Irfan View - A Winner By Miles!

Irfan View is the baby of Irfan Skiljan. irfan was graduated from the University of Vienna.

I have been following Irfan View from its first ever version many years ago. Like many other software I cherish and store in my bag of utilities, IView as it is popularly known, finds a special place.

IView can run independent of any plug-ins or any supporting DLL files. Iview used to be a single-exe initially. It never had a setup package, or and installer package. Thus it was a very small and nifty tool to use. There are Jumbo image viewers out there, like the ACDSee, PSP, Google Picassa, etc. But these are hefty comparisons, and I personally do not vouch for them, and all these fall different category.

iView is apt, small, light weight, portable(fits in your thumbdrive, mobile or even the retro-1.44MB floppy Diskette), no need to install.

Iview has come a long way, and have always surpassed the end-user expectation. iView can do so much that I run out of words. I have tried to put as much possible below here:

1. 1-key Operation

Iview always facilitated 1-Key operations. Instead of a combination of keys, Iview brought a nifty 1key operation. This amused me a lot, I'm addicted now to this feature I would say. Like instead of Ctrl+S for save, just press "S", "R"for rotate right, "L" for rotate Left, and the list goes on.

2. Easy Scroll (spacebar/backspace)

It just takes your space-bar and your backspace, or the page-up and down, or the arrow keys to browse through all the images in a folder. Many applications have inherited this feature into their bulky software later.

3. Thumbnail View (t)

Just press the key "T", vola you have a Image Browser that displays all the pics from the current directory in a neat Thumbnail display. You can do more form the thumbnail browser, thumbnail sizes are configurable which means you have more control over the way you browse the folders. starting a slideshow form here is very easy, by pressing "W"

4. Easy Batch Conversion (b) and Easy Batch Rename (b)

Batch rename was always a tough procedure, people used to spend many hours renaming their files from vacation and arranging them in folders and dates. Though there are big players like "Picassa" from Google and the likes of ACDSee, which can automate a lot of things like renaming, arranging, touching up and an array of other features, nothing compares to this "small wonder" i would say. For the ones like me who have the system already loaded with enough memory eating applications, it's best to have some player like IView which does not claim a big share of the pie. I suggest Iview if you like small and smart software.

Things like 1key zoom (+/-), 1click slideshow (w), Copy/Move/Delete/Rename, Easy rotate (L), (R) Flip Vertical (v), horizontal (h), makes IView always a winner. Sometimes searching the mouse for just rotating the picture or zooming takes much effort in terms of the voracious user of the Windows Box. Some easy operations like copy/paste by just using a 1key combination is welcome feature of IView.

8. Advanced Properties/Information (i)

This is a highly appreciated feature as far I'm considered. Press the (i) key and you are presented with a not so geeky looking screen, and a not-so-well-done screen, details of the picture you are viewing. Details like the file name, which folder is it placed in, its resolution, dimensions, available print size, color count, Unique color count, picture's current directory index(5th image of 43 total), file date and time, and how much time it took to load.

One other feature EXIF data viewer makes IView the most comprehensive image viewer. One can see the EXIF data(if the picture came from a Digital Camera) like Camera Model, original resolution, camera Software Version, YCbCrPositioning, ExposureTime, FNumber, ExposureProgram, ISOSpeedRatings, ShutterSpeed, Aperture, Focal Length and a lot lot more that you have to see for yourself to appreciate better. This particular feature makes it very nifty and inevitable for the amature photographer and the photography fans. A lot can be learnt from the EXIF Info of a digital photograph, one can say if the picture is original or treated by seeing the EXIF Info.

[more to come.. following the user response]

Technorati tags: Irfan View, iView, Graphics, Renaming, Tips

10. Screen Capture (c)
Have you ever wondered how to get the "Screen Shot" image Makes it a interesting feature
12. Resize/Re-sample (R)
13. Basic Image Editing - Convert to Grey-scale, Enhance, Sharpen
14. Basic Filters - Red Eye, Button, 3D, Smoothen, Blur etc.
15. RGB - Color Swap
16. Multi-Language
17. GIF Animation - Stop animation, extract all frames.
18. Send Image to (Send mailer)
19. Wallpaper Functions (SHFT+CTRL+C/T/S)
20. Automatic Viewing (not same as slideshow) - Shift+A
21. FullScreen Operations
22. Insert Text (CTRL+T)
23. Custom Selection