Author Topic: Pre-review Discussion for Graphics Viewers Review (Read 67898 times)

mouser · « **on:** June 16, 2005, 05:14 PM »

i was thinking that for the next set of reviews we could do image viewers..
im not an expert on this so i could use a co-reviewer or full guest review.. any takers?

i'm thinking things like: acdsee, compupic, picasa, irfanview, etc.

kfitting · « **Reply #1 on:** June 16, 2005, 06:46 PM »

FastStone Viewer: http://www.faststone...m/FSViewerDetail.htm

mouser · « **Reply #2 on:** June 16, 2005, 06:54 PM »

faststone looks nice!
i can see there are going to be some good freeware options.

tenseiken · « **Reply #3 on:** June 16, 2005, 11:27 PM »

I typically use Irfanview, but I've found lately that Directory Opus' built-in viewer is quite nice for this, and it's nice to not have to open another program. Still, Irfanview's batch conversion (with PNGOut) is really nice to have.

What features do you think are absolutely necessary for a graphics viewer? Personally, I don't need to be able to play movies and music in one--I have other software for that--but it seems like most of them try to do that for you. Being able to save/convert is really nice too.

mouser · « **Reply #4 on:** June 17, 2005, 12:26 AM »

agree movie viewing is useless to me..
my requirements:
1) SPEED
2) SPEED
3) SPEED
4) conversion to different formats
5) limited correction+cropping (ie gamma)
6) easy to move forward and back.
7) good scaling to fit screen

nice thumbnail view

JeffK · « **Reply #5 on:** June 17, 2005, 02:18 AM »

ability to view thumbnails from more than one directory.

I have occasionally used Firehand Ember Free but I use Smart Pix Manager for more heavy duty use.

Jeff

nudone · « **Reply #6 on:** June 17, 2005, 04:40 AM »

i agree with JeffK, any SERIOUS graphics viewer has got to have the ability to simultaneously view thumbnails from more than one directory.

and categorise them.

and add notes.

and a work basket would be nice.

anyone else using 'ACDSee'?

mouser · « **Reply #7 on:** June 17, 2005, 04:44 AM »

what exactly do you mean view from more than one directory?

nudone · « **Reply #8 on:** June 17, 2005, 05:04 AM »

with ACDSee, at least, you can assign rankings, labels or notes to individual files or groups of files that are then stored inside the ACDSee database.

so, as an example, you could have several different folders that contain a variety of different images but you have assigned a label of 'hats' to some of the images inside each of these folders.

by clicking on the correct button you can then view all the thumbnails that have been labelled as 'hats' as a collection inside the normal thumbnail viewining panel as if they were all inside a single folder.

also, ACDSee allows you to click more than one folder to view in the directory tree - the contents of each folder are then collected together in the thumbnail viewing panel, just like they were all part of one folder.

the combination of being able to select several folders, labels, rankings and notes all at the same time is an extremely powerful feature - of course, this all depends on how methodical you are at categorising things in the first place.

(i don't feel up to doing a full review but i'll offer opinions on ALL the programs that end up being in the list - if it helps.)

nudone · « **Reply #9 on:** June 17, 2005, 05:15 AM »

don't get me wrong. i like ACDSee but it's jpeg2000 support is pretty rubbish. so, i'd like to find something better - it's just that i can work around it's faults at the moment.

mouser · « **Reply #10 on:** June 17, 2005, 05:17 AM »

ok yes i see now.. this is probably a more complicated award then it first looks... you have photo management tools with some viewing ability (like acdsee), and then you have these super efficient mini viewers like irfanview.

i guess to be honest im really not qualified to review either

so back to the drawing board or search for guest reviewer.

nudone · « **Reply #11 on:** June 17, 2005, 06:05 AM »

if you can postpone the graphics viewers review for another week or two i'll be up for doing a full guest review - i just can't commit to doing such a thing over the next few days.

this is assuming that no one else comes forward and that you can find a different topic for the review of course.

mouser · « **Reply #12 on:** June 17, 2005, 07:12 AM »

there's no rush to do graphic viewer this week (also dont forget its a two week process now), so let's just postpone graphics viewers until you are ready to do it - better to have a good review by someone who knows the subject better than me.

JeffK · « **Reply #13 on:** June 17, 2005, 08:26 AM »

I chose Smart Pix Manager over ACDSee because it was cheaper. But I think ACDSee might be a more user friendly program.

Jeff

nudone · « **Reply #14 on:** June 17, 2005, 11:29 AM »

okay, i'll begin looking at the programs towards the end of next week - any more suggestions will be appreciated as to which to review.

it might take me more than a week to get it all done but not too long.

kfitting · « **Reply #15 on:** June 17, 2005, 12:03 PM »

Dont forget lossless cropping and rotation for jpg. Some of us still shoot pictures in digicams that only output jpg!!

Kevin

nudone · « **Reply #16 on:** June 17, 2005, 12:47 PM »

yep, please make all your concerns known.

i'd like to be as thorough as possible but i'll need to know what you consider important to prevent my own bias taking over.

jpfx · « **Reply #17 on:** June 17, 2005, 03:52 PM »

I am currently searching for the best graphics viewer for my purposes.
I used to use acdsee 2.43 (or something like that) but I need animated gif support.
I currently use irfanview but it doesn't resize overly large pics very well ( I don't want scrollbars if it's taller than the screen, I want the pic resized).

I don't want thumbnails either and I REALLY don't want some database chugging away in the background. You must be able to switch this off.

I've had a serious look at acdsee 7 but I can't figure out how to stop the database part. If anyone knows then my search will probably stop there. Though acdsee 7 seems a bit expensive.

My list of requirements is much the same as mouser's apart from that, oh and I must be able to cut a selection and 'paste as new image' which I can then save in common formats.

I have looked at most of the viewers on zaine's site and not come up with 'the one' yet. Compupic (sp?) kept on crashing for me.

Scott · « **Reply #18 on:** June 17, 2005, 03:55 PM »

anyone else using 'ACDSee'?
-nudone (June 17, 2005, 04:40 AM)

I'm using ACDSee 7.0. I tried a bunch of the freebies at length, because I strongly resisted the upgrade fee for ACDSee. (I had owned version 5.0 of the stupidly-named "ACDSee PowerPack".) But after missing one feature after another, or discovering one bug or shortcoming after another, that upgrade fee looked like a paltry trade for my remaining sanity. I am not one who will put up with less just to save a few bucks.

ACDSee does have its shortcomings, though. One thing I've noticed is that when I convert with ACDSee, the resulting images don't look as good as when I use Paint Shop Pro, even with equivalent settings.

Scott · « **Reply #19 on:** June 17, 2005, 03:57 PM »

I REALLY don't want some database chugging away in the background. You must be able to switch this off.

I've had a serious look at acdsee 7 but I can't figure out how to stop the database part. If anyone knows then my search will probably stop there.
-jpfx (June 17, 2005, 03:52 PM)

Not sure what you mean. I run ACDSee 7.0, and there are no background processes. When I don't have ACDSee open, there is no other application related to it running. And if you don't want to use the database, just go to the Database menu and exclude everything.

mouser · « **Reply #20 on:** June 17, 2005, 03:58 PM »

great to hear that nudone has agreed to do this review, let's all give him as much help as possible by helping to identify programs, features, weaknesses, etc.

I've always liked ThumbsPlus, and i've tried AcdSee a couple times and got turned off it when it stalled in the middle of an uninstall once and left garbage all over my registry and stuff. but i heard its gotten better. thumbsplus seemed less busy to me and easier to concentrate on.

jpfx · « **Reply #21 on:** June 17, 2005, 05:23 PM »

When I don't have ACDSee open, there is no other application related to it running. And if you don't want to use the database, just go to the Database menu and exclude everything.
-Scott (June 17, 2005, 03:57 PM)

Fair enough, what I mean is if I don't want to use the database feature then I would like to switch it off. It's my preference for running things as lean as possible. Does that include thumbnails?

Scott · « **Reply #22 on:** June 17, 2005, 05:35 PM »

Yes, excluding a directory from the database prevents thumbnails from being stored, too. I like running "lean" also, but it's always a trade-off between leanness and features.

nudone · « **Reply #23 on:** June 21, 2005, 12:50 PM »

anyone want to suggest a few more programs to review before i go off and start searching for such things. probably makes more sense if you've used the graphic viewer and thought it a good product...

Scott · « **Reply #24 on:** June 21, 2005, 01:08 PM »

XnView was pretty good, for freeware. I used it briefly. It can't compete with the better packages, though. There was one other freebie I tried--it had a stupid name I can't remember--but it was also pretty good (maybe better than XnView). If you happen to care, I'll get off my ass and find out what it was.