Adobe Reader is the standard application needed for PDF viewing on the Windows platform. It has been in existence for over a decade now and has gone through various evolutions during this time. One result of this is that it has been increasingly loaded with plugins and extensions which mean that it's consistently criticised as being bloated and slow.

This is true to a certain extent although it still has much to offer. With this release, Adobe have addressed some of the speed issues and the memory footprint has been improved consistently throughout the development of version 8. The biggest problem with this program however is and continues to be security. It has too many features that most people do not need which not only slow it down but also leave it very vulnerable to attack. However, it does a very good job of allowing you to scroll through documents, jump to certain pages, copy text and print.

Adobe Reader is a well designed application that still performs effectively despite its size and will continue to be an essential application for producing documents.

Download Adobe Reader 9 in Softonic

With the Hofmann Digital Album you can quickly and easily compose and arrange your digital album or digital poster (with a wooden frame) using your own photos or any image.

Its use is completely instinctive and simple. Any PC user can quickly manage it without any previous training. At the same time it is a very powerful program that will allow you to do in a few clicks practically anything you can imagine with your photos like improving the brightness and contrast, cropping or enlarging the images as you prefer, changing them to black and white or sepia tone, correcting the "red eye" effect and making use of the automatic improvement for each photo.

In order to design your album the program offers plenty of covers, layouts, backgrounds, text options and functions. It really is child´s play. If you are using the program for the first time, you should simply try everything out. There are no wrong choices and you will soon control all functions. Have a look at the "Quick guide" and the "User´s manual" in the icons bar, which may be helpful, too.

You can then send your project via Internet and in a few days you will receive, at the address you indicated, your Hofmann Digital Album printed and bound in high quality finish or your Hofmann Digital Poster together with a beautiful wooden frame.

Download Hofmann Digital Album 5.8 in Softonic

Fresh View is a free program designed to help you organize and view multimedia files (images, audio, and video). It gives you the ability to watch movies, listen to music, and view graphics in a slide show.

Image files in a folder can be displayed using a number of views, such as thumbnails view that lets you quickly see what your images are without having to open them. You can convert graphics from one type to another, print, and even create a HTML album. This easy-to-use software supports 86 different formats.

Download Fresh View 7.50 in Softonic

VSO PhotoDVD is the best DVD Photo Slideshow Software to create DVD's from your photos. Watch your pictures on any home DVD player. Share your digital pictures on a DVD with friends or family.

VSO PhotoDVD animates your images to make a video DVD Slide show. You can add optional soundtracks and comments to your pictures using DVD subtitles. The result is attractive and vibrant. The product is very easy to use and burn with any DVD writer.

A wizard style interface lets you define the folders or files where to select the pictures. You can define multiple lists of music files to play in the background, and add up to 3 channels of DVD subtiles. The transitions and animations of your pictures are completely automatic and will enhance the experience of sharing your best memories. Use focus points to highlight the details of your pictures, like the sparkling eyes of your new born baby.

You can watch the results on a regular TV or computer using a DVD Player. This format uses the best quality available at the moment. A copy of your source files is stored in the DVD project and lets you keep trace of your digital pictures without quality loss using a computer.

Download VSO PhotoDVD 2.9.6.1 in Softonic

I've always been fascinated with those weird pictures where inside the picture is a picture of the picture and inside that there's a picture of that picture and inside that there's a picture of that picture and...well, you get the point.

Perpetual works along a similar brain-boggling principal. You start off with an image which is completely composed of a series of other smaller images put together. The program then invites you to zoom into the image, whereupon you discover that these smaller images are also made up of lots of other smaller images themselves. Zoom through these and guess what? Yep, more smaller images are revealed.

It's really quite fascinating and the process of zooming down infinitely through all the pictures is strangely hypnotic. There are hundreds of different pictures included to make up this kaleidoscope of weirdness, ranging from the Crazy Frog, to nature scenes, to graphic designs to nude models.

You can zoom manually, or allow the program to auto-zoom, though if you zoom manually, you get the benefit of being able to move around the image and choose a point to focus in on. The only thing I would've like would be the ability to zoom out.

It doesn't serve much of a purpose, but Perpetual is certainly a captivating way of wasting some time.

Download Perpetual 0.3 in Softonic

With an ever growing collection of digital photos, many computer users are in search of an appropriate tool to manage them.

Photo Manager 2008 can be the answer to this search. This complete application works as a photo manager, viewer and editor, plus including some extra tools to make the most of your photo collection.

The program features a classic interface divided into several areas that contain your system's folder structure, image preview and a task list. You can view your photos in thumbnail lists or full screen, apply a series of basic edition effects, create an HTML photo album to share your pictures online, see and edit EXIF data in each image, print several photos on a single sheet of paper and find duplicate images, among other possibilities.

Despite the array of tools included, Photo Manager 2008 generally falls short of expectations. Its editing capabilities are a bit limited – at least when compared to other similar programs – and it also lacks functionalities that you can easily find in other photo editors.

Photo Manager 2008 is a photo editor and viewer with which you can organize, view and edit your pictures, though it lacks advanced tools you find in other similar apps.

Download Photo Manager 2008 1.0 in Softonic

No doubt Flickr is a great site to manage and share your pictures, but if you still prefer to handle them in the old style, FlickrEdit is what you're looking for.

This Java Web-based application lets you fully manage your Flickr account right from your desktop, without having to launch the browser, open the URL and start your session each time. The first time you launch it, you need to create a new user (which you can do by simply logging on to your Flickr account – no need to fill in any forms) and you're then required to allow the app from Flickr settings. After that, you can simply close the browser and start using FlickrEdit.

FlickrEdit lets you browse photos and sets, view photo slideshows, check your contacts' latest uploads, download and upload photos, see the EXIF data about each picture, mark them as favorites and many other tasks. Still, there are some features missing, such as a search tool (the one built in the program only searches your photos) and the ability to leave notes.

Being a Java tool, FlickrEdit is not very quick in response and sometimes takes a while to display photos. That said, generally speaking, I found it to be a very handy tool, especially for Flickr hardcore users.

If you spend a lot of time browsing, managing, uploading and viewing photos on Flickr, this tool may come in really handy for you.

Download FlickrEdit 1.1.0 in Softonic

These days, when it comes to publishing your own photo albums and sharing them with your friends there are many programs to choose from. JALbum is a free and intuitive tool to edit your photos and prepare good looking albums.

Although the interface feels a little crowded it will provide a good way of exploring your folders for pictures and quickly selecting the ones you want to put into your album. JALbum also includes a good set of editing tools to tweak your pictures a bit, like removing red eyes, blurring or sharpening.

However the strongest feature of the application is certainly making albums. This is very easy to do and JAlbum comes with a number of styles to start out with. You can also download more skins from the developer's website. Once you're album is done, you can either upload it to your JAlbum account, if you have one, or to any other server if you have the login details.

With a good set of editing tools, and a straightforward process, the free JAlbum makes for a great way of creating photo albums to share with your friends.

Download JAlbum 8.0.9 in Softonic

Flickr is a great site to share pictures online, there's no doubt about it. But that doesn't mean it can't be improved with tools like DestroyFlickr.

Now don't be fooled by the misleading name this program features; it's by no means intended to wipe all your photos and delete your Flickr account. It simply provides a new interface from which to browse Flickr, check what your contacts have recently uploaded and look for pictures about a certain topic; just like what you can do on the Flickr website, but from your own desktop.

The program is based on Adobe AIR, which gives it an attractive look and also adds nice animation effects to photos when you're browsing them. The downside is that it's not as intuitive as expected and may take a while until you learn how to use it. Just as an example: if you want to search for photos about a given topic, first you have to click on the "Photos" tab and then open the "Canvas" menu to reach the search function. Wouldn't it have been much easier to add a "Search" button right on the bottom pane?

With DestroyFlickr you don't erase photos – as you could infer from the name – but rather browse Flickr photos from a sleek, dark desktop interface based on Adobe AIR.

Download DestroyFlickr 1.0.5 Beta in Softonic

Most graphical editors are either for photos or video but FreeVimager allows you to do both, albeit to a limited extent.

It's particularly useful for anyone who normally uses their camera for both photos and videos (which most of us do). First of all, it's extremely lightweight for both an image and video editor weighing in at just over 10MB. The program allows you to view & edit graphics file in jpeg, bmp, gif, tiff (multi-page), png and pcx format which is a decent amount and sufficient for most home users. It's also remarkably flexible supporting every version of Windows from 95 onwards. One aspect which is particularly useful is that of multi-monitor support which basically means that you can work on multiple projects at once - for example one photos project and one video project. It's also suitable for those in the know or who need technical data when it comes to photos because it maintains EXIF data when resaving and editing photos so you can see at a glance the aperture, exposure and file size instantly. You can process an unlimited number of images at once as the program also comes equipped with a very basic slideshow creator. You can also preview print jobs, create collages and it optimises images for sending by e-mail (by basically reducing their size without losing the quality).

For anyone that uses their camera for both photos and videos regularly, then FreeVimager will give you enough power to do both at once without complicating life.

Download FreeVimager 1.7.0 in Softonic

If you can't wait to show off the photos of your latest holidays in the Caribbean, or you'd like to make a special presentation with your family video collection, you need an application like Photos & Videos on TV.

This tool enables you to create a fully customizable slideshow containing photos and videos, plus a customizable music soundtrack and a selection of filters, special effects and transition effects that can add the final touch to your composition. The whole process is really easy to complete, even for people that have never used a similar tool.

The program's interface is divided into several areas: one displays the folder structure on your system so that you can select the content you want to include in the slideshow; another one displays the video or picture selected at that very moment; and finally the timeline is where you can drag and drop everything you want to add to the slideshow.

Photos & Videos on TV includes a ton of special effects, filters and transition effects to spice up your presentation. Once finished, you can export the slideshow to high quality video or record it directly to DVD. The only drawback is that the file weighs more than 500 MB, meaning it takes a while to download and run, and it's quite heavy on system resources.

With Photos & Videos on TV you can create high quality personalized slideshows with your photos and videos, including also special filters and transition effects. The only drawback is that you'll need a powerful machine to do so.

Download Photos & Videos on TV Deluxe 5.3 in Softonic

One of the worst problems with Adobe's Acrobat reader is that it often takes about a week to load PDFs. OK, maybe not quite that long, but it is very slow.

SumatraPDF is one of several apps knocking around that are designed to simplify your PDF viewing - and it doesn't do a bad job either. Opening files in the program is virtually as quick as opening and closing your eyes and it doesn't take a genius to find your way around the interface.

Options are a little thin on the ground but SumatraPDF provides a very comfortable environment for reading PDFs and you can print documents without much hassle. Give me this over Acrobat any day for looking at eBooks.

Download Sumatra PDF 0.8.1 in Softonic

PDF (Portable Document Format) is now one of the most ubiquitous document formats on the net. The problem is that Adobe Reader is the only tool to read it and it's both bulky and slow.

Foxit PDF Reader on the other hand is light and quick. The proof is in the pudding for starters - compare Foxit's installation file is only of just 2.2 MB against Acrobat's 20.8 MB and you can see why it opens documents in a snap. The key is that it doesn't have all those annoying splash-up screens, endless credits lists and plugins.

The program's interface been designed with ease of use in mind. You have several toolbars available, which you can show or hide at your will and which give you access to all the available utilities: zoom, text selection, image snapshot, search tool, rotation or full screen view, among others. There is a small ad in the upper right corner, but you can deactivate it by going to the View menu and deselecting the Advertisement option. One added bonus is that you can annotate PDF documents in several ways by highlighting text fragments, underlining them, strike them out or even add personal comments.

If you want a small, fast, stable and functional alternative to Adobe Reader, then look no further

Download Foxit Reader 2.3.2923 in Softonic

XnView, simply put, is a file explorer. What makes it a bit special is that instead of treating every file as equal, it tries to make sense of each and every one and let you see, in the most relevant form possible, what exactly is contained in the file.

When checking this program out, we were immediately reminded of another quality file previewer, ACDSee. While that has gone on to become a fully featured photo manager, available for $50, XnView will take care of most users’ basic needs while boasting a price tag of $0 (for personal use). With its built-in preview engine, the program can display 400 different image file formats as well as play various media formats such as AVI or MP3.

Using the program will already be second nature to most users as it works like Windows Explorer. On the left side of the screen you see all your directories, with the contents of the directories being displayed in the upper half of the right window. Selecting any of these files will then bring up a preview in the lower half of the window. If you’re browsing through some photos you can run them as a slideshow and view in full screen. If you’re browsing through simple TXT or INI files, the opening few lines of text will show up as an icon and you can view the entire contents of the file without needing to open other programs.

There is a good level of support for various formats and the interface zips along without delays, even when displaying large video files. On encountering a file that it doesn’t recognize, XnView displays its hash values, which may or may not be of use. If you run into any difficulty, there is a help file that is sufficient but not overwhelming.

One aspect that wasn’t quite as we would have liked was that it didn’t recognize the native format of files. For example, a simple text file with a LOG extension wasn’t treated as the same file with a TXT extension. It’s a small inconvenience but does stand out because of the general high quality of the software. For anyone with a large number of files that they want to organize, convert or just browse, XnView is certainly worth a look.

Download XnView 1.93.6 in Softonic

If you are a serious photographer, then you'll understand the importance of EXIF files which give you detailed data about the exposure and other aspects of your photos.

Exif Pilot allows you to read the information contained within EXIF photos taken with a digital camera including such things as the date and time the photos was taken, the exposure time, the EXIF version that was used, shutter speed, flash use and even focal length. Using it is as simple as using any file browser such as Explorer - just select a folder with images in the Folders panel, choose some files to use in the files table and you can read all the information you need instantly in the properties panel. If you only want to view those photos with Exif data, then you can always sort photos by clicking on the EXIF column title in the files table and it shuffles them immediately. Unfortunately, previewing your photo is not particularly well taken care of as the preview Window is very small - you may be better to use a third party application to see exactly what your image looks like. What should happen is that by reviewing the EXIF data however, you'll learn under what conditions and focus you are producing your best pictures. Note that in this free version, you can't edit the EXIF data - only view it.

For serious photographers or amateur photographers who seriously want to improve their photo skills, EXIF Pilot Light is a simple but highly useful tool.

Download Exif Pilot Lite 3.0.2 in Softonic

If you'd like to publish your pics online using one of those trendy Flash galleries but you have no idea about Flash, Gallerymanager is the tool you need.

This program automatically generates a Flash website that you can use to display your images on the Internet. There's no need to code anything in Flash or any other complicated programming language; you only have to select the pictures you want to show, choose the layout, add some optional background music and upload the whole project to your web space via FTP.

The downside to it, besides the obvious fact that you need an FTP space, is that the program, at least in my opinion, is not as easy to use as it seems at first sight. There are too many fields to be filled in and too many parameters to be tweaked. Being a program intended to users without any technical knowledge, I think the program should try to make the whole process a bit more graphical and more intuitive. Also, there are only two templates available.

Gallerymanager is the easiest way to create Flash photo galleries to publish online; it's a bit limited, but you don't need any Flash knowledge.

Download Gallerymanager 2.0 in Softonic

If you're tired of the Windows native image viewer and want to use another tool to browse through your photos, look no further. We found it for you.

FastPictureViewer is a fast, straightforward photo viewer that lets you scan the contents of a whole photo folder in a very easy way. You can move along pictures with many different key combinations (arrow keys, + and – keys, page up and page down keys) and also the mouse wheel. Plus the mouse buttons can be customized to quickly zoom in a photo. The program works only with JPG and HD photo formats, and also supports XMP ratings which are compatible with popular photo tools like Adobe Lightroom.

That said, don't expect to find many other features in this program. FastPictureViewer doesn't include all the bells and whistles you could expect from an image viewer. I would say it's especially addressed to users who just need a tool to quickly review photos and pick those which need further editing.

The program features a sleek, dark interface with a minimalistic design that contributes to put all the attention on the photo itself.

FastPictureViewer is an attractive, easy photo viewer that's mainly focused on browsing large picture collections and doesn't include any extra tools like the ones you find in similar apps.

Download FastPictureViewer 1.0.31.0 in Softonic

Let’s say you need to make a presentation which includes associated text and photos, and you would like a more homely design than the professional, at-times flat PowerPoint slideshow. eXPress Collage Suite might help, as it allows you to create simple presentations as e-books, collage albums, or even calendars.

The outcome will appear rather amateur, but depending on its purposes, can be what you are looking for home-made feeling presentation. The way you carry on your project is also a bit rudimentary and icons look a bit messy. The general rule to follow is that you can import images, text and audio file simply by clicking the import button on the left menu. Change the layout with the menu below and apply changes to see a preview of your document. The GUI can be a bit confusing and there’s plenty of room for usability improvements.

Althought eXpress Collage wouldn’t be suitable for professional purposes, it can be interesting for amateur photo albums, calendasr, eBooks and collages as it lets you create for free virtual books, to present texts and images in a different way.

Download eXpress Collage Suite 5.0 in Softonic

Pictomio is a photo viewer that enables you to search your hard drive for photos and create presentations with them.

The main outstanding feature is that Pictomio turns all your photos into 3D images giving your collection a really cool and unique look. It's great for impressing friends or just breathing life into old images. Previously, from the visualizer in Pictomio you, could only see the photos, their EXIF information and histograms. Up until early 2008 you could only score them and rotate them but now the program has reached Beta stage and it has to be said, it's an impressive package. The program is now a much more serious photo manager contender with completed features such as 3D models for albums and categories, improved models for drives, album/category sidebar to quickly drop your images, automatic upgrade checker and a filter drop down menu amongst many others. This is only a tiny selection of the program's new functionality as other completed features include the saving of user settings (positions and sizes of UI elements, view mode, filter settings, etc.), direct renaming of thumbnails and a new option to show and hide hidden files. Of course, the program is still in beta stage which means that it may be vulnerable to some bugs and errors although none were noted. Of course, Pictomio still also allows you to categorize photos by topics, sort and view your photos by date, rating, or category and view every pixel of your photos using smooth liquid zooming. You can of course still also view your photos in a slideshow presentation.

This is a very easy to use but powerful program and deserves to do well in the 3D imaging market.

Download Pictomio 1.0.10 in Softonic

Long gone are the days when you took photos, printed them and kept them in your photo album. With the advent of digital cameras, our approach to pictures has completely changed. Creating, editing, publishing and sharing are now part of our daily photographic experience. JetPhoto Studio is an application to handle digital snaps on your PC and the net.

JetPhoto Studio will import pictures from your camera as soon as it is connected to your PC. We like how the main interface includes a calendar to let you browse photos by date. Jet Photo Studio has fairly basic editing tools, and functions like crop, sepia, black and white, image contrast, and auto enhancing, which will allow you to personalize your photos. You can also batch resize your photos and protect them with a watermark. JetPhoto Studio also allows you to rate photos by adding a star next to the ones you prefer. You can set tags to quickly identify related pictures, but annoyingly you’ll have to create new ones for each individual album.

On the multimedia side, JetPhoto Studio gives you a number of tools to help you play around with your pictures. Making screensavers, wallpapers and slide-shows is extremely easy and quick. You can also create two types of Flash movies, stand-alone or deluxe, the first being a typical slide show, and the second showing an animated thumbnail list of your selected images. The only downside is that you can’t set the types of animations and speed of transitions.

You can use JetPhoto Studio to send images, via MMS or infrared, to your friends’ mobiles, yet however exciting this sounds, the feature is not really up to standards. You’ll actually need to know your friend’s mobile brand and exact model and even if you do, there’s no telling whether the service will work in your country. We found that JetPhoto Studio did not support this feature in Spain.

Another promising feature is locating photos thanks to GPS. If you have a GPS receiver and Google Earth set up on your PC, this feature is especially easy to use. Connect your receiver to your PC, pick the model and your time zone, and launch Google Earth. Your selected pictures will automatically be tagged with the desired locations in your Google Earth. If you don’t have a GPS receiver, you can also point the photo location on a map. However this feature seems prone to bugs and we did not manage to generate maps properly.

JetPhoto Studio allows you to quickly upload images to the online photo sharing service Flickr, and it’s very easy to order quality printed copies via PrintExpress. The JetPhoto Server tool is also a good way for anybody with some scripting knowledge to upload and edit their photo albums onto their weblog or personal website.

We have fairly mixed feelings about Jet Photo Studio. It lets you manipulate photos in all sorts of ways, creating Flash movies, posting to Flickr or your website, and locate photos with your GPS. However sending images via mobile is not really up to scratch and Flash movies can not be customized. We were also disappointed that JetPhoto Studio doesn’t automatically import images already on your PC. A promising image viewer, but it’s not guaranteed that JetPhoto Studio will appeal to everyone.

Download JetPhoto Studio 3.12.3 in Softonic