FastPictureViewer 1.00 (Build 116) is a Image Viewer product from fastpictureviewer.com, get 5 Stars SoftSea Rating, FastPictureViewer is a small and fast image viewer, so simple compared to usual viewers that its purpose might not be immediately apparent. The software is optimized to do just one task: browse entire folders of digital photos as quickly as possible, while allowing for rapid sharpness checks (instant flip to 100% view) and enabling single-click copy of the keepers to a preset folder, along with single-keystroke Adobe XMP and Vista rating / labeling. A small EXIF panel coupled with an instant, high-precision RGB histogram give you all the information you need about the picture.
That's about it, but it makes for one of the fastest image culling tool available, also ideal for full-screen chimping directly off the camera (or memory card) over USB2. Of course FastPictureViewer can just as well be used for speed-browsing, rating or labeling an existing picture collection, but it does not offer any image editing, enhancing or cataloging function, it's just a bare bone quick photo viewer.

FastPictureViewer helps you work faster by taking advantage, when available, of the power of multicore processors and the speed of DirectX (Direct3D) graphic accelerators, all working in concert to speed up viewing experience to unprecedented levels. FastPictureViewer also features first class support for the upcoming HD Photo / JPEG XR image format with rating metadata reading and writing.

With more than 30'000 downloaded copies (as of early June 2008) and given the fantastic feedback we get from our users, we can say with confidence that FastPictureViewer is, by a large factor, the quickest image viewer in existence on the PC. We've put "fast" back into "fast image viewing", you have to try it for yourself to see what we mean here.

Main features:

- Vista support (runs as Standard User with UAC enabled).
- Unicode support, handles image and folder names in any written language.
- Color management let you see your Adobe RGB or ProPhoto RGB images with accurate colors.
- Support for custom target color profiles to match calibrated monitors.
- High precision linear R,G,B histogram with optional compression and per-channel normalization.
- EXIF shooting data display with shutter speed, f-stop, ISO speed, exposure compensation and more.
- Instant flip to the next image using either the keyboard, a mouse click or a scroll of the mouse wheel.
- Easy browsing of tens of thousands (yes!) of images at a time, even in deeply nested sub-folder hierarchies.
- Instant switch between fit-to-window and 100% mode views from a single key press, with optional high-quality image rescaling.
- Adobe XMP sidecar files writing (stores rating, labels, urgency settings in Adobe XMP-compliant metadata format).
- Embedded metadata writer for JPEG/TIFF/HD Photo/JPEG-XR files (Adobe XMP rating/labeling and Windows Vista rating).
- Mouse 'click-and-hold' instantaneous 100% zoom and configurable instantaneous 50%-6400% right-click magnifier.
- Seamless multiple-subfolders browsing, in one single continuous sequence (easily browse an entire drive or CD/DVD at once).
- Drag & drop support, drop a folder or a set of files on FastPictureViewer to quickly view them.
- Single-click or single keystroke background copy of the "keepers" to a preset folder, without disruption of the viewing flow.
- Plug'n'play integration with optional automatic browsing of inserted media or digital camera: view images straight off the camera.
- Shell integration with "Open with FastPictureViewer..." context-menu options for local folders and drives.
- Supports file associations from Windows Explorer ("Open With...") to e.g. associate JPEGs with FastPictureViewer.exe
- Instant automatic detection of new images added anywhere to the folder tree, while you browse (real-time "hot folder" concept).
- Multi-monitor awareness and huge monitor support, with full-screen borderless kiosk mode available at the press of the F11 key.

FastPictureViewer does all of the above in style, with the slickest, most uncluttered user interface you've seen in ages. The Home Basic edition, which supports JPEG, Microsoft HD Photo / JPEG XR, Adobe XMP rating, Vista rating, RGB histogram, EXIF shooting data display and Unicode is available free of charge for home use (freeware license). The freeware version can be used indefinitely for as long as you keep it up-to-date by installing the most current version every 3 months.

Unlike some very well known, well-established (and old) digital photo viewers, commercial and free alike, FastPictureViewer was deliberately kept as simple as possible, it has one menu with six commands including Exit and three buttons on the task bar, so you'll learn how to use it in 30 seconds flat instead of weeks. We think an image viewer does not need 200+ menu options and a dozen pages choke full of configurations buttons and choice lists, typical of applications that began as outstanding ideas and eventually grew completely out of control. Of course, FastPictureViewer will evolve and functions will be added in the future, but we strive to keep it as minimalist and simple to use as possible (beside also being the fastest). We won't fall into the usual feature creep and bloat traps so common nowadays and we also seek to keep the bug count as low as possible, instead of adding as many features as we can.

FastPictureViewer Professional Edition features first class TIFF support with metadata embedding, multiple file format awareness (image stacks, where JPEG+RAW or JPEG+TIFF, for example, are displayed, copied or moved as one) and fast RAW image previewing for select top digital cameras, including the newest and outstandingest such as Nikon's D3, D300, Canon's EOS-1D MkIII, EOS-1Ds MkIII[**] and Adobe DNG format (Hasselblad, Leica...) through Adobe's own DNG decoder or a 3rd-party commercial decoder. A list of codec developers is available on the Microsoft Pro Photo website. FastPictureViewer aim is to support as many images formats as possible, please check the format compatibility chart for detailled information about current support.

How fast is it?
It depends on a number of things, such as the computer speed, amount of memory, disk speed and of course the image's sizes. For multimedia-sized photos or so-called web-ready images, a user reported that the software appears to be quicker than his keyboard auto-repeat set to 'fast', that is, FastPictureViewer is seemingly able to display more than 30 such images per second. How fast is that?

On a 3-years old 2.66GHz dual processor machine with 2GB of memory, another user was able to display 4MP JPEG images - such as those obtained when shooting RAW+JPEG Small, a popular setup with pro photographers - at a sustained rate of approximately 5 images per second, with short 30 images per second bursts after letting the software breath a short bit from time to time. This is a lot quicker than any editor or reviewer could ever dream of on any platform, and also a lot quicker than any other viewer in existence.

Of course your mileage may vary as many factors influence the display and loading speed, but FastPictureViewer was engineered for maximum performances from the word go, it should perform very well on any recent computer. On the other hand, Formula 1 cars don't give their best on go-kart tracks and FastPictureViewer really shines on high-end hardware. The license of this graphic software is Free Trial Software, the price is $29.90, you can free download and get a free trial before you buy. If you want to get a full or nolimited version of FastPictureViewer, you can buy this graphic software.