ACDSee

ACDSee -- ACDSee is an extremely quick graphics image viewer, supporting JPEG, BMP, GIF, PCD, PCX, PNG, TGA and TIF image type formats. If you want to view images without modifying them, this client may be your best bet. ACDSee beats LView Pro 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 quicker. ACDSee also incorporates thumbnail images, giving you the opportunity to see what you'll be uncompressing beforehand. Additional features include file descriptions, image decompression statistics, an automatic slideshow presentation format for multiple images (including reverse and random capabilities), a new status bar, and a new toolbar. While a great image viewing program, ACDSee cannot manipulate an image in any way (even for quick resizing or cropping). A recently released version for Windows 95 gives native 32-bit image viewing power to both Windows 95 and Windows NT (3.51) users. Pros: Extremely quick image decompression, fastest graphics viewer available Cons: Can't perform any image manipulation tasks New for '3.x: Batch image printing, reverse and random slide show capabilities, more New for '95: Windows 95 release (now runs on Windows NT 4.0 too), improved installation, more Version Reviewed: Win 3.1 - 1.31 Official Release. Win 95 - 1.0 Beta 7 Date of Review: 7/4/96 Reviewer: Forrest Stroud