Editorial Review of FastStone Image Viewer
Note: This review addresses v4.0 of the
software.
If you only use the photo tools built into Windows, browsing
through your photos quickly becomes tedious. FastStone Image Viewer
displays pictures lightning-fast and lets you browse through them
all in Windows Explorer-style fashion. Run the program, go to the
folders where you want to browse, and all your photos are displayed
immediately, with very little delay. You'll see thumbnails of them
all, and a preview screen. To see any full screen, double-click
it.
If all FastStone Image Viewer did was display images, it would
be well worth the download. But it does much more than that. You
can crop, rotate, and resize pictures, as well as send them via
e-mail. You can also create slide shows. And the program will also
let you convert between file formats.
One of FastStone Image Viewer's greatest strengths is the wide
variety of file formats it supports. It can handle just about any
graphic or photo file format you've heard of. In addition, it
previews videos as well, so you can use it as a full multimedia
viewer, not just for photos.
--Preston Gralla
Description of FastStone Image Viewer
If you want your images to look the best they can--but you don't have a professional photographer's budget--check out FastStone Image Viewer. This freebie lets you browse and view your images in a Windows-Explorer-like interface. FastStone image viewer supports all major image formats, including BMP, GIF, ICO, JPEG, JPEG2000, PCX, PNG, PSD, TAF, TIF, and WMF. It includes EXIF metadata support as well. You can crop, resize, flip, rotate, and adjust colors on your images and compare them side by side.
You can also convert your images from one format to another; in fact, you can even convert or resize your photos in batches. If you need to take a closer look without resizing, use the Full Screen image viewer to zoom in and size things up with the clear magnifier. Once you're done, you can apply over 150 transitional effects in a slideshow.
Note: FastStone Image Viewer is free for personal and educational use only. Commercial users must register the software. Enthusiastic personal or educational users may make donations through the vendor's site.