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, emailing, 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 touches 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 and much more.

Guide Comments:

Some of my readers have been telling me about FastStone Image Viewer for a while now, and I figured it was about time I checked it out. I really like it, and will probably be replacing XnView with this as my quick and simple viewer for when I don't don't need the "big guns" of a full-fledged image editor. FastStone doesn't support a huge number of file formats like XnView, but it covers the most important ones and offers all the tools most people need for quick edits like cropping, resizing, fixing red-eye, adjusting image tone, and so on.

FastStone Image Viewer does just about everything you would expect from an image viewer and also has several features that I felt were somewhat unique in this type of software:

• The frame mask feature for adding borders to your pictures with a variety of edge effects. You can also add drop shadows very easily.

• The crop tool (shown in my screen shot) includes a grid to help you apply the rule of thirds. It also utilizes lossless cropping for JPEG files so you won't lose image quality from re-compression.

• It offers a nice image comparison feature where you can display up to four images at full screen in a grid. You can pan and zoom the images in unison to compare details, and optionally view EXIF data as a text overlay with the images.

• The Draw Board lets you mark up images with text, shapes, lines, highlighting, and watermarks.

If you don't yet have a program for fast image viewing and basic editing, or if you're not completely satisfied with the one you currently use, FastStone Image Viewer is one you should try.

FastStone Image Viewer Home Page

ScreenShot :