Download a high-quality photo viewer. What programs are there for viewing pictures and photographs?

We have analyzed the most popular free “viewers” ​​with options for editing, cataloging graphic files, and their paid analogues. We gave each a fair assessment and looked at typical situations and the ease of using different software for specific purposes. The conclusions suggest themselves.

If all you need is to watch photos and pictures downloaded from the Internet in full screen, install one of the trinity IrfanView, FastStone Image Viewer, Universal Viewer. This software is absolutely free, instantly opens files, and conveniently scales. In addition, FastStone Image Viewer supports batch renaming, file conversion, the advantage of IrfanView in creating photo albums, Universal Viewer also supports playback of audio, video, screenshots in any format.

In the category of the best photo viewer for the home, FastStone Image Viewer and XnView are confidently in the lead. They support a large number of formats and have all the simple editing and conversion functions. Well, if you are the proud owner of the Windows 10 operating system and don’t even need basic image editing on your computer, the built-in Windows image and photo file viewer will help out.

In fact, two applications suitable for semi-professional use are XnView and Picasa. The latter will especially please administrators of groups on social networks, because it allows you to easily create collages and can synchronize photos on different devices using a Google account. The only serious contender for the title of professional software in our selection is ACDSee. There is cataloging, processing, cloud synchronization between different copies of the application and other options for specialists, but the price of a licensed copy is steep.

STDU Viewer stands apart because it is used for reading e-books and edit-protected documentation in PDF, Djvu and other similar formats. The choice is yours, and the download link can always be found above. Also, the review did not include quite interesting applications Zoner Photo Studio and Ashampoo Photo Commander Free. The fact is that their functionality goes significantly beyond the scope of a standard weaver and includes, for example, tools for capturing the screen (taking screenshots), adding watermarks, and creating slideshows. Read our other reviews, you will probably be interested

Greetings to all!

Perhaps not everyone will agree with me, but viewing pictures in Windows is not very convenient, for example, not all formats are supported, you cannot view photos in the archive, there is a problem with converting from one format to another, etc.

I think this is why many people prefer to use alternative programs for viewing photos and pictures (and I am no exception here).

Actually, in this article I want to recommend several viewers (this is the name of the program for viewing images) , which will greatly simplify viewing media files (note: many viewers allow you to easily view video files!) .

I will add that all the programs presented in the article support the Russian language and are compatible with all new Windows 7/8/10 operating systems.

What is the best way to replace the standard image viewer?

ACDSee

The most powerful organizer and browser of photo and video files! Allows you to view hundreds of different graphics formats: BMP, PCX, JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, WMF and much more.

ACDSee has a built-in image editor: so that you can easily trim edges, add arrows, ovals and other elements, convert photos from one format to another, etc. You can easily create your own slide show. Supports work with scanners and digital cameras.

I will also note that the program can view the contents of archives without extracting them (very convenient!). And one more plus: ACDSee by default caches all previews from the folders you are viewing. This allows you to instantly show you a preview the next time you view the same folder, rather than creating it again (as other programs do). Thanks to this, the speed of work is an order of magnitude higher!

IrfanView

Very compact and fast viewer. Despite its modest size (only a few megabytes), it allows you to perform hundreds of different functions: viewing a bunch of different graphic formats (there are more than a hundred of them!), converting pictures (including in multi-mode), editing photos (cropping, writing, changing shades etc.) etc.

By the way, IrfanView was the first graphics editor in Windows that supported animated GIF files, multi-page TIFF and ICO files.

Key Features:

1. support for hundreds of graphic formats (JPG, PNG, BMP, TIFF, GIF, ICO, etc.);
2. support for Russian and all popular versions of Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10 (32 and 64 bit);
3. filter support for Adobe Photoshop;
4. creating and burning slide shows to discs;
5. Unicode support;
6. it is possible to draw and edit pictures;
7. ability to extract graphics from EXE/DLL/ICLs;
8. A HUGE number of different plugins (add-ons) for the program can seriously expand its capabilities;
9. support for scanners, digital cameras, and much more!

XnView

XnView - a simple and convenient photo and video viewer

A very popular viewer and direct competitor to ACDSee. It also allows you to view hundreds of different formats of photo and video files, convert from one format to another, change brightness, gamma, contrast, etc. All such operations can be done on hundreds of files at once, which is a definite plus for the program.

Key Features:

1. support for a huge number of formats (more than 400!);
2. convenient and powerful photo/picture processing: red-eye removal, edge trimming, changing resolution, converting to another format, adding watermarks, lightening/darkening and much more;
3. support for extensions (and there are quite a lot of them released);
4. working with scanners, printers and cameras;
5. support for creating screenshots;
6. the ability to use a portable version (which does not require installation);
7. the ability to automatically create lists of all files that are in folders;
8. convenient work with previews (they can be configured as you like: make them large, small, put descriptions next to them, etc.).

FastStone Image Viewer

A simple and free program for viewing and processing photos. The functionality of the program is quite extensive and supports the Russian language in full. You can create postcards, banners, business cards, process photos, etc.

All in all, pretty good for a free product!

Key Features:

1. the ability to open photos/pictures in a variety of formats (including large photos in RAW format);
2. image editing and processing: trimming jagged edges, improving sharpness, increasing detail, adjusting gamma, brightness, red-eye removal, etc.;
3. conversion from one format to another;
4. applying watermarks, stamps and other protection;
5. import images from a scanner, photo and video camera;
6. batch multi-photo processing, and much more.

Zoner Photo Studio

Zoner Photo Studio - main program window

A very powerful program for working with pictures and photos (both for viewing and editing them). The program allows you to copy photos directly from your phone or camera, and edit pictures on the fly (remove red-eye, adjust contrast, brightness, etc.). In addition, you can immediately create your own slide show, gallery, calendar or panorama. And then, the resulting “creation” can be published on the Internet or sent to someone by email.

The program itself consists of four main modules: a module for importing photos; manager for managing archives of photographs and pictures on a PC; image editor; and an image viewer.

Before processing, and after processing in ZPS (improved brightness, color rendition, sharpness)

Key Features:

1. convenient and fast model for viewing pictures;
2. high-quality editing and improvement of the quality of “raw” photos: improving brightness, contrast, changing the color scheme, removing red-eye, etc.). Notice the wasp example above;
3. the ability to apply quick filters to dozens of pictures at once;
4. creating slide shows, calendars, and other photo collections;
5. there is a special tool: cloning stamp (allows you to remove objects from the photo that you do not need);
6. the ability to add frames to photos;
7. creating panoramas;
8. creating HDR images;
9. creating 3D images without special equipment. cameras for their projection, and much more.

Minuses: the program is free only for 30 days, then it really starts to get boring...

Overall, Zoner Photo Studio leaves a very positive impression. Personal resume: more suitable for those who edit and process photos (there are many tools designed for quick and easy image processing (much faster than poking around in Photoshop)).

How to set the default program to open pictures in Windows 10

In Windows 10, for your installed program to become the main one and be used by default when viewing pictures, installing it alone is not enough. To do this you need to go to control Panel Windows in the "Programs" section - click on the link there "Default programs".

I note that in addition to the viewer, you can specify a player, a browser, etc. here.

That's all I have for now.

Now let's see what to use to view images on a computer, and choose the best photo viewers for Windows. The best photo viewer is a subjective concept, so in this article I will offer several applications that can be used to open popular graphic formats for viewing and processing images.

Any user, when working on a computer, inevitably encounters pictures, images, photographs. In any case, graphic format files will end up on your computer, so you will need a program to open and view them. Therefore, you need a photo viewer on your computer to easily view digital images.

Windows 10 has a built-in Photos application, with which you can open a graphic file, create an album, make the necessary changes to photos, etc. In previous versions of Windows, the Windows Image Viewer application was used. The user can install Windows Picture Viewer in Windows 10, in addition to the Photos program.

There is a free Photo Gallery application included with the core components of Windows Live. The photo album supports opening and editing photos. The program must be installed on your computer (it is not included in the OS).

In addition to Microsoft applications, a large number of third-party programs have been created for viewing and editing images. In this article we will look at the best free image viewer programs that have many additional built-in tools for working with files in graphic formats.

Third-party photo viewers (viewers) can be used on your computer as an alternative to standard Windows tools. As the best free programs for viewing images, I recommend paying attention to the following programs: FastStone Image Viewer, XnView, IrfanView, Ashampoo Photo Commander Free, Honeyview. These programs run in Russian on the Windows operating system.

These applications, in addition to basic functions, have tools for image editing. For more serious picture editing, you will need another program - an image editor (photo).

The best photo viewers, in addition to the viewing function, have additional features necessary for working with images on a computer. The programs have built-in tools to perform various operations with digital photographs or any other images: rotate, resize, remove red-eye, swatch, color correction, convert to other formats, send for printing, etc.

The free Picasa program (which would have been included in this review) was left out of the scope of this review due to the fact that Google stopped developing and supporting the application in 2016.

FastStone Image Viewer

FastStone Image Viewer is a powerful free program for viewing and processing images with a simple, intuitive interface. Built-in tools will help the user solve certain problems with photography: remove red-eye, change image size, apply color correction, convert files, etc.

A regular version of FastStone Image Viewer or a portable version of the program that does not require installation on a computer is available for download.

Key features of FastStone Image Viewer:

• Opening graphic files of major formats
• Editing digital photos and graphics files
• A large number of built-in tools for working with images
• Batch file processing
• Batch conversion to another format
• Creating a slide show with transitions and effects
• Preview function

XnView

XnView is a free program (for non-commercial use) for viewing images, multimedia files, and converting files to other formats. This is a high-quality program for managing photos on your computer. Thanks to the support of a large number of formats, in XnView, in addition to working with graphic files, for example, you can watch movies or listen to music.

The program has a simple interface, a large number of built-in tools, XnView will do an excellent job of processing and editing photos on a computer.

The user can download the regular or portable version of the application to the computer from the official XnView website.

Features of the XnView program:

• Supports more than 500 formats
• Photo editing
• Applying filters and effects
• Screen capture
• Batch conversion
• Editing metadata
• Convert files to 70 file formats
• Supports viewing video and audio files, archives, documents
• Creating a Slideshow
• Plugins are supported to expand the program's capabilities

IrfanView

IrfanView is a fast, free image viewer that consumes minimal computer resources. The program is one of the leaders in the number of downloads in the world for programs of this class. This indirect information tells us about the quality of the application, which is rated by users.

Honeyview is a free image viewer with a simple and intuitive interface. The program quickly opens graphic files, the application has tools for photo editing.

You can download it from the official website of the developer, as an installation file or as a portable version.

Honeyview program features:

• Supports a large number of graphic formats
• RAW format support
• Viewing images in archives
• View photos in slideshow mode
• Bookmark for favorite photos
• Support GPS data on photos

Conclusion

The user can choose the best photo viewer running on Windows for their computer. Free programs: FastStone Image Viewer, XnView, IrfanView, Ashampoo Photo Commander Free, Honeyview are among the best image viewers in this class of programs.

Hello.

Today, in order to view photos and pictures, it is far from necessary to use third-party programs at all (in modern Windows 7/8 operating systems, Explorer does a good job of this). But its capabilities are not always enough and not for everyone. Well, for example, can you quickly change the resolution of a picture in it, or view all the properties of the picture at once, trim the edges, change the extension?

Not long ago I had to face a similar problem: the pictures were archived in an archive and in order to view them, I had to extract it. Everything would be fine, but there were hundreds of archives and packing and unpacking was a very tedious task. It turns out that there are programs for viewing pictures and photographs that can show you images directly in the archives without extracting them!

In general, this is how this idea for this post was born - to talk about such user “helpers” for working with photos and pictures (by the way, such programs are often called viewers, from the English Viewers). So, let's begin…

1. ACDSee

One of the most famous and popular programs for viewing and editing photos and images (by the way, there is both a paid version of the program and a free one).

The program's capabilities are simply colossal:

Support for RAW images (professional photographers save images in them);

All kinds of file editing: changing photo size, trimming edges, rotating, captioning pictures, etc.;

Support for popular cameras and images from them (Canon, Nikon, Pentax and Olympus);

Convenient presentation: you immediately see all the pictures in the folder, their properties, extension, etc.;

Russian language support;

A huge number of supported formats (you can open almost any image: jpg, bmp, raw, png, gif, etc.).

Result: If you often work with photos, you should definitely be familiar with this program!

This program combines minimalism with great functionality. The program window is divided (by default) into three areas: on the left is a column with your drives and folders, in the top center are thumbnails for the files in a given folder, and at the bottom is an enlarged view of the image. Very convenient, by the way!

It should be noted that this program has a large number of options: multi-converting pictures, editing images, changing the extension, resolution, etc.

By the way, there are a couple of interesting notes on the blog with the participation of this program:

Converting photos from one format to another:

Creating a PDF file from pictures:

XnView programs support more than 500 formats! This alone deserves to have this “software” on your PC.

3. IrfanView

One of the oldest programs for viewing pictures and photographs, its history dates back to 2003. Purely in my opinion, this utility was more popular before than it is now. At the dawn of the advent of Windows XP, there was nothing to remember except it and ACDSee...

Irfan View is characterized by minimalism: there is nothing superfluous here at all. Nevertheless, the program provides high-quality viewing of all kinds of graphic files (and it supports several hundred different formats), allowing you to scale them from very large to small.

It should be noted that there is excellent support for plugins (and there are quite a lot of them for this program). You can add, for example, support for viewing videos, viewing PDF and DJVU files (many books and magazines on the Internet are distributed in this format).

The program does a good job of converting files. I'm especially pleased with the multi-conversion (in my opinion, Irfan View implements this option better than many other programs). If there are a lot of photos that need to be compressed, then Irfan View will do it quickly and efficiently! I recommend you check it out!

4. FastStone Image Viewer

According to many independent estimates, this free program is one of the best for viewing and working with pictures. Its interface is somewhat reminiscent of ACDSee: convenient, concise, everything is at hand.

FastStone Image Viewer supports all major graphic files, as well as some RAW files. There is also a slideshow function, image editing: cropping, changing resolution, expanding, hiding red-eye (especially useful when editing photos).

It is impossible not to note the support for the Russian language right out of the box (i.e. automatically after the first launch you will have Russian selected by default, no third-party plugins, such as, for example, need to be installed on Irfan View).

And a couple more features that are not available in other similar programs:

Effects (the program implements more than a hundred unique effects, a whole visual library);

Color correction and anti-aliasing (many people note that pictures can look much more attractive when viewing them in FastStone Image Viewer).

5. Picasa

This is not only a viewer of various images (and the program supports a large number of them, more than a hundred), but also an editor, and not a bad one at that!

First of all, the program is distinguished by the ability to create albums from various images, and then record them on various types of media: disks, flash drives, etc. Very convenient if you need to make several collections from different photos!

There is also a chronology function: all photos can be viewed as they were created (not to be confused with the date of copying to the computer, by which other utilities sort).

It should also be noted that it is possible to restore old photographs (even black and white): you can remove scratches from them, color correct them, and remove “noise.”

The program allows you to add watermarks to pictures: this is a small inscription or picture (logo) that protects your photo from being copied (or, at least, if it is copied, everyone will know that it is yours). This function will be especially useful for owners of sites where they have to post photos in large quantities.

I think that the presented programs are enough for most tasks of the “average” user. And if not, then most likely there is nothing to recommend other than Adobe Photoshop...

By the way, many may be interested in how to make an online photo frame or beautiful text:

That's all, happy viewing of the photos!

You won’t surprise anyone with photographs and pictures on your computer for a long time. However, such a seemingly ordinary thing as a photo cannot be opened without a viewer. But the problem will disappear by itself if you know what to look for.

Windows Photo Viewer

This is a standard Windows 7 program that is installed along with the operating system. Besides, this is the simplest one you can find. Its functionality is minimal:

• viewing images of all formats;
• automatic display of photos as a slide show;
• increase and decrease;
• Rotate the photo 360 degrees.

He is not capable of anything else. Although why do you need more if its only function is viewing pictures. And he copes with it perfectly. It is also worth noting that this Windows 7 image viewer, due to its simplicity, consumes a minimal amount of RAM, so it starts quickly and works like a clock.

Paint

The well-known standard drawing program for PC. Most often, this is where children begin their acquaintance with computers. However, it is also a good Windows image viewer for almost all common formats.

In addition to multiple drawing features, it has a very useful function of rotating and reflecting the image horizontally and diagonally. In addition, it can be used to save a graphic element in a different format.

Free

- FastStone Image Viewer. A very common image viewer, it has an intuitive interface and is easy to use. Everything is visible, almost all tool buttons are clear at first glance, the folder tree will help you find photos without leaving the program, thumbnails of pictures are shown.

In addition, the utility is notable for its great functionality for editing and minor processing of photos, as well as the ability to view them in full screen mode. In the same mode you can edit using the pop-up toolbar.

A distinctive feature of the program is the function of collective file renaming, it is called “Batch conversion\renaming”. For more convenient viewing, you can create a slide show with quite interesting settings (display in random order, use of effects and music, compress photos, etc.).

- Picasa. Also a very famous image viewer. It has a design that is both simple and sophisticated. When you open a picture, the editing panel immediately opens using filters (auto-light correction, retouching, removing red eyes, etc.). You can also experiment with colors, brightness, and contrast.

As in the previous program, there is a function for creating slide shows with the addition of various effects, transitions and music. However, this is not the main feature of Picasa. It is famous for its ability to find a specific person in a photo or group photos with a certain personality.

An excellent utility for viewing graphic files. Has a stylish modern design. Supports many well-known and not so well-known image formats. It can be controlled using hot keys, and it is also possible to write a caption for a photo. In addition, with its help, any picture can easily become wallpaper on your desktop.

This utility does not contain any serious editing functions. However, it is somewhat different from its relatives in that it does not need to be installed and is not case sensitive. Therefore, you can safely carry it on a flash drive and use it to view various kinds of images.

Microsoft Office program

The world-famous Microsoft Office software package is installed on almost every computer. It includes a large number of office utilities, including an image viewer. It's called Microsoft Office Picture Manager.

Its functionality is small, but it is enough for viewing photos and editing them a little. With it you can:

• flip or rotate the image;
• crop or change resolution;
• adjust color, brightness and contrast;
• remove red eye, etc.

This utility is capable of opening graphic elements in many formats. The only caveat is that the license for the software package from Microsoft is paid, and does not cost that little. But you can find a hacked office on torrents (however, this is highly undesirable, since using pirated programs can result in a hefty fine).

Which one is better to choose?

Of course, it is impossible to definitely say which is the best image viewer. It all depends on the user’s preferences, what functions he wants to see and what to do with the photo. But we can definitely say that it is useful to have a couple of different programs on your computer. For example, you can use a standard utility for simple viewing and Paint for minimal editing and resaving, and additionally install FastStone Image Viewer for advanced actions with graphic files.