Up until recently, I was using an ancient copy of ACDSee I’d obtained from a magazine cover CD for browsing images on my computer. For years, ACDSee was one of the best image browsers available mainly due to the blazing speed at which it opened images for viewing. The secret was to pre-fetch the next image whilst you were looking at the current one; simple, but extremely effective.

Over the years, I’d tried various upgraded versions of ACDSee, but none ever really matched the performance of the version I already had. This was in no doubt due to ACDSee becoming bloated as more and more, some would say unnecessary, features were built into it.

Whilst this meant that my primary image browser lacked modern features such as RAW support, it didn’t really matter much to me since being able to view a large number of images very quickly was much more important especially since I wasn’t shooting in RAW.

Fast forward to almost the present day and I’m shooting almost exclusively in RAW when using my EOS 40D and having to import my photo’s into Lightroom before I’m able to view them.

Not any more…

It surprises me sometimes to find that some of the best software for my needs is actually free (e.g. Firefox web browser and FireBug) and FastStone Image Viewer fits right into that same category.

FastStone Image Viewer is a highly-polished image browser, supporting a wide variety of different formats including the CR2 RAW files output by my 40D. Not only that, but it boasts many other advanced features that make it much more than an image browser such as:

  • Provides editing and image conversion functionality.
  • Ability to run the software from removable media, such as USB flash drives, meaning installation-free operation.
  • Cataloguing, red-eye removal, slideshow, EXIF browser.
  • Innovative navigation with pop-up panels in full screen mode.
  • Supports all major graphics formats (BMP, JPEG, JPEG 2000, animated GIF, PNG, PCX, TIFF, WMF, ICO and TGA) and popular digital camera RAW formats (CRW, CR2, NEF, PEF, RAF, MRW, ORF, SRF and DNG.
  • And much, much more.

It really is amazing that this fantastic piece of software is absolutely free for personal and educational use. That means adware and spyware free too. Donations are accepted and I very happily gave the suggested $15 amount for what is a staggering useful image tool.

Even if you already have an image viewer, I’d recommend trying FastStone Image Viewer because you might just love it!