Download/HomepageDoes Irfan ever sleep? Just since the version 2.80 release of IrfanView32,
so many cool things have been added, I'm sure to lose sleep if I don't update this review.
It still holds true that you'd be hard-pressed to find an image and multimedia
viewer/converter that loads faster than this one, and it supports an impressive array of
filetypes. This great little program keeps getting better.
Version 2.82 adds support for animated windows cursor files (ANI) and an option to Extract
all Frames (for ANI files and animated GIFs). Other files now supported are multiple PCX
(DCX) and windows cursor (CUR) files. A new video-size option has been added for AVI, MOV,
and MPG files, and a new slideshow option allows file sorting by name, date, and so forth.
Many more features are added too, it's worth checking out. And yet with all the new stuff,
IrfanView32 is as elegantly simple as ever, a breeze to use.
IrfanView also supports these file formats are: JPEG, GIF, BMP, DIB, RLE, PCX, PNG, TIFF,
TGA, RAS/SUN, ICO, AVI, WAV, MID, RMI, WMF, EMF, PBM, PGM, PPM, IFF/LBM, MPEG/MOV (MS
Active Movie), Adobe Photoshop (PSD), Corel PhotoPaint 6.0 files (CPT), and Photo-CD
(PCD).
IrfanView32 provides a preview option, drag-n-drop support, slide show capability, fast
directory view (does really fast scanning, too!), batch conversion, print option, change
the color depth, TWAIN-compatible scanned image support, zoom in-out in user-defined
increments up to 1000 percent, and more. Editing functions include resize/resample,
increase/decrease color depth, convert to grayscale, negative, brightness, contrast, gamma
correction, and crop/cut images.
All file extensions you want associated with IrfanView32 (including new program-icon
options) are easily selected via Properties, Extensions, so you can use this for all files
or just selected filetypes when you want the quickest viewer access. I've found this loads
up about five times faster than the default viewer I'd been using -- especially for video
files. (I timed it.) Another advantage over some other viewers I've used is that you see
your image displayed in actual size (except for BMP's, which are thumbnailed for loading
speed).
To get IrfanView running, just unzip to a folder and the run the EXE file. This compact
program doesn't require "installation" in the standard sense -- just associate
your selected filetypes with it, or add a shortcut to the Desktop.
This is a great little graphics utility for everyday quick work, and especially nice since
it's free for personal use. For commercial users, and those who wish to register for
support, the author requests you send a $10 donation, in cash to: Irfan Skiljan,
Bruendlweg 4, 2752 Woellersdorf, Austria. The money goes to improving the product, and it
supports the shareware concept too. Don't expect support if you don't register, but the
author does invite comments and bug reports to the email address below.
Return to SharewareJunkies.com
