FastStone Image Viewer

Though it's lightweight and completely free, FastStone Image Viewer has the power and features to be the primary image editor for most users and the go-to "daily driver" for pros. It packs an impressive array of tools, brushes, filters, effects, and extras in a classic (and customizable) layout. It can resize, rotate, and crop images; fix red-eye and other image flaws; add borders, watermarks, and special effects; convert batches; and do far more, and better, than it should be able to for free.

Pros

Full-screen plus: Rolling the cursor to the edges of the cool full-screen view brings up a program menu, thumbnails, file attributes, and the Navigator toolbar.

Wallpaper and more: The Set Wallpaper Anywhere on Desktop tool let us customize wallpaper size and position, add decorative borders, change backgrounds, and more. The Tools menu also offers Compare Images, Batch Convert, Batch Rename, Change Timestamp, and JPEG Lossless Rotate.

Creative extras: The Create menu holds Slide Show Builder, Contact Sheet Builder, and Image Strip tools, as well as Multi-Page File Builder and Splitter.

Tutorials: New users can download extensive tutorials from the Help menu.

Cons

Wallpaper thumbnails: In addition to border templates, the Set Wallpaper tool should be able to display thumbnails from the selected folder, so you don't have to go back and forth to try different images.

Bottom Line

FastStone Image Viewer isn't a true alternative to big-box tools like Photoshop, but even professionals might find it quicker to launch, faster to use, and better suited for everyday use.