Review: Irfanview

Web address:   http://www.irfanview.com/

Price:   freeware for non commercial use. Requests registration at US$12 donation for commercial use. Requires a download to PC.

How they describe themselves:  …one of the most popular viewers worldwide! Very fast, small, compact and innovative FREEWARE. It is designed to be simple for beginners and powerful for professionals.

Rating: This freeware had a bit of grunt. I suspect I felt that way because it feels similar to Photoshop (my usual choice of editor). It didn’t have any pretty stickers or creative frames however I wouldn’t write it off. It has a lot going for it. It has some fun effects, control to customise the settings on many things. The ability to add a layer/watermark. Once downloaded you don’t need to log onto the internet to use this.

Feature	Feature Available	Comments
Rotate image	Yes	Seems to have a lot of options available, once got focused on task found this easily.
Crop image	Yes	Not sure if it was me or the program. I got confused by the ‘cut area out of selection’. My canvas size was still too big. Changing the canvas size is done by typing in pixels, confusing. Eventually I found ‘edit crop selection’. Easy once I selected the right function from the menu.
Auto Fix	Yes	Auto adjust colours. Beanies looked very crisp. Background looked speckled (not necessarily bad).
Add frame/boarder	Yes	16 options; all have a colour palette with 2 options. Nothing too creative about the borders. No rounded corners. It does the job. You can increase your branding by selecting the exact colour you want.
Add text		Fonts from my own PC were available. Fantastic if you have downloaded/purchased extra fonts.
Collage		no
Photo Effects	Yes	Interesting – rain drops, emboss, explosion, sepia, 3D button, zoom blur, sharpen, etc. Be sure to select ‘Effects Browser’ for the preview and to alter the settings.
Stickers	no	There are multiple plugins available to download, stickers does not seem to be available.
Sharpen	Yes	It was automated and over did the effect. Using the mouse I was able to select just the front beanie to sharpen (which was okay). Later I found the customisable settings for sharpen under Effects.
Resize	Yes	Done via pixels, cm or percentage. Ability to change DPI. Some standard dimensions also offered.

The bad of Irfan View:

Downloading new software always makes me uncomfortable. I was able to do this via Cnet (that gave me some peace of mind).

I usually use my mouse wheel to zoom in/out. Doing that took me to the next photo (bit annoying). I also kept mistaking the next photo arrows for the undo/redo buttons. What ever I had done since the last save was lost.

There is an undo button, but no redo button. I often like to check what my adjustment did by using both of those.

Irfan View automatically made it self the ‘go to’ application for my photoshop files. I simply changed the properties for one file and they all changed back.

You can use Intanview if you have a mac.

The Good of Irfan View;

There is an extensive FAQ section and a forum available.

Has ‘add overlay/watermark image’ with a transparency option. I used 35% in the example.

Numerous plugins available. Those include face detect, extra effects, filters.

MANY many file types available for saving.

Love the 'save in original folder' option! No more wasting time looking for the folder you were working in.

You are able to turn on a 3x3 grid, or as photographs call it ‘use the rule of thirds’ grid.

Ability to use the fonts from my PC (including those I had downloaded/purchased). Helps to keep my brand/look consistent.

Relates to: The Picniks Over and The Mission

Jeanie is a blogger & maker of jewellery. She lives an hour outside Melbourne with her husband & two turtles. In her spare time you'll find her in the bead store, soldering or pouring resin. Jeanie has one wish - to inspire women to look & feel fabulous. 


Visit Jeanie at www.inspiredwish.com or follow her on Facebook.