An image viewer for Windows that's faster than Irfanview.
February 7, 2006 1:51 PM   Subscribe

I'm looking for a fast image viewer for Windows. It should preload upcoming images and let you advance to the next image before the current one finishes loading. I don't think the answer is Irfanview.

ACDSee 3 had both features I mention, but it's been replaced by less efficient versions and version 3 itself (which I still use) is buggy under Windows XP.

I've tried Irfanview, xnView, and Faststone Maxview, and they're great software generally, but they're still not as fast as old ACDSee 3. Perhaps there's some tweak to these viewers that I've missed.
posted by Yogurt to Computers & Internet (15 answers total)
 
For quick viewing, without image editing, try Abracadabra. While it doesn't edit images it will edit text. It has a directory tree on the left hand side which is collapsible and it quickly displays most image formats. I believe it is still free, but my version is ancient.
posted by caddis at 2:01 PM on February 7, 2006


I use ACDSee Classic under XP with no bugs.
posted by smackfu at 2:01 PM on February 7, 2006


link
posted by caddis at 2:11 PM on February 7, 2006


Response by poster: Smackfu: One concern I have with ACDSee Classic is that it doesn't handle Windows XP's alphabetizing, so cat10 will appear before cat2. This doesn't work well with some of our digital photos.

Caddis: Thanks, I'll check out Abracadabra. You raise a good point too -- I don't need any image editing features. For that, I still have Irfanview or Photoshop.
posted by Yogurt at 2:12 PM on February 7, 2006


I use xnView because it's free, and I had to tweak the options a bit to get it working the way I wanted. There is one option in there to preload the next image but you have to enable it (I wonder why it's disabled by default.) This makes it load things pretty fast.
posted by madman at 2:13 PM on February 7, 2006


I haven't seen it for awhile, but I remember Polyview as being a very good slideshow program.
posted by Malor at 2:20 PM on February 7, 2006


Response by poster: xnView does preload, but it won't stop loading an image partway through, so you can't quickly flip through a folder of images. Abracadabra and Polyview don't preload as far as I can tell.

It seems I have an idiosyncratic view about what makes a good image editor! I may have to stick with ACDSee and lump whatever small problems I have with it.
posted by Yogurt at 2:54 PM on February 7, 2006


I'm using an odd program called Paperstore to view images rapidly.
posted by JohnR at 3:18 PM on February 7, 2006


ThumbsPlus.
posted by meehawl at 5:27 PM on February 7, 2006


Best answer: Compupic from photodex has always seemed very quick to me; it comes in several different versions "Pro, regular, and Lite".

It's shareware, so you can download a 30-day demo.
posted by IvyMike at 7:40 PM on February 7, 2006


Response by poster: Compupic seems to have everything I was looking for: preload, load next without waiting, and different ways of sorting alphabetically.

Plus, it's got a few extra features I think I'll find useful, and the insta-zoom makes me feel like I'm in Hollywood spyflick. Thanks IvyMike!
posted by Yogurt at 8:49 PM on February 7, 2006


Response by poster: Even the lite version of Compupic costs money though, so other people may want to stick to Irfanview or xnView, which really are excellent programs for the most part...
posted by Yogurt at 8:51 PM on February 7, 2006


Best answer: Acdsee seems like more of a memory hog and Irfanview seems primitive. Check out Firegraphic which I have been very happy with.
posted by JJ86 at 6:48 AM on February 8, 2006


Response by poster: Firegraphic is very speedy and it does everything I hoped. Thanks for the suggestion. Offhand, do you know how to remove the toolbar from the "full screen" view? It autohides after a few seconds, but reappears with every new image.
posted by Yogurt at 1:38 PM on February 8, 2006


Offhand, do you know how to remove the toolbar from the "full screen" view?
Under the View menu, just uncheck "Toolbar". It will be gone for good then.
posted by JJ86 at 2:21 PM on February 8, 2006


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