subject: Software review - IrfanView 4.27 [print this page] For more infomation and download : CLICK HERE
Irfanview is probably the most famous free image viewer application for Windows, and with good reason: It is better than many commercial options.
It is easy to use and get started with, and contains advanced features for manipulating images such as resizing, conversion, and compression.
It is not an image editing tool but can be used for simple tasks like cropping images.
With a minimalistic user interface (all features is accessed from the menu or via keyboard/mouse shortcuts), it can take a while to find all the possibilities this software provides and get used to using it for daily tasks, but the time investment pays off.
The support for batch processing of images is invaluable e.g. when converting photos for use in websites and postings on the Internet.
Irfanview is trusted by many users for being spyware/malware/adware free. The latest version for download does include Google Toolbar and Google Desktop Search as optional downloads in the installer, but these are prominently displayed and can be disabled.
To unlock many advanced features of Irfanview, a separate plugin package (provided on the main download site) needs to be installed.
The program is completely free with an optional lifetime registration fee. There is no penalty for using the unregistered version.
(+) lightweight
(+) very fast (even if emulated)
(+) supports probably most formats as viewer
(+) accompanied with nice thumbnail viewer. you can launch irfan from him and vice versa.
(+) has nice icon ;)
(?) gui has nice icons which is plus (but contains mess of a options)
(?) somehow starts to contain more features than might be reasonable ;)
- some image effects (sharpen, blur, emboss, red-eye reduction, sepia, 3d button ...)
- croping & inserting text into crops
- simple paint tool (throw away mspaint!)
- (batch) convertor
- email sender
- screenshot capturer
- create panorama
- hexadecimal viewer
- skin support
(-) searching for some option is usually *pain*. there are no pictures to aid it.
(-) why on earth [cursor controlls] have different meaning if image fits on screen and if it does not? it makes it maybe somehow simpler but is a nuisance and you end up skipping pictures by [spacebar]. i think going to next image should be only (or by default) on [spacebar].
