FastPictureViewer Codec Pack 2.2R3

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64-bit and-32 bit image decoders for Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP SP3.

Enables support for 38 additional image formats in Windows Explorer, Windows Photo Gallery, Windows Photo Viewer, Windows Live™ Photo Gallery and, on Windows 7, also within Windows Media Center, with full 64-bit support.

Supports raw formats from more than 320 digital camera models, including CR2, NEF, DNG and more, plus specialists image formats like EXR, TGA...


FPV Codec Pack: 64 bit CR2 codec and 64 bit NEF codec in Windows Explorer

Looking for raw formats support in Windows Explorer, Windows Photo Viewer or Windows Photo Gallery? Read on...

Nearly four years ago, Windows Vista introduced a modern and extensible imaging framework called Windows Imaging Component (WIC). The new Microsoft operating system came with built-in support for most standard image formats including JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF, TIFF and HD Photo.

WIC made it possible for 3rd parties to add first-class support for additional image formats to the operating system (through small plugin components known as codecs), complete with thumbnail views in Explorer, previews and slideshow in Windows Photo Gallery / Photo Viewer and, on Window 7, also within Windows Media Center (so users can broadcast photos and slideshows to their living room's TV, provided they own the appropriate Media Center Extender hardware, an Xbox 360, or suitable output on their video card).

The FastPictureViewer Codec Pack provides such "platform support" for many additional image formats beyond what's supported by Windows out-of-the-box, including most popular "camera raw" image formats, covering the latest top digital cameras on the market, and turns Windows 7 and Windows Vista's Explorer into a raw image viewer. The codecs also works on Windows XP SP3 with some limitations: thumbnail views are enabled in XP Explorer but separate applications, such as our own FastPictureViewer Professional or Microsoft's Window Live Photo Gallery, are required to open files for previewing and full-size viewing on XP.

The FastPictureViewer Codec Pack contains 22 different image decoders, or "codecs", each in 32-bit and 64-bit flavor, supporting 38 image file extensions such as DNG, CR2, NEF, PEF, ORF, SR2, SRW and more, including specialists formats such as OpenEXR, TGA, PNM, DDS and JPEG2000. For example our CR2 codec and NEF codec supports the latest top cameras from Canon and Nikon, and ship as part the codec pack in 32-bit and 64-bit form, along with a 64-bit DNG codec and 19 others, currently covering more than 320 camera models.

For digital cameras owners wanting to venture into "raw shooting" to get the most of their equipment, the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack is a must have tool, as it makes raw file handling in Windows Explorer as simple and easy as it is with the JPEG format: easy identification of images straight in Windows Explorer (and standard "Open File" dialogs in most Windows applications) means faster workflow, and since time is money this product pays for itself within minutes.

In addition to Windows Explorer, a growing number of codec-enabled applications such as our own FastPictureViewer Professional image viewer, Windows Live Photo Gallery from Microsoft, Sony Vegas Professional from Sony Creative Software, among others, "automagically" gain the ability to open and work with new image formats once the decoders are installed.

When possible, the full metadata is exposed by the codecs so Windows Search can pick up and index your files, gathering information about date taken, camera model used, tags etc, enabling Windows built-in search to locate your pictures by date, camera model, tags etc.

Microsoft Registered Parnter We are a Microsoft Registered Partner, and Microsoft refers their customers to this page directly from their own website as we are listed as one of the approved suppliers of Windows-compatible image codecs in the Microsoft Photography Resource Downloads section of the microsoft.com website (link: Microsoft Pro Photo Resources), alongside camera manufacturer like Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Pentax and Sony (our product goes beyond what camera manufacturer offers in terms of image formats support, 64-bit platform and operating systems compatibility, and overall performances).
Compatible with Windows 7 Logo The FastPictureViewer Codec Pack is listed as Compatible with Windows 7 (64-bit and 32-bit) in the Windows 7 Compatibility Center: you can rest assured that our product is stable, well tested, and performs as advertized.
  
 
Type of License:
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FastPictureViewer Codec Pack licenses are sold directly, at an incredibly low introductory price. For simplicity and to cut down administrative and support costs, which in turn helps keep the price reasonable, we do not offer trial versions of this product (expired trial codecs are troublesome, as applications that use them stop functionning for no apparent reason when the trial period has expired).

Our codecs works as described on this page, there is no catch or fine prints, just see the description and illustrations shows on this web page, including the list of supported camera models and image formats: what you see is exactly what you get.

Download instructions are automatically sent shortly after checkout from our own 7/24 software delivery system. Depending on various conditions, email messages, once sent, can take anywhere between a few minutes and a few hours to get delivered. It is important to make sure the email address you use is current and valid, as no one can contact you if the supplied email is incorrect. Some people prefer to use a separate email for online transactions, that's perfectly fine, but be sure to check the right account.

You should receive two messages: your PayPal receipt sent by PayPal and the download instructions sent by our delivery system. If the message(s) does not arrive after a couple of hours, please check your "spam filter" and your "junk email folder" first (look for a message titled "FastPictureViewer Codec Pack Delivery Information"): 90% of the "non delivery" issues are caused by spam filters on the receiving side, the rest being caused by typos in email addresses or "mailbox full" type of errors.

If you don't find the message, please write to support {at} fastpictureviewer {dot} com to let us know: you can submit an alternate email address if you like, and we'll forward the message or send it again (during business hours of course, as this requires manual intervention).

As a side note, we never share, rent or lease email addresses to anyone and we don't send advertisements or SPAM, ever. PayPal has its own privacy policy that can be read here. PayPal registration is optional: there is no obligation to open a PayPal account and one-off transactions are fine. Finally, your payment details are handed by PayPal and are never sent to us.

Businesses my want to consider our site licenses for great savings: discounts start at 10% for 3 users, all the way up to 50% for a 100 users site license. Please contact us for larger deployments.

Installation:

Installation of the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack is simple and easy: download the 11 MB universal installer to your computer, for example to your "Documents" folder, from the download link provided by email.

Double-click the file to launch the installer, then restart the computer at the end of the straightforward installation procedure. There is no web-registration, activation or license keys to type for the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack: you could be up and running just a few minutes from now!

The installer let users customize their setup on the Custom Setup page pictured below: it is possible to unselect some of the codecs if desired, but most people should find easier to accept the default options, which are to install everything, and simply click the Next button.

Codecs are silent "system components" and there is no "executable program" in the package, so there is no shortuct or icon added to your desktop.

FastPictureViewer Codec Pack Installer Screenshot

After restarting, Windows will begin displaying high quality miniature images instead of white, generic "document" icons, as pictured below on this web page. Additionally, Windows Vista and Windows 7 users will see their image's metadata displayed in Explorer's lower pane (which can be resized), and will be able to open images for larger viewing in Window's built-in photo viewers, as illustrated.

System requirements:

Disk space:

Approximately 24MB required for a full 64-bit installation, or 12MB on 32-bit systems. Other system requirements such as RAM, processor etc. are as per Windows requirements. Some of the codecs are multi-core enabled and take advantage of current computer's multi-processing abilities to improve performances during full-size raw decoding and embedded preview JPEG decompression.

Operating systems:

Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP with Service Pack 3 (SP3). All 32-bit and 64-bit editions are supported: the universal installer detects the OS details and automatically installs the appropriate versions and components.

On 64-bit systems, both 64-bit and 32-bit versions of the codecs are deployed, as required by Microsoft in their codec developer's guidelines. Our codecs are read-only and follow Microsoft recommendations for codec developement. They conform to the the latest Windows 7 requirements. Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 are also supported.

Users of Windows XP-64 SP2, Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 SP2 needs to install a small separate component before installing the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack, downloadable directly from the Microsoft web site: 64-bit, or 32-bit (however, installing SP3, if possible, is warmly recommended as SP2 is now officially unsupported by Microsoft since July 13, 2010, meaning than no more security fixes will be issued for it.

On Windows XP, thumbnail views are enabled in Windows Explorer for all supported image formats through our own 64-bit and 32-bits "thumbnail providers" (which also enable JPEG-XR / HD Photo thumbnails), but users need to install separate applications for large-size viewing, as the built-in Windows Picture and Fax Viewer (and Windows XP Explorer's thumbnail strip preview pane) were never designed to be extensible by the way of installable codecs.

Windows Explorer Settings (Windows Vista and Windows 7):

After restarting the computer, you may have to enable "Large icons" or "Extra large icons" views using Explorer's context-menu (right-click in an unused area within an Explorer file pane to display the menu):

Windows 7 and Vista Explorer Views Context Menu
If thumbnails are not showing, make sure that the icons option is not checked in Explorer's Folder Options:

Folder Options: Enable thumbnails

The height of the bottom pane displaying file information and metadata on Windows 7 and Vista can be adjusted to show more or less metadata items.

Windows Explorer Settings (Windows XP SP3):

On Windows XP, one may need to set the current viewing mode to "Thumbnail views" from Explorer's toolbar (or View menu) to enable thumbnails in Explorer views:

Enable Thumbnail Views on Windows XP

Control Panel:

The FastPictureViewer Codec Pack ships with a Control Panel applet that let advanced users configure some aspects of the codec's operations. The tool allows to configure certain codecs to force them to always use the embedded JPEG preview image, and never decode the raw data from scratch.

Using the JPEG preview is appropriate in most cases for Explorer thumbnails and quick previews in Windows Photo Viewer, moreover the preview image typically reflects all camera settings such as white balance, sharpening, contrast, picture controls and usually looks better than the "as shot" basic raw conversion performed otherwise. Our raw codecs also operate much quicker for large size viewing in Windows Photo Viewer or Photo Gallery when using the JPEG data instead of the raw data as a basis to create the images.

Some of our codecs (DNG, NEF, CR2...) ship with the JPEG option enabled by default, but you can use the supplied control panel configuration applet to change this behavior in a few clicks.

Support:

In case you run into any issue while downloading or installing the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack, please let us know by writing to support {at} fastpictureviewer {dot} com. We'll do our best to help you ASAP.

Licensing:

The FastPictureViewer Codec Pack is licensed on a per-user basis and the license terms allows for installation of the software on multiple computers belonging and used by the same user.

Site licenses, with substantial quantity discounts starting from 3 users, are available directly from this page for up to 100 users.

Please contact us for server licensing (for example to use the codecs in an ASP.NET 3.x / 4.x server application), redistribution (if you are an application developper), or for large corporate deployments beyond 100 users per site, we have quotes ready for up to 1000-users licenses.

NEW LICENSING:
(From April 24, 2010)
FastPictureViewer Codec Pack licenses now covers maintenance releases and all future 2.x versions: we are now in a position to offer free updates to our customers, through our own software delivery system.

All customers having purchased a FastPictureViewer Codec Pack license from our former reseller were sent new download instructions.

What happened to the free version?
Before you forget: follow us on Twitter, bookmark this page on your favorite social bookmarking service and share your experience on your blog or website, and within online communities you participate with. A little word-of-mouth can go a long way to help us keep our price so incredibly low.

What users say about The FastPictureViewer Codec Pack? (short version: "we love it!")

"[...] makes browsing folders of raw and dng files in Windows Explorer a hell of a lot easier" - pixelform.com
"[...] everything works [...] Life is Good" - Adobe forum member
"Works great" - members of the Nikon Capture NX group on Flickr
"A really nice solution" - digitalmediaphile.com
"Works great with Vista 64bit" - DPReview.com forum member
"Full support inside Windows 7 RTM" - WindowsLive.com blogger
"Raw Thumbnail support for Windows (32/64-bit)" - NikonRumors.com (weekly related news and links)
"No problems so far" - SevenForums.com
"The first time I've been able to get the thumbnails to actually show up in Explorer" - Flickr user
"The initial impression is very good indeed" - James O'Neil's blog (Microsoft Technical Evangelist)
"RAW preview codec that actually works!" - PentaxForums.com
"Finally a free solution for viewing NEF thumbs in Win 7 x64" - Asrtechnica forum user

The RAW Codec Pack in action on Windows 7 64-bit (Explorer set to "Extra large icons" mode):

Screenshot: RAW Codec Pack in action on Windows 7

Windows 7's built-in Photo Viewer learns new tricks (38 formats supported in total):

Screenshot: Windows 7 Photo Viewer displaying Nikon NEF file
Fast previewing of NEF files from embedded JPEG previews, reflecting all camera and CaptureNX settings. Nikon D3, AF-S VR 200mm f/2G IF-ED. Photo credit: Axel Rietschin

Windows 7 Explorer Metadata Search Integration: find images by Tags, Date Taken, Author...

Screenshot: Windows 7 metadata search integration.

Thumbnails, Large size viewing and Slideshows in Windows 7 Media Center. Works with MC extenders too!

Screenshot: Windows 7 Media Center displays raw images and slideshows!

CG and Gaming formats: OpenEXR, DDS, TGA, PNM, J2K

Screenshot: Computer graphics industry formats such as EXR, DDS, TGA and more

Indicative list of image file formats supported by the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack 2.2:

Raster Image Formats

Extension(s) Name Auto rotate Metadata Remarks
*.dds DirectX DDS n/a n/a The DDS codec supports uncompressed textures and several compression variants and pixel formats, including DXT1/3/5, YUV422 and R16G16B16A16 HALF. The codec reads all sample images supplied with the DirectX SDK.
*.jp2, *.j2k JPEG 2000 n/a n/a Supports baseline 8bpc JPEG 2000 (8bpp Grayscale, 24bpp RGB) and S444 YCbCr.
*.tga, *.tpic,
*.vda,*.icb,*.vst
Truevision Targa (TGA) n/a n/a Supports uncompressed and RLE-encoded grayscale 8 and 16-bit, true color 15, 16, 24 and 32-bit (with alpha) and 8-bit indexed with 15, 16, 24 and 32-bit color maps.
*.pnm, *.ppm,
*.pgm,*.pbm
Netpbm Portable Network Map
n/a n/a Supports 1, 8 and 24bpp binary encoded files (P4/P5/P6) and 1 to 32 bit text encoded files (P1/P2/P3). Update: (Jul-13-2010) The PNM codec supports 16bpp big-endian binary grayscale and 48bpp big-endian binary RGB formats, along with 32bit/channel IEEE float extensions (32bit grayscale and 128bit ARGB).
*.exr Industrial Light & Magic OpenEXR
n/a n/a The OpenEXR codec produces highest quality 64bpp RGBA floating point data (16 bits per components, with Alpha) and support many variants of the EXR format, including tiled images and several compression schemes. The codec reads all sample images supplied by ILM with the OpenEXR SDK.

Raw Image Formats

Extension(s) Name Auto rotate Metadata Remarks
*.dng Adobe Digital Negative, with fast thumbnailextraction from most DNG files, with, intelligent black borders removal. Y Y Can be configured to skip raw conversion and always use embedded previews instead, using the provided Control Panel applet. Note that preview images can be of lower resolution than the real image. The DNG codec supports files created natively by DNG-enabled digital cameras, as well as files created with the Adobe DNG converter, with or without embedded raw original.
*.cr2, *.crw Canon Raw Image, with fast thumbnail extraction from most CR2, CRW files and intelligent black borders removal. Y Y Can be configured to skip raw conversion and always use embedded previews instead, using the provided Control Panel applet. Note that Canon JPEG previews are usually of lower resolution than the real image, except on very latest cameras like the EOS 1D MkIV whose files contains a full 1:1 preview.
*.erf Epson Raw Image Y Y  
*.raf Fuji Raw Image, with fast thumbnail
extraction from most RAF files and intelligent "black borders" removal.
Y Y  
*.3pr, *.fff Hasselblad Raw Image Y Y  
*.dcr, *.kdc Kodak Raw Image Y Y  
*.raw, *.rwl Leica Raw Image Y Y  
*.mef Mamiya Raw Image n/a Y Full (and relatively slow) raw decoding only.
*.mrw Minolta Raw Image Y Y  
*.nef, *.nrw Nikon Raw Image, with fast thumbnail extraction from most NEF and NRW files. Y Y Can be configured to skip raw conversion and always use full-size embedded previews instead (shows Capture NX edits), using the provided Control Panel applet. Now supports previewing JPEG and TIFF files re-saved as NEFs from Nikon Capture NX software.
*.orf Olympus Raw Image, wit fast thumbnail extraction from most ORF files, with intelligent "black borders" removal. Y Y  
*.rw2 Panasonic Raw Image Y Y  
*.pef Pentax Raw Image, with fast thumbnail extraction from most PEF files, with intelligent "black borders" removal. Y Y  
*.x3f Sigma Raw Image Y Y JPEG Preview only
*.srw Samsung Raw Image Y Y
*.cs1 Sinar Raw Image n/a N Full (and relatively slow) raw decoding only. Sinar CaptureShop 1 raw images.
*.arw, *.sr2, *.srf Sony Raw Image Y Y  

Additional Features and Extras

Extension(s) Name Remarks
Rawzor (*.rwz)
for CR2, NEF,
NRW, PEF, ORF
Rawzor Compressed Format
Previewer (*.rwz)
Provides previewing support for some of the Rawzor compressed RAW formats. Rawzor is a special-purpose compression utility that compresses raw files from many cameras into its own, smaller format. The Rawzor previewer included in this pack allows RWZ file previewing and metadata extraction without prior decompression.
All formats  Thumbnail Provider for XP
Provides support for thumbnail views in Windows XP Explorer (SP3), for all the above formats, plus HD Photo / JPEG XR files. Also works with Windows XP 64 SP2 and Windows Server 2003 x64, provided that WIC 64 is installed on the computer. Fast thumbnail extraction from most CR2, CRW, NEF, NRW, PEF, RAF, ORF and DNG files, with intelligent black borders removal.
All formats 32/64-bit WIC Import Plug-In
for Adobe Photoshop CS3/CS4/CS5
Allows Adobe Photoshop CS3/CS4 to directly import images from any installed WIC codec, bypassing ACR entirely. This experimental plug-in is available as a small separate download (click to get the file) and comes as a couple of naked .8ba file that mist be installed manually at the appropriate locations. This 90KB package contains both 32 and 64-bit versions of the plug-in, along with succinct installation instructions. Once installed, the plug-in appears in Photoshop's File->Import menu and let you import any supported file types directly, in 24bpp RGB. This optional ALPHA-level add-on is available 'as-is' and is not part of the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack.
All formats Windows 7 SlideShow Gadget Windows SlideShow gadget, modified to support RAW formats. The gadget is available as a separate download. Unzip the file to "C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Shared Gadgets\". This optional add-on is available 'as-is' and is not part of the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack.

Links to related 3rd Party Add-Ins and Utilities

Extension(s) Name Remarks
Some, see author's
site.
Paint.NET Plug-in (aka "RAWLOAD") Let Paint.NET users import raw images through some of the codecs from this pack. Currently in testing, see this post in Paint.NET's user forum for more information.

Some WIC Codec enabled applications (will benefit from the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack):

Name Remarks
FastPictureViewer Professional     Our own photographer-oriented image viewer, designed for photographers (try it!).
Windows Explorer Native codec support starting from Windows Vista, or Windows XP SP3 with the help of our own thumbnail provider.
Windows Photo Viewer Default image viewer on Windows 7.
Windows Media Center Media and entertainment center on Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate.
Windows Photo Gallery Default image viewer on Windows Vista.
Windows Live™ Photo Gallery Excellent image organizer, part of Windows Live™. Available for download from the Microsoft website.
Sony Vegas Pro 9 Sony's top-of-the-line professional nonlinear video editing suite: drop EXR (and other) files straight to Vegas tracks.
VSO Photo Gallery An upcoming photo organizer from VSO Software.
IMatch An image management suite from Mario M. Westphal (support for WIC Codecs must be enabled in the options).
RSpec Real-time spectroscopy software from RSpec-Astro.com
Paint.NET A nice and free image editor (codecs supported through the Paint.NET add-in described above).
The Panorama Factory Image stitcher/panorama maker with WIC codec and 64-bit support, from panoramafactory.com/
Adobe Photoshop CS3, CS4, CS5 The most complete image editor from Adobe Inc. (codecs supported through our experimental Photoshop import plug-in described in the above section: Adobe Photoshop does not support Windows-compatible image decoders on its own).

What happened to the free version?

The FastPictureViewer Codec Pack was initially released for 6 full months as "donationware" with free downloads, meaning that users electing to keep the codecs on their computer(s) were supposed to make a donation, of an amount left to their appreciation, in order to support the development of possible future versions. We had a killer product that everyone would want so web traffic would surge, everyone would love to finally see pictures instead of just blank icons, and most would give a few bucks (or more) to support the effort! At least, that was The Plan...

To make a long story short, it did not work. Web traffic did surge and people did love the codecs, but after 106,661 downloads from our server (and 117,738 hits on the post-install web page), only about 0.2% of the downloaders actually donated anything: one fifth of a percent of all users is a disappointing figure at best.

Pragmatically, we'd have been happy with 90 or even 95% free riders, but 99.8% was a bit too much (that's two donations every 1,000 installs!) so we decided to pull out the free version and to move to another model, with an extra-extra-low introductory price to ease the transition (but not before putting several more weeks of effort to introduce five entirely new codecs for version 2.0).

It was an interesting experiment and we learned a few things along the way, but it was not economically viable considering the time and effort that we put behind this product (for example we were first on the planet to support the Canon EOS 1D MkIV, and Canon's own 32-bit only codec STILL don't support it as we write this, we also are the *only* supplier of 64-bit codecs for a number of formats: a similar codec pack is simply not available elsewhere, at any price.

A big THANK YOU to those who donated, though, it was very much appreciated! We'll gladly send the 2.0 version to those who contributed an amount equivalent or higher than the current selling price, just write and we'll take care of it.

Possible future formats

Without making any kind of commitment, we are investigating a few image formats for possible future inclusion in the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack. Formats currently under consideration includes Radiance's HDR, which together with OpenEXR (for which we already released a codec with version 2.0 of the codec pack) are popular formats in the Computer Graphics industry.

FastPictureViewer Codec Pack 2.2 vs. Manufacturer's Codecs

For many formats enabled by the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack there is no alternative as we are the only provider of working, stable and supported Windows-compatible codecs, in both 64-bit and 32-bit flavors. For a few formats, however, there is an official offering, although only in 32-bit form:
  • Adobe DNG codec: after years of waiting, the Adobe DNG codec R1 05/12/08 finally came out and is a small disaster: it's slow, known to cause system instabilities and crashes, and to cause the Windows Indexing System to spin at 100% CPU usage for hours when encountering any image remotely resembling TIFF (which includes DNG, but also other raw files like for example Pentax PEF files). The Adobe codec only comes in 32-bit edition, does not support installation on XP, does not support fast JPEG preview extraction and is still in preliminary form, since two full years, without the slightest update in sight. Make sure you uninstall it completely: as ironic and surprising as it sounds, Adobe seemingly can't write a DNG codec for their own proprietary DNG format, as evidenced by frustrated user complaints in their forums.

    As a matter of fact, our own frustration about this very codec and its inability to support fast DNG previewing, a feature needed by our own photo viewer, actually sparkled the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack project!

    The FastPictureViewer DNG codec does not depends on Adobe software in any way. It addresses the problems of the current Adobe offering with fast thumbnail and JPEG preview image extraction, and rock solid stability with support for raw and linear DNGs. The FastPictureViewer DNG codec comes in native 64-bit edition, as well as in 32-bit form, for maximum compatibility across all supported operating system platforms, from XP SP3 all the way to Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7.

  • Canon CR2 codec: the Canon CR2 1.7.0 codec is only available in 32-bit edition (Windows 7 64-bit, Vista 64 and XP 64 users are simply left out in the cold), and is unbearably slow to open files in full-size - about half a minute per photo! - making it essentially useless for image viewing in Windows Photo Viewer or Photo Gallery. Finally, it does not support Canon's own CRW format. The current Canon codec gets poor ratings on Canon's own website due to its compatibility issues. The FastPictureViewer CR2 codec does not depend on Canon software in any way and comes in both 64-bit and 32-bit flavors. Our codec provides much improved performances for full-size decoding and supports the CR2 format as well as the older CRW format, for maximum compatibility across the entire range of raw-enabled Canon digital cameras, including those with firmware modifications known as CHKD, and works on all current Windows desktop and server platforms.

  • Nikon NEF and NRW codecs: the Nikon NEF 1.9.0 and NRW 1.0.0 codec are only available in 32-bit form (just like with Canon and Adobe, users running 64-bit versions of Windows 7, Vista and XP are ignored). The codecs are also slow when opening files in full-size, greatly reducing their usefulness for full-screen viewing in Windows Photo Viewer and Photo Gallery. For some combinations of camera and system, for example Nikon D3/D3S and Windows XP, the Nikon NEF codec fails to auto-rotate thumbnails taken in portrait orientation and display them horizontally, with black stripes at the top and bottom. The FastPictureViewer NEF codec does not depend on Nikon software or SDK in any way and addresses the aforementioned shortcomings. Our codec comes in both 64-bit and 32-bit editions for full compatibility with Windows XP SP3, Vista, Windows 7 and server editions.

FastPictureViewer Codec Pack 2.x enables high-quality thumbnail views in Windows XP SP3 Explorer (and Windows XP 64) too:

FastPictureViewer Codec Pack XP SP3
The FastPictureViewer Codec Pack 2.1R2 in action on Windows XP SP3, demonstrating great handling of Canon CR2 and Nikon NEF files, with auto-rotation of portrait-oriented pictures (based on embedded EXIF orientation information written by cameras) and automatic black-stripes removal (actual screenshot).

Will this mess up my images?

No. The image codecs in the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack are strictly read-only and never alter the file's content for any reason.

Will this wreak havoc with my computer?

No. The image codecs are passive components that gets loaded only when required, and we don't overwrite or replace anything on your system. Our codecs passed all Vista and Windows 7 conformance tests with flying colors (Microsoft has published a set of tools for WIC image codecs validation for Windows 7 and Vista) and we got zero horror story reports either during the beta or since the public launch, with more than 120,000 installations so far. The codecs also uninstall themselves cleanly and use very little disk space (the installer weights about 5 MB), it's not an invasive technology taking over your computer. Supported raw formats are associated with the default photo viewer (Photo Gallery on Vista and Photo Viewer on Windows 7), as required by the Microsoft's WIC codec development guidelines. On Windows XP SP3 the standard Explorer will display thumbnails, but users need to download and install Windows Live Photo Gallery or FastPictureViewer Professional for full-size image viewing, as this now old operating system was never designed to display raw files on its own.

Any bundled adware, spyware, malware, toolbarware, whatever-ware?

No, really.

Can I use raw files as desktop background or in slideshows?

Yes, we have enabled the "Set as desktop background" right-click context menu option for all the file formats we support, in Windows 7 and Vista. You can also watch raw slideshows directly from Photo Gallery / Photo Viewer and, on Windows 7, also with Windows Media Center (that means you can watch raw image's slideshows on your living room TV, with the appropriate Media Center Extender hardware or an Xbox 360). The "print" and "email" functions of Photo Gallery are also enabled. What you cannot do, on the other hand, is add a folder containing raw files as a picture location for the automatic screen background image changer in Windows 7: only JPEGs and BMPs are compatible with this new Windows 7 features (perhaps this will change in the future as Windows 7 Service Packs gets released).

Custom codec development

We have the skills and minute attention to details required to design and develop highest-quality custom WIC codec solutions for your image formats, including strong Windows platform knowledge, augmented with intimate image file format and metadata knowledge and a LONG experience writing imaging software. We are also experts in the lost art of native 32-bit and 64-bit C/C++ and COM development. Contact us with your project idea, or if you'd like us to develop customized or read/write versions of some of the codecs included in the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack. We can make your own 32/64-bit WIC codec a reality.

Developer's corner

From time to time we get inquiries from software developers wanting to use our codecs with their application. Here are the answers to the most common questions: yes, you can develop applications that relies on our codecs for image access, but your end users need to obtain and install the codec pack themselves (meaning that you must refer them to this site). In particular, bundling the codec pack or any part of its content, in any form whatsoever, is expressly forbidden. The codecs are Copyrighted work and we retain all rights relative to the Codec Pack and all its content.

There is no "OCX" or "DLL" that can be used to access the codecs from older development environments (but nothing prevents someone from writing one and wrap WIC to make it callable from almost any environments). Any application developer can use the WIC imaging framework, which is part of Windows since 2006 and documented on MSDN, to access images through our codecs or any others. Application using WIC automatically benefits from installed codec(s) and gains instant access to new image formats without any modification or recompilation, once new codecs are installed on the end-user machine. WIC is available to native application developers as well as .NET application developers using the .NET Framework 3.0 or higher. The FastPictureVIewer Codec Pack codecs are compliant WIC decoders and can be used from any WIC host, past, present and future.

(Geek Note: WIC is COM based and can be programmed from many languages and development environments able to instantiate COM classes and use COM custom interfaces, moreover, .NET and ASP.NET 3.x, 4.0 (or later) and WPF 3/4 developers using the System.Windows.Media.Imaging namespace for image access automatically benefits from installed codecs, as .NET 3 and WPF secretly uses WIC under the hood (so does GDI+ apps on Windows 7, but for some reason Microsoft did not enable external codec support in this scenario). That means that all existing .NET 3.x and WPF-based applications, as well as WIC-enabled native applications, benefit from the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack and gain the ability to open new image formats: the codecs provide much broader benefits than usual raw-enabled viewers. On a more technical note, all our codecs are free-threaded (which is a requirement for Windows 7) and many of them are also multi-core aware: they provide speed benefits beyond what's offered in most other raw viewing products on the market for full image decoding on modern computers, including competing codec offerings and manufacturer-provided codecs, when they exists.... Finally, unlike most camera manufacturer's codecs, they can also be used from within Windows Services or in server applications as they never, ever pop up modal dialogs (or any UI whatsoever) like some manufacturer's codecs do. The easiest route to raw-enable and EXIF-enable your ASP.NET 3.x or 4.0 server app is by the way of System.Windows.Media.Imaging and our codecs - contact us for server licensing details!).

Indicative camera brands and models list:

  • Adobe Digital Negative (raw DNG images from digital cameras)
  • Adobe Digital Negative (16-bit linear DNG produced by DxO Optics Pro)
  • Adobe Digital Negative (produced by Adobe Lightroom and Adobe DNG Converter)
  • Canon PowerShot 600
  • Canon PowerShot A5
  • Canon PowerShot A5 Zoom
  • Canon PowerShot A50
  • Canon PowerShot A460
  • Canon PowerShot A470
  • Canon PowerShot A530
  • Canon PowerShot A570
  • Canon PowerShot A590
  • Canon PowerShot A610
  • Canon PowerShot A620
  • Canon PowerShot A630
  • Canon PowerShot A640
  • Canon PowerShot A650
  • Canon PowerShot A710 IS
  • Canon PowerShot A720 IS
  • Canon PowerShot Pro70
  • Canon PowerShot Pro90 IS
  • Canon PowerShot Pro1
  • Canon PowerShot G1
  • Canon PowerShot G2
  • Canon PowerShot G3
  • Canon PowerShot G5
  • Canon PowerShot G6
  • Canon PowerShot G7
  • Canon PowerShot G9
  • Canon PowerShot G10
  • Canon PowerShot G11
  • Canon PowerShot S2 IS
  • Canon PowerShot S3 IS
  • Canon PowerShot S5 IS
  • Canon PowerShot SD300
  • Canon PowerShot S30
  • Canon PowerShot S40
  • Canon PowerShot S45
  • Canon PowerShot S50
  • Canon PowerShot S60
  • Canon PowerShot S70
  • Canon PowerShot S90
  • Canon PowerShot SX1 IS
  • Canon PowerShot SX20 IS
  • Canon PowerShot SX110 IS
  • Canon Digital Rebel
  • Canon Digital Rebel XT
  • Canon Digital Rebel XTi
  • Canon Digital Rebel XSi
  • Canon Digital Rebel T1i
  • Canon Digital Rebel T2i
  • Canon Digital Rebel XS
  • Canon EOS D30
  • Canon EOS D60
  • Canon EOS 5D
  • Canon EOS 5D Mark II
  • Canon EOS 7D
  • Canon EOS 10D
  • Canon EOS 20D
  • Canon EOS 30D
  • Canon EOS 40D
  • Canon EOS 50D
  • Canon EOS 300D
  • Canon EOS 350D
  • Canon EOS 400D
  • Canon EOS 450D
  • Canon EOS 500D
  • Canon EOS 550D
  • Canon EOS 1000D
  • Canon EOS D2000C
  • Canon EOS-1D
  • Canon EOS-1DS
  • Canon EOS-1D Mark II
  • Canon EOS-1D Mark II N
  • Canon EOS-1D Mark III
  • Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
  • Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II
  • Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III
  • Canon Kiss Digital
  • Canon Kiss Digital N
  • Canon Kiss Digital X
  • Canon Kiss Digital X2
  • Canon Kiss Digital X3
  • Canon Kiss Digital F
  • Epson R-D1
  • Fuji FinePix E550
  • Fuji FinePix E900
  • Fuji FinePix F700
  • Fuji FinePix F710
  • Fuji FinePix F800
  • Fuji FinePix F810
  • Fuji FinePix HS10
  • Fuji FinePix HS11
  • Fuji FinePix S2Pro
  • Fuji FinePix S3Pro
  • Fuji FinePix S5Pro
  • Fuji FinePix S20Pro
  • Fuji FinePix S100FS
  • Fuji FinePix S200EXR
  • Fuji FinePix S5000
  • Fuji FinePix S5100
  • Fuji FinePix S5200
  • Fuji FinePix S5500
  • Fuji FinePix S5600
  • Fuji FinePix S6000fd
  • Fuji FinePix S7000
  • Fuji FinePix S9000
  • Fuji FinePix S9100
  • Fuji FinePix S9500
  • Fuji FinePix S9600
  • Fuji FinePix S200EXR
  • Fuji IS-1
  • Fuji IS Pro
  • Hasselblad CFV
  • Hasselblad H3D
  • Hasselblad V96C
  • Kodak DC20
  • Kodak DC25
  • Kodak DC40
  • Kodak DC50
  • Kodak DC120
  • Kodak DCS200
  • Kodak DCS315C
  • Kodak DCS330C
  • Kodak DCS420
  • Kodak DCS460
  • Kodak DCS460A
  • Kodak DCS520C
  • Kodak DCS560C
  • Kodak DCS620C
  • Kodak DCS620X
  • Kodak DCS660C
  • Kodak DCS660M
  • Kodak DCS720X
  • Kodak DCS760C
  • Kodak DCS760M
  • Kodak EOSDCS1
  • Kodak EOSDCS3B
  • Kodak EasyShare Z980
  • Kodak EasyShare Z981
  • Kodak EasyShare Z1015
  • Kodak NC2000F
  • Kodak ProBack
  • Kodak PB645C
  • Kodak PB645H
  • Kodak PB645M
  • Kodak DCS Pro 14n
  • Kodak DCS Pro 14nx
  • Kodak DCS Pro SLR/c
  • Kodak DCS Pro SLR/n
  • Kodak C330
  • Kodak C603
  • Kodak P850
  • Kodak P880
  • Kodak Z1015
  • Kodak KAI-0340
  • Leica Digilux 2
  • Leica Digilux 3
  • Leica D-LUX2
  • Leica D-LUX3
  • Leica D-LUX4
  • Leica V-LUX1
  • Mamiya ZD
  • Minolta RD175
  • Minolta DiMAGE 5
  • Minolta DiMAGE 7
  • Minolta DiMAGE 7i

 

  • Minolta DiMAGE 7Hi
  • Minolta DiMAGE A1
  • Minolta DiMAGE A2
  • Minolta DiMAGE A200
  • Minolta DiMAGE G400
  • Minolta DiMAGE G500
  • Minolta DiMAGE G530
  • Minolta DiMAGE G600
  • Minolta DiMAGE Z2
  • Minolta Alpha/Dynax/Maxxum 5D
  • Minolta Alpha/Dynax/Maxxum 7D
  • Nikon D1
  • Nikon D1H
  • Nikon D1X
  • Nikon D2H
  • Nikon D2Hs
  • Nikon D2X
  • Nikon D2Xs
  • Nikon D3
  • Nikon D3S
  • Nikon D3X
  • Nikon D40
  • Nikon D40x
  • Nikon D50
  • Nikon D60
  • Nikon D70
  • Nikon D70s
  • Nikon D80
  • Nikon D90
  • Nikon D100
  • Nikon D200
  • Nikon D300
  • Nikon D300s
  • Nikon D700
  • Nikon D3000
  • Nikon D5000
  • Nikon E700
  • Nikon E800
  • Nikon E880
  • Nikon E900
  • Nikon E950
  • Nikon E990
  • Nikon E995
  • Nikon E2100
  • Nikon E2500
  • Nikon E3200
  • Nikon E3700
  • Nikon E4300
  • Nikon E4500
  • Nikon E5000
  • Nikon E5400
  • Nikon E5700
  • Nikon E8400
  • Nikon E8700
  • Nikon E8800
  • Nikon Coolpix P6000
  • Nikon Coolpix S6
  • Nikon Capture NX Software (edited NEFs)
  • Nikon Capture NX Software (JPEGs or TIFFs saved as NEFs)
  • Olympus C3030Z
  • Olympus C5050Z
  • Olympus C5060WZ
  • Olympus C7070WZ
  • Olympus C70Z
  • Olympus C7000Z
  • Olympus C740UZ
  • Olympus C770UZ
  • Olympus C8080WZ
  • Olympus X200
  • Olympus D560Z
  • Olympus C350Z
  • Olympus E-1
  • Olympus E-3
  • Olympus E-10
  • Olympus E-20
  • Olympus E-30
  • Olympus E-300
  • Olympus E-330
  • Olympus E-400
  • Olympus E-410
  • Olympus E-420
  • Olympus E-500
  • Olympus E-510
  • Olympus E-520
  • Olympus E-620
  • Olympus PEN E-P1
  • Olympus E-PL1
  • Olympus PEN E-P2
  • Olympus SP310
  • Olympus SP320
  • Olympus SP350
  • Olympus SP500UZ
  • Olympus SP510UZ
  • Olympus SP550UZ
  • Olympus SP560UZ
  • Olympus SP570UZ
  • Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8
  • Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18
  • Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28
  • Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30
  • Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35
  • Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ38
  • Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50
  • Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX150
  • Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1
  • Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1
  • Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1
  • Panasonic Lumix DMC-G2
  • Panasonic Lumix DMC-G10
  • Panasonic Lumix DMC-L1
  • Panasonic Lumix DMC-L10
  • Panasonic Lumix DMC-LC1
  • Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX1
  • Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2
  • Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3
  • Pentax *ist D
  • Pentax *ist DL
  • Pentax *ist DL2
  • Pentax *ist DS
  • Pentax *ist DS2
  • Pentax K10D
  • Pentax K20D
  • Pentax K100D
  • Pentax K100D Super
  • Pentax K200D
  • Pentax K2000
  • Pentax K-m
  • Pentax K-x
  • Pentax K-7
  • Pentax Optio S
  • Pentax Optio S4
  • Pentax Optio 33WR
  • Pentax Optio 750Z
  • Samsung EX1
  • Samsung GX-1S
  • Samsung GX-10
  • Samsung NX10 (new SRW raw format)
  • Samsung S85
  • Samsung S850
  • Samsung TL500
  • Samsung WB550
  • Sigma SD9
  • Sigma SD10
  • Sigma SD14
  • Sinar 3072x2048
  • Sinar 4080x4080
  • Sinar 4080x5440
  • Sinar STI
  • Sony DSC-F828
  • Sony DSC-R1
  • Sony DSC-V3
  • Sony DSLR-A100
  • Sony DSLR-A200
  • Sony DSLR-A300
  • Sony DSLR-A330
  • Sony DSLR-A350
  • Sony DSLR-A380
  • Sony DSLR-A450
  • Sony DSLR-A500
  • Sony DSLR-A550
  • Sony DSLR-A700
  • Sony DSLR-A850
  • Sony DSLR-A900
  • Sony Alpha NEX-3
  • Sony Alpha NEX-5
  • Sony XCD-SX910CR
      ...with more to come, stay tuned and bookmark this page:

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Axel Rietschin Software Developments is a
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Axel Rietschin Software Developments is a
Microsoft Registered Partner.

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The fastest image viewer ever?

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