Despite the overwhelming cornucopia of Windows applications designed for editing or retouching photos, simultaneous conversion or simplified browsing, all that you need is really only one, good file browser with editing and photo converting functions.
XNView is the best choice when searching for a quick photo browser to substitute the default system application, adding the ability to make quick corrections (like red eye removal or brightness/contrast adjustments) and converting photos in bulk to a different format at the same time.
Photo browser
XNView can be open the traditional way (via a desktop shortcut) or by setting it up as the default program for opening photos. With the browser you can browse through your photographs just like with the default system app. After choosing a photo, a window with arrows to switch between pictures in a folder will be displayed.
XNView’s tab interface comes in handy here, with the ability to open photos in separate tabs – just like the quick switching between open tabs in a web browser.
Photo editor
XNView provides a tool for photo editing, with which you can make quick corrections in your photos or pictures. It is not editing as advanced as in a Photoshop style program, obviously (XNView attempts to be first and foremost simple and quick), but still handles simple tasks like colour correction, red eye removal or contrast and brightness adjusting very well.
Editing options can be found on the bar at the top of the window. The first of them is cropping. After selecting a rectangular area of the given photo and clicking the crop button, the picture will be cropped, with just the selected area remaining. Next up are standard rotation functions alongside brightness, contrast and gamma adjustments. The icon with an eye and red cross removes the red eye effect. Just like with cropping, it is a matter of selecting the eyes in a photo and clicking the button.
Also worthy of note is the filter tab, in which various effects are available. Using them, you can blur certain fragments of a picture (blur, Gaussian blur), enhance edges, sharpen the picture, reduce noises, add shadows or a frame and many, many more.
Photo converter
Converting photos is simple, is it not? Just open a photo in any program and save it in another format. This method does not, however, work very well when dealing with a folder with hundreds of photos inside. XNView enables quick conversion of all photos with the Batch Processing function.
A new window will be opened, in which you can select files or whole folders of pictures, choose the output format, quality and folder.
Simply fill all fields according to your requirements, add photos to the list and click “Next”. All the pictures will be automatically converted in one process.
