FastStone Review: Features, Pros, & Best Alternatives

Introduction

FastStone has a bunch of tools like FastStone Image Viewer, FastStone Capture, etc.

Additionally, it is very simple to use. It has a nice variety of features, such as viewing, managing, comparing, removing red eyes, emailing, resizing, cropping, and color adjusting images. Other features include color adjusting.

Its full-screen mode is user-friendly and innovative, providing a thumbnail browser, providing instant access to EXIF information, and major functionalities via hidden toolbars.

You can also toggle full-screen mode. Image annotation, a magnifier of high quality, drop shadow effects, a music slideshow with more than 150 transitional effects, lossless JPEG transitions, and a histogram are all included in the package.

In addition, the package includes a histogram and support for scanners, support for scanners. Additionally, there is support for scanning. It is compatible with every common graphic file format, including BMP, JPEG 2000, JPEG, GIF, PNG, PCX, WMF, ICO, TIFF, and TGA, among others.

Features Of FastStone

1. FastStone Image Viewer

An image browser, converter, and editor that is capable of reading and editing all of the major graphic file formats, such as BMP, JPEG 2000, JPEG, GIF, PCX, PNG, TIFF, WMF, TGA, and ICO files, among others.

It has a wide variety of features, including management, comparison, removing red-eye, image viewing, emailing, cropping, resizing, color adjustments, musical slideshows, etc.

2. FastStone Capture

Lightweight, full-featured screen capture and annotation tool. This includes objects, windows, menus, rectangular/freehand regions, full screens, and scrolling windows/web pages. It records screen activities and sounds as video files.

3. FastStone MaxView

A lightning-quick, space-saving, and forward-thinking image viewer that is compatible with all of the major graphic formats. Its user-friendly interface enables you to view images in a variety of different ways.

It can view images directly from password-protected ZIP, 7-Zip, and RAR archives, making it ideal for viewing private images. It is a useful tool for viewing images, rotating them, resizing them, cropping them, adding annotations, and printing them out quickly.

4. FastStone Photo Resizer 

An image converter and renaming tool that provides users with the ability to convert images, rename images, resize images, crop images, rotate images, change the color depth of images, add text and watermarks, and do all of these things in an easy and quick batch mode.

FastStone Review

As a result of the fact that digital cameras and smartphones can now take hundreds of photos in a minute and store tens of thousands of gigabytes of video, we have all become rather fond of taking photographs, and photo software has found it difficult to keep up with the demand.

The majority of programs require a few seconds to display each JPEG while cycling through the day’s photos; however, they become unresponsive whenever you move video files. One company that makes an exception to this rule is FastStone.

The focus of the newest version of this program is to facilitate the quickest possible management of photos, videos, and folders. Large “batch” operations, such as converting, moving, or renaming multiple files, are now much faster than in Adobe’s pricey Lightroom. These operations let you convert, move, or rename multiple files simultaneously.

There are also discernible alterations, the most notable of which is the revamped full-screen video player. In a manner analogous to that of VLC, the playback-control bar will now automatically hide until you move the mouse again.

You can now use mouse gestures to skip to the next video, fast-forward 10 seconds within a video, or remember where you were in the playback position. You can also set a video to play in an infinite loop or have it automatically play the next file.

In the meantime, they have updated the program’s browser view to include a new field labeled “Specify date range,” which will assist you in maintaining command over those cumbersome import sessions.

Why I Choose FastStone

FastStone’s photo editor lets you crop, resize, straighten, add tags and watermarks, adjust color and exposure, create slideshows, configure print jobs, and remove blemishes. Even though the video player has editing buttons, you are unable to edit videos at this time. This minor issue can be fixed soon.

Aside from that, FastStone Image Viewer is an excellent program that packs more of a punch than its 16 MB weight and zero dollar price tag would indicate. Click the link and run the installer. It’s quick and clutter-free. Select “download” from “portable” in Windows XP and Vista.

• FastStone Image Viewer displays the folders and files on your computer thanks to its automatic integration with File Explorer. To play a video in the redesigned full-screen player, simply double-click on the video thumbnail.

• Right-clicking a video brings up options like Loop Current Video, Auto-Play Next Video, and Remember Last Position (enabled by default for videos longer than 10 seconds).

• You can show the playback controls by moving your mouse, and you can see the current time position by hovering your cursor over the controls. Move your mouse in any direction to advance to the next video (the default) or to jump forward 10 seconds. Press F12 to set up gestures.

• Move your cursor over the top to view the other files contained within the same folder.  To play an item, click its thumbnail, and clicking the Folder Tree will open the sidebar. Simply pressing Enter will bring up the Browser View and give you access to the import tools.

Thanks to optical character recognition technology, it is now much simpler to pull text from images. The optical recognition software employs a one-of-a-kind algorithm that facilitates extracting words from images.

Image-to-text converters are abundant on the internet and are in abundance. You are free to choose any one of these options at your discretion.

FastStone Pricing

The FastStone Image Viewer and the FastStone Photo Resizer: These are two programs that you can download free of charge for use in both personal and educational settings. In these circumstances, you will get permission to use these programs without paying a fee. However, a license is necessary for any use that is for profit.

FastStone Capture and FastStone MaxView are shareware: You are welcome to make free use of the software for one month. As soon as this trial period of 30 days is over, you will either buy a license to continue using it or promptly uninstall it from your computer.

Pros & Cons Of FastStone

You can create helpful training documents or compelling videos for YouTube with the assistance of the reliable screen capture program known as FastStone Capture.

Pros

• A comprehensive selection of functional implements
• Affordable in terms of purchase price

Cons

• Videos are only exported in WMV format.

FAQs

Q: Does FastStone support Apple Mac computers? 

Ans. Although FastStone Image Viewer is not available for Mac, there are a large number of other image viewers that are compatible with macOS and offer comparable features.

Q: Does Faststone take screenshots and record audio? 

Ans. FastStone lets you record microphone speech, on-screen changes, speaker audio, mouse movements, and clicks as highly compressed video files.

Q: How exactly do I view photo files on a Mac? 

Ans. When the Finder window for your home directory opens, navigate to the folder labeled “Pictures.”  Doubling-click the icon opens the file. Simply clicking and dragging the “Pictures” folder icon into the “Favorites” section of the Finder’s sidebar will make it much simpler for you to navigate to the “Pictures” folder in the future.

Q: Does the FastStone Image Viewer support opening HEIC files? 

Ans. On Windows 10, the answer is yes; it is compatible with the HEIC and WEBP file formats.