wanted: alternative to FastStone Image Viewer

[brotherS]

Hey folks,

I've been a long-term user of FIV but some little bugs are still not fixed (after years - and yes, I reported them), so I'm looking for a good freeware alternative.

What I mostly need are these features:
- speed (going through image)
- a good 'move option'*
- key functions can be used with the keyboard only

* like in ACDSee, FIV allows to press 'm' to open the move dialog, where I can (with just pressing 'm' once more) move the image to the folder where I moved the last image to. I can use the up/down keys to select other folders that I have previously used.

The program doesn't need to have lots of other features.

[Shades]

You tried XNview or IrfanView already?

Don't know about XNView as IrfanView is my personal default viewer, because of the raw speed and in v4.x you can edit (like MSpaint) with it as well.

The move function like you described is not available in IrfanView, however there are 14 folders you can set as default at any time and pressing F7 will move to currently selected folder.

As I said, I don't know about XNview, but people tell me that is has a nicer interface than IrfanView.

EDIT: proofreading is always done after posting, right? 

[Carol Haynes]

Just tried XNView again after a long break. Very nice (and less clunky than IrfanView IMHO)

[Clive]

Google's Picasa could be worth a try too.

[bgd77]

+1 for IrfanView.

[nosh]

OT WRT OP

I just compared IrfanView (v4.2), XnView and FastStone Image viewer (latest versions of both) with Compupic for speed. Compupic is shareware and has been abandoned for years but none of these can match it for speed, even now.

It might lack some feature or other, making it a no-go for a lot of people but I definitely recommend taking the trial for a spin once, even if it's just to use the awesome instant zoom (tap Z) feature.

The XnView Shell extension is a keeper, BTW.

[Curt]

... IrfanView, however there are 14 folders you can set as default at any time and pressing F7 will move to currently selected folder.

- I had forgotten about this feature - thanks for telling! 

The XnView Shell extension is a keeper, BTW.

If you keep IrfanView, you might want to try the free DLL from BAxBEx,
http://www.baxbex.com/products.html (scroll all down), BAxBEx IrfanView Shell Extension.

clickable thumb:

[attachthumb=#]


- works well with Vista, also.

[phitsc]

Maybe this would do it for you: http://www.fastpictureviewer.com/

Never tried it myself though, just have the link lying around on my desktop for months.

The two things that annoy me most about FIV (which I'm still using though) are: no keyboard shortcut for 'remove red-eye' and the (feels like) dozens of times it asks me if I really want to overwrite that image after using 'remove red-eye' or rotate (which should be lossless anyway). And yes, I reported these as well.

[siouxdax]

I've never tried out XnView; I'll give it a good look-over. I use FastStone IV for organizing my pics, but I must say I'm frustrated that it doesn't have a search function. Irfan doesn't do much for me; it seems a bit flimsy.

[PhilB66]

XnView has a Search function under "Tools" tab / Ctrl F.

[Dirhael]

You could have a look at one of my favourite freeware image viewers, ArtSee. It does everything you've listed although the move functionality isn't exactly what you're asking for. It does have it, it's just not quite as fast and easy as a single key-press (if you on the other hand want to copy the file to a favourite location or the desktop instead of moving then you get away with a single keypress). Everything else though, it does *really* well. It got keyboard shortcuts for just about everything, it's fast and comes with just about every feature I can think anyone could want in a image viewer, and it does all this in under 200 KB (it's a standalone executable).

Here's a copy/paste of the feature list from the website:

Slideshow (slideshow, timer)
Sort (forward/reverse/random, name/created/modified/accessed)
Layer (normal, fullscreen, wallpaper, stay on top, blend, opacity)
Loop (loop, pause, exit, reshuffle)
Navigate (next & previous w/gears, first, last, current)
Scroll (mouse, arrow keys w/ gears, autoscroll)
Folder (browse, current, refresh, subfolders, hidden folders, peek, autorefresh)
Find (find/filter/exclude, find next, bookmark, goto mark, goto)
Formats (bmp, emf, gif, ico, jpg, png, tif)
Favorites (send shortcut, send to desktop, send copy, copy to desktop, view favorites/desktop/target, folder)
Wrap (resize window to wrap around each image)
Crop (remove borders and unused background)
Squeeze (scale down to fit window/desktop)
Shrink (scale down to fit one side)
Stretch (scale up to window/desktop)
Zoom (in, out, 100%, 1% gear, zoom lock, zoom step, zoom/scale quality)
Rotate (rotate, rotate left, rotate lock, aspect filter, flip horizontal)
Layout (centered, corners, roaming)
Collage (fixed-size roaming images)
Transitions (select effects, overlap/wipe)
Window (caption, status, taskbar/tray, decor, white, center/roam, corral, draggable, 5 presets, show/hide, single instance)
Fullscreen (caption, cursor, centered/roaming image)
Wallpaper (center, tile, stretch, clear, restore)
Shell (view, explore, open with, copy file, move/rename, save as, copy image, copy view, paste, recycle)
Shell++ (archive, view with, explore with, Blackbox)
Settings (save, save now, bookmark on exit)
Drag and Drop (folders/files/shortcuts, Shift appends)
Menu pins (keep menus open while adjusting options)
F1 menu at corner/cursor
Command line options
Tray icon controls and mouse wheel support
Can be run as a screensaver
Can be run as a wallpaper changer
Needs no installation
Saves settings file in program folder
Unicode enabled

Screenshot:

(As everything is operated using keyboard shortcuts or the right-click menu, the above image probably doesn't tell you much)
Here's a larger screenshot with the menu open

[CGA]

Picasa is definitely a good alternative.

[electronixtar]

+1 for IrfanView.

[Curt]

You could have a look at one of my favourite freeware image viewers, ArtSee.

- thanks for telling about ArtSee, Dirhael 

[tomos]

ArtSee is very nice - loads big images much quicker than Faststone
unfortunately there doesnt seem to be a selective way of zooming (in Faststone theres Crtl+Mouse-Drag to zoom in on selected area and left-click to zoom in a set amount.)

I've also been unhappy with some faststone bugs for a long time now so still looking ...

Also I have yet to find an external viewer that follows the sort order in the file manager from which it's been opened - maybe that's not possible unless using default viewer.
That and a selective zoom and I swear I'd be happy :p