Download/Homepage In my daily travels on the Internet in search of
Shareware (using Netscape Communicator, of course), the one
category in which there seems to be a wealth of choices is that
of the image viewer. In the last six months I have probably
downloaded at least 8 of them. I have just completed a look at a
viewer I was not familiar with called CryptaPix.
In his introduction the author states that the program is a
General Purpose image viewer. Upon running the program you are
presented with a screen that is a two-pane layout. On the left
half is the area into which you move the files you wish to view.
On the right there are four tabs, Main, Select, Files, and
Options. The Main tab, which the program defaults to at startup,
contains the buttons Register, Exit and Help, all
self-explanatory.
Click on the Select tab and you are moved to the actual working
area of the program. Here you choose your drive and then the
directory containing your images. Once your files are in view you
can move them one at a time to the left pane, move all the files
to that pane at once, or tell the program to move all images in
both the directories and sub-directories to the left pane. Once
you have one or more files moved to the left you are able to use
additional commands such as View, Clear All Images, and Remove,
or use the two arrows to rearrange the order of the images.
Click on the Files tab and you are presented with choices such as
Convert, Wipe, Select All, Sort List, Rename, Print, and Info.
The program allows you to choose files to present in a Slideshow
so you are also given buttons to Open SS and Save SS. One other
interesting element of the program is it's ability to Encrypt and
of course Decrypt your images. If you are concerned about keeping
your images, "For Your Eyes Only", this feature will
put your mind at rest. CryptaPix recognizes BMP, GIF, JPG, PCX,
PNG, and TIF formats. When you Encrypt images they stored as CPX
files, the programs proprietary format. These images can be
viewed as thumbnails with WAV files if you so choose.
The Options tab allows for the setting of elements such as the
Slideshow delay time, the video mode and the background color
that your full screen image is displayed on. The author offers
support by Email, at his web site and by postal mail.
This program handled each operation without incident and the Help
files are more than adequate. My problem with CryptaPix is not
what it does, rather in what it doesn't offer. The author
requests $29.00 to register the program, yet, for instance, I
have been taking a look at ACDSee whose author wants only $30.00
to register his program. The difference in the features is
significant with ACDSee offering a combination viewer/browser
which is far more feature rich than is CryptaPix. I must make the
assumption that we all want to be able view all our images in
full and thumbnail format, and that you may want to create
wallpaper as well as manipulate images in other ways. For this
reason, and based on value for your dollar, I would have to
recommend you evaluate as many of the choices you have in this
particular category. CryptaPix is a well done program, it simply
doesn't go far enough.
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