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Originally published at Internet.comACDSee is an extremely quick graphics image viewer with support for a wide variety of graphics formats, including JPEG, BMP, GIF, PCD, PCX, PNG, TGA and TIF images. If you simply want to view images without modifying them, ACDSee is arguably your best bet. ACDSee beats LView Pro and most other graphics viewers hands down in terms of image viewing performance.
Part of this performance is illusionary - by displaying images while decompressing, ACDSee appears to load images quicker than an image viewer that has to wait until the entire image is uncompressed before displaying it. A more important factor in the performance gap, though, is the fact that ACDSee uncompresses files better than other image viewers, thereby loading and displaying images much
It's All About Speed
ACDSee also incorporates thumbnail image previews, giving you the opportunity to see what you'll be uncompressing beforehand. When combined with the integrated image browser, there is no faster way to access and view images than in ACDSee. The image browser present a directory tree view of your directories and files and includes a full-color display for quickly previewing images in a directory.
Additional features in ACDSee include file descriptions, image decompression statistics (i.e. how long it takes to decode and display an image), an automatic slideshow presentation format for displaying multiple images (including reverse and random capabilities), a detailed status bar, and floating/dockable
ACDSee 4
The latest major release of ACDSee, version 4.0, delivers a completely redesigned, highly customizable user interface with a new Activity Wizard and an expanded file browsing area (to full screen). New features in ACDSee 4 include support for ten new multimedia formats; new sound, text, transition effects and advanced timing for slide shows; catalog photos from CDs, new advanced filtering options, multimedia management improvements and additional editing functions; and SendPix Image Sharing Service enhancements. A complete listing of the new feature additions and enhancements in v4.0 is available here.
ACDSee 3
ACDSee 3.0 is a major upgrade for the client in every sense of the word. In fact, no other release of ACDSee has integrated so many new features and added so much new functionality. New additions in v3.0 include:
ACD Photo Enhancer with image manipulation tools, filters, and special effects
for improving the look of your digital photos and Web graphics;
SendPix e-mail plug-in that allows you to send pictures to your friends via e-mail;
A Thumbnails Generator that also generates accompanying HTML code;
A new Plug-in Architecture that allows third parties to develop a variety of plug-ins
for ACDSee, including plug-ins for image decoding and encoding, archive
extraction, digital camera support, and more;
TWAIN Acquire for transferring images from scanners, digital cameras, and similar
devices to ACDSee;
Ability to play multimedia files in image browser (AVI, MID, MOV, MP3, MPG,
and WAV files);
An enhanced find function that displays results in the image browser's file list;
Support for Kodak, HP, and Olympus digital cameras,
Lossless horizontal and vertical flipping of JPEG images;
Transparent browsing, viewing, searching, and slide show viewing inside of ZIP and
LZH archives (with support for subfolders and nested archives);
Support for a large number of graphics formats like ANI, ART, AVI, CUR, EPS, FPX,
ICO, MPG, PBM, PGM, PCT, PPM, RAS, XBM, and XPM;
Floating/dockable resizable control panes;
and much more.
With so many new features it's easy to see why ACDSee's footprint quadrupled from just over one MB to 4 MBs with the release of version 3.0. The upgrade has also elevated ACDSee past several other graphics tools on our list. ACDSee continues to be our graphics viewer of choice, and its new Photo Enhancer tools only add to the equation by introducing basic image manipulation capabilities for the first
ACDSee Classic
Still, for those less interested in image browsing and manipulation features, ACDSee 3.0 probably offers more than you're looking for, especially with its increased price tag of $49.95. If you're instead looking more for a graphics app that excels strictly in its image viewing capabilities - one like earlier releases of ACDSee, for example - there's a new option from ACDSystems that is sure to please.
ACDSee Classic is a new release of ACDSee that is actually built on the v2.x codebase. This release retains the lightning-quick image viewing capabilities that have made ACDSee so popular, and it does so at a slightly more affordable price of $34.95. While you won't find any of the new version 3.0 features in ACDSee Classic, you will find one of the best image viewing and previewing tools this side of Irfan
Overall
Despite its lightning-quick image viewing capabilities, ACDSee should not be confused with an image editing program like Paint Shop Pro or Adobe Photoshop. And despite the addition of the ACD Photo Enhancer in the 3.0 release, ACDSee's image manipulation tools still pale in comparison to these types of programs. But if you're looking for an app whose sole purpose is to display graphics as quickly as possible, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better client than ACDSee.
Author: Forrest Stroud
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