Best Free Image Viewer

[Winnow]

If you're like me, you want the fastest image viewer possible. A lot of people, including myself, used ACDSee Classic because it's extremely fast with no bloat to slow it down.

Others may use Irfan.

I've been living in the stone age. There's a relatively new 100 percent free, 100 percent spyware/adware free viewer called Fast Stone that just plain rocks.

It's as fast or faster than ACDSee classic but it has a super slick user interface that has tons of useful things like resizing, simple editing, cropping, batch operations including renaming, resizing, etc. It only takes a few minutes using it to realize that it kicks the holy shit out of ACDSee classic while retaining all the speed.

Even better is the developer continuously updates it.

I know what you're thinking...this can't possibly a better image viewer than Copernic is a desktop search engine but I'd put it on the same level. You're also thinking, "my image viewer works just fine...I don't need a new one" Of course you're thinking that. Image viewing is a pretty brain dead activity for the most part but for the love of christ, give this one a try. It's small, it's fast, yet it packs some serious functionality into an extremely slick full screen view mode.

Fast Stone for the win!

http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm

BTW, you can't see how slick the UI is by the single non full screen picture in the link. That pic looks like any other image browser you've seen. You need to experience the full screen mode and it's side screen pop menus. Download it and give it a whirl. It's worth it. Try the 2.0 beta 0401 released April 1st. I've been using it and it's stable.

I used to have to switch to Microsoft Image editor to do my resizing, etc for posting the comics covers, and making small image edits but this Fast Stone is an unholy combo of speed image viewing and ultra quick access to the most useful of editing and batch functions plus some kick ass ways to sort your images for viewing that ACDSee never dreamed of.(I hate how you can only view numberically/alphabetically wiuth ACDSee Classic)

I the pop up image thumbnail bar in full screen. The guy even thought of a cool way to access your other apps while in full screen mode.

[Winnow]

Man, I need to work on my persuasion skills. You people are missing out on some great apps!

I love developers that take the time to read feedback and take suggestions into consideration. Here's a response to an email I sent regarding a possible improvement for FastStone. He's been releasing new betas almost daily. He's had betas 4/1, 4/3 and 4/4. Others have had suggestions and fixes taken care of within a day.

Hi,
Thanks, I have recorded your suggestions for future plan.
BTW, new beta 0404-2 have been out in my site:
http://faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm

Thanks again
Reg.
Andrew

> Hello,
>
> Great Image Viewer!
>
> I can only think of one thing that would be useful. FastStone always opens
> into full screen when opening a file from explorer or other applications.
> I'd be nice if there was an option to have FastStone open into browser
> mode. Additionally, have an option where the browser window fits the size
> of the image (no extra space so window constantly reshapes to the size of
> the image) ACDSee Classic has this resize window to image option as an
> example.
>
> Opening into browser mode instead of full screen mode is useful for things
> like downloading pictures off the usenet where you sample random pictures
> to see if you like them and one click back to the newsreader app speeds
> this up as opposed to having to switch out of full screen by clicking on
> taskbar or double clicking, or even better, with 1920X1200 monitors, can
> have the FastStone open on half the screen and Newsreader or other app
> open on other half. I guess the key thing here would be the option to
> open FastStone into browser mode (with it remembering no folder view and
> sizing to the picture as bonus enhancements if possible)
>
> Thanks for the great app!

It's worth a look. Can't beat the combination of Free and Great Support. This is a great opportunity to try out an already outstanding image viewer and have a chance to suggest the one particular thing that might make it perfect for you. (keep in mind this is designed for quick multiple image viewing with fast access to the most used image editing features)

[Marbus]

I actually DL it at home to check it out this weekend, pretty nice. Still really like my old ACDSee but can't find the old zip file with the registered version in it that use to be on the old FB site (thx Win!). Since I don't have that I'll probably use this for my laptop, I agree it's pretty snazzy!

Marb

[Winnow]

I actually DL it at home to check it out this weekend, pretty nice. Still really like my old ACDSee but can't find the old zip file with the registered version in it that use to be on the old FB site (thx Win!). Since I don't have that I'll probably use this for my laptop, I agree it's pretty snazzy!

Marb

I have have classic ACDSee with the reg code but I'm not giving it out while I'm promoting FastStone! : )

Since it looks like the developer is going to take my suggestion for "fit to window" and browser mode opening, I'm sticking with this one. I'd probably be sticking with it even without those additions. I've been cropping and resizing a lot lately and with those and other edit options integrated into pop up side menus, it saves me lots of time.

[Voronwë]

i'll check it out =)

[Winnow]

i'll check it out =)

Woo hoo! : )

[retiredwikit]

Already checked it out.. Great viewer. Thanks Winnow

[*~*stragi*~*]

i like it, but it does need fit to window

[Winnow]

Update on my quest to get "open to browser view" feature in FastStone Image Viewer. My #2 suggestion is the fit to window option Stragi! : )

I wish Bill Gates would answer me this fast on Windows Longhorn suggestions!

Hi,

Thanks, and I am sorry for the delay implemetation of your suggestions.
Now I want to assure you that in the next version(2.1), I will definitely
implement the #1 suggestion. For the #2, I will see if I can do that.

Thanks again

Andrew

------------------------
> Hi Andrew,
>
> Thanks for the almost daily beta versions of FastStone Image Viewer.
>
> Is the ability to open FastStone in Browser view still on your list for
> future suggestions? When showing your viewer to friends, the #1
> suggestion
> is to have the option of opening a newly launched picture from an external
> program (newgroup reader, file explorer, etc.) into browser mode for quick
> viewing so the user can continue to work using one window to search for
> images in newsgroups for example while launching the downloaded images
> into
> the browser view mode of FastStone in the other window on the screen.
> Perhaps there is a line command I can add to my file associations to do
> this
> without you needing to add the option? I'm guessing for file association
> there would have to be two different .exe's though. One for browser and
> one
> for viewer.
>
> I check the "Open Images in:" drop down menu options in View settings to
> see
> if "browser mode" or if a checkbox for the option is there each new beta :
> )
>
> The #2 suggestion (the first suggestion being the most important) is while
> the folder tree is hidden in Browser mode, have the option to fit window
> to
> image size and also vice versa;. (fit image to window size.)
>
> This would allow FastStone image viewer to be an excellent tool for
> sampling
> new images while continuing to work in the primary application in a
> multiwindow environment : )
>
> Your viewer is so good that I use it anyway as it is but I have to keep
> exiting out of full screen mode each time I open a downloaded picture from
> the newreader or other external app
>
> Thanks again!.

[Winnow]

A whole new level of multifunction

"Powerful enough to get any job done with a heavy dose of options, FastStone Image Viewer will quickly become the primary tool in your tool belt for resizing, viewing, cropping, converting, making color adjustments, and creating watermarks." --CNET Editor, April 23, 2005

Soon as it gets the windowed view mode it will be perfect for quickviewing as well as quick editing/converting.

[*~*stragi*~*]

A whole new level of multifunction

"Powerful enough to get any job done with a heavy dose of options, FastStone Image Viewer will quickly become the primary tool in your tool belt for resizing, viewing, cropping, converting, making color adjustments, and creating watermarks." --CNET Editor, April 23, 2005

Soon as it gets the windowed view mode it will be perfect for quickviewing as well as quick editing/converting.

is it out yet?

[Marbus]

I wish Bill Gates would answer me this fast on Windows Longhorn suggestions!

Heheh, I just think that's funny. Dammnit Bill, fuckin' return my call!

[Winnow]

A whole new level of multifunction

"Powerful enough to get any job done with a heavy dose of options, FastStone Image Viewer will quickly become the primary tool in your tool belt for resizing, viewing, cropping, converting, making color adjustments, and creating watermarks." --CNET Editor, April 23, 2005

Soon as it gets the windowed view mode it will be perfect for quickviewing as well as quick editing/converting.

is it out yet?

Not yet! It's been about a week since the last release though so I'm guessing it will be soon.

I check here for new releases:

http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm

[*~*stragi*~*]

i'm trusting you to inform me of the release!

[Bubba Grizz]

Explain what this is please. I get the general concept but well, maybe I don't.

[Winnow]

Explain what this is please. I get the general concept but well, maybe I don't.

If you download a lot of images or have a lot of images on your hard drive, this is a nice viewer for quickly viewing and managing those images. It has the most common image editing, conversion and batch renaming tools built into the interface in a very useful but unobstructive way. It's an excellent choice for people needing to do resizing, quick image touch up/cropping, etc without being bogged down by having to open a huge application.

[Winnow]

i'm trusting you to inform me of the release!

Score!

New Features in Version 2.0.6 Beta:
1:Auto-complete address bar;
2:User can select Browser mode/Full screen mode/Windowed mode when double-clicking an image from windows explorer, see Settings for detail;
3:Support Canon CR2 format.

Seems to work ok after a quick test : )

[*~*stragi*~*]

YES!

Can you get him to make it let you mousewheel view through pictures in a compressed archive like a .zip and .rar file without unzipping it?!

[Winnow]

YES!

Can you get him to make it let you mousewheel view through pictures in a compressed archive like a .zip and .rar file without unzipping it?!

Why would you want to? Are you thinking of using it for viewing .cbr, .cbz files? Zipping or rar'ing image files doesn't save any space so I don't see much use for that otherwise.

Maybe I can get him to display the first image in .cbr and .cbz files in the thumbnail view. If this guy's not into comics he probably won't care much about that though.

[Lohrno]

Winnow, I am giving you 100VVs for this reccomendation. That is truly a cool and extremely useful program.

[*~*stragi*~*]

YES!

Can you get him to make it let you mousewheel view through pictures in a compressed archive like a .zip and .rar file without unzipping it?!

Why would you want to? Are you thinking of using it for viewing .cbr, .cbz files? Zipping or rar'ing image files doesn't save any space so I don't see much use for that otherwise.

Maybe I can get him to display the first image in .cbr and .cbz files in the thumbnail view. If this guy's not into comics he probably won't care much about that though.

manga and porn comes almost exclusively in .rar files and i hate having to unzip them to be able to mousewheel through them to read.

[*~*stragi*~*]

I'm having troubles with this newest release that didn't happen in the previous.

I have directories with upwards of 10k pictures on them and when I open an image in that directory faststone is trying to thumbnail everything else in the dir which is causing it to go unresponsive and crash.

[Winnow]

I'm having troubles with this newest release that didn't happen in the previous.

I have directories with upwards of 10k pictures on them and when I open an image in that directory faststone is trying to thumbnail everything else in the dir which is causing it to go unresponsive and crash.

Have you optimized the thumbnail database recently? Mine was 350mb+ and optimizing it brought it down to around 160mb.

I agree that thumbnailing all the pics in large directories takes a long time although I'm not sure if there's any faster way to thumbnail huge amounts of images. It will do it it the background if you open an image and start viewing.

10K images is a bunch for one directory. 2K seems to be the most it can handle without some sluggishness. Is there any way to break those images down into a few categories?

With newsreaders like Newsleecher, I always select "leech smart" which puts the group of images I'm grabbing into it's own sub directory. That helps a bunch with organization.

There should be an option to not automatically thumbnail if in the list view mode. Since the thumbs are always available even in full screen mode if you scroll to the top, I think the app will always thumbs images.

Version 2.07 is out which may have some optimizations.

[Tenuvil]

Version 2.07 is out which may have some optimizations.

The download page still shows v2.05 as of today

[Winnow]

Version 2.07 is out which may have some optimizations.

The download page still shows v2.05 as of today

Nay, click on the "read more" button. That will take you to the Image Viewer download page which also lists the beta versions for download:

http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm

2.08 is available now : ) I'd check the link above every few days. He's constantly adding and fine tuning it.

Starting with 2.06, FastStone has the open to windowed or browser option which makes it much more useful as a quick image viewing app.

[Ransure]

Heh, realized I still had ACDsee on my other comp, so I downloaded this program again today... Wow! it is still awesome! I had 20 photos to rename, resize, and add borders to... took me 3 minutes...

[Winnow]

I still can't find anything better for quick image viewing with a nice set of basic image editing tools (along with batch processing). All of the images I post on VV go through FastStone. (and then Directory Opus for hella easy FTPing which is also my favorite file browser replacement).

I'd recommend Directory Opus as well but it's not free (gotta pirate or buy) and highly customizable so takes a little effort to mold it to the way you like to handle files. It has a lot of things like multimedia viewing built in that I disable and also all sorts of ways to view directories but I only like the vertical split screen with combined directory tree on left. I really like being able to setup my favorite HDs, Folders and FTP sites (tool bars movable but I like the HD/FTP bar in the middle as pictured. It makes for superfast access and transfer of files to my most common FTP destinations.



A screenshot of Opus is pretty useless though as it can look completely different depending on your preferences and I've hidden most of the toolbars that others might like.

Someone made a pretty nice website tutorial for Directory Opus if interested.

http://www.pretentiousname.com/opus/

Like those that don't use desktop search engines like Copernic, people can go through their daily lives thinking the built in MS file browser is as good as it gets...so many ways to make your life easier and less time consuming! I'm sure a lot of other file browser can do the same things. This one just happens to be the most customizable IMO.

[Aruman]

I still can't find anything better for quick image viewing with a nice set of basic image editing tools (along with batch processing). All of the images I post on VV go through FastStone. (and then Directory Opus for hella easy FTPing which is also my favorite file browser replacement).

I'd recommend Directory Opus as well but it's not free (gotta pirate or buy) and highly customizable so takes a little effort to mold it to the way you like to handle files. It has a lot of things like multimedia viewing built in that I disable and also all sorts of ways to view directories but I only like the vertical split screen with combined directory tree on left. I really like being able to setup my favorite HDs, Folders and FTP sites (tool bars movable but I like the HD/FTP bar in the middle as pictured. It makes for superfast access and transfer of files to my most common FTP destinations.



A screenshot of Opus is pretty useless though as it can look completely different depending on your preferences and I've hidden most of the toolbars that others might like.

Someone made a pretty nice website tutorial for Directory Opus if interested.

http://www.pretentiousname.com/opus/

Like those that don't use desktop search engines like Copernic, people can go through their daily lives thinking the built in MS file browser is as good as it gets...so many ways to make your life easier and less time consuming! I'm sure a lot of other file browser can do the same things. This one just happens to be the most customizable IMO.

*** HIJACK ***

Bah, I saw your Firefly rips...

Support the series and buy the TV Series DVD's and/or the Movie.

I'd seriously like to see this series come back to television.

[Winnow]

*** HIJACK ***

Bah, I saw your Firefly rips...

Support the series and buy the TV Series DVD's and/or the Movie.

I'd seriously like to see this series come back to television.

I own the DVD Series. DVDs suck. I watch as much as I can directly from my HD. I buy DVDs to support movies and series I like and sit them on a shelf but I'll still download the ripped versions for convenience.

[Siji]

Don't suppose anyone has a link to Directory Opus 9.5 do they? Recently released (finally) with Win7 support. I actually thought about buying it.. but the fuckers actually want almost $80 US for it. Sorry, I'm not paying almost as much as an OS costs for a file manager.

Wish Demonoid would hurry up and get back online..

[Winnow]

Don't suppose anyone has a link to Directory Opus 9.5 do they? Recently released (finally) with Win7 support. I actually thought about buying it.. but the fuckers actually want almost $80 US for it. Sorry, I'm not paying almost as much as an OS costs for a file manager.

Wish Demonoid would hurry up and get back online..

Ive gone through hell with Directory Opus when trying to use a hacked version beyon the original 9.0.0.9 (or whatever it is)

Thats what I use with Windows as well. (using 32 bit dOpus on 64bit Windows 7) They have great anti piracy built into DOpus. 9.0.0.0.00.0.0.0 still gets the job done for me.

I can't live without it but I'm too cheap to pay $80.00 for a file manager. In this case, I would have bought it several times over the years if the price was reasonable. Damn Australians.

[Siji]

Last one I was using I think was 9.1.0.3.2975 w/o a problem. Unfortunately it won't work in Win7. The only other explorer replacement (x2?) sucks.

[Siji]

9.5 (with Win7 support) has been posted to usenet recently. Rejoice.

[Ransure]

its funny that this thread is 4+ years old...

[Siji]

We're going green around here. We recycle whenever possible.