Recent Comments Posted

Tried Irfanview and it didn't help.

If you want to view your RAW files from your DSLR in a 32 or 64 bit Windows environment then this free codec pack is what you probably need:

http://www.fastpictureviewer.com/codecs/

Info from the website:
Windows Vista introduced a modern and extensible imaging framework called Windows Imaging Component (WIC). The operating system comes with built-in support for several common image formats including jpeg, bmp, png, gif, tiff and HD Photo. WIC makes it possible for 3rd parties to add first-class support for image formats to Windows, complete with thumbnails in Explorer, preview and slideshow support in Photo Gallery / Photo Viewer and metadata search integration.

The FastPictureViewer WIC RAW Codec Pack provides such platform support for additional formats through read-only image decoders, simultaneously available in both 32 and 64-bit flavor.

WIC-enabled image viewers such as Windows Live™ Photo Gallery, Windows 7's Media Center and our own FastPictureViewer Professional "automagically" gain the ability to open and view new image formats, play slideshows etc, so does all .NET 3.x and WPF-based applications.

FastStone Image Viewer 4.0 has been released.

Anupam

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???

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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

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?

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.

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

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'.

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

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.

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.

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."

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Thanks for the info, George.

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.

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.

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.

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!!

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.)

I can't answer this question properly, as I don't use any of the programs reviewed here for publishing. Some of them can generate HTML code and build slideshows or the like. At Zoner they even emphasize sharing capabilities as a strong point of their product.

But I couldn't really tell because my publishing needs go beyond uploading to Flickr or Facebook. Many image sharing sites force you to use their built-in uploaders and apps. For HTML I use a specific editor.

Maybe in our forums somebody can give a better answer.

Fast Stone Capture (last free version) macro extension. Works like a charm.

Great article thanks, been looking for something like this for days! So much easier to make a choice now... I think I'll go with Zoner Photo Studio Free ;) cheers!

JPEGView was already in the long list of products I've tried during these years of testing for Gizmo's Freeware. I've found it's a good program in several ways: small build, light footprint, fast with average files, excellent image quality, useful basic editing tools and support for multiple CPU cores to speed up processing.

But I've come across a lot of other viewers that offer very similar features in terms of functionality; they are functional enough to satisfy users that just want a simple tool to open a folder and view its pictures in a linear flow. Of course it's a matter of personal taste and need, but I'm used to the more flexible approach that a built-in thumbnail view with a folder tree provides when inspecting multiple folders and selecting images. Batch processing options in this program are limited to rename/copy. The editor has no undo function. It supports just 5 file formats. Some degree of customization is possible via the .INI file, but this isn't very user-friendly.

As for speed, I was expecting a higher performance from the multiple-core support in the latest version and downloaded it for a test on a modern 6-core machine, 6GB RAM, 1GB graphics card, running Windows7 Ultimate 64bit. Yes, any changes to an image are processed almost instantaneously, which is excellent, and loading times are outstanding if you work with JPG or the usually small files contained in PNG or GIF (non-animated only). But most of the products reviewed above can handle TIF just as well, if not better, and even show no significant difference when dealing with the other formats under the same conditions.

So, I'm afraid I can't include JPEGView in my article. This doesn't mean I don't recommend using it. Judging by the opinions in the Source Forge site, many users find it excellent, but I'd have to endorse at least a dozen other similar apps that offer something quite as good. None of them play among the best, in my opinion.

Thanks for your suggestion anyway!

hey can i stop zoner viewer from auto update ?

Unfortunately, there's no option in the program to turn off automatic updates.

The only thing you can do is disable notifications for each update when you're prompted to install them the first time by clicking on 'Do Not Install Update'. But you'll be prompted again when another update appears...

This is a good suggestion, garth. Thanks.

Thanks, MC

You can do what you need with a portable viewer. Portable applications are designed to minimize or avoid completely the traces left on the host OS. You may want to read these excellent articles to learn more about them:

http://www.techsupportalert.com/guide-to-portable-applications.htm
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-portable-programs.htm

In my case, I use FastStone portable version for the matter because it is TruPortable. I just carry it in my flash drive along with the pictures I need to display and open it from there. As for the traces left on the host system, you can tell the app either not to use a database or set a folder for that in your flash drive: menu Settings > Thumbnail > uncheck 'Use Thumbnail Database' or specify a folder in 'Location'. Your pics are perfectly safe within your flash drive.

Of course you could use IrfanView or XnView portable versions just as well, but they aren't TruePortable apps and some traces are left on the host machine. Anyway, your pictures will always stay in your flash drive and nobody will be able to see them if you don't want to.

Sorry, after trying lots of image viewers, I could not find even one that is capable to show only one thumb for a (sub)folder that contains images. All of them show 4 thumbs for each folder.
Pretty please, can you tell me if there is any viewer capable of doing such thing?
It is totally unbelievable to me to see that in year 2011 I still can't a viewer with such a basic feature.
I asked for this feature 2 years ago on the ACDSee forum.
Here is the screenshot I posted then, showing that the image viewer is showing 4 thumbs / folder:
http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/8036/57641554sf2.png

thanks

[Moderator's Note : Removed link to ACDSee forum. Not needed.]

Thanks for your kind answer.
Imagine you have 200(0) or more sets of 20-50 images each. Each set has its own folder. Now you would like to watch 5-10 sets that have the images you need to see. So you open the Image Viewer and check the thumb for each folder. See which ones match with your needs and enter into those sub-folders, and watch the pictures.

Isn't that the best and easiest way to organize and watch photos when you have lots of them?
To be honest I can't imagine a better way to organize vast amounts of images.
Strange enough, haven't seen people asking the developers to implement that feature. If a lot of people would ask this feature, some of them would probably implement it. But maybe I'm wrong and it's not an important feat, I don't know.

Anyways, thanks for your website too. Having software reviews is vital for computer users.