Best Free Software
Robert Irvine recommends new programs that won’t cost you a thing
18
(^4) Usefully, the program
now displays the size of a
selected image in the status
bar along the bottom of the
window. You can see further
information, such as the
image’s date, file type and
dimensions, at the bottom of
the preview pane.
(^3) The new Rating system lets
you sort your pictures by
quality as well as other new
criteria such as date taken.
Alternatively, you can let
FastStone decide the order
of your photos by right-
clicking an empty area and
choosing Shuffle Images.
(^2) You can protect your eyes
when using the program
at night by switching to
one of its dark themes.
Click the Settings menu
then choose an option from
the Theme menu. In our
screenshot, we’ve applied
the Gray theme.
(^1) FastStone Image Viewer
now lets you rate your
pictures, so you can grade
their quality from one to five.
To activate this feature, click
the Rating menu and select
Enable File Rating. Rate an
image by clicking its top-
right corner.
FastStone Image Viewer is one of the most popular free
programs for browsing photos stored on your computer. This
latest version is its best yet, adding several welcome features
and making the program speedier to use.
You’ll notice an improvement in performance from the
moment you launch FastStone Image Viewer 7.6, because
it now loads more quickly and displays its ‘tree’ of folders
instantly, as well as their contents when clicked. Select an
image, and FastStone helpfully shows its size in the status
bar at the bottom of the program window, as well as in
the preview pane in the bottom-left corner. If you find the
default interface too bright, you can switch to the dark or
grey theme - both of which have been enhanced in this
update - by clicking the Settings menu and choosing Theme.
The most notable new feature is a ratings system that lets
you rate your pictures by selecting a colour-coded number,
from one to five. This is very useful for providing at-a-
glance information about the quality of
your photos, especially when you’ve taken
multiple shots of the same subject. It’s disabled
by default, but you can turn it on by clicking the
Rating menu and selecting Enable File Rating. Hover your
cursor over an image and click the circle that appears in its
top-right corner to apply your rating. You can then sort your
pictures in order of their ratings by choosing that option in
the Thumbnail Order menu.
Another handy addition is the ability to create
thumbnails for new images without needing to open the
folder they’re in. Click the Settings menu and choose
‘Pre-Scan Folders into Thumbnail Database’ to enable this.
We also like that you can see where a photo was taken
on Google Maps - provided its metadata includes GPS
coordinates - by pressing Ctrl+Shift+M, and on Google
Earth by pressing Ctrl+Alt+M.
IMAGE VIEWER
http://www.snipca.com/
What you need: Windows 7, 8.1, 10 or 11
FastStone Image Viewer 7.
1
3
4
2
27 April – 10 May 2022 • Issue 630