| Developer(s) | Axel Rietschin Software Developments |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 2008-01-15 |
| Stable release | 1.6 (Build: 226) / December 9, 2011 |
| Written in | C++ / WIC / DirectX / Win32 |
| Operating system | Windows 7, Vista, 2008, 2003, XP |
| Platform | Native 64-bit and 32-bit |
| Available in | Brazilian/Portuguese, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish |
| Type | Image viewer |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | www.fastpictureviewer.com |
FastPictureViewer is a commercial 32 and 64-bit image viewer for Windows 7, Vista and XP. Its aim is to facilitate quick review, rating and annotation of large quantities of digital images in the early steps of the digital workflow, with an emphasis on simplicity and speed.
As of v1.6, a basic version is available cost-free for personal, non-profit or educational uses, while requiring a commercial license for the professional version with additional features (the basic version starts as a full version trial).
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FastPictureViewer is optimized for full-screen, borderless preview of digital images. It covers a limited number of scenarios, such as for example the initial pre-selection and rating of a relatively small number of images from a large set of potentially thousands ("culling"). The program has no image editing or image enhancement features and does not create and maintain a thumbnail database (it uses the system-provided thumbnail cache on Windows Vista or later), on the other hand it can browse deeply nested folder/subfolder trees containing many thousand images quickly and in a simple manner; the user interface is kept to the strict minimum. The software has been dubbed "the Porsche of image viewers" and described as "unbeatably fast" by German magazine c't Magazin für Computertechnik[1] (the program also appeared in the magazine's software collection[2] and in a subsequent article on Adobe DNG raw workflow software roundup[3]).
According to the publisher the program features full color management, including support for custom-profiled wide-gamut monitors and ICCv2 and ICCv4 profile formats. Image rating is supported using industry-standard conventions (Adobe XMP), along with image pre-loading and caching if computer resources allows (the 64-bit edition of the program takes advantage of the memory than can be present beyond the 4GB boundary). The program can make use of multi-core CPUs for parallel image loading. It uses DirectX hardware acceleration when available to accelerate zooming and panning, and can also downsize very large images (e.g. astronomic pictures) to make them fit in video memory or computer RAM if necessary. The software also features an IPTC metadata editor[4] letting users annotate pictures (add or edit headline, caption, keywords, author and copyright information) in a way that is compatible with established industry standards.
New images can be added to the browsed folder(s) and the program catches them on the fly, allowing continued browsing without the need to exit and reload the folder(s), while a tracking mode can automatically displays that last image added to the folder tree, useful when photographing in tethered mode or with a Wi-Fi enabled camera that transfers images to a computer using PTP or FTP, so images can be displayed as they are shot. An automatic advance mode (simple slide show) is also provided, along with a navigation slider that can be used to jump to different places in the current image list (under Windows Vista or later, the navigation slider displays a thumbnail image picturing the target location; a thumbnail strip is also displayed at the top of the program's window).
The program supports the Unicode international character set (so it can browse images and folders whose names are written in any language) and features a multi-lingual user-interface. It integrates with the Windows shell, for example for context menus and AutoPlay events. It provides a simple external program launcher and a file copy function that copies (or moves) the image currently displayed to a pre-set folder, by pressing a hotkey, along with a file renaming function. Real-time RGB histogram and EXIF information (shutter speed, F-stop, ISO speed, exposure compensation, ...) can be displayed in floating windows. The program adapts to screen resolution and supports large fonts and high-DPI display modes, as well as relatively low resolution Netbooks and sub-notbooks LCD screens. Starting from build 106 (Aug-18-2009) the program integrates with the Windows 7 taskbar and exposes a list of recently used folders through a mechanism introduced in this version of Windows.
An entry-level version of the program is available free of charge for home, non-commercial use. This free version supports the JPEG and Microsoft HD Photo / JPEG-XR image formats and can read/write Adobe XMP rating metadata in external sidecar files (*.xmp) or embed it within JPEG (JFIF), HD Photo and TIFF containers.
FastPictureViewer is extensible via COM-based plug-ins, whose specifications are available from the software publisher upon request. The software adopts the user's language automatically (currently available for Brazilian/Portuguese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish).
In addition to the core functionality of the cost-free version, the commercial version is said by its publisher to have exclusive features, such as:
By default the program uses the ICM 2.0 color engine (based on LinoColorCMM from Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG[7]) built into the Windows operating system since Windows 98. Users of the registered commercial version have the option to use the new WCS 1.0 color engine available on Windows Vista[8] and later operating systems, instead of the default engine. This new color engine is based on Canon's Kyuanos[9] technology and is said to use greater than 16-bit per channel floating point arithmetics[10] for better gamut-mapping models that are meant to provide superior color space conversions than ICC rendering intents. FastPictureViewer Professional can optionally[11] use the new high precision color engine available in modern versions of Windows, for potentially more accurate color viewing on profiled display monitors.
The program installs a set of WIC-enabled image decoders providing access to RAW formats from more than 380 digital camera models, Rawzor compressed Raw images, and DNG[12]. The bundled raw image decoders also extends the Windows operating system by providing thumbnail views, metadata search integration and full viewing to Windows Explorer, Photo Viewer, Photo Gallery and, on Windows 7 or later, Windows Media Center.
In addition to the built-in support for standard raster image formats such as JPEG, JPEG-XR and, in the licensed edition, TIFF, PNG, BMP and GIF, support for specialists image formats such as Photoshop PSD, OpenEXR, Radiance HDR, DirectX DDS, Softimage PIC, Autodesk Maya IFF, Silicon Graphics SGI, Netpbm PMN, PPM, PBM, PGM and JPEG2000, as well as 2D previewing support for Multi-Picture Object (MPO), Valve Texture Format (VTF) and JPEG Stereo (JPS) files can be added through the installation of separate image decoders.
FastPictureViewer image codecs are also available as a separate product called the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack[13], which is referenced on the Microsoft Photography codecs download page[14] as well as on well-known technology websites[15][16]. The codec pack enables read-only support for 40+ image formats in Windows Explorer, Photo Viewer, Photo Gallery and, on Windows 7 or later, Windows Media Center, as well as a number of codec-enabled applications, such as Sony Creative Software Vegas Pro, the IMatch digital asset management suite and more generally all applications compatible with Windows Imaging Component (WIC) codecs, which includes .NET Framework 3.x/4.x and Windows Presentation Foundation applications.
The first public version was released on January 15, 2008.
This Windows program is provided as a ~24MB digitally signed MSI installation database (with uninstall) in native 32 and 64-bit flavors. Runs on Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows XP SP3 as well as a dektop application in Windows 8 Developer Preview. Windows XP SP2 users may have to download and install the Windows Imaging Component (WIC) from the Microsoft website in order to run the program. Windows versions prior to XP SP2 are not supported.