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XnView is a utility for viewing and converting graphic files. It can read more than 400 image file formats, some audio and video file formats, and write 50 image file formats. It is fast, caches thumbnails quickly, and has lots of options. It also offers more advanced features such as Web page creation, contact prints, multiple conversion (format and transformation), slide shows, screen capturing and Twain support for scanners and digital cameras. XnView’s pane interface shouldn’t throw most users off, as it uses a tree-like structure to let you browse your shots and browse your music collection. I use XnView to preview quicktime files as thumbnails since you really can’t view .mov files as thumbnails in Windows XP.

Here’s a list of features:
Import about 400 graphic file formats
Export about 50 graphic file formats
Multipage TIFF, Animated GIF, Animated ICO support
Image IPTC, EXIF metadata support
EXIF auto rotation support
IPTC editing
Resize, rotate, crop support
Lossless rotate & crop (jpeg) support
Adjust brightness, contrast…
Auto levels, contrast
Modify number of colors
Apply filters (blur, average, emboss, …)
Apply effects (lens, wave, …)
Fullscreen mode
Slide show with effects
Batch convert, batch rename
Create WEB page easily
Screen capture
Create contact Sheet
Create or edit Multi-page file (TIFF, DCX, LDF)
TWAIN & WIA support (Windows only)
Print support (Windows only)
Drag & Drop support (Windows only)
Compare image side by side
Filmstrip layout
44 languages support (Windows only)
And many many other things…
No Adware, No Spyware

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Selecting the right file format to scan pictures

To make sure your  scan looks good for its intended use, you’ll need to make choices about file format. What kind of file format should you use for your images? By and large, TIFF and JPEG are the best file formats for photos:

(Tagged Image File Format) are perfect for archiving photos. TIFFs can be edited and resaved without compression loss, meaning quality stays high. If you want to restore old photos or print enlargements of the photos you scan, you’ll appreciate the level of detail TIFFs provide. The disadvantage is the size: TIFF files are extremely large and take up a lot of storage space.

(Joint Photographic Experts Group) are best for posting and transferring photos online, since they can be saved as small files. Nonetheless, the reduction in file size can mean loss of image quality.

The other formats you’ll see are GIF and PNG:

files classically offer greater compression and a much wider range of color depths than GIFs. PNG images are not as widely supported as GIFs or JPEGs.

files offer flexibility: You can reduce the file size of an image without the loss of quality as long as your image contains 256 colors or less

One easy way to make sure your image will always work for any occasion is to save the file as a large TIFF. Then you can easily save as/export to a more appropriate lower-resolution format like JPEG, GIF, or PNG.