What program to watch photos. Photo processing software. Which one is better to choose
When choosing the optimal program for working with images from our selection, we advise you to determine the level of your needs and the main purpose of the potentially used software.
- Movavi Photo Editor doesn't sit you down for learning how to work with the editor, but gives you access to all the features you need. Now, in order to remove an extra element from the photo, change the background, correct colors, apply an effect or redo the makeup, hair color of the character of the picture, you do not have to turn to the "insiders" for help. The simple and intuitive Movavi photo editor does everything in two clicks. Try it. This is the best photo processing software designed for semi-professional tasks. In fact, it is a convenient home photography studio.
- The photo master does not differ in the same advanced tools as Photoshop CC, Paintshop Pro and other famous counterparts, but it works faster and has all the necessary functions for high-quality photo processing at home. The program is designed for beginners and advanced users, contains detailed instructions on all the nuances of editing.
- Home Photo Studio is a symbiosis of Photo Master and FS Lightroom. It supports layers, knows how to save projects, works with Photoshop files, contains built-in tools for editing, cropping, correcting, printing wizard and creating collages. The program will be a good choice for photographers who are not ready to pay for a professional editor, but who want to learn how to work with high quality images.
- The GIMP will become a good free tool for image processing, but the utility does not contain the most accessible interface in terms of simplicity, so if you are a beginner, we recommend staying on the identical and more understandable Paint.NET or PixBuilder Studio, or be patient and learn how to process images in Gimpe ...
- Picasa will appeal to fans of implementing content for further posting on social networks. If you are interested in a photo processing application that can bring amateur animation to life, try Photoscape.
- Krita will allow you to embody your creative ideas, but for its comfortable operation you will need at least minimal knowledge of similar software. The free version of the image editor is especially popular among artists and illustrators along with other well-known Painttool Sai product and the commercial Corel Painter.
- ACDSee will provide you with a professional set of tools, the developer distributes these products for a fee with the opportunity to get acquainted with a trial version. If you are solely interested in correcting red-eye, applying filters, effects and other primitive methods of retouching, it is better to download a simpler photo processing program. CorelDRAW is an equally advanced tool for advanced users. Both photo processing programs are demanding on computer resources, but at the same time they will endow you with extensive functionality with which free counterparts cannot compete.
- Lightroom will appeal to fans of creating albums from original images and viewing rich slides. Works both within the PC and online to speed up the uploading of your projects to various web resources.
- Adobe Photoshop is the most popular software in its category, there is probably no professional photographer in the world who would not use Photoshop, here you can not only quickly improve the landscapes themselves, but also implement a full-fledged photo change: eliminate face defects, background errors and much more.
Unfortunately, within the framework of one review it is impossible to consider all the specialized software, so we also recommend reading ours. There you will find descriptions of popular tools such as Hornil Stylepix, Zoner Photo Studio, Photoinstrument 7.4, Lightbox Free Image Editor. Profile tools for processing presentations and photos Adobe Illustrator, Photo editor Photoshine 4.9.4, Photo Show Pro 7.0 are presented on the site as separate materials.
Now let's see what to use to view images on a computer, choose the best photo viewers for Windows. The best photo viewer is a subjective concept, so I will offer in the article several applications with which you can open popular graphic formats for viewing and processing images.
Any user, when working on a computer, inevitably comes across pictures, images, photographs. In any case, files of graphic formats will get to your computer, so you need a program to open and view them. Therefore, a photo viewer is required on the computer for easy viewing of 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 from a photo, etc. In previous versions of Windows, the Windows Image Viewer application was used. User can install Windows Image Viewer in Windows 10, in addition to the Photos program.
There is a free Photo Gallery application that is included with the core components of Windows Live. Photo album supports photo opening and editing. The program must be installed on a computer (it is not included in the OS).
In addition to applications produced by Microsoft, a large number of third-party programs for viewing and editing images have been created. In this article, we will look at the best free programs - image viewers, which have many additional built-in tools for working with files of graphic formats.
Third-party photo viewers (viewers) can be used on your computer, as an alternative to standard Windows tools. As the best free image viewer software, I recommend looking at the following programs: FastStone Image Viewer, XnView, IrfanView, Ashampoo Photo Commander Free, Honeyview. These programs work in Russian in the Windows operating system.
These applications, in addition to basic functions, have tools for editing images. For more serious editing of pictures, you will need another program - an image editor (photo).
The best photo viewers, in addition to the viewing function, have the additional capabilities necessary to work with images on a computer. The programs have built-in tools for performing various operations with digital photos or any other images: rotate, resize, remove red-eye, image, color correction, convert to other formats, send to print, etc.
The free Picasa program (which would be included in this review) was left outside 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 image viewing and processing program with a simple, intuitive interface. Built-in tools will help the user to solve certain problems with photography: remove red-eye, resize images, apply color correction, convert files, etc.
For downloading, we offer a regular version of FastStone Image Viewer or a portable version of the program that does not require installation on a computer.
Key features of FastStone Image Viewer:
- Opening graphic files of basic formats
- Editing digital photos and graphic files
- Large number of built-in tools for working with images
- Batch processing of files
- Batch convert to another format
- Create a slide show with transitions and effects
- Preview function
XnView
XnView is a free program (for non-commercial use) for viewing images, multimedia files, converting files to other formats. It is a quality photo management software for 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 perfectly cope with 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 over 500 formats
- Photo editing
- Applying filters and effects
- Screen capture
- Batch conversion
- Editing metadata
- Convert files to 70 file formats
- Support for viewing video and audio files, archives, documents
- Create slideshow
- Supported plugins to expand the capabilities of the program
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 editing photos.
You can download it from the developer's official website as an installation file or as a portable version.
Features of the Honeyview program:
- Support for a large number of graphic formats
- RAW format support
- Viewing images in archives
- Viewing photos in slideshow mode
- Bookmark favorite photos
- Support GPS data in photos
Conclusion
The user can choose the best Windows photo viewer for his computer. Free software: FastStone Image Viewer, XnView, IrfanView, Ashampoo Photo Commander Free, Honeyview, are among the best image viewers in this class of software.
Our selection contains the best applications for viewing photos, which, despite their free distribution, have high-quality functionality and capabilities on a par with commercial software. Viewers of graphic images in their arsenal have options for converting and renaming images, creating photo albums for writing to discs, uploading them to the Web, etc.
The utilities we are considering are also editors with a set of tools for processing photographs, removing unnecessary elements and applying interesting filters. Our review will help you choose the right digital image viewer for your needs.
Programs |
Russian language |
License |
Slide show |
Rating |
Seal |
Sorting |
| Yes | Free of charge | Yes | 10 | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Free of charge | Yes | 10 | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Free of charge | Yes | 10 | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Free of charge | Yes | 9 | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Free of charge | Yes | 10 | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Free of charge | Yes | 9 | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Trial | Yes | 10 | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Trial | Yes | 10 | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Free of charge | Yes | 10 | Yes | Yes | |
| Yes | Free of charge | No | 7 | Yes | No |
The application allows you to view photos in various modes, convert them to the desired format and edit images using a set of useful tools. The utility is one of the fastest among similar viewers, easily opens objects of less common formats, recognizes audio and video, and can also expand the boundaries of its capabilities by adding plugins. The user can extract sections of the selected area image and image icons, view images as a thumbnail image, create screenshots and use convenient auto-correction.
The program combines the basic functions for editing and processing images of various graphic formats and digital RAW. The user can apply watermarks to the image, work with size, color and unnecessary fragments of images, auto-enhance, batch processing and red-eye removal. In addition, you can create bar charts, business cards and slideshows with music, include a magnifying glass, and add comments. The application is compatible with the scanner.
One of the best programs for viewing and editing graphic images. Can convert files, modify images, create photo albums, set passwords on photos, write the resulting material to disk or print. You can also resave from one format to another, work with multiple formats, remove red-eye from the picture and view photos in a slide show. In addition, the user can take advantage of interesting filters and effects.
Free Google product for quick search, PC browsing and image editing. Finds images available on a computer and, using a large set of tools and interesting effects, retouches them, creates collages, slideshows. The user can crop, remove "red-eye", improve the quality of images, adjust the color and shadow, as well as alignment in height and width. Uploading photos and clips to Google+ will help you quickly display material in the feed, and the compare option will allow you to evaluate the initial and final results of the processed image. Also, Pikasa organizes images and finds them in a common database by tags, faces, geolocation or other parameters of the specified sorting.
The utility allows you to view and edit images using a large set of quality tools. The viewer opens more than 400 formats, converts files, works with different operating systems and installs new modules. For processing, the user has access to interesting effects and tools, capturing pictures, creating slideshows and web pages, going to search and choosing skins. With the help of plugins, integration into the Total Commander shell is possible, and the presence of Nero on the PC will help to write drawings to disks directly from the software. Photo gallery and web page creation is available.
A free product from Nero for searching media files, playing and burning to DVD, Blu-Ray and CD. The utility helps to quickly find the necessary files in the media directory, open them, create images and write them to media. In addition, you can "upload" material to the Web, record images in several formats, edit photos and create a slideshow or video presentation. Nero Quick works with most formats, recognizes faces and has a large set of powerful tools.
This utility allows you to quickly view and edit photos with high quality, sort home collections according to different criteria and upload pictures to resources. The editor is practically on a par with its paid counterparts, it intelligently organizes collections of photographs, removes "red eyes", has options for adjusting the color depth, palette and adding text. Available to create 3D buttons, layouts, collages, apply effects and fine-tune the parameters. Processed images can be synchronized with the mobile version of the software. The free version runs for 30 days.
The application will help you organize your photos correctly, create albums, collections, automatically sort and apply various effects to your photos. With the help of Karambis, you can create a convenient photo library not only for viewing on a PC, but also for using in software for viewing pictures or in social networks. There is a smart search, sorting by date and location. You can load GPS tracks and overlay them on the image, apply filters, share material by mail and adjust various quality enhancement settings. You can evaluate the trial version for 30 days.
We often need to view photographs or other images on a computer. This can be a home photo album, or various materials for professional activities. When choosing a particular program for viewing images, each user relies on their personal needs and preferences.
Let's take a look at the pros and cons of various graphics file viewing applications to determine which one is best for you.
One of the most popular digital imaging software is Faststone Image Viewer. It gained popularity due to its versatility and support for a large number of formats. In this application, you can not only view photos, but also edit them. There is a built-in file manager. Faststone Image Viewer is completely free for non-commercial use.
Among the shortcomings, one should single out the relatively large size of the program, and a certain complexity in management. But these disadvantages are incomparable with the merits of the product.
XnView
The XnView image viewer is very similar in its capabilities to the above application. But, unlike it, it can work not only on computers with the Windows operating system, but also on other platforms. This program has extended plugin support. In addition, XnView allows you not only to view images, but also to play files of audio and video formats.
The application has few drawbacks. These include a large number of functions that are not needed by an ordinary user, and a lot of weight.
IrfanView
Irfan View differs from previous programs in that this application, having almost the same capabilities, weighs very little.
True, not every user will like the rather ascetic interface design. In addition, to Russify IrfanView, you will need to make additional efforts by installing the plugin.
Imagine
A distinctive feature of the Imagin program is its extremely low weight (less than 1 MB). At the same time, all the basic functions that are present in viewers and image editors are available in it.
But, it is worth noting that some of the features that more "heavy" programs have are not available in Imagine. This product works on Windows, including Windows 10, but does not function on other platforms.
Picasa
Picasa cross-platform application, in addition to functions for viewing and editing images, has extensive social opportunities for the exchange of photos between users. This viewer has a unique feature that allows you to recognize the faces of people in pictures.
The main drawback of the program is that the company Google, which is its developer, announced the end of support for Picas, that is, the project is currently closed.
ACDSee
ASDSi has wider functionality than the above listed programs. It has additional capabilities for working with cameras, and also applies advanced integration in the explorer menu.
At the same time, there is no Russification in the official version of ACDSee. In addition, unlike the above applications, the full version is paid.
FastPictureViewer
The main feature of FastPictureViewer is the ability to use hardware acceleration and other advanced technologies for faster processing of "heavy" photos. In addition, the program has advanced color reproduction capabilities, making it one of the best for viewing high definition images.
At the same time, the developers, focusing on the quality of playback, abandoned additional functionality. In particular, FastPictureViewer cannot perform even light image editing. The period of free use of the program is limited.
Zoner Photo Studio
Zoner Photo Studio has a completely different focus. This is a real harvester for working with digital images. In addition to viewing photos, the application has advanced features for editing, processing and organizing them. The program also supports non-graphic multimedia formats.
Among the shortcomings should be called a rather difficult control, especially for beginners. You can use it for free for only 1 month.
Ashampoo Photo Commander
Ashampoo Photo Commander is another combine for working with photos, which has a fairly large set of functions for processing them. Unlike Zoner Photo Studio, the operation of this product is more intuitive for the average user.
The disadvantages include the very large size of the program. The app has a limited period of free use.
Universal Viewer
A feature of Universal Viewer is support for playing various file formats, not just graphic ones (video, audio, text, etc.). The application has fairly simple controls.
But, the possibilities for playing files in this universal program are still more limited than in specialized solutions.
PSD Viewer
PSD Viewer differs from other viewers in that it supports displaying PSD files, which most similar products cannot.
However, unlike Universal Viewer, PSD Viewer supports viewing a very limited number of graphic formats. In addition to images in PSD, and some other graphic formats created specifically for Adobe Photoshop, this program cannot reproduce other images. PSD Viewer does not have a Russian-language interface.
We have reviewed the most popular photo viewers. As you can see, they are quite diverse, which allows the user to choose the one that best suits his tastes and tasks.
Have you switched to the new Windows 10 operating system, but didn't like viewing photos through the new program? Then let's return the good old standard "viewer" as in Windows 7 or 8.1.
You won't be able to download the standard photo viewer in Windows 10 from previous versions, and why, because it is already in the system. You just need to activate it.
The standard photo viewer for Windows 10 is already installed in the system, you just need to use it!
Where is it - Windows 10 Photo Viewer? And how can I set it as the main one for viewing a photo? Go!
How to open pictures in Windows 10 through preview
We make changes to the registry.
1) Start - System Windows - Run (or by holding down the Win + R keys). We write regedit - we call the Windows registry.
Attention! The registry is an important element of Windows. Do not change anything unnecessary here. For every fireman, we recommend making a Windows restore point (backup).
2) Once in the registry window, go to the folder:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE / Microsoft / Windows Photo Viewer / Capabilities / FileAssociations
There are only 2 image formats added for the photo viewer: tiff and tif.
3) Right-click on an empty space and select New - String parameter. We sign the name.jpeg
4) Click the left mouse button twice on the created name and in the Value field enter: PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Tiff
Next OK.
5) Create names as in paragraph 3 for other types of files, namely for: .jpg, .png, .gif and any others, for example .ico and .bmp. All have the same value: PhotoViewer.FileAssoc.Tiff
As a result, you get the following picture:
Customizing Photo Viewer in Windows 10
6) Start - Settings (or Win + i) - System - Applications by default - Set default values for the application (link below).
If the default Applications item is not in the list, then in the search box on the top left (Find parameter) write Applications and the required item will appear in the drop-down list.
7) On the left in the list of programs, select Windows Photo Viewer and click Select defaults for this program.
If you have a slightly different window (the usual list of programs), then find the Photo Viewer in it, click once and select Manage. Then select the required program for all file formats.
9) Now click on any image in the .jpg, .png, .gif or .jpeg format with the right mouse button - Open with - Select another application (or select an application).
Select Windows Photo Viewer from the list and tick the Always use this application checkbox.
Bottom line. In such a simple way, in 5-10 minutes, you can permanently install the standard Photo Viewer for Windows 10, which was in Windows 7 and 8.1.