FastStone Image Viewer - how to reduce photo size, weight and other useful options. Basic setup of Faststone Image Viewer

FastStone Image Viewer is a free program for viewing, organizing, editing and converting images. In addition to the function convenient viewing, the program has the necessary tools for working with images.

At FastStone Image Viewer built-in image manager functions for organizing storage graphic files on the computer. FastStone Image Viewer is free for non- commercial use.

The FastStone Image Viewer photo viewer has many useful functionality, works quickly, the application is simple and clear interface, easy navigation using the keyboard.

Key features of FastStone Image Viewer:

support for major graphic formats;
image editing;
full-screen view with pop-up menu;
applying effects to the image;
comparison of images;
scaling and cropping;
batch processing images;
batch conversion (conversion) of images to other graphic formats;
creating slideshows with more than 150 transition effects and music;
support for working with a scanner.

In the FastStone Image Viewer program, you can perform the necessary actions with photos: crop, rotate, resize the image, reduce red-eye, correct colors and lighting, set sharpness or blur, add a watermark, apply effects (relief, sketch, oil painting , lens), add a stencil or frame, batch rename or convert graphic files, etc.

The following graphic formats are opened in FastStone Image Viewer:

JPEG, JPEG 2000, GIF, PNG, PCX, TIFF, BMP, PSD, ICO, TGA, EPS, WMF, CUR.

Saving is done in the following formats:

JPEG, JPEG 2000, GIF, PNG, PCX, TIFF, BMP, TGA, PDF.

The program supports different kinds RAW format for popular cameras:

CRW, CR2, NEF, PEF, RAF, ARW, SRF, SR2, MRW, RW2, ORF, DNG.

All operations to change image parameters are carried out in separate windows. You can immediately see the result and, if necessary, cancel the changes.

You can download the FastStone Image Viewer program from the official website of the manufacturer, FastStone Soft. The download page contains a regular version of the program, which is installed on a computer, and a portable version, which does not need to be installed on a computer. Portable version applications can be launched from a computer or removable media, for example, from a USB flash drive.

download FastStone Image Viewer

FastStone Image Viewer running in the operating room Windows system in Russian.

FastStone Image Viewer Interface

At the top of the FastStone Image Viewer main program window there is a menu bar for controlling all actions in the program. Below the menu bar is a toolbar with the most popular tools needed to work in the application. Call necessary functions carried out by pressing the corresponding buttons.

On the left is a folder tree resembling Windows Explorer. Under the folder tree there is an area preview.

Most of the window is occupied by the area in which the open content is displayed, in this moment, folders.

FastStone Image Viewer Settings

You can enter the settings of the FastStone Image Viewer program from the “Settings” menu, or using the F12 key. Here you can change given parameters default program operation: change file associations, adjust Magnifier magnification ratio, change settings for saving files in JPEG format etc.

You can add the “Browse in FastStone” item to the Explorer context menu. To do this, go to the program settings (F12), in the “Settings” window, open the “Associations” tab, check the box next to “Add the “Browse to FastStone” item in the Windows Explorer menu.”

Full screen mode in FastStone Image Viewer

After switching to full screen mode(paragraph context menu“Full screen”), it becomes possible to view individual images on the entire screen. In this mode, all the program's capabilities for editing, sorting and processing photos are available.

Move the mouse cursor to the edge of the monitor screen to access the necessary functions (individual program controls will pop up at each part of the edge of the screen).

Using the Loupe tool, you can zoom in on a specific area of an image to see more detail.

Taking a screenshot in FastStone Image Viewer

Using FastStone Image Viewer, you can take screenshots (screenshots) without the help of other programs. The Screen Capture function is accessed from the File menu, or by clicking the Screen Capture button on the toolbar.

Select the desired context menu item:

Capture active window - a screenshot of the active window will be taken.
Capture window/object - the window or object will be captured in active window, which is highlighted with a red frame when you move the mouse cursor.
Capture a rectangular area - capture an arbitrary rectangular area on the monitor screen.
Capture an arbitrary area - capture an arbitrary area on the monitor screen that is selected by the mouse cursor.
Full Screen Capture - A snapshot of the entire screen.

Select save location:

In the viewing window - by default the file opens in FastStone Image Viewer.
To clipboard - the file is saved to the clipboard, from where it can be pasted into a program or document.
To file - the screenshot is saved to a file on your computer.

Slideshow in FastStone Image Viewer

Create a slideshow in FastStone Image Viewer for playback using the program, or a slideshow in an EXE file for later viewing of photos without using the program.

First, we will create a slide show to view in the Fast Stone Image Viewer window.

On the toolbar, click on the “Slideshow” button. In the Slideshow window, select necessary settings.

If you do not need information about image files, uncheck the box next to “Show text (name, date/time and EXIF)”. Set the playback order (autoplay, random, repeat in a circle, autoplay by folder).

Add music. Check the box next to “Music”, and then click on the button that appears.

In the “Settings” window, in the “Music” tab, using the “Add” button, select an audio file (or several audio files) from your computer. The program supports the following audio formats: MP3, WAV, MIDI, WMA.

Use the Up or Down buttons to place the audio files in the desired order.

Click the button to select effects. Select desired effects, their duration, see what it looks like in the preview window.

If necessary, configure the display of text in the slideshow.

After completing the settings, click on the “Start” button to automatic viewing slides.

Creating a Slideshow File in FastStone Image Viewer

Enter the “Create” menu, click on the “Create slideshow file” context menu item.

In the “Create Slideshow File” window, use the “Add Files” or “Add Folders” buttons to add images or folders with images.

Add music, the necessary effects, customize the display of images according to your preferences.

You can create an initial window to launch the file. In the initial window, add a title, description, select a cover photo, add, if necessary, “List” and “Export” buttons.

The slide show file will be saved to your computer with the selected name. To start playing the slide show, click on EXE file, and then in the initial window click on the “Play” button.

Conclusions of the article

The free FastStone Image Viewer program is designed to view, edit and convert images. The application performs the necessary actions for organizing photos, editing images, batch processing, converting image files to other graphic formats, and the program supports creating slide shows.

FastStone Image Viewer is a program designed to view images in the Windows operating system. Considered one of the best programs to view images in the free group. The interface is multilingual and includes Russian, which will allow you to easily and quickly use all the functions of this program. You can download and install it absolutely free from the official website. This image viewer app is great for inexperienced users, as it has an intuitive Russian interface with a set of the most necessary tools for editing and working with images various formats.

The utility includes file manager and a database. The main features of the program include viewing, editing and converting images. FastStone Image Viewer supports a large number of image formats, as well as some video file formats.

Main functions of the program:

Ability to view images in three modes: slide show, full screen, and normal view.
Ability to open a large number of different image formats, including RAW (high-quality photo storage format).
View complete information file, including EXIF data.
Built-in file manager for easy navigation by folders and images.
Editing tools: filters, effects, contrast correction, levels and curves, etc.
Print and scan images using the program itself.
Opportunity quick editing and creating desktop wallpaper from the current image.
Program navigation system: the ability to select files, use tabs, move between folders on the disk.
Ability to rotate images.
Red-eye removal function.
Crop images and resize.
Possibility of drawing and creating inscriptions on the top of the image.
Ability to add a frame to an image from the frame library.
Possibility of batch data processing (simultaneous work with several images).
Image comparison function.
Ability to create slide shows. When creating, you can customize effects during slide transitions, add background music and saving it to a file in exe format (executable file).
Screen capture function.
Sending an image to an email address.
Setting up and creating hotkeys for quick launch and working with program functions.
Ability to create an indexed list of images or your own photo database.

This list does not describe all the functions, but only the main ones that this device offers us. software.

How to use FastStone Image Viewer

First, you need to download and install the program from the official website, since it is completely free for non-commercial use. On the website you can download as full version program, and Portable (portable, which does not require installation to work in it), it is also possible to download or view instructions for working with the program in English.

After you have downloaded the distribution, install it. Follow the installer's steps during the installation process. After the installation is completed. Launch the FastStone Image Viewer program.

On first launch this application will scan the system and determine where all the images for fast work with them. The first thing you will see is this program’s file manager, with which you can open the file you need for viewing or editing.

The program has classic interface. At the top you can see the main menu with which you can perform fine settings programs and work with various tools. For ease of use, under the main menu there is a toolbar designed for quick call and launch the necessary functions without having to open and search for them in the tabs of the main menu.

In the central part, you can observe the program's file manager, which displays folders and files that you can interact with and open. On the left side, you can see the Explorer tree, which displays all the drives and folders present in your operating system.

In the lower left corner there is a preview window, with which you will not need to open the file to view, but simply select the image and see what is depicted in it. You can also resize all the fields in the program window by simply hovering over the border you want to expand or reduce.

When you open the image you need, you can use the toolbar or right-click on the image and select the editing tools you need (cropping, rotating the image, adjusting colors, etc.) or retouching.

To open an image in full screen, you just need to double-click on it or right-click and select the first item “Full screen” in the drop-down menu.

To create a slideshow you need to highlight required quantity images or select the folder with images that will be used in the slide show and right-click on it, select “Sladshow” from the drop-down menu. After this, a settings window will appear in which you can define the background color, the duration of display of one slide in seconds and mark the options you need when playing your slide show. After completing the settings, you can run and view the created slide show or save it.

Conclusion

Today you are introduced to FastStone Image Viewer, which is a great solution for those who need to quickly and easily edit images. It is worth noting its fairly broad functionality, which fits perfectly into a very simple and intuitive interface.

I advise you to download and install this software as standard application for viewing images, as it is quite lightweight with quite a lot of functions and tools. This program is an excellent replacement standard Windows image viewer.

It is also worth noting the quite popular and the desired function batch file processing, which will help you simultaneously rename a large number of images or convert files from one format to another, as well as perform a large number of actions simultaneously big amount files.

If you are thinking about which program you should choose for viewing and editing photos, I can say with confidence that by choosing FastStone Image Viewer you will never regret it.

What kind of viewers, resizers, and graphic editors have been on my computer. But of all the freely distributed programs for viewing, cataloging and editing, in the end there was only one left on the computer - and this is FastStone Image Viewer. This program is very similar in appearance and functionality that is loved by many, but has become paid program ACDSee. In fact, it was the introduction of fees for ACDSee that prompted us to look for a replacement.

FastStone Image Viewer became such a replacement. And I must say that the replacement turned out to be better than the original- faster, lighter, easier to use.

To complete the review, the latest version 5.1 was downloaded. The download was carried out from the official website - http://www.faststone.org. And now the program is downloaded and installed. Let's begin to study it in detail.

The first characteristic of the program is the list of supported graphic file formats that the program can work with. WITH using FastStone Image Viewer can work with photos in all popular formats. The program supports BMP, GIF, CUR, ICO, JPEG, JPEG 2000, PCX, PNG, TGA, PSD, TIFF and WMF. In addition, FS Image Viewer allows you to view some RAW formats from popular cameras (CRW, NEF, PEF, CR2, RAF, ORF, MRW, SRF and DNG). In general, the program is perfectly compatible with all common formats.

After installing the program, it is logical to compare it with common graphic file formats on the computer. This is done through the context menu - select programs - open with - select FastStone from the list of suggested programs. And so, when the program is compared with necessary files, open its main window.

FastStone Image viewer - main program window

The program has a classic interface. The header is reserved for main menu items - through the functionality of the main menu of the program, you can perform all the necessary actions. But this is for those who like to work through the menu.

Almost all features of the program are duplicated in the form of buttons located under the main menu. I personally work using buttons and a context menu. Perhaps I almost never use the main menu.

Let's look at the main window of the program - it is divided into 4 main areas

1. top - area of the main menu and buttons

2. left top part- file Manager. It is very convenient to use. You can quickly get to any folder on your computer with any nesting level.

3. lower left part - preview window for the selected image

4. large window on the right - designed to display all images in the selected folder.

FastStone Image Viewer - button functionality

All buttons are located under the main menu.

faststone image viewer - buttons

Let's look at their purpose one by one

1. Launches the wizard for uploading photos from a camera or memory card. In the wizard, you can batch rename copied files

2. Calls up the file open dialog box

4. Go to view the previous one in the list in the image folder

5. Go to view the next image in the list in the folder

6. Zoom button in the viewport

7. Zoom out button in the viewport

8. The button returns the viewed image in the viewing window to its original scale

9. Click to enable or disable anti-aliasing of highly scaled image

10. Actually not a button, but just a drop-down list. Again, you can select the image scale for the viewing window (similar to button 6, only round ones are set purely)

11. Tool for working with the image viewed in the viewing window. The default is hand. It allows you to simply drag and drop the enlarged image. You can also choose the tool rectangular selection, circular selection, Magic Lasso selection

12. Launches a slideshow consisting of images located in the current folder

13. Allows you to change the image size (resizer)

14. Allows you to crop the image

15. Launches the image drawing tool (the tool is similar to MS Paint)

16. Image cloning/retouching tool

17. Lighting correction tool (light, shadow, brightness, contrast). Convenient item, if you need to quickly make out the shadows in a bad photo.

18. Rotate the image 90 degrees counterclockwise

19. Rotate the image 90 degrees clockwise

20. Image comparison wizard (up to 4 at a time). Just like in the children's game about 10 differences

21. Screen capture tool. Like PrintScreen, but more functional. You can select an arbitrary area.

22. Scan Wizard. A very convenient thing. AND good replacement standard Windows Scan Wizard

23. Wizard for sending images by mail. Before sending, it can resize the images being sent. Very convenient, but full-fledged work you need an email client configured on your PC

24. Print selected images

25. Calls up a window of all program settings.

26. Selecting and changing the appearance of the program

27. Button to switch to full screen mode

And now the purpose of the buttons on the panel below:

1. Return to last viewed folder button

2. Forward button. If you understand what it is for, write in the comments

3. Move a folder up in the folder hierarchy

4. Update the contents of the directory being viewed

5. Addition current folder to favorites list

6. Create new folder in the current

7. Copy content to target folder

8. Move content to target folder

9. Delete marked objects

10. Display images in a folder as thumbnails

11. Display images in a folder as a detailed list

12. Display images in a folder as a simple list

13. Folder content filter (selects what the program will display) - only graphics, video, and graphics and video

14. Sort files in a folder by various attributes.

15. Delete button. No. Not deleted. Delete was number 9. This is the button to clear the browsing history. So that.

Experienced users know very well that in Windows programs the same result can be achieved in several ways. FastStone Image Viewer is no exception.

Many of the actions with images can be performed through the context menu. Let's see what options it offers:

As you can see, many functions are duplicated and this is normal. One user will go one way, and the other - you guessed it, right? - to others! This kind of duplication is good. After all, someone has mastered one way to achieve a goal, while someone acts differently, but still achieves success.

The program capabilities we have considered are not all. The most interesting thing happens when you open any selected image in full screen. This is where the small and very pleasant know-how of the program in question comes into play. The image expands to full screen. There is not a single button. It can be viewed in its entirety, the picture is not cluttered with panels and buttons. This is what it looks like

It’s hard for you to see, but in the upper left corner the program displays some information about the open image - name, memory size, size in pixels. It would seem - what else can be done here. But it is possible. The program supports simple gesture control. If you hover your cursor left, up and right in sequence, toolbars will appear.

This is what it looks like:

If you point the course upward, a feed appears in which you can select an image to view, and above the feed you can see the path to the folder with images - on the left, and a panel with additional buttons- on right.

We move the cursor to the left edge of the screen and get a toolbar like this

I won’t list the list of possibilities - you can already clearly see what is offered in the pop-up menu. I can only say that the range of possibilities is large and will be sufficient for most users who decide to correct a slightly necessary image.

Now look at the panel that appears when you hover your cursor over the right edge of the screen

And at the same time a panel with EXIF information appears, you can also call up a histogram and edit comments for this JPEG file.

Exit full screen mode by pressing ESCAPE on your keyboard

So we went over the appearance and capabilities of the FastStone Image Viewer version 5.1 program

Let me add in conclusion that the program is also equipped with a wizard batch renaming files and wizard batch conversion files (this means converting them from one graphic format to an arc). I won’t tell you where these masters are hidden in the menu. If you carefully study the program's capabilities, you will find them yourself.

Hello, dear readers of the blog site. Today I want to talk about pretty useful utility called FastStone Image Viewer. In fact, this is an analogue, but applied only to images.

From the name, it probably becomes clear that this is definitely a viewer (), but the functionality is not limited to this. Although even regarding its main functionality, it is ahead of many of its competitors.

In addition, even a novice computer user can easily post them on the Internet ( digital cameras generate photos of monstrous sizes), crop them if necessary (for example, crop them to fit the photo paper format), and also reduce their weight (compress).

Download and customize FastStone Image Viewer to suit your needs

Do you know Photoshop or any other graphic editor (for example, his)? Then this will not be a problem for you.

But I, for example, am still with raster graphics to “You” and therefore for me FastStone now serves to a greater extent not as a viewer, but as a the simplest graphic editor, which helps me reduce the size of images (even in batches), optimize their weight or add watermarks, if necessary. Yes, and inserting inscriptions or any other explanations into a photo using it will also not be at all difficult. But let's talk about everything in order.

Last Current version The program number is 4.8 and you can download it completely free from the following link:

True, in the case of commercial use of this program, you will have to enter into an agreement with the author and pay a certain amount. But this, naturally, does not threaten us. In addition to the regular version, you can download from the official website FastStone Image Viewer 4.8 Portable, which does not require installation in operating system, and it can be placed on a flash drive for working with photos in a convenient and familiar viewer on any computer (and so that your photos do not fall into the wrong hands if it is lost or stolen).

If you still remember what the first versions of ACDSee looked like (modern incarnations of this viewer are monstrously bulky and clumsy), then the Faststone interface will seem very familiar to you. It arises (the similarity will increase even more if from top menu select Settings - Interface theme and change the skin to classic).

Almost identical actions for switching to full-screen mode for viewing individual photos (double-click) and switching between images from open folder in this very full-screen mode (mouse wheel or arrows). Well, exiting full-screen mode is done using the same Enter or Escape keys.

However, the developers of FastStone Image Viewer significantly improved the usability of our viewer and added four full-screen pop-up panels on each side. Actually, the first time you try to open a photo in full screen, the helpful program will inform you about this:

When you move the mouse cursor to the top edge of the screen (assuming that you are currently viewing the picture in full screen mode), a panel will appear with thumbnails of all the photos that live in the same folder as the one you are viewing. But not only that.

At the top there will be a panel with tool icons that will allow you to navigate through various folders on your computer, move or copy there this photo, produce simple steps above open image(rotate, delete, print, etc.), start a slideshow or compare several photos:

If you move your mouse to the right edge of the screen, you will find out all the ins and outs of the photo you are viewing - its size (weight), resolution (width and height in pixels), the name and location of the file with the image you are viewing and other information, right down to what the camera leaves when shooting .

From the bottom edge of the FastStone Image Viewer screen (when viewing a photo in full width) you can find a panel with tools, similar to the one we already had the honor of seeing when we touched the top edge of the screen with the mouse. And finally, the most delicious thing, in my opinion, lies behind the left side of the other world:

What is there? And changing the size of a photo opened in FastStone, and cropping it, rotating it, various filters and overlays. Moreover, all this is designed for novice users (like my blog, in fact), so unnecessary questions usually do not arise when mastering this program. But I’ll still try to deepen and expand my manual about this popular viewer a little.

However, it wouldn't hurt to start go to settings FastStone Image Viewer, selecting the item of the same name from the top menu, and adjust everything to suit you. Most of us have to work with photographs quite often and it would be great if the program for viewing them did not create inconvenience (little things in everyday affairs can be very annoying).

By the way, this Viewer is different in that almost all default settings correspond to my requests (unlike the old ACDSee). Or I made them so long ago that I forgot. However, you are free to experiment with the image viewing mode settings, the size and color scheme of photo thumbnails, magnifying glass settings, associations (those file extensions that will be opened in this viewer by default) and the like. Everything is in Russian and has a fairly accurate description.

At one time I really liked the opportunity to use two monitors for viewing photos, if you have them. You can open a manager with thumbnails on one monitor, and a photo in full-screen view on another, which adds clarity and ease of use. I have a large diagonal TFT TV installed as a second monitor for all the computers in the house.

So, you can set the settings so that the FastStone Image Viewer program open on your main monitor displays the slideshow you are running on another monitor (in my case, a TV), which is an extension of the desktop. Your guests will undoubtedly appreciate this when viewing new photos, although now TVs themselves are capable of playing slideshows from a flash drive, but nevertheless, five years ago it was cool.

Yes, Faststone also understands RAW formats(something like a digital negative) of almost all popular cameras, and you can set in the settings how thumbnails are generated when viewing unprocessed Ravs. Well, also in the settings of this viewer (viewer) you can set external programs to edit photos and select musical compositions, which will please the soul of the audience when viewing the slideshow.

How to reduce the size and weight of a photo (compress it) in FastStone

Changing the image size (its resolution), optimizing weight (compression), and cropping (cropping) are the most popular operations when working with photographs. More than once I came across the fact that people simply did not understand why this or that Internet site did not want to accept their wonderful photo, demanding that it be reduced in weight or dimensions.

Or rather, they did not understand where and how exactly these shamanic actions could be performed on the images. Some people use online resources for this purpose, but we will go a different route.

Personally, I do this in the program Image viewer Viewer, because everything is implemented there quite simply and clearly. Let's start in order. Let's say we want resize an existing photo or even a whole series of photographs. In many cases, you will be able to resort to batch processing if you need to bring everything to the same format.

But we will start with an individual reduction of a photograph (I’m not talking about enlarging it, because in raster graphics this action leads to a serious deterioration in quality), which, for example, was obtained from a modern monstrous pixel camera. At the same time, if you are in full-screen photo viewing mode, then simply move the mouse pointer to the left edge of the screen and select one of three possible items responsible for changing the resolution:

We can say that there are only two options for changing the size of the image itself, because the third option changes the dimensions of the canvas. In this case, the resolution of the photo does not change - when you increase the size, the background area of the color you specify will increase along the edges, and when you decrease it, the photo will be cropped on the right and bottom.

If you need to get photo standard format (for example, to upload to a bulletin board or somewhere else), then the easiest way would be to use the “Quickly resize” item. In this case, you will see a drop-down list with these most standard formats:

They are given both in pixels (resolution - width and height) and as a percentage of the size of the original photo. After clicking on one of the items, the photo opened in full screen mode will change its size. If you are happy with everything, then right-click on it and select “Save As” from the context menu, and if you are not happy, then select another option from the “Quick Change” item.

Yes, if you forget to save a file with a thumbnail image, FastStone Image Viewer will definitely remind you of this (ask a question about its future fate). Well, if you don’t need just any size, but a specific one (for example, equal to the width of the page of your site), then select an option from the left drop-down list "Change size/dpi":

You can set the width or height of the image in pixels, percentage of original size photographs or in inches (indicating DPI - the number of dots per square inch). You can again choose one of standard resolutions from the list below.

In most cases, you won't want to change the aspect ratio of the image, so the "Maintain proportions" checkbox is checked by default. In this case, you can only set the desired height or width of the photo, and the second size will be recalculated automatically so that the photo is not skewed.

Well, if you have a lot of time, you can experiment with filters that will be used to perform interpolation. What it is? Raster image consists of a finite and an integer number of points. When changing its size, most likely, you will not get an exact division into an integer number of points, which is why they are used various methods reduction without visible deterioration in image quality when compressed.

For example, try it with text (read about how and how to do it quickly in) and clearly see my words.

Actually, click OK, and then save the photo with the resized dimensions. From the thumbnail viewing mode in Faststone, you can also get to the window shown in the last screenshot. To do this, just click once on the thumbnail desired image(to select it) and select the “Edit” - “Resize” menu from the top FastStone Image Viewer. The sequence of actions will be the same.

How to compress photos in FastStone Image Viewer

We'll talk about batch changes in image resolution a little later, but now I would like to dwell on the issue of image compression to reduce its final weight (measured in kilobytes). At the same time, you need to understand that there are formats raster graphics, which save the original photo with loss of quality (for example, jpg) and without loss of quality (for example, png). By the way, FastStone is notable for the fact that it allows you to work with the jpg format without loss.

In order to understand which file types are best to use when saving images, check out my article about (they are the ones used for uploading photos to). Only one is correct choosing a format can significantly reduce the weight of a photo.

Such images saved in jpg will have color noise at the text border and to avoid this you have to use maximum quality when saving as jpeg, which greatly affects the weight of the final file.

Therefore, screenshots with text (or any other images with sharply contrasting borders) are best compressed (have the least weight) when choosing the Png format (or Gif, but this is somewhat outdated). You will not notice any distortion (unless you later resize this screenshot). Particularly significant savings in photo weight will be achieved by choosing PNG 8 with 256 colors, but this can impair the display of smooth color transitions, so you should always look at the compression result.

But there are times when the Jpg format will be more preferable. This choice will be especially relevant when, when saving pictures, it will be possible to significantly reduce its quality (do not forget that JPG implies a deterioration in quality, which can be adjusted) without fear of visible distortion (for example, this applies to regular photos With smooth transitions colors).

But let's talk about photo compression in relation to FastStone Image Viewer. We have already considered reducing the size (resolution), and it is this that provides significant savings in weight. One of my friends (a smart guy, but he was simply not in the know) unknowingly uploaded several photos weighing five megabytes each to the site and set the width and height of 100 by 100 pixels when inserting them onto the site (if you remember, then for , where attributes and its dimensions are specified).

Everything would be fine, but these pictures took a dozen or even more seconds to load, causing him genuine surprise. He heard that it directly affects the ranking of a site in Yandex and Google, and also affects behavioral factors (read about). He didn’t immediately understand my explanations about the dependence of the weight of an image on its physical resolution, because he thought that the attributes of width and height IMG tag and had to solve all the problems.

That's why first resize the photo up to the permission required for insertion into the site or for its comfortable viewing on the computer. And we are also trying to determine in what format this miracle will have the least weight. How to do it? In Image Viewer I do this in the save dialog (right-click on the image and select “Save As” from the context menu):

As I already said, in the case of screenshots top scores compression is usually achieved when saving as PNG. This is what I select from the drop-down list, and then click on the “Options” button to, if possible, reduce the weight of the image even more, and at the same time see its estimated weight in this format:

As you can see, by default the weight of this photo is PNG format the result was 52 kilobytes (when trying to save in the format JPG weight it turns out the same, but distortions on the letters are already visible and further compression by reducing the quality is no longer possible), which is clearly too much for posting on the site.

But having chosen the PNG option with 256 colors (the so-called PNG 8) I received a reduction in size (weight) photo to a modest and acceptable 14 kilobytes. Beauty. As a result, the weight decreased by more than three times, which will approximately increase the loading speed of my blog page by the same amount. And you say...

If your photo compresses better in JPG format, then you need to use it. In addition, in the Save dialog of the FastStone Image Viewer program, when you click on the “Options” button, you will have the opportunity to lower the quality (thereby reducing the final weight of the image) until the option on the right begins to look noticeably worse than the similar option on the left:

The same can be said about GIF format— to reduce the weight of the photo, it will be possible to reduce the number of colors below the default 256 pieces. Optimal ratio determined again by viewing and comparing the original and the compressed copy. In general, FastStone is quite suitable for photo compression, especially since, in general, you don’t really need to understand it - everything is intuitive and natural.

Other features of FastStone Image Viewer

I also promised to mention batch change photo sizes, so we’ll talk about that now. In batches (simultaneously for large quantity photo) you can do several things in FastStone:

Rename image files for several types of masks (the same can be done successfully in Total Commander with even more mask options)
Convert a whole bunch of files (you can also different formats) into any one format you need
Batch reduce the size (resolution) of a whole bunch of photos at once
Apply a watermark that you prepared in advance to this whole heap, or simply add some text to everything (very useful in terms of subsequent proof for hosters or search engines when dealing with cases or
Rotate all photos in the desired direction
Crop all selected images to a specific size
Enclose them all in the selected frames
Change brightness and color depth (limit the number of colors used)
And one more minor thing to do

In order to get into all this splendor, you need to select the items “Tools” - “Convert selected” from the top menu of FastStone Image Viewer (you can also “Rename selected”, because both of these tabs will still be present in the window that opens):

If you only need to rename a group of pictures or change their format, then all the settings are given on these two tabs. Required photos you can select in the left column and add them to the right column using the corresponding button in the middle.

But Image Viewer also supports dragging with the mouse from another program (for example, Windows Explorer or Total Commander). Next, select a folder to save the converted files, as well as a mask for renaming or graphic format for conversion.

If you want resize all photos in batch(or do something else from the list above), then you will have to check the “Change settings (dimensions...)” box and click on the “Advanced” button located to the right. As a result, a window will open with an even larger bunch of tabs and settings on them (here you go simple program to view photos):

Make the necessary settings on required tabs and click OK. If you plan to use the same settings again in the future, then save them to a file using the corresponding button located at the bottom of the window. And after all this, click on the “Start” button (see the previous screenshot) and go to the selected folder to evaluate the result of the batch conversion.

Also, for all selected photos you can remove meta data(Tools - Remove metadata). In addition to those described above, FastStone Image Viewer can do the following things:

Screenshots of the entire screen or selected area (File - Screen Capture)
Scan (File - Receive image from scanner)
Compress the image file for subsequent sending by mail (File - Send by E-mail)
Crop the photo (for example, removing the same watermark and putting it on the copyright) by selecting required format for its future printing (Edit - Cropping)
Add arrows, frame highlights, inscriptions to the original photo using the built-in graphics editor(Edit - Draw)
Remove red eye (also in the Edit menu)
In the Effects menu you will find the option to add ready frames, your own watermarks and other ways to mock photos
You can launch a slideshow with music and photos from the folder currently open in FastStone, or create a slideshow file with photos specially selected by you
Create an image file with all the miniatures you need (Create - Create index list)

Well, now I will describe all of the above in as much detail as possible. Don't be afraid, I'm just joking because I'm tired. That's all I wanted to say about such a wonderful tool for viewing and editing images as Image Viewer. Hurray, comrades.

Good luck to you! Before see you soon on the pages of the blog site

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