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FastStone image viewer v2.4.

Over the years I have used several different image viewing programs, this is my current favorite.
It can be used as a browser to find images on your hard drive, it has an excellent fullscreen viewer and enough editing features to satisfy the average user.
All the common image file types are supported and it is possible to convert images to different file types. Using the advanced conversion settings gives a lot of control over the quality/file size balance and is very useful for optimizing images for the internet.

Editing features include, cropping, resizing, rotating, colour and brightness, sharpening, blurring, red eye removal and the ability to add text to an image, there are also a few visual effects.
Double clicking an image will open it in the fullscreen viewer, the various menus can be accessed by moving your mouse to the edges of the screen, double clicking again will take you back to the browser.

There is also a batch control for multiple image conversion, a very configurable slideshow and an excellent magnifying tool.
The program acquires images directly from cameras, scanners, etc, by using the devices own driver interfaces, in my experience this usually works better than the software supplied with the device.
Printing support is disappointingly limited, with only very basic options.

An interesting extra feature under settings - viewer, is the ability to create a portable version of the program, so that you can run it from a USB drive, or just copy it to another computer without having to use the installer.
The program is very intuitive to use, which is just as well, as the help file is a bit sparse. The best way to find out how it works, is to try everything, altered images are not changed on your hard drive until you choose save, so you can safely tinker with the controls.
An excellent program with lots of features and it's free, what more could you ask.

Freeware -- Download size 3Mb -- Win(all)

http://www.faststone.org/

XnView graphic viewer, editor and convertor v1.82.4

XnView can read over four hundred image formats and write to over sixty formats, it can also convert one image type to another.
The program can also view, edit, and resize images, view images as a slideshow, or create a thumbnail web page, it can even play videos and create a slideshow CD.
You explore the images on your hard drive as thumbnails using the split view tabbed browser and Twain support enables you to import images from scanners and cameras.

XnView has a vast amount of features and an attractive interface, it isn't quite as intuitive to use as some programs, but the excellent help file compensates for this slight shortcoming.

There are versions of XnView available for a very wide range of operating systems, it also comes in over forty languages.
The Windows version is available in several formats, from a full installer version at 3.47mb down through single language versions, to the minimal version at a petite 1.42Mb.
The minimal version does not require installing (just unzip and click on XnView.exe), it lacks the help file and jpeg 2000 formats and only has English, German and French languages, but apart from that seems to be as well featured as the full install.

Freeware -- Win 3x,9x,NT,2000,ME,XP, MacOS X, Linux, free/open/net BSD, Solaris sparc/x86

Note: for some reason not all the graphic formats are initially turned on, but a help tip will appear when the program first starts, telling you how to turn them on.

http://www.xnview.com/

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