14 DAY TRIAL // ViewIt
ViewIt reminds me very much of Safari. Simple, fast and efficient offering those tools you really need and none of the useless ones.
After copying the program to my hard drive and launching it, the first thing that stuck me was that it opened a folder and automatically parsed it for subfolders, loading every single image within. The load time was extremely small and I had to reopen to actually feel it because it showed me the first picture it found straight away. So I decided to see just how fast it was?and decided to load my entire photo folder for this year. Over 1200 1280*960 images were loaded within a 14-15 second time span, and bear in mind that I could parse through the loaded ones right away.
The loading is very fast indeed, and the transition from one image to the next is very prompt, even with large files. I proceeded to browse through the images and found the interface so intuitive and easy to use it was like I had been using it forever. The UI is basically a small toolbar at the bottom of the screen, and the icons are relevant and pleasantly aquafied. It offers the normal functions you would expect form this type of program such as rotate, flip and zoom as well as slideshow and full screen mode.
As I was browsing I noticed that the toolbar slides discreetly out of the way when you use the yes and there is no mouse movement, and that there is also a scrub bar located above it. Now, scrubbing through 1200 images I did not think it could handle without either crashing or freezing up my system, but it did just fine. When scrubbing, five thumbnails are shown in the middle of the screen, and as you scrub, it only loads the thumbnails. Granted, it did have a load time as it displayed those thumbnails but only if you scrubbed really fast. The five thumbnails are embedded in a celluloid film like interface and on the sides of this you can see your overall position in reference to all the pictures loaded at the moment.
Next I looked at the thumbnail view. Nothing spectacular, but the thumbnails were generated fast enough and I noticed that the pictures I had scrubbed through already had them. After letting it generate thumbnails for every image, scrubbing was instant.
I didn't think there would be many more pleasant surprises, the program had already sold itself. But then I took a look at the tools menu. A lot of different options from converting to another image format to emailing the pictures, complete with batch resize but the option that really shines is the destinations.
You can configure 8 destination folders and have the program move or copy the current picture to one of them by simply pressing the corresponding F1-F8 key. You can even send images to the trash directly and after copying or moving an image, the program automatically advances to the next one. I even discovered the option to mark images then removing any unmarked ones, very handy if you want to clean up a messy image folder.
The Good
It does everything an image viewer should, fast and clean, and is extremely useful when you need to clean up a folder using destinations and marks.
The Bad
I understand why it does not need any image editing tools, but t does not save any rotation/flip to the images and this is a bit annoying.
The Truth
One of the best image viewers out there, the shareware price might be a bit steep but it's worth every penny.
Here are some pictures of the little beast in action, click to enlarge:
