FastStone Image Viewer 4.1

Rated 50/50 by anomoly at Aug 28, 2008

just don't like the fact you can't turn off skin customization to have a "standard" viewing of the window interface. As a portable image viewer, which it is, it will necessarily need it's own gui. Given ten choices I can't complain considering I am only interested in what the gui contains & not the gui itself. PERFECT for my 14.9gb of wallpaper

Rated 50/50 by yokozuna at Aug 28, 2008

Definitely must have for a photographer and recommended by many users from DPReview.com. Why? Very intuitive, displays all RAW files out of the box and allows for easy image manipulation.

Rated 50/50 by coolticker at Aug 29, 2008

Simply the best, each time better and better !

Rated 40/50 by thra at Sep 3, 2008

For me it'd be worthy of five stars if it - had Unicode support, - would do away with the skins and offer a normal windows interface.

Rated 40/50 by DudeBoyz at Sep 16, 2008

Still a very good app. I wish the pace of development was increased and that it worked on that wacky skin restriction thing it has, but all things considered it is a nice alternative. IrfanView is still my favorite, especially because of its high quality Resample results, but this is definitely worth a look.

Rated 40/50 by rhy7s at Sep 16, 2008

Fast and well thought out with useful configuration options beyond the defaults. The skinning system is pretty annoying, the Windows Classic theme fits in well enough for me but I imagine people who use themes would prefer it to do away with its own theming system.

Rated 40/50 by Ain Soph Aur at Sep 16, 2008

the skins are really bad, but the rest is awesome :)

Rated 50/50 by JeRrYFaR at Sep 16, 2008

They just keep improving it. Still haven't removed the option for 'skins', but it doesn't bother me that much.

Rated 50/50 by preinterpost at Sep 16, 2008

3.6!? Grrrr!! Just installed 3.5 across the board yesterday. :)

Rated 40/50 by cowgaR at Jan 21, 2009

can anyone compare it to a google picasa? I've been using a long time MaxView from FastStone until it wasn't free anymore, and it was the best/fastest image viewer. The bigger package allways got some problems, not a nice interface, complicated, stupid skins, wasn't written with user accounts (was using win2003 at that time) in mind and many more annoying bugs... question is, did it evolve? worth paying money for? I still don't like the interface (picture) therefor 4 ;)

Rated 40/50 by kindbud1 at Jan 21, 2009

Hate the mandatory skins, but this is a solid piece of software.

Rated 50/50 by radiomaffia at Jan 21, 2009

Far out the best Image Viewer there is..everything from FastStone is good and only 2 are now shareware! The programmer(s) are really trying to make the image viewer with fast loading and good job has been done. Version 3.2 is stiil present on the website FastStone cause that has Multi-Language installer and most language are supported. Tip : when loading a full screen, use mouse-over (left,right, under,above the screen) to find all needed tools&Exif-info for the Image, + and - on the nummeriqueboard are there for zooming, escape closes the Fullscreen.. I'm waiting still untill version 3.6 or 3.7 are Multi-Language and do I see it is not supporting Vista..that's is a bit strange..still 5 STARS

Rated 40/50 by DudeBoyz at Jan 21, 2009

Still a very good app and it's free, with even better support for RAW. Nice. Changelog: Version 3.7 (January 20, 2009) Added Preview to the "Batch Convert" tool. Now it is possible to preview the conversion by clicking the "Conversion Preview" button Added a checkbox to allow converted files to be saved in their original folders in the "Batch Convert" tool Enhanced the "Cover" style of Set as Wallpaper. Now it is possible to zoom and drag an image to set any particular part of it as wallpaper Now it is possible to adjust EXIF Timestamp by both hours and minutes using the "Change Timestamp" tool under "Tools" menu Added an option to the Settings to determine which (move or copy) action to take when files are dragged to the folder tree Enhanced the Magnifier to view large images faster Updated the RAW format library. Panasonic RW2 files are supported Fixed some bugs

Rated 50/50 by bobad at Jan 22, 2009

This is the best image viewer by far. I use it from Windows Explorer (making the FastStone browser redundant) by clicking on any picture file. The default full screen options are perfect. Just tap the space bar or roll the mouse wheel to advance to the next picture. Press ESC once, and you're out. It also has very nice pop out menus on all 4 sides of the screen. Cropping and redeye fixes are the easiest I have ever seen. It has a cool magnifier at the mouse cursor for up to 3X. I also like the settings, where it's easy to choose all file formats and over ride the useless Windows viewer. Batch re-sizing is quick and intuitive, and it has many other useful features and tools that are also easy to use. Thanks FastStone!

Rated 50/50 by radiomaffia at Mar 20, 2009

Finally Multi Language for this new beta version 3.8 and you can install it over v3.2 Multi Language, except for faster loading allmost everything stayes the same and your configuration keeps intact. Perfect as allways and once again another 5 stars

Rated 50/50 by JeRrYFaR at Mar 20, 2009

I'm running it now, however I wish I knew what was new. The official site doesn't have anything on the new beta. Based off past experience though, it's still the best freeware photo viewer/editor on the planet. Possibly the best all-around. I use this program daily.

Rated 50/50 by sites.web.pt at Mar 20, 2009

3.8 Beta Changelog: http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerBeta.htm

Rated 50/50 by idodialog at Mar 21, 2009

Outstanding program - very intuitive, heaps of really useful keyboard shortcuts, brilliant editing capabilities and heaps of other well implemented powers. Top of the wishlist is a clone stamp or healing capability. If there is a fault its the locked down skinning limitations - but when it comes to actually using FastStone I think it is way ahead of I-view (and still really light), much more complete than Xnview, and simply better than Picasa. Where it lags behind Picasa is it's slightly more old fashioned feel - but I think it's actually more usable. I still have Picasa on board and it's a very good program, but when it comes to viewing, fixing and optimising lots of images - FastStone is the way to go. This is a very rich program - I'm still discovering goodies after several years of frequent use. Highly recommended.

Rated 50/50 by bobad at Mar 21, 2009

Still the best! It doesn't "force" you to use skins unless you use the lame file browser. I use WIndows Explorer to browse for pictures, so I never have to see the skins. Try it!

Rated 30/50 by dhry at Apr 28, 2009

STILL forces you to use skins. Not a bad program but it's nowhere close to XNView. Almost not even in the same ballpark. Oh, and you can't relocate the preview window so that it's located under the thumbnails panel - forcing you to either make your treeview too wide or be stuck with a preview panel that's more or less the same size as your thumbnails themselves. Software authors need to hire a GUI designer and user experience modeler on their team.