Years ago I started trying out a bunch of image programs, free and pro/DOS and post DOS GUI (IrfanView was an early GUI fav), and after a few
years of trying to find one I was satisfied with, I just gave up and settled with FastStone Image viewer. It was free and fairly simplistic, but just sophisticated enough to do most of what I wanted at the time.
Anyway, it's been a long time and I never could find a really good free one or a "reasonably" priced one for purchase to suit both the functions
I needed and presented in a style I really liked.
One of the programs I tried was XnView. I was not very attracted to it. .......Fast forward to now!
I contacted FastStone for the first time recently and was put off by what appears to be their essentially non-existent support. It got me to looking
once again, after all these years, at other progs. To my amazement, after taking another look at XnView, they have come leaps and bounds with
their fairly new enhanced/extended version "XnView MP" (the enh. version is also free, for personal use).
Of all that I've seen, it comes closest to an MM like feel and functionality. And it's free!!!
But it's not for someone looking for serious pro features like face recognition, depth analysis or extensive editing/paint, etc.
It's focus is mostly on organizing with XMP, IPTC tagging, user comment, detailed criteria search for Filename and image tags, classifications
(colored stars and dots), categories, tabbed browser, movable tabbed panes, extensive toolbar customization and many other features and tweaks.
Give it a whirl if you haven't already!
....as I don't believe MM will be looking into this anytime soon.
Years ago I started trying out a bunch of image programs, free and pro/DOS and post DOS GUI (IrfanView was an early GUI fav), and after a few
years of trying to find one I was satisfied with, I just gave up and settled with FastStone Image viewer. It was free and fairly simplistic, but just sophisticated enough to do most of what I wanted at the time.
Anyway, it's been a long time and I never could find a really good free one or a "reasonably" priced one for purchase to suit both the functions
I needed and presented in a style I really liked.
One of the programs I tried was XnView. I was not very attracted to it. .......Fast forward to now!
I contacted FastStone for the first time recently and was put off by what appears to be their essentially non-existent support. It got me to looking
once again, after all these years, at other progs. To my amazement, after taking another look at XnView, they have come leaps and bounds with
their fairly new enhanced/extended version "XnView MP" (the enh. version is also free, for personal use).
Of all that I've seen, it comes closest to an MM like feel and functionality. And it's free!!!
But it's not for someone looking for serious pro features like face recognition, depth analysis or extensive editing/paint, etc.
It's focus is mostly on organizing with XMP, IPTC tagging, user comment, detailed criteria search for Filename and image tags, classifications
(colored stars and dots), categories, tabbed browser, movable tabbed panes, extensive toolbar customization and many other features and tweaks.
Give it a whirl if you haven't already!
....as I don't believe MM will be looking into this anytime soon. :wink: