CNET 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 5.0: 1) Added option "Crop to Fit Full Screen" to the Slide Show tool. 2) Added larger thumbnail size (260 x 195 pixels) to the "Thumbnail" tab in the Settings (press F12). 3) Added shortcut (Ctrl+Alt+A) for "Auto-Rotate based on EXIF Orientation Tag". 4) Now it is possible to use the option "Do not resize if image is already smaller than requested size" when batch-resizing images based on one side. 5) Now you can tag or untag images even when the magnifier is activated.
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All versions:
4.6 starsout of 1,647 votes
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Current version:
4.5 starsout of 4 votes
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My rating:
Write review
Results 1-4 of 4
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"Install needs to be run as admin, else fails"
Version: FastStone Image Viewer 5.0
Pros
Its not too shabby, good bulk rename utility.
Cons
The Program itself - falls over on big folders (directories to olde skool pros) or goes on a 10 hour search and its actually nowhere good as IrfanView.
Summary
Faststone has always had a faulty install routine.
Just downloading and trying to run the install always fails, files can't be read etc.
The trick is to locate the actual install file; rt click and choose 'Run as Administrator' - then it will install in seconds.
Moaners:
You mean you use an Admin a/c as a normal account?
It'll end in tears. Proven.
Always use a standard a/c and keep the Admin for serious work to avoid nasty boys with with greasy hands, nasty viral codes and bad habits. They shall not have hot chocolate before bedtime.
Bad boys. -
"Great. but...."
Version: FastStone Image Viewer 5.0
Pros
Does almost everything very well. As an all-in-1 image browsing app it's hard to beat! Wonderous built in functions in an almost perfect and impressive browsing window.
Cons
It has always had 1 image problem all version past and present. It cannot recognize certain 256x256 icons created by some of the best icon editors available to man. If the icon holds multiple sizes the issue still exists and has existed since it's inception. Yes, that long. How the programmers cannot know this is an incredible mind blower, as it's programmed so well and every other editor or viewer does not have this one single deal breaking issue.
Summary
If you don't create or manipulate icons this program is top notch. The single flaw cost this 1 star. A shame as it has many excellent tools and is quite the browser.
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"Not trying to be Photoshop. Good!"
Version: FastStone Image Viewer 5.0
Pros
Easy to use, simple interface, not cluttered
Used for simple tidy up of family photos. Crop, rotate, color correction etc. Which is all that most people want.Cons
Can't think of any.
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"Always excellent!"
Version: FastStone Image Viewer 5.0
Pros
Fast, clean, intuitive
Cons
Can't think of anything.
Summary
I always install FS Image Viewer on every system I've used. It is my first choice for managing, scanning, viewing, cropping, re-sizing, healing and more. I love it and have used it for many years.
Results 1-4 of 4
