Modern digital photography has allowed anyone to take pictures in an almost unlimited number. You no longer need to save film, and it is not necessary to print photos, everything is stored in the computer. Now any amateur photographer has thousands of photos stored on his computer.

FastStone Image Viewer (or FS Image Viewer) is one of the most popular photo viewing, editing and management software. The program has a huge set of features that will be more than enough for any amateur photographer. At the same time, the program is completely free, and it can be downloaded from the official website ().

FastStone Image Viewer is also regularly updated with new features. At the time of this writing, the current version of the program is 4.6. In addition, the program is completely Russified. Therefore, it will not be difficult to deal with its capabilities.

With FS Image Viewer you can work with photos in all popular formats. The program supports BMP, GIF, CUR, ICO, JPEG, JPEG 2000, PCX, PNG, TGA, PSD, TIFF and WMF. In addition, FS Image Viewer allows you to view some RAW formats from popular cameras (CRW, NEF, PEF, CR2, RAF, ORF, MRW, SRF and DNG).

The FastStone Image Viewer interface consists of two parts: a full-screen interface for viewing and editing photos, and a file manager for managing your photo archive.

Opening any photo (with a normal double-click) opens a full-screen interface for viewing and editing. This interface has hidden toolbars. You can open these panels by moving the mouse pointer to the right, left, top, or bottom of the screen.

You can see one of these panels in the screenshot. This is a panel designed to launch photo editing tools. This panel can be considered the main one, it is you who will use it most often. Among the main functions that can be launched from this panel, we should note such functions as: photo cropping, resizing, red-eye removal, light correction, color correction, level correction, curve correction and sharpening / blur. These features are more than enough for any amateur photographer.

The file manager (screenshot above) can be launched by clicking on the FastStone Image Viewer shortcut or from the full screen interface. The file manager interface is divided into three parts: folder tree, photo preview and list of files in a folder.

At first glance, the file manager seems like a useless feature that only gets in the way. But over time you get used to it. With the help of a file manager, you can manage your photo catalog much faster and more efficiently. Directly from the file manager, you can run any of the photo editing tools described above.

Also worth mentioning are features such as batch conversion and batch renaming. You can see the batch conversion window interface in the screenshot above.

Sometimes these features are incredibly useful. For example, you need to email some photos. If your photos are 5-10 megabytes, this can be a problem. In this case, the batch conversion function will help us. With it, you can quickly reduce the size of photos by choosing a lower resolution and specifying the compression level. In this case, these settings can be applied immediately to a group of files, thus saving a lot of time.

FastStone Image Viewer is a free program for viewing, organizing, editing and converting images. In addition to the convenient viewing function, the program has the necessary tools for working with images.

FastStone Image Viewer has built-in image manager functions to organize the storage of graphic files on your computer. FastStone Image Viewer is free for non-commercial use.

The FastStone Image Viewer photo viewer has many useful features, it works fast, the application has a simple and intuitive interface, easy navigation using the keyboard.

Main features of FastStone Image Viewer:

• support for major graphic formats;
• image editing;
• full-screen view with pop-up menu;
• applying effects to the image;
• image comparison;
• scaling and cropping;
• batch image processing;
• batch conversion (conversion) of images to other graphic formats;
• create slideshows with over 150 transition effects and background music;
• scanner support.

In FastStone Image Viewer, you can perform the necessary actions with photos: crop, rotate, resize images, reduce red-eye, correct colors and lighting, set sharpness or blur, add a watermark, apply effects (emboss, sketch, oil painting , lens), add a stencil or frame, batch rename or convert graphic files, and more.

FastStone Image Viewer opens the following graphic formats:

• JPEG, JPEG 2000, GIF, PNG, PCX, TIFF, BMP, PSD, ICO, TGA, EPS, WMF, CUR.

Saved in formats:

• JPEG, JPEG 2000, GIF, PNG, PCX, TIFF, BMP, TGA, PDF.

The program supports various types of RAW format for popular cameras:

• CRW, CR2, NEF, PEF, RAF, ARW, SRF, SR2, MRW, RW2, ORF, DNG.

All operations for changing image parameters are carried out in separate windows. You can immediately see the result, and if necessary, undo the changes.

You can download FastStone Image Viewer from the official website of the manufacturer, FastStone Soft. The download page contains a regular version of the program, which is installed on a computer, and a portable version (portable), which does not need to be installed on a computer. The portable version of the application can be run from a computer or removable media, such as a USB flash drive.

download FastStone Image Viewer

The FastStone Image Viewer program works in the Windows operating system in Russian.

FastStone Image Viewer Interface

At the top of the window of the main FastStone Image Viewer program is a menu bar for managing all actions in the program. Below the menu bar is the toolbar, with the most popular tools needed to work in the application. Calling the necessary functions is carried out by pressing the corresponding buttons.

On the left is a folder tree, reminiscent of Windows Explorer. Below the folder tree is the preview area.

Most of the window is occupied by an area in which the contents of the currently open folder are displayed.

FastStone Image Viewer Settings

Entering the FastStone Image Viewer program settings is carried out from the "Settings" menu, or using the F12 key. Here you can change the default settings of the program: change file associations, adjust the magnification of the Magnifier, change the settings for saving files in JPEG format, etc.

You can add the item "Browse in FastStone" to the Explorer context menu. To do this, enter the program settings (F12), in the "Settings" window, open the "Associations" tab, check the box next to "Add "Browse to FastStone" item in the Windows Explorer menu".

Full screen mode in FastStone Image Viewer

After switching to full-screen mode (the “Full screen” context menu item), it becomes possible to view individual images on the entire screen. In this mode, all the features of the program for editing, sorting and processing photos are available.

Move the mouse cursor to the edge of the monitor screen to access the desired functions (in each part of the edge of the screen, separate program controls will pop up).

With the Loupe tool, you can magnify a specific area of ​​an image for a closer view.

Taking a screenshot in FastStone Image Viewer

With FastStone Image Viewer, you can take screenshots (screenshots) without the help of other programs. The Screen Capture function is accessed from the File menu, or by clicking the Screen Capture button on the toolbar.

Select the desired context menu item:

• Capture the active window - a screenshot of the active window will be taken.
• Window/object capture - will capture the window or object in the active window, which is highlighted with a red frame when the mouse cursor is moved.
• Capturing a rectangular area - capturing an arbitrary rectangular area on the monitor screen.
• Capturing an arbitrary area - capturing an arbitrary area on the monitor screen, which is selected by the mouse cursor.
• Full Screen Capture - A screenshot of the entire screen.

Choose a save location:

• Viewer - By default, the file is opened in FastStone Image Viewer.
• Clipboard - the file is saved to the clipboard, from where it can be pasted into a program or document.
• To file - the screenshot is saved to a file on the computer.

Slideshow in FastStone Image Viewer

Create a slideshow in FastStone Image Viewer to be played using the program, or a slideshow in an EXE file to view photos later without using the program.

First, we will create a slide show for viewing in the Fast Stone Image Viewer window.

On the toolbar, click the Slideshow button. In the Slideshow window, select the desired settings.

If you do not need information about image files, uncheck the box next to "Show text (name, date / time and EXIF)". Customize the playback order (autoplay, shuffle, repeat in a circle, autoplay in folders).

Add music. Check the box next to "Music", and then click on the button that appears.

In the "Settings" window, in the "Music" tab, using the "Add" button, select an audio file (or several audio files) from your computer. The program supports the following audio formats: MP3, WAV, MIDI, WMA.

Use the Up or Down buttons to place the audio files in the desired order.

Click on the button to select effects. Select the desired effects, their duration, see how it looks in the preview window.

If necessary, customize the display of text in the slideshow.

After completing the settings, click on the "Start" button to automatically view the slides.

Creating a slideshow file in FastStone Image Viewer

Enter the "Create" menu, click on the context menu item "Create slideshow file".

In the Create Slideshow File window, use the Add Files or Add Folders buttons to add images or image folders.

Add music, desired effects, customize the display of images according to your preferences.

You can create an initial window to run the file. In the initial window, add a title, description, select a cover photo, add, if necessary, the "List" and "Export" buttons.

The slideshow file will be saved to your computer with the selected name. To start playing the slideshow, click on the EXE file, and then click on the "Play" button in the initial window.

Article Conclusions

The free FastStone Image Viewer is designed to view, edit and convert images. The application performs the necessary actions for organizing photos, editing images, batch processing, converting image files to other graphic formats, the program supports creating slide shows.

FastStone Image Viewer is a program designed to view images in the Windows operating system. Considered one of the best image viewers in the freeware group. The interface is multilingual and includes the Russian language, which will allow you to easily and quickly use all the functions of this program. You can download and install it absolutely free from the official website. This image viewer is perfect for inexperienced users, as it has an intuitive Russian interface with a set of the most necessary tools for editing and working with images of various formats.

The utility includes a file manager and a database. The main features of the program include viewing, editing and converting images. FastStone Image Viewer supports a large number of graphic formats, as well as some video file formats.

The main functions of the program:

• Ability to view images in three modes: slide show, full screen, and normal view.
• Ability to open a large number of different image formats, including RAW (High Quality Photo Storage Format).
• View full file information, including EXIF ​​data.
• Built-in file manager for easy navigation through folders and images.
• Editing tools: filters, effects, contrast correction, levels and curves, etc.
• Printing and scanning images by means of the program itself.
• Ability to quickly edit and create desktop wallpaper from the current image.
• Program navigation system: the ability to select files, use tabs, move between folders on the disk.
• Ability to rotate images.
• Red-eye removal function.
• Cropping images and resizing.
• The ability to draw and create inscriptions on top of the image.
• Ability to add a frame to an image from the frame library.
• Possibility of batch data processing (simultaneous work with several images).
• Image comparison function.
• Ability to create slide shows. When creating, you can set up slide transition effects, add background music and save it as an exe file (executable file).
• Screen capture function.
• Sending an image to an email address.
• Setting up and creating hot keys for quick launch and work with program functions.
• Ability to create an indexed list of images or your own database of photos.

This list does not describe all the functions, but only the main ones that this software offers us.

How to use FastStone Image Viewer

First you need to download and install the program from the official site, as it is completely free for non-commercial use. On the site you can download both the full version of the program and Portable (portable, which does not require installation to work in it), it is also possible to download or view the instructions for working with the program in English.

After you have downloaded the distribution, install it. Follow the steps of the installer during the installation process. After the installation is completed. Launch FastStone Image Viewer.

At the first start, this application will scan the system and determine where all the images are for quick work with them. The first thing you will see is this program's file manager, with which you can open the file you need for viewing or editing.

The program has a classic interface. At the top you can see the main menu, with which you can fine-tune the program and work with various tools. For ease of use, under the main menu, there is a toolbar designed to quickly call and launch the necessary functions without having to open and search for them in the main menu tabs.

In the central part, you can observe the program's file manager, which displays folders and files that you can interact with and open. On the left side, you can see the explorer tree, which displays all the drives and folders present in your operating system.

In the lower left corner there is a preview window, with which you will not need to open the file for viewing, but rather select an image and see what is shown in it. You can also change the size of all fields in the program window by simply hovering over the border you want to expand or reduce.

When you open the image you need, you can use the toolbar or right-click on the image and select the tools you need for editing (cropping, image rotation, color adjustment, etc.) or retouching.

To open an image in full screen, you just need to double-click on it or right-click and select the first item "Full screen" in the drop-down menu.

To create a slideshow, you need to select the required number of images or select a folder with images that will be used in the slideshow and right-click on it, select "Slideshow" in the drop-down menu. After that, a settings window will appear in which you can define the background color, the duration of one slide in seconds and mark the options you need when playing your sweet show. After completing the settings, you can run and view the created slideshow or save it.

Conclusion

Today you got acquainted with FastStone Image Viewer, which is a great solution for those who need to quickly and easily edit images. It is worth noting its rather wide functionality, which fits perfectly into a very simple and intuitive interface.

I advise you to download and install this software as your standard image viewer, as it is quite lightweight with quite a lot of features and tools. This program is an excellent replacement for the standard Windows Image Viewer.

It is also worth noting a rather popular and necessary batch file processing function that will help you simultaneously rename a large number of images or convert files from one format to another, as well as perform a large number of actions simultaneously with a large number of files.

If you are thinking about which photo viewer and editor you should choose, I can say with confidence that by choosing FastStone Image Viewer you will never regret

Recently, on the Odnoklassniki website, one subscriber asked me which free image editor I can recommend. And since I myself use Image Viewer to view graphics, I decided to write this review with a small description. To date, FastStone Image Viewer is one of the best free ACDSee analogues for both editing and converting pictures and photos. And most importantly, this program has a huge number of functions on board, which are simple and easy to set up.

Description of the main functions of FastStone Image Viewer

Here is a description on some of the main features of Image Viewer. This program includes viewing pictures of any format, the ability to compare any graphic files, removes red eye, the ability to send files by e-mail, plus batch processing, resize, crop, improve colors, batch rename function, able to flip JPEG pictures without quality deterioration. Thumbnail databases (their cache), which are missing from many competitors, a multifunctional magnifier. There is a great slideshow feature, many of them include musical slideshows, as well as about 150 effects and transitions.

Currently, all new versions of FastStone Image Viewer are completely free, and since we are looking for a free image editor, then such a program will suit us.

This software can be easily downloaded on the OF site by clicking on the link "". After downloading and installing, the main window of the program, after launch, will look something like the one shown in the picture below.

After running the program, you need to make its initial settings. And it will start with the simplest. To begin with, let's make FastStone Image Viewer open all our graphic images as the default program. In addition, we select a mode that will open our photos without any problems.

To do this, in the main program window at the top, look for the “Settings” tab or use (hot key F12). In the additional window that opens, select "View". Here we find the section "Associated files to open" as shown in the picture below and select "In windowed mode".

We have chosen the mode of opening pictures, now in the same window we are looking for the “Associations” tab, opening which we put a tick in the item “Browse in FastStone Image in the Windows Explorer menu” and below check the boxes next to the types of files that you would like to open with this program. Let's say you decide to open any file with this utility, in this case, just click on the "Select All" button below, with this click you will mark all file formats.

We confirm the selected action with the usual button "OK" and close the program. After we check the performance of the settings that we made. To do this, open any graphic file, your photo, if the above actions are performed correctly, then the photo will open with the provided editor.

If you notice that a picture or photo opened in windowed mode, if you remember such an opening mode, we set ourselves a little higher, respectively, if this mode does not suit you, go back to the settings and select full screen mode or as an overview. Which one to use is up to you. In order not to climb the settings once again, there is also a quick way to change the mode, which is shown in the picture below.

You can scroll through pictures or photos either using the arrows located on the navigation panel, or using the “Left” or “Right” keyboard if it is a mouse, then by simply turning the wheel to “Back” or “Forward”, there is a slide show mode.

Please note that FastStone Image has a huge set of different tools, and I will only focus on some of them, describing them in more detail.

How to Remove Red Eyes with Image Viewer

The most popular photo editing is probably the red-eye effect, which usually requires correction. So, launch the Image Viewer, select the photo on which we will remove the red eyes, then select the "Edit" tab in the main menu of the program. Move on the drop-down menu to the item "Reduce red-eye".

We bring the mouse cross, to the red area of ​​​​the eye, trying to pull down from the center and a little to the right. It is advisable not to touch the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe eye itself during the selection, only the red area. Having selected the desired area, click "Remove redness". We do the same manipulations with the second eye, the details are in the screenshot below.

Let's say you decide to save not only the converted file, but also the original one, just press the shortcut key combination Ctrl + S or "Save As", while setting a different name for the file, thereby saving two pictures at the same time with different names.

After saving, you can compare our photos. In order to compare them, we hold down the Ctrl key and select those photos that are going to be compared, then on the control panel we select the tool called "Compare selected photos". This program has the ability to compare up to four shots or pictures at the same time.

Crop and encode photos

We figured out the red eyes, let's move on to cropping and coding pictures, photos. For example, we liked a certain area of ​​the picture, and we wanted to cut it out. To do this, we double-click on the photo we need, after which we select a tool such as "Crop". After entering the editor, hold down the left mouse button and use the cursor to select the area of ​​​​the photo we need and click "Crop to lossless file."

After the cut file is ready, save it, you can do it with the same combination of buttons Ctrl + S and then assign a new name to the picture.

Resizing pictures or photos

Now a little about resizing the image, you can do it directly in the Explorer of the Image Viewer program itself. To do this, select a picture or photo and then select a tool such as "Resize".

This program is able to resize images in several ways, these options depend directly on your goals and objectives. And they change in the form: pixels, percent or print size.

Let's say you want to compress an image by reducing the size of the image to half of its real (weight). To do this, select the “Percentage” item in the control panel and reduce the size of our file to 50%. In order to maintain the proportionality of our picture, check the box "Keep aspect ratio", this item will allow us to simultaneously reduce the height and width of the file. It happens that the file size requirements are set to certain pixels, in which case we will use a subsection called "Pixels" in which case we deliberately specify the size of the image in terms of width and height in the required pixels.

We decorate pictures with stencils or watermarks.

The Image Viewer program is able to quickly decorate your pictures or photos with beautiful frames, watermarks, as well as other special features. effects, pretty quickly in a couple of clicks.

Consider creating a stencil. Everything is simple as usual, we click on the picture that we will decorate twice, go to the “Effects” tab, then “Stencils” and look for the template format that we like, after selecting we confirm our actions with the “OK” button. All of our above actions, including this, must be saved with the standard Ctrl + S button combination.

As I said, the functionality of the FastStone Image Viewer program has no limits, it is quite capable of solving many tasks for editing your graphic files, pictures and photos. It has a very simple and easy-to-use interface with a huge number of functions, and will be an indispensable image editor for many users.

On this, a brief review with a description of the program for editing pictures can be considered complete, if you liked this material, share it on social networks by clicking on one of the buttons below, don't forget about Comments, subscribe to new posts on this one. All reviews with descriptions of free programs are in this section "". With respect to you!

What kind of viewers, resizers, graphic editors did not stay on my computer. But of all the freely distributed programs for viewing, cataloging, and editing, in the end, only one remained on the computer - and this is FastStone Image Viewer. This program is very similar in appearance and functionality to the much-loved, but paid ACDSee program. Actually, it was the introduction of a fee for ACDSee that prompted us to look for a replacement for it.

FastStone Image Viewer has become such a replacement. And I must say that the replacement turned out to be better than the original - faster, lighter, easier to use.

The latest version 5.1 was downloaded to complete the review. The download was carried out from the official site - http://www.faststone.org. And here is the program downloaded and installed. We begin to study it in detail.

The first characteristic of the program is a list of supported graphic file formats that the program can work with. With FastStone Image Viewer you can work with photos in all popular formats. The program supports BMP, GIF, CUR, ICO, JPEG, JPEG 2000, PCX, PNG, TGA, PSD, TIFF and WMF. In addition, FS Image Viewer allows you to view some RAW formats from popular cameras (CRW, NEF, PEF, CR2, RAF, ORF, MRW, SRF and DNG). In general, the program is perfectly compatible with all common formats.

After installing the program, it is logical to compare it with the common graphic file formats on the computer. This is done through the context menu - select programs - open with - select FastStone from the list of suggested programs. And now, when the program is associated with the necessary files, we open its main window.

FastStone Image viewer - the main window of the program

The program has a classic interface. The header is reserved for the main menu items - through the functionality of the main menu of the program, you can perform all the necessary actions. But this is for those who like to work through the menu.

Almost all the features of the program are duplicated in the form of buttons located under the main menu. I personally work with the help of buttons and the called context menu. I probably never use the main menu.

Let's look at the main program window - they are divided into 4 main areas

1. top - area of ​​the main menu and buttons

2. upper left - file manager. It is very convenient to use it. You can quickly get to any folder on your computer with any level of nesting.

3. bottom left - preview window for the selected image

4. large window on the right - designed to display all the images in the selected folder.

FastStone Image Viewer - button functionality

All buttons are concentrated under the main menu.

faststone image viewer - buttons

Let's take a look at their purpose

1. Launches a wizard to download photos from a camera or memory card. In the wizard, you can batch rename the copied files

2. Calls up a file open dialog box

4. Switch to view the previous one in the list in the image folder

5. Switch to view the next image in the list in the folder

6. Zoom button in the viewport

7. Zoom out button in viewport

8. The button returns the image being viewed in the viewer window to its original scale

9. Pressing toggles anti-aliasing on a highly scaled image on or off

10. In fact, not a button, but just a drop-down list. Again, you can choose the image scale to the viewport (similar to button 6, only round ones are set cleanly)

11. Tool for working with the image viewed in the viewing window. The default is a hand. It allows you to simply drag and drop the enlarged image. You can also select the Rectangular Selection Tool, Round Selection Tool, Magic Lasso Selection Tool

12. Starts a slideshow consisting of images in the current folder

13. Allows you to resize the image (resizer)

14. Allows you to crop the image

15. Launches the paint-by-image tool (the tool is similar to MS Paint)

16. Image clone/retouch tool

17. Light correction tool (light, shadow, brightness, contrast). A handy thing if you need to quickly make out the shadows in an unsuccessful photo.

18. Rotate image 90 degrees counterclockwise

19. Rotate image 90 degrees clockwise

20. Image comparison wizard (up to 4 simultaneously). Just like in a children's game about 10 differences

21. Screen capture tool. Like PrintScreen, but more functional. You can select an arbitrary area.

22. Scan Wizard. A very handy thing. And a good replacement for the standard Windows Scan Wizard

23. Master of sending images by mail. Before sending, it can resize the sent images. Very convenient, but for full-fledged work you need a mail client configured on a PC

24. Print selected images

25. Calls up a window of all program settings.

26. Selector-changer of the appearance of the program

27. Full screen button

And now the purpose of the buttons on the panel, discussed below:

1. Button to return to the last viewed folder

2. Forward button. If you understand what it is for - unsubscribe in the comments

3. Move up a folder in the folder hierarchy

4. Refresh the contents of the browsed directory

5. Adding the current folder to the favorites list

6. Create a new folder in the current one

7. Copy content to target folder

8. Move content to target folder

9. Remove marked objects

10. Display images in a folder as thumbnails

11. Display images in a folder as a detailed list

12. Display images in a folder as a simple list

13. Folder content filter (selects what the program will display) - only graphics, video, and graphics and video

14. Sort files in a folder by various attributes.

15. Delete button. No. Not removal. The delete was number 9. This is the button to clear browsing history. So that.

Experienced users are well aware that in windows programs the same result can be achieved in several ways. FastStone Image Viewer is no exception here.

Many of the image actions can be performed via the context menu. Let's see what options it offers:

As you can see, many functions are duplicated and this is normal. One user will go one way, and the other - you already guessed it, right? — to others! This duplication is good. After all, someone has mastered one way to achieve the goal, and someone acts differently, but still achieves success.

The possibilities of the program considered by us are far from all. The most interesting thing happens when you open any selected image in full screen. This is where a small and very pleasant know-how of the program in question comes into play. The image expands to full screen. There isn't a single button. It can be viewed as a whole, the picture is not cluttered with panels and buttons. Here's what it looks like

It's hard for you to see, but in the upper left corner the program displays some information about the open image - the name, the amount of memory occupied, the size in pixels. It would seem - what else can be done here. But you can. The program supports the simplest gesture control. If you sequentially hover the cursor left, up and right, pop-up toolbars will appear.

Somehow it looks like this:

If you hover up, a ribbon appears in which you can select an image to view, and above the ribbon you can see the path to the folder with images on the left, and a panel with additional buttons on the right.

Move the cursor to the left edge of the screen and get such a toolbar

I will not enumerate the list of features - you already see well what is offered in the pop-up menu. I can only say that the set of possibilities is great and it will be enough for most users who decide to correct a slightly necessary image.

Now look at the panel that appears when you move the cursor to the right edge of the screen

And at the same time, a panel with EXIF ​​information appears, you can also call a histogram and edit comments on this JPEG file.

Exit full screen mode by pressing ESCAPE on the keyboard

So we went over the appearance and capabilities of FastStone Image Viewer version 5.1

I will add in conclusion that the program is also equipped with a batch file renaming wizard and a batch file conversion wizard (it means converting them from one graphic format to an arc). Where these masters are hidden in the menu - I will not tell. You will carefully study the possibilities of the program - find them yourself.