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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 4.8 added a Minimize button (hidden at the top-right corner of the screen) to full screen mode. Added two Mouse Click options to use left/right clicks for previous/next images. Improved the Draw Board to draw curved lines. Improved the Print dialog.
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All versions:
4.6 starsout of 1,621 votes
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Current version:
4.7 starsout of 11 votes
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My rating:
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"Liking what I see so far"
Version: FastStone Image Viewer 4.8
Pros
Like batch resizing and naming - saves me a lot of time. Many photos can be adjusted for lighting, exposure easily. Only a few Photos need additional eciting.
I consider it good value.Cons
Its great for what it is. Its not photoshop but it doesn't cost as much either.
Summary
I am happy with my purchase. It is a real time saver for me.
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"Simply the best out there"
Version: FastStone Image Viewer 4.8
Pros
So simple to use, and yet so full of all the right things to make your pictures stand out.
Cons
none, it's simply the best out there.
Summary
A super programm for biginners and advance users, manage picture files easely, all the necessary bells and whisles are there.
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"best photo editing software on earth"
Version: FastStone Image Viewer 4.8
Pros
ablity to correct photo from root
Cons
i have tried many software for correcting the old photos of my marriage which were in bad shape.but fast stone does the wonder by correcting them.
Summary
very easy to understand and install.much much much better then adobe photo shop.very easy to understand,so many tweaks.thankyou fast and c net
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"The best photo manipulator under $100"
Version: FastStone Image Viewer 4.8
Pros
INTUITIVE!!! This application has no learning curve as we are accustomed to with new software. Every step leads logically to the next. "Image Viewer" is not an accurate decription of what this aplication can do. Unless you are a profesional photographer or professional photo manipulator, this will do everything you need. Did I mention it's free?
Cons
inadequate name
Summary
The best photo organizer and editor for the family photographer at any price. (family photographer is the family member who takes pictures for the entire family at all the family get-togethers) This photo editor puts all the free ones and most of the cheaper paid ones to shame.
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"Looks impressive."
Version: FastStone Image Viewer 4.8
Pros
95 page manual (tutorial). This says heaps for a product. I like the program's GUI interface also. Haven't had time to look at F/stone further but hope to soon. It has a very good name.
Cons
Haven't had time to find any as haven't really used it yet.
Summary
See Pro's above.
(PS to CNET - please put error messages for these reviews next to the "Add Your Review" button below, not up next to the message (off the top of the screen) as it seems as if the button wasn't pressed properly!) -
"simplu si eficient"
Version: FastStone Image Viewer 4.8
Pros
usor de utilizat
Cons
nu am gasit
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"I really, really like, and recommend it."
Version: FastStone Image Viewer 4.8
Pros
Very easy cloning
Easy undo's and redo's
All changes immediately visible
Software is just so much easier to use than Photo Shop
It's FREE - but I like it so much I've donated!Cons
Can't see even thumbnails of unsupported files.
Doesn't seem to be anyway to print more than 1 photo at time. -
"An already excellent program made better"
Version: FastStone Image Viewer 4.8
Pros
- Great interface. You don't need college level courses, workshops, or thick instruction books to use the hundreds of operations possible in FastStone 7.8. This is about the best example I've used of well designed, user friendly, intuitive software.
- Quick photo processing compared to photo editors.
- Too many features to list here.
- Freeware (but I send them a yearly contribution out of gratitude)
- Excellent file management features.
- Handles many types of RAW files.
- Choice of 10 output file formats, from BMT through TIFF and .PDF
- Almost bug free, at least in my 5 or so year experience with FastStone.
- New noise reduction function in release 4.8.Cons
- No batch processing.
- Limited back-out of changes functionality.
- Can't do many of the subtle photo manipulations possible in huge programs like Lightroom or Nikon Capture NX2, or Photoshop. They're much more ponderous and hard to use, but more powerful.Summary
I do all my picture uploading, file arranging, previewing, and culling in FastStone before moving files to much harder to use Lightroom 4.4 and after Lightroom processing. In a way, Lightroom is an adjunct to FastStone for me.
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"Great! Viewer & editor all-in-one"
Version: FastStone Image Viewer 4.8
Pros
Quick & easy to use with a large variety of different ways to change images, I use it for almost all my photo editing
Cons
No transparency facility
Summary
I use it a lot & like it
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"Superb reliable product"
Version: FastStone Image Viewer 4.8
Pros
Superb and easy to learn and use.
Cons
Next enhancement could add multi-image printing.
