Minimalist photo viewer to quickly browse image folders
If you're tired of the Windows native image viewer and want to use another tool to browse through your photos, look no further. We found it for you: FastPictureViewer.
FastPictureViewer is a fast, straightforward photo viewer that lets you scan the contents of a whole photo folder in a very easy way. You can move along pictures with many different key combinations (arrow keys, + and – keys, page up and page down keys) and also the mouse wheel. Plus the mouse buttons can be customized to quickly zoom in a photo.
FastPictureViewer works only with JPG and HD photo formats, and also supports XMP ratings which are compatible with popular photo tools like Adobe Lightroom.
That said, don't expect to find many other features in this program. FastPictureViewer doesn't include all the bells and whistles you could expect from an image viewer. I would say FastPictureViewer is especially addressed to users who just need a tool to quickly review photos and pick those which need further editing.
The program features a sleek, dark interface with a minimalistic design that contributes to put all the attention on the photo itself.
FastPictureViewer is an attractive, easy photo viewer that's mainly focused on browsing large picture collections and doesn't include any extra tools like the ones you find in similar apps.
User-selectable background color. The installer now remembers feature customizations when upgrading.
Changes
User-selectable background color. The installer now remembers feature customizations when upgrading.
User reviews about FastPictureViewer
by Anonymous
Don't waste your money on this program..
Wasted my money on this. When I tried to view only my 4 star photos with the filter function it took forever. So slow it was unusable.
Pros:
nothing
Cons:
extremely slow when filtering rated photos More
by Anonymous
Nowhere as fast as advertised and too many issues.
I like the clean interface (hardly any menu items, just shortcuts). If the program would live up to its promises, it would be part of my workflow.The problem is: it is not fast at all.
It starts reasonably fast on my editing computer (W7, 12 Gb, 8 core i7, 1Gb graphics card) but not anywhere near the "zero" seconds start claim. Mind you: I gave it max usage of RAM (it uses between 5 and 6 Gb then).The integration with Windows Explorer looks nice, but once you click on a thumbnail you may have to wait for many seconds to display a RAW file. Sometimes this integration does not work at all and you don't see any thumbnail in your Explorer.
On my notebook (only 4Gb RAM, quad core i7) start-up times are between 8 and 20 seconds when clicking on a RAW file thumbnail or when opening with the last used directory.
TIFF files are another problem.
I think most photographers have TIFF files in photo directories, created when retouching a RAW file in Photoshop. Fast Picture Viewer cannot handle them well and when you are browsing through a directory of photos you have to wait up to a minute to have a TIFF file displayed. In other words: I went back to LR (4) for culling and if I want to view and zoom a large set of photos quickly I can go to View NX.Already noted in other reviews: the developer has an attitude. I never experienced such rude and aggressive customer support. Also, the guy keeps on focusing on 1 detail of my complaint (TIFF display, he blames Microsoft referring to a knowledge db article about thumbnail creation, which is not the issue here) while ignoring repeatedly all other issues. If you want to use this software for a professional workflow (culling) I can only say: don't, it looks nice in the beginning but once you start using it the flaws are too big to improve your workflow. Another thing: in one of the reviews the tethering features of the product are praised, including mentioning of a live "tethered" view. This is not the claim of the developer and the tethering functions are indeed rather limited.Last but not least, the site advertises a 30-day money back guarantee. Should have scrolled down a bit for a small, hardly noticeable, weird disclaimer that the developer is now using to counter my claim. It tried to find T&C´s on the site but could not find them. Pros:
Interface
Fast zooming once image is loaded
Cons:
Slow initial load of image
Cannot handle displaying TIFF files well
Poor integration with Windows Explorer More
by Anonymous
a mediocre program.
I might be missing something, because from what I have seen in the trial version, the whole product doesn't justify its asking price. It's the bare minimum of what you expect of a picture viewer.In their web-site they say "Fastest raw image viewer ever. Period." well I don't know about that, I tried it out, it's decent, but I have seen many viewers that are way faster, Saying good stuff about your product over and over again doesn't make it true. Overall, it's an OK product, but there are far better choices out there.
More
by Anonymous
Really bad.
The lack of basic features is really shocking, it wouldn't hurt the developer to add at least the ability to rotate, but then again, it might be a rotate feature there somewhere, but I can't find it due to the absolutely terrible design.
Pros:
Simple
Cons:
Lack of features
Bad Design
Expensive
More
by Anonymous
A very fast Picture Viewer! .
FastPictureViewer lives up to its name. It can open any large images with speed, due to its hardware acceleration support. Of course this only works if you have a dedicated graphics card from Nvidia or ATi. Testing it on my laptop with integrated graphics caused the program to warn about not enough memory. The interface is minimalist at best but at least it is also clean & uncluttered. Browsing is also great, done with the mouse wheel. There are a few cons. It only supports Jpeg & the very rare HDP unless you opt for the Pro version (paid). Which doesn't makes any sense given that other freeware image viewers supports more formats (not including RAW). Also the the program lacks any photo editing & optimization tools which might irk some photo enthusiasts out there. It is exactly what its name implies: a picture viewer.
Pros:
Support hardware acceleration; speedy picture opening & browsing; clean interface
Cons:
Why pay $50 for additional format support; no photo editing tools. More