When comparing Irfanview vs FastStone Capture, the Slant community recommends FastStone Capture for most people. In the question“What are the best screen capture tools for Windows?” FastStone Capture is ranked 5th while Irfanview is ranked 8th. The most important reason people chose FastStone Capture is:
Such as saving images in BMP, GIF, JPEG, PCX, PNG, TGA, TIFF and PDF formats as well as the screen recorder saving videos in the WMV (Windows Media Video) format.
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Lightweight
Pro Some editing tools included (cropping, color correcting, etc...)
Pro Lots of plugins available
Plugins can be found here.
Pro Batch processing
Even exif information can be batch processed.
Pro You can just scroll with your mouse to explore images
Pro Recognizes virtually any image format
Pro Ultra fast
If you press and hold the right-arrow button (for displaying the next image), you can watch images pass by as if they are a video, it's that fast. No stuttering, it loads images as fast as your hard drive can keep up.
Pro Can use 8bf (Photoshop) filters
Pro Output to clipboard or any of a dozen formats
Such as saving images in BMP, GIF, JPEG, PCX, PNG, TGA, TIFF and PDF formats as well as the screen recorder saving videos in the WMV (Windows Media Video) format.
Pro Great capture flexibility, from full screen to freehand region
Pro The most lightweight, full featured snapshot for Windows.
This responsive, lightweight screenshot will probably be your favorite if you really run it through the test, A scrolling window capture that works, integrated image joining, scanner support, good magnified preview when setting boundaries, support for video capture and editing. Free upgrades for paid version with option for portable. Closest alternatives to feature set are Snagit and Shared, but this one feels much snappier with just the right features for the majority of people. Try it, you will not regret.
Pro Onboard editing, or output to external programs
Pro Hotkeys
You can assign hotkeys for everything. Current setup is:
F5 - Fixed rectangle capture
F6 - Custom (drag a square) rectangle capture
F7 - Video capture 30fps
F8 - Fullscreen capture
F9 - Scroll fullscreen capture
F10 - Summon FS to appear if hidden.
Pro You can capture disappearing items
When capture hotkey pressed - FSC will pause all functions going on in your screen so you can capture website dropdown menu for example, which would disappear otherwise when you leave the website window to press the capture tool.
Pro Unobtrusive
Always available via hotkey, doesn't interfere with any programs or operations.
Cons
Con UI is far from ideal
Sometimes the interface is confusing.
Con Windows only
Con GIF viewing is buggy
GIF viewing has longstanding problems like flickering, incorrect framerate or artifacts, and it is very unlikely that it will be ever fixed.
Con Preferences are hard to find
