Scan & Fix 50 registry issues FREECNET Editors' review
Despite its name, FastStone Image Viewer is more than just a program for viewing images. It's also capable of performing a fairly significant number of editing functions, which come packaged in an innovative interface. It's no Photoshop replacement, but we think it's a good choice if you need a way to view images and perform basic editing and correction tasks.
At first glance, the program's interface is a bit cluttered; there are toolbars with lots of buttons across the top, and there are panes where you can navigate to particular directories, view thumbnails of the contents, and view larger previews of individual images. The cool part of FastStone Image Viewer appears when you enter full-screen mode; the image is displayed by itself, but moving your mouse to the edges of the screen brings up a variety of tools and options.
Mouse to the right and the image's metadata appears; to the left, a menu appears with tools for rotating, resizing, and adding text, as well as adjusting colors and adding special effects. Mousing to the top of the screen brings down a thumbnail preview of the current directory, making it easy to select a different image, while at the bottom of the screen there's a toolbar with some of the most basic editing options. We especially liked the program's slideshow feature, which makes it easy to create custom slideshows using your own music.
Although most users should be able to figure FastStone's features out without much assistance, there's a 95-page PDF Help file that offers plenty of guidance. Overall, we were impressed with the variety of features that FastStone Image Viewer combines in an easy-to-use package, and we recommend the program to anyone seeking a basic but well-stocked image editor.
FastStone Image Viewer installs a desktop icon without asking but uninstalls cleanly.
FastStone Image Viewer - View, edit, and manage images - Download Video Previews:Publisher's Description
From FastStone Soft:
FastStone Image Viewer is a fast, stable, user-friendly image browser, converter and editor. It has a nice array of features that include image viewing, management, comparison, red-eye removal, e-mailing, resizing, cropping and color adjustments. Its innovative but intuitive full-screen mode provides quick access to EXIF information, thumbnail browser and major functionalities via hidden toolbars that pop up when your mouse touch the four edges of the screen. Other features include a high quality magnifier and a musical slideshow with 150+ transitional effects, as well as lossless JPEG transitions, drop shadow effects, image annotation, scanner support, histogram... It supports all major graphic formats including BMP, JPEG, JPEG 2000, GIF, PNG, PCX, TIFF, WMF, ICO and TGA.
What's new in this version: Version 4.7 added Touch Interface support throughout the application and new mouse gesture to move between images: Click at the bottom part of the preview window to switch to the next/preview image.
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All versions:
4.6 starsout of 1,609 votes
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Current version:
4.6 starsout of 14 votes
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My rating:
Write review
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"Serious bug in 4.7"
Version: FastStone Image Viewer 4.7
Pros
Nice UI.
Simple to use.
Versatile.Cons
Version 4.7 seems to have an issue with resizing. On my computer (Windows 7 32 bit), once you resize a pic and save it, then open that saved pic, it's rotated? Also 4.7 is still plagued with the same issue that 4.6 had...ie...in Windows 7 under options/associations, you can't de-select "show browse with faststone...." and make it stick.
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"Good, but not great"
Version: FastStone Image Viewer 4.7
Pros
All features worked for me as advertised.
Cons
Unfortunately the performance of FSIV when dealing with large folders is unacceptable. Also there was an odd delay every time I closed the program and FSIV does not support being open on multiple desktops simultaneously.
Summary
Ended up going to another freeware image viewer/editor (IV), which has none of the aforementioned performance issues.
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"Wecome back!"
Version: FastStone Image Viewer 4.7
Pros
This has been my go-to image viewer and editor for years. Great to see the author back after a hear and a half of silence!!
Cons
Nothing glaring. The one bug that gets me again and again: F2 -> Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V combo not working in the Tree View Pane (still exists in 4.7)
Summary
Well worth a donation!
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"Decent photoviewer - but slow viewing large folders"
Version: FastStone Image Viewer 4.7
Pros
Good viewer, can use two screens, one edit, one view.
Good for tutorials!
Very good batgh re-namer for files, why have them called 'DSC1099.jpg' when they could be called
'Aunt Sallys party-001.jpg'
Simple basic correction tools, but a cluttered interface may freak out noobies.
NO need its simple people.
Just don't use the extra buttons if you don't need them, et Voila!Cons
Scans on big folders seize up the PC.
For this reason and this alone - I use IrfanView for viewing big folders - that does not freeze. I suspect its the icon cache building thereof that kills it.
Manual slide-show - stops dead unless the cache has been loaded!
The wait for this is interminable.Summary
Looks good, nice windowed interface. conventional windows look to it. Good bulk re-namer for file names.
Good photo viewer, great for working with two monitors (yes I do) and displays images very well indeed.
Terrible slowdown if you try to read a big photo folder -
"A Swiss Army knife."
Version: FastStone Image Viewer 4.7
Pros
It does something about everything a photographer working on post-processing and output will need. Instant view of photos, even looking into the camera card and getting a preview of RAW files (which Win Exp won't do). A quick program to scan with and instant view and store results. Direct view of the Win Explorer tree without translations that confuse. Great quick slide shows. Can put attractive frames on photos. And much more.
Cons
There's no search engine, and therefore no rating system or keywording. Any such work can only be done in an on/off way.
Summary
A must-have for serious users of Lightroom, to view RAW files and get a list of filenames, etc. And it's fast.
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"Versitile Photo handling Software"
Version: FastStone Image Viewer 4.7
Pros
FastStone Image Viewer does pretty much whatever you could want to modify/re-work a photograph. It's vast capabilities make the controls you really want hard to find.
It is very fast opening my picture folders.Cons
The actions you want may be hard to find amoung all the brush... I mostly use "Resize/Resample" and "Color/Contrast/shadow" controls.
Summary
I have never found a better piece of software for handling my folders of photographs. The one I used for years by Photodex does not support Win7 so I had to look elsewear.
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"Good program"
Version: FastStone Image Viewer 4.7
Pros
Easy to use Intuitive after some getting use to.
Cons
A quick user guide would be great
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"great program"
Version: FastStone Image Viewer 4.7
Pros
It's a great program to cull thru the initial downloads
Cons
Have to figure out the straightening part.
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"I love it!!"
Version: FastStone Image Viewer 4.7
Pros
That you can view edits as you make them. That you can change sizes of almost all the tools just by scrolling. That you can undo anything at anytime. I have Photo Shop Elements 2 & 8 and Paint Shop Photo Pro X3 which are only used occasionally for something that FS Image View doesn't have. e.g. Dodging, Burning, Smudging and Skewing.
Cons
No dodging, burning, smudging or skewing. Also would like to change sizes by percentage as a default rather than pixels.
Summary
The Fast Stone personnel really do deserve to receive donations for their Free products! e.g. Fast Stone Capture (use almost daily); Fast Stone Resizer; and their Fast Stone Image Viewer (I think Editor would be a better name than Viewer). I recommend it to any photographer that does his own work and wants to get the best picture, originally, or thru manipulation. I have not had this version long enough to note what's new, except for some icons.
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"Everything I need as a Pro Photographer"
Version: FastStone Image Viewer 4.7
Pros
1) quick and easy access to RAW file previews
2) quickly can sort, move, and delete files as I view them
3) very flexible slide-show with music capabilitiesCons
I can't think of anything I'm dissatisfied with.
Summary
Quick, easy, functional, free. I also use their FastStone Photo resizer, which again ia very, very quick and efficient.
