News and Reviews > Image Manager Shootout

Pre-review Discussion for Graphics Viewers Review

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Jibz:
It does come down to what use you have.

The database driven programs are generally bigger and slower to start, but provide far more features for categorizing, labeling and managing a collection of images.

The quick image viewers on the other hand are great for double-clicking on an image, when all you want is to see that image and not load a database with 10,000 images.

Personally, I have been using IrfanView so far, but my digital image collection is getting so big that I will need to switch to something with more categorization support soon. I would still prefer to keep a quick image viewer registered as shell extension though :up:.

I don't know if splitting the review would make sense .. you could also consider giving out an award in each category if there are suitable winners.

Scott:
i have a lot of pictures, but i spend 99% of my time using a quick image viewer (freeware irfanview), rather than inside one of the image browsing apps like acdsee.

now i know that acdsee has an image viewer, but im more interested in having a really super fast and convenient image viewer that shows images when i double click them from windows explorer.-mouser (June 22, 2005, 08:47 AM)
--- End quote ---

I understand and agree, but ACDSee 7.0 is very quick when opening individual images.  That was one of my requirements before settling on it.  And it's read-ahead and cache-behind makes browsing images one-by-one very fast, too.

I almost feel like I need to step back and say something like "I'm not a salesman for ACDSee."  In fact, I don't like the company much.  They recently told me that one of the bugs I reported was confirmed, but wouldn't get fixed until the next major release--which means I'll have to pay for a bug fix.  Typical nonsense.  (Off topic maybe, but typical.)

But anyway, I still don't think there is a distinction to be made.  If an image viewer sucks for handling multiple files, it has a lousy feature set.  If another application can handle multiple files well, but is slow, then it's a pig.  Both should be rated down.  ACDSee 5.0 was slower than 7.0, so it sucked.  I didn't use version 6.0, but I have read many times that it sucked, too.  But 7.0 is the best of both worlds from what I see here...  And it's not alone.  XnView was pretty good, too.

I'll shutup after this, really...  I just don't think it's too much to ask for an image viewer to be both fast and multi-file capable.  To me, that's a bare minimum, and everything else is just a nicety.  For example, I wouldn't put image-editing or screen-capture features in with those two criteria.  I don't consider those things to be essentials for an image viewer.

It has got to be fast, and it has to be able to handle lots of files.  If not, it's shitware.  (I'm such a binary bastard!)

nudone:
a while back i was asking if anyone knew of an image file manager that allowed you to append notes and other useful information to files you were working on.

after a bit of discussion i accepted that ACDSee did enough for the tasks i was thinking of - but it really doesn't do enough in this area for what i was hoping for.

a few minutes ago a came across 'AlienBrain Studio' http://www.alienbrain.com/products/. it's way too serious an application - we are talking stupid money to buy it - but the features it has are more along the lines of what i was after originally.

you can see a good example of this with this screencast they have made. http://www.alienbrain.com/products/tour/intro/

i really like its ability to 'draw' or 'write' over the top of the thumbnails so you can instantly see what needs doing to specific images (or 3D files). the other features for note making look very handy too and the way it keeps a record of previous images and how they have changed.

i know the program isn't really for home use and is aimed at teams collaborating on projects where they need to allow checking in and out of work files...

i'm wondering has anyone seen anything like it that is geared to wards single users - with these advanced note making abilities, especially the new layer added to the thumbnails with your scribble on top.

anyone?

mouser:
those are some nice features..

btw this isnt really going to help you but, screenshot captor lets you add as many text comments to a file as you want, and can embed the comment text in most formats of files (jpg,tiff,png,gif). since its autosaves and is easy to quickly move through a directory of files it might come in handy for bulk comment adding.

jpfx:
straying slightly...
With acdsee 7.0 I've tried excluding the root of each hard drive (and subfolders) from being thumbnailed but that doesn't work. You have to exclude the folders below the root or they disappear upon restart . In fact, being unable to switch the thumbnail/database thing off really is annoying. Despite that, I ponied up for the powerpack because I couldn't find anything better and I can force v7.0 to act almost (but not completely) like the classic version did. I have absolutely no use for the fotoslate app but the quick & dirty editor is good enough for my limited requirements, (cut, crop, clean).
Even with vast amounts of images I still prefer to [pgdn] through them all rather than view thumbnails. It's a preference that carries across all my windows usage. File managing is done with detailed view only and nary an (icon/picture) to be seen in any list/app.
So I give acdsee a bad mark for not giving you complete freedom with your browsing style.

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