PicViewPlus achieves its ease of use by concentrating on features that you want when displaying a set of picture files. By design, it omits complicated and confusing features associated with picture editing, such as "red eye" adjustment, as these editing tasks are best handled by commercial picture editing programs (such as Adobe Photoshop Elements). Instead, its full emphasis is on giving you the all the features you need to maximize your picture viewing enjoyment.

Who is this for?
This program is ideal for you if you

• want a full capability picture viewing program that's easy to use
• want to get the maximum value out of each picture you have
• have dozens of digital pictues, from a scanner or digital camera
• have a computer running Windows 98 or later operating system
• are at least somewhat familiar with running computer software
• are somewhat familiar with the terms pan and zoom

March, 2005
The full evaluations/reviews now have something new. After the evaluation summary, there is now a heading titled "Other Reviews". At this time, only Download.com reviews and CNET User Reviews are referenced. If I find more reviews, I'll add links to them.

February, 2005
Quite a few of the picture display programs had updates during the past year. Those that did are summarized below. In addition, the text within the summaries was better organized so that key information could be more easily located.

Program Reviews Updated:

• ACDSee went from version 5 to 7, and the review was extensively rewritten.
• Firehand Ember went from version 6.1.2 to 7.
• ImageExpert/Jasc After Shot/Paint Shop Pro PhotoAlbum 4 is now Jasc PhotoAlbum 5, and has a new review.
• Irfanview has had updates. Also, its review was completely rewritten.
• PhotoRelay's review was extensively edited.
• PhotoShow went from version 2 to 3, and its review was completely redone.
• Photo Story 3 is now available, and is free.
• Picasa was bought out by Google and became Picasa 2.
• PolyView went from version 3.93 to 4.22. Many more camera "raw" picture files can now be processed.
• Power Slides seems to have disappeared, and so has been removed from the evaluation list.
• S-PicView 2.07 is now Photo-Lux 3.3. Picture frames are a newly added feature.
• VuePrint Pro 8.0 - No program change, but substantial edits were made
• XnView 1.74 - Noted the wide variety of picture file formats

New Program Reviews:

• CodedColor PhotoStudio Pro 4.1.2.9 - Feature loaded, excellent EXIF/IPTC support, good zooming & editing.
• FastStone Image Viewer 1.7 - Interesting appearance along with extensive pan and zoom support.
• Futuris Imager 4.7.1 - Lacking in all areas, one of the worst out there!
• CompuPic 6.23 - Some really great features, but weak in key areas.
• Easy Imager 2.0 - Batch picture conversion and web albums are its specialties.
• FotoAlbum Pro 4.6.1 - Some nice features, but also some serious problems.
• Fresh View 4.0 - A very basic slide show program.
• MegaView 7.07 - Good slideshow program, good EXIF tag capability, but some crashes.
• Phota 3.4 - A very unusual program that builds albums and gallery walkthroughs.
• PicaJet Photo Organizer 2.4 - Strong in its organizational abilities, weak in overall use.
• ProShow Gold 2.0 - Weak on picture browsing, strong on the packaged slide show it builds, and its number of targets.

January, 2005
A large number of updates were made, some major, some minor. For the full list, click here. The following list summarizes the updates (click on each to get more information):

Major updates

• Faster availability of Thumbnail pictures
• Three different sizes of Thumbnail pictures
• A new license key scheme
• There are now more operational tips, they show up every 10 pictures, and include a tip subject in the window title bar
• A large selection of picture frames may be used - and each frame is resizable
• One or more of your pictures may be printed on a letter-size page - with captions and/or frames
• The full caption specification may be attached to a picture
• A picture frame may be attached to the picture
• The picture caption may be placed anywhere on the picture

Minor updates

• The functions within the Preferences form have been separated into tabs
• Control appearance is similar to that in Windows XP
• Caption and Picture wallpaper selections can now be done visually
• When you accidentally click on the PicViewPlus window Close button, you can now Cancel it
• The caption on the picture timer has been changed from Timer to Picture Timer
• Control Focus Help via the Perferences button has been replaced with a question-mark icon in the title bar
• The picture folder path was removed from the title bar
• Picture Window Title Bar Content Change

April, 2004
Minor edits were made to the program competition comparisons page. Also, two new programs were added there:

• Microsoft's Photo Story
• Picture Viewer .EXE