IMAGE VIEWER
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What you need: Windows 7, 8.1, 10 or 11
FastStone Image Viewer is one of our favourite free tools for browsing photos on your PC, with lots of useful features and support for a wide range of image formats. This latest version expands that list to include the AVIF format (which offers higher compression rates than JPEG) and adds new options that make the program even easier to use.
One of the most notable changes is the addition of a ‘Search by Name’ box to the toolbar that appears above FastStone Image Viewer’s thumbnail browser (which shows all the images stored in the selected folder). This helps you quickly find a picture or video by typing a few letters of the file name, rather than sorting items by name to locate it alphabetically.
Equally useful is the introduction of drag-and-drop functionality to the program’s viewing panel. Instead of clicking File then Open to display a photo in the viewing area, you can now simply drag and drop it from a folder in File Explorer, or an external drive such as a USB stick. The file will then open in the viewer, where you can zoom in, make adjustments and apply effects.
Two new options – Shadows and Highlights – have been added to the batch-conversion tool that lets you edit multiple images in one go. Tick the Use Advanced Options box in the Batch Image Convert window, then click the Advanced Options button that appears. Select ‘Adjust Brightness…’ on the Adjustments tab then click the ‘Design and Preview’ button and use the new Shadows and Highlights sliders to specify the intensity of those filters.
FastStone Image Viewer has also improved its Draw Board feature for annotating pic
