FastStone Image Viewer

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FastStone Image Viewer
Basic data

developer Andrew Lu, FastStone Soft
Publishing year November 25, 2004
Current  version 7.5
(March 10, 2020)
operating system Windows
programming language Delphi
category Image viewer
License proprietary (freeware, only for private use)
German speaking Yes
www.faststone.org

FastStone Image Viewer is a free for home users as well as educational program for viewing , editing and management of images of many common formats .
It is valued for its ease of viewing and efficient performing of simple image editing functions. A comparable program (also) for Linux -based operating systems is XnViewMP .

Features and user interface

In full screen mode , the user interface uses the entire screen area and is not covered by menu bars. Only when you move the mouse pointer to one of the four screen edges do the corresponding menus appear, which offer editing and organizational functions.

The main window of the program contains a file browser which can be used to select the folders with digital images on the data carrier. After opening a folder, the program creates a view with thumbnails, which are saved in an internal database and thus accelerate the next access to this folder.

In addition to the most common image formats JPG , BMP , GIF , PNG , TIFF , PCX , TGA , JPEG2000, PSD, WMF, CUR and ICO, FastStone Image Viewer also supports RAW and special formats from various manufacturers such as Canon , Nikon , Olympus , Fuji , Adobe , Minolta , Pentax , Panasonic and Sony .

However, it does not yet support Unicode .

When saving images in a lossy file format (e.g. JPG), the influence of the degree of compression on the image quality can be checked.

A click on one of the miniature views shows an enlarged image, with a double click the full screen and thus the editing screen is opened at the same time.

The program knows the usual Windows key combinations as well as many additional function keys for fast operation and can be conveniently operated via context menus and the fold-out side menus mentioned above.

Development and version history

Since version 2.50, it is also possible to insert text, free-hand drawing, drawing geometric elements and inserting watermarks , and images can be marked for batch processing .

The images can be deleted, moved, copied, converted, renamed and converted in batch mode. Images can also be printed, watermarked or two to four images compared with each other in an enlarged view. The program also supports TWAIN compatible scanners and thus allows the direct insertion and processing of scanned images.

Exif information can be called up from any view, including any GPS data. There it is also possible to insert comments in JPEG files.

External image processing programs can be started from the program, which enable further processing.

The images in a folder can be played in a slide show with a wide range of configuration options, optionally with background music.

For a short time, version 2.70 of the Image Viewer was available as a standard and a paid “Pro” version. Since version 2.8 there is only one version of the FastStone Image Viewer that is free for private use.

With version 3.0 the viewer became Vista compatible. Further innovations are the possibilities for saving PDF files (also multi-page) and for generating multi-page TIFF files. Furthermore, images can now be cropped in batch mode and renamed according to the Exif data (date, time).

Since version 3.1 there is a multilingual version in Danish, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish and Spanish in addition to the English version.

With version 3.3 further image processing functions such as brightness, contrast , gamma correction , saturation , sharpening and similar have been added. In addition, the slide show function has been expanded and a download function from the memory card has been integrated.

Version 3.4, released in November 2007, added improvements to the user interface, improved color matching functions and introduced batch processing for RAW files. Version 3.5, released in January 2008, introduced small improvements such as an optimized user interface and extended text formatting. Version 3.6 from September 2008 then brought support for 64-bit Windows systems, extended batch processing functions and improved video support, among other things. In version 3.7, some functions have been improved, bugs have been eliminated and support for the Panasonic RW2 RAW format has been added. There are further improvements and bug fixes in version 3.8, which was first published as a uniform version (English and 14 other languages). New in this version are speech balloons, selectable number of copies in the print dialog and color subsampling (also called "chroma subsampling"). Version 4 has u. a. about improved operation and new frame effects and processes GPS information contained in the image. The following new functions have been added in version 4.3: Copy and repair stamps, automatic color correction, lightening / darkening shadows or highlights, tonal value correction, changing gradation curves, unsharp masking, pencil drawing and oil paint filters, new drawing elements for text objects, setting the order of images, Support of the EPS as well as the Sony SR2 format, revised memory management.

New in version 4.7: Touch interface throughout the application, new mouse gestures to change images, improved dialogues for copy / move, straighten / rotate, screen background, image comparison and print, additional browser mode, tool to reduce image noise, updated RAW format library , optionally new surface

New in version 4.9: "Design and Print" added, which makes it possible to print several images with text and effects on one page. Improved "gradation curves". The curves can be set directly by clicking and dragging in the image. The end points of the curves are adjustable. Added Paper Size option for Batch Conversion tab. Added Auto Sizing option to Scan Pictures tool. Additional support for video files (avi, mpeg, mpg, wmv, mov, mp4) for batch renaming. Added "Show in Google Maps " and "Show in Google Earth " buttons in the "Image Properties" window. Visible when the image contains GPS information. Other small improvements and bug fixes.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. www.faststone.org .
  2. FastStone Image Viewer , accessed July 31, 2017