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Best Free Digital Image Viewer

And there's also the question of what exactly we mean by an "image viewer". With so many contenders that offer loads of features like editing, filtering, batch processing, organizing, publishing and the rest, that name may be a bit too restrictive, as we always tend to demand some additional editing features apart from the basic viewing and browsing functions (these are sine qua non, in my opinion). Thus many imaging applications overlap categories, and the differences for our review should be based mainly on the aspects of access speed, zooming capabilities, and other tasks not directly related to extensive image editing. Though I know many users will prefer all-in-one programs, I feel that they don't fit into this category, and feature bloat precludes their recommendation.

There are several good choices here, and the first of these is the classic IrfanView. Irfan is a first-class product, but one for which I have mixed feelings. It's an amazingly capable application and very fast at displaying images, something I consider essential for a viewer. Some additional features (its resizing algorithm, for instance) are excellent and even rank above a big fish like Photoshop. But although other users just love it, it just doesn't work the way I'd like it to: wheel zooming, for instance, requires a press of the Ctrl key, and I don't see the point in having a separate module for thumbnails. This, however, may be exactly what other users prefer, and the same applies to the interface, which looks a bit too simple to me.

A product I feel more comfortable with is XNView. Like Irfan, it's very versatile; it can read and display nearly 400 types of graphic files, and convert any of these to more than 50 formats. It displays images very quickly, and these may be viewed full screen, as slideshows or as thumbnails. It's quite capable at processing images, too; you can adjust brightness and color, apply filters or effects, crop and resize, and more. These operations can also be carried out from a batch file, which makes XNView ideal for converting large digital images to smaller sizes for use on the web or in emails. It supports drag and drop, has many plug-ins, is available in 44 languages and has full cross-platform support, including Mac. XNView has a lot of similarities to IrfanView; so many in fact, that it comes perilously close to plagiarism. Put positively, one may say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery; however, the developers of IrfanView must feel more than a little miffed. XNView is free for non-commercial use, and supports all Windows versions plus many other platforms.

My third choice is FastStone Image Viewer. This is a speed demon with a zippiness in displaying images that's reminiscent of the old ACDSee before it suffered feature bloat. But this zippiness disappears when it deals with larger files (>20Mb, depending on the format) and both Irfan and XN perform much better in this field. It also has good basic image editing facilities, great slide show capabilities and an interface which is a delight to work with. It supports all major graphic formats and popular digital camera RAW formats as well. Much to like here.

FastStone has a "little brother" called FastStone MaxView which is essentially the same program, but it's limited to the viewer and a few features.

A long comparative review of FastStone and XN can be found in the comments section below.

A considerable amount of free and commercial image viewers is compared in this impressive entry in the Wikipedia. Most of these products are also given detailed individual entries and include links to their websites.

IrfanView
Website: http://www.irfanview.com/
Download link: http://www.irfanview.com/
Author: Irfan Skiljan
Current version: 4.10
Version date: November 21, 2007
License: Freeware for private use
Download File size: 1.10Mb
Operating Systems Supported: 95/98/NT/2000/ME/XP/2003/Vista
Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit Capable: No
Portable Version Available: Yes
Non-English languages supported: Multi language support
Other relevant information: Extensive plugins available
Layers are not supported

XNView
Website: http://www.xnview.com/
Download link: http://pagesperso-orange.fr/pierre.g/xnview/endownloadwin32.html
Author: Pierre-emmanuel Gougelet
Current version: 1.93.6
Version date: May 1, 2008
License: Freeware for private use
Download File size: Basic 2.11Mb, Standard 4.85Mb, Plugins 3.53Mb
Operating Systems Supported: Windows 95/98/NT/2000/ME/XP/Vista
Windows 3.x, Mac OS X, Linux x86/Linux ppc, FreeBSD x86, OpenBSD x86, NetBSD x86, Irix mips, Solaris sparc, Solaris x86, HP-UX, AIX,
Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit Capable: No
Portable Version Available: No
Additional Software Required: None
Non-English languages supported: French, German
Other relevant information: Multi-language with D/L of additional language pack

FastStone Image Viewer
Website: http://www.faststone.org/
Download link: http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDownload.htm
Author: FastStone Soft
Current version: 3.5
Version date: January 15, 2008
License: Freeware for private use
Download File size: 4.24Mb, portable 4.18Mb
Operating Systems Supported: 98/2000/Me/XP/2003/Vista
Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit Capable: No
Portable Version Available: Yes
Non-English languages supported: Multi language support only in version 3.2 and older: Chinese(Simp & Trad), Danish, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish
Other relevant information: Supports dual-monitor configurations
Tutorial available: 3.7MB
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