 03/29/2010 - 08:51  (#46418)

i use Imagine (graphics software). its very lightweight and fast. its got great features too.
info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagine_%28Image_organizer_software%29
download: http://www.nyam.pe.kr/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=14

by Anonymous on Sun, 03/07/2010 - 15:52  (#45155)

I think FastStone Image Viewer is the best choice for the average user.

by Anonymous on Sun, 04/18/2010 - 07:07  (#47889)

FastStone Image Viewer has a problem of displaying a worse quality of picture than other picture viewers, and the quality should not be that bad. That is the major problem I don't use it.

by Anonymous on Tue, 05/04/2010 - 01:55  (#49052)

Under "Settings", you have to choose Lanczos3 filter to get good quality rendering. But, it's slow on that setting. Drives me batty!

by marcdarkin on Sun, 04/18/2010 - 11:47  (#47896)

I guess I know what you mean, but in my opinion FS's displaying quality is fair enough for acceptable standards and at least just as good as most other viewers.

Size is a critical factor in the way an image is displayed in every program, not only because of loading speed but of appearance too. It can vary with your settings, but everything goes fine if the dimensions in pixels don't exceed the resolution points of your screen. Usually in this case each pixel is mapped to one single point, so showing the image at 100%. You can test it yourself easily, but image quality at this level shows no perceptible variation between programs, as it's more dependant on the monitor, setup, color management policy, etc.

The problem is that, except when they are intended for web or don't need good prints, the pictures we keep in our drives nowadays are usually much bigger than our screens. So everytime you want to view them at any zoom level other than 100% their appearance is going to suffer. This is noticeable in the edges of objects in the picture, especially if you try to fit a big one to fullscreen or less. There's no issue with vertical or horizontal straight lines, as they follow the grid array of screen points, but slanting and round lines appear jagged and uneven.

Some programs have their propietary code written for the matter; others borrow, simulate or hack their algorithms. I don't know about FastStone, though I'm almost certain it's propietary. And it may be a bit slower than others, but the rendering isn't that bad. Actually, the program even gives an option to improve it, which is not available in most others. There's a tick box in the toolbar which enables smooth viewing so that edges don't appear jagged when the size of the picture is bigger than the screen. But having it checked increases loading time and slows zooming and panning with bigger files.

I understand users like you prefer other viewers because of their better performance in this area. But image quality is not the issue here, it's just a matter of speed.

Thanks for your comment.

by Anonymous on Sun, 03/07/2010 - 04:28  (#45138)

XnView ia amazing, it is even better than the free trial acd see i had , and much better than infranview. Cool, ty.

by Anonymous on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 12:04  (#42700)

Unfortunately none of the programs reviewed here offer a feature that I would be willing to pay for to have. What I need is a viewer that keeps separate view settings for each folder, like "browse this folder by date", "browse this one by name", "for this folder, view as details", "for this other one, view as thumbnails" etc.
Does anyone know if such a program exists, whether it's free or not?

by Anonymous on Mon, 06/28/2010 - 06:58  (#53345)

XnView does that. Right click in the image browser and set your sort and view preferences.

by Anonymous on Thu, 01/14/2010 - 03:20  (#40989)

Hi --thanks for such a thorough article!
I have to say that I disagree with the poor rating given to the FastPictureViewer. I think it actually should be the #1 (or at least be in the main section of your article). I tried absolutely all the image viewers in your article and I didn't like any of them - they are all too complicated, they try to do too many things, and are waaaay too slow, especially for large files. I am a photography hobbyist and need a way to quickly browse through a gazillion pictures, pick up the ones that I like, delete the ones that I don't like, and always keep an eye at the exif data to see if I could have done a better job and prevented a technically bad image.

Here's what all "image viewers" do which I don't need:
- Busy UI (I want to see the picture, not the tool's chrome)
- Image/Thumbnail preview (Windows has that already)
- Photo editing tools (this is where you use Photoshop)
- I don't need batch processing, I don't need format conversion, and no - I don't need a webpage album creator. Since when did these become requirements for an "image viewer" ?!?

Here's what they didn't have, which I do need:
- Easy, friendly EXIF data (most viewers would not let you keep the exif/histogram data while browsing through images. Or worse yet - would require you to press 4-5 shortcut buttons to just show you the exif, and then when you move to the next image it disappears and you have to look it up again.)
- FAST image display (going forward as well as back - I have no idea why most viewers cache the next upcoming image, but don't keep in cache the one that you just saw in case you want to go back? silly)
- Easy zoom in/out and navigating around the image to judge sharpness, focus, etc.
- Full-screen image viewing so you can see the image in its best possible light, while keeping a minimal exif info box

I have to say that in terms giving me everything that I need and nothing of what I don't need/like, FastImageViewer just completely blows the competition away. It's just that - a fast and super user friendly image viewer and that's exactly what I need. I think a lot of photographers out there feel exactly the same way.

by marcdarkin on Thu, 01/14/2010 - 23:34  (#41051)

Thanks for your comments. A similar debate arised here when Fast Picture Viewer was first suggested for review (current page 3 of the comments, submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 10/01/2008 - 02:06). I won't go into it all over again. I agree with some of the things you say and sure my top programs can still improve a lot in many areas, and of course you're right about speed and FPV is there especially because of that. I understand it meets your needs perfectly... But not mine.

I usually work with a lot of formats, I do convert from one to another, I do use batch processing a lot (especially resizing and renaming), I nearly always need to have a folder tree to quickly jump between them, and a thumbnail overview of a huge folder to go straight to the image I want without calling the limp Windows built-in viewers, I sometimes need some quick adjustments in the pics without having to call the monster (Photoshop and the demanding extra load on the system), I like to call the monster and not worry about memory overloads while having my viewer open, I usually like to view images in TRUE fullscreen with NO histogram and NO exif info stuck around if that's what I really want, I like to transfer photos from the camera to the computer right inside the viewer after viewing them...

Well, this is just my workflow anyway, and many users like yourself won't have the same needs. I usually have an eye on exif info as well, and zoom in and out quickly. And I can do all that not so painfully with freeware programs, though you can't have the perfect app. I'm not biased against FPV, believe me. Actually, I own the commercial version because I think it's a good product that deserves paying for the ability to view extra formats at the same blazing speed than the JPGs allowed with the freeware version. But this is also my main drawback, apart from my own workflow, the occasional memory insufficiency with big files on an average dual core machine, and the lack of Photoshop PSD support even in the paid version.

Though JPG is the usual format around, with FPV you have to pay for what many others offer for free. Speed is an essential factor but not the only one. In this respect, the program is unrivalled and it's the best for fast culling and rating, which is what I use it for. Once I have done this, I prefer some other way to work with my files, as browsing speed isn't that important then and I can perfectly assume the decrease if I have many more options to work with. But again, this is just me. And sure I understand your complaints. Several I make them mine too. Thanks.

by Anonymous on Sun, 01/24/2010 - 00:17  (#41875)

Thanks for the response! I scrolled down to read the Fast Picture Viewer mini-thread. Lol - I can see that other people are as passionate (or more) about this program. Personally, I'm so glad I found it, since it does 99% of what I want it to do, and it does it so damn well. Maybe my workflow is quirky, but all the other programs on your list don't cut it for me at all (to an extent that I'd almost prefer the default windows image viewer to them...) For me, quickly browsing through a few thousand LARGE pictures (DSLR burst modes) and picking up the few that are truly awesome from the rest is absolutely essential. After I've separated the gems from the garbabe, I can move on to the "monster" image processors and do the editing there.
I understand that different people have different views, but still -obviously there are people there that like this program and would like to see it higher up in your rankings. I, for one found it through a different website and came back here to submit it as a suggestion. Only then did I find it in your article, buried all they way down there... It's funny, because I thought I've read it thoroughly and tried all the programs that you suggested. Somehow I must have missed it the first time...
Having said that, I admit, this program is not perfect. I wish it supported fast image rotation (this would be the last 1% :)) But hey - that's why programs release new versions :) The fact that it's jpeg-only is irrelevant to me, since I only work in this format.

by Anonymous on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 14:19  (#38732)

Great Work. Unfortunately there's no worthwhile freeware option for any user who works in a company (and his boss is not willing to pay for such a program). FuturixImager is quite good but not too practical when it comes down to much printing and image viewing. The same applies to Picasa who is more an image viewer than a straightforward business tool for opening image attachments in emails and printing.

by VII on Sat, 12/05/2009 - 13:52  (#37897)

For me "IrfanView" is the best option, but I don't use it like this:

http://www.techsupportalert.com/files/images/IrfanView-thumbnailmodule_c...

Don't even think it was intended like that... I use it paired with Windows Explorer, cause I have my own Pictures Folder nicely arranged... don't like the idea of predefined ones. And yes, you might have the option to chose the predefined folders, but I'm and old school user which goes for "stability/fast open" instead of loading a huge library with all pictures and brows for the right ones. But that's just me. I select the desired folder and brows in full screen. :)

by Anonymous on Fri, 12/04/2009 - 21:37  (#37857)

How about MS Office Picture Manager? It is fairly basic but practical. Takes about 2.6 MB with window closed, about 14 MB with picture shown. It is not a file type miracle, but takes the most used.

I like that it make shortcuts of pics on your computer. No slideshow. It does exports to Office with pre-set resizing.

Another good free alternative is the Picasa Viewer.

by Anonymous on Sat, 11/28/2009 - 16:11  (#37470)

I use ArtSsee as my default app for opening image files. The program is 90KB small and doesn't need installation. The default settings have a slideshow feature with annoying transitions enabled but once you turn those off it's a really nifty tool. It supports Unicode characters in filepaths, something I always missed in Irfanview.

by DestinyJW (not verified) on Mon, 08/23/2010 - 20:18  (#56594)

Nice! I was beginning to despair of never finding a simple image viewer like the default XP one when I had to use a Windows 7 laptop for work. ArtSage (as it is now called) is lightning fast at displaying the images and lets me cycle through the images in a directory, which is all I really want from an image viewer, hence speed is everything--Windows Photo Gallery drove me NUTS because of how long it took to load the pictures (I didn't want a gallery!). (I'll edit it in a serious image editor if I want to tweak it in some way.)

by Anonymous on Sun, 11/22/2009 - 14:25  (#37112)

Dear Marc,

I must say I have used most of the programs you have mentioned but nothing has agreed with me more than cam2pc which I have used for several years now.

Cam2PC implementation of resizing is the best I have seen.
1. It lets you resize several files easily (xnview does not..at least not by a single click).
2. You can automatically rename files being resized so that you wont overwrite your original files.
3. It provides a maximum size option. For example: your digi cam takes pics of 800x600 resolution. You need to resize them to 640*480 for email. However you have taken pics both in landscape and portrait mode so if you use the standard way you will have to resize them separately; select 640 as width for landscape pics and select 640 as height for portrait pics to accomplish the above task. However Cam2pc will let you do this with a single click with this option.

Only problem I have with cam2pc is the batch renaming. Although it is very good, xnview lets you click on one of the files to use it as the template. in cam 2 pc you have to manually type in the template.

Have you come across any program that combines the two features - cam2pc's resizing and xnviews renaming?

Atleast I hope Marco would pick this up and incorporates both into his Wildbits atleast.

Thanks
- Uditha

by Anonymous on Sun, 11/22/2009 - 22:34  (#37130)

Hi Uditha,

There is few solutions for your need:
- what Marc suggested already.
- Request cam2pc to make changes so you can continue using it.
- Create another program what has best features combined (cam2pc resize and xnview's rename).
- Use cam2pc for resizing and xnview for renaming.
- ...

From the point of view of WildBit Viewer. Editor has batch resize option and Viewer has batch rename. Both features can be enhanced. I will try to enhance both features in future versions. Anyway I will put your request under "thinking hat". :)

- Marko

by marcdarkin on Sun, 11/22/2009 - 17:35  (#37117)

Thanks for your comments, Uditha. I can see you've followed this section for a while, as you rely on Marko for a solution! ;) Your question has an easy answer, which I hope is what you're asking for.

FastStone's excellent batch processing options allow you to resize an image basing on one side and you can specify it to be one of four settings: width, height, long side or short side.

The task is easy. After selecting the files you want to process, click on 'Tools' in the menu and select the appropriate batch function, or just press F3 as a shortcut. Select the output format and folder. Tick the 'rename' box and set a template. Then tick the 'use advanced options' box. A lot of tabs appear when you go there but the first one you'll see is 'resize', with three options. The one you need is 'resize based on one side' and you can find some other settings to tweak, including the ones I mentioned above and a dozen interpolation methods for the output file.

You say Cam2pc's implementation of resizing is the best you've seen. It's very good actually, but there's that little touch missing. Exactly the one you demand, which FastStone offers along with the best (or at least most useful) batch options I've seen in a free program, though it's not the top pick in my review. Anyway, C2PC is the best when downloading pictures from a memory card, with all those saving options to choose from. But remember you can use both!

Thanks again. Sure Marko will be reading this. And hopefully he'll be as responsive as he has always been.

by Anonymous on Mon, 11/23/2009 - 15:22  (#37170)

Thanks for the information. However before installing FastStone I would like to know whether the file renaming is similar to xnview? That is can I set the template by clicking on one file?
Thanks

by marcdarkin on Mon, 11/23/2009 - 16:05  (#37173)

Xn has more options for renaming than most others. FastStone is more simple, and I'm afraid you can't do what you're asking for. Anyway, I think the templates are good enough, and of course you can write your own.

by Anonymous on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 20:19  (#37008)

Well...
I don't saw any word about FuturixImager (http://fximage.com/imager/)
I think that you can try to write if this program is a good alternative or not...
I use XnView, but I find on the net FuturixImager and I am curious to read about your opinions...
Greetz!

by marcdarkin on Sat, 11/21/2009 - 01:25  (#37024)

Futurix has already been suggested here before and I reviewed it in a comment this year (06/22/2009):

I've reviewed FuturixImager and these are my opinions:

I said I had tried older versions but I still see the same drawbacks. There are several of these.

First, I believe browsing capabilities are fundamental in a viewer and this program offers no folder tree view, so you can't really browse your directories in a convenient way, as you always have to access them through the 'open' tab or the 'file' menu. This reason alone makes it unsuitable for my personal workflow, though I guess others can live without it. But that's not all.

Similarly, there's no thumbnail window, which leads us to the previous point. I don't see much functionality with this kind of approach. Just imagine browsing through folders with hundreds of pics when you're looking for one whose name you don't remember, only by clicking on the 'previous - next' arrows. How long will it take to identify it in Futurix?

If the program were fast, this problem could be alleviated, but then there's the speed issue too. I find it to be significantly slower than most of the programs I review in my article. Average images(2-5mpx) load with almost no delay, but 10-megapixel JPGs report a different story already. Either larger images or LZW-compressed TIFs or RAW files can make you wait beyond your patience. And there's no support for animated GIFs.

Of course, having no possibility to select several files at a time means there are no batch processing options, which is something I'm beginning to appreciate as a fundamental feature in a viewer.

These personal inconveniences won't be a concern for many users, and Futurix does have some good points as well. For example, although there's no kind of control over the process, the rendering of RAW files (at least Canon's CR2) is top quality, but at the expense of time, as I said above. That lack of options will need further postprocessing, which can be done inside the program because the filters and adjustments are good enough. However, there's multilevel undo but no redo at all.

Having said this, I'm sure you can understand it if Futurix isn't listed among the other products in my article. But thanks for the tip anyway.

Marc

by Jojoyee on Sat, 11/21/2009 - 01:46  (#37026)

Good points Marc. User interface is a concern to me for a good program.

by Anupam on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 21:05  (#36935)

FastStone Image Viewer 4.0 has been released.

Anupam

by marcdarkin on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 21:58  (#36944)

Thanks for letting me know, Anupam. Oddly enough I downloaded and installed version 3.9 on a PC just yesterday. So, I wouldn't have checked for a new one in a while! Anyway the new version doesn't appear on their official site yet???

by Anupam on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 22:07  (#36947)

Yeah, the new version was released on 19th, and the download sites are showing the release now.

The official site do have the new version. I confirmed it, and then downloaded. Here is the download link on the official site. It clearly says 4.0 with the release date of 19th Nov in red.

http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDownload.htm

Anupam

by Anonymous on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 21:50  (#36943)

http://www.majorgeeks.com/FastStone_Image_Viewer_d4691.html

I think they made a mistake though ...

by marcdarkin on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 22:02  (#36946)

What do you mean, a mistake?

by Anonymous on Sun, 11/22/2009 - 17:16  (#37116)

They are already ahead of schedule. They already have version 4.1. ;))))))

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