Free Image Viewer: Irfanview Version 4.23 Tutorial

Irfanview, (EarfanView) a free image viewer created by irfan skiljan, born in Jajce, Bosnia, is a must have. Irfanview has been around for many years.

Other than being amazingly free:
It's only a 1.28 MB download, loads instantly, easy to use for a beginner, yet useful to a professional. Also includes the following ten image effects (from the drop down menu: Image > Effects):

3D Button - (creates a bevel around the edge, with light and shadow differences, giving it the appearance of a 'button')

Blur- (softens the image; blur can be increased by clicking on the blue effect more than once)

Emboss - (changes the image to a flat, liquid grey color, outlining the aspects of the image)

Oil Paint- (replaces precise edges with jagged, brush stroke edges in the image)

Edge Detection - (This is my favorite effect. The image is transformed to black and white with highlighted edges throughout. This effect changes the entire atmosphere of the original image)

Median Filter - (This effect softens sharp edges)

Explosion - (resembles sponge blotting; made of many tiny dots. The image is still clear enough to recognize with this effect)

Pixelize - (pixelated; lots of tiny squares)

Sepia - (changes the tone to brownish red)

Raindrops - (clicking on this effect more than once, adds more raindrops with each click)

It's not difficult to find what you want to do with Irfanview using the drop down menus but this introductory tutorial will have you finishing faster than Irfanview loads!

Note: The operating system used for this tutorial was Windows XP. Using Irfanview with Vista or another OS could differ in function from this tutorial.

6 Things to do with Irfanview:

Slideshow (File>Slideshow)

There are several options for viewing a slideshow. Use the default options until you are more comfortable with Irfanview.

On the top right of the slideshow options, choose the folder where your images are
located with the drop down menu.
(Example: from the file-browsing drop down menu- My Documents>My Pictures)

Add each image separately by double left clicking those individual images or add an entire folder by clicking the 'add all' button below.

If you have twenty image files in the folder but only need fifteen of them, do this:

As an alternative to double-clicking each of these fifteen files (they must be listed together for this to work), left click once to highlight the first image you want to include; go to the last image, then while hold down the shift key, left click. With all fifteen files highlighted, click the 'add' button. These fifteen images will be listed in the 'slideshow files' box (slideshow files: (15).

When you have all the images you want to include in your slideshow, click the 'play slideshow' button. Your images will play in full screen mode as per the default options.

The 'slide advancement' rate can be changed in the slideshow options.

Crop selection (Edit > Crop Selection)

Using the mouse, start at the outermost edge of the image you want to keep. Hold down the left mouse button while dragging the mouse. If the selection box has not included the area of the image you want to keep, slowly move the mouse pointer until it changes to a double arrow as it passes over a border line of the selection box. With the double-ended arrow active, left-click and hold, dragging the selection box to the desired size.

When you are satisfied with the result, go to Edit > Crop Selection.

Rotate (Image > Rotate Left/Rotate Right)

To rotate an image, go to image from the drop down menu, then select either (rotate) to the right or to the left.

Resize (Image > Resize/Resample)

This is probably one of the most used features in Irfanview; maybe any image viewer. It's always a good idea to have 'preserve aspect ratio' selected, unless the original picture needs to be distorted. Preserving aspect ratio will equally resize the image.

Two quick ways to resize an image:

Set new size in width and height (pixels)

If the image is 1024 width x 768 height and it needs to be changed to 800 width x 600 height, first change the 1024 width to 800. If you have checked 'preserve aspect ratio', 768 pixels in height will automatically change to 600 pixels.

Set new size as percentage of original

An even quicker way to resize the image is to 'set new size as percentage of original'. If the image is too large but 50% smaller might be just right, enter 50 in the width percentage. Again, if you have preserve aspect ratio selected, the change will carry over to the height automatically.

If you don't like the resulting image size, go to Edit > Undo, from the drop down menu or hit ctrl+Z for the shortcut key combination.

Red eye reduction (Image > Red eye Reduction)

It might be necessary to zoom in to make the red area of the eyes easier to select (click the magnifying glass with the plus sign, on the toolbar). With the mouse, go to the outer edge of the red eye, click and hold the left mouse button, then drag it to make a small square encompassing the red area.

With the red area selected, go to image from the drop down menu, then select red eye reduction.

Capture Screenshot (Options > Capture/Screenshot)

The capture screenshot feature comes in handy. Why would you want to capture a screenshot of what you are seeing on your monitor?

Three reasons could be:

If you're using an application that produces errors it could come in handy for technical services to see what's going on.

You want to email a screenshot of your cool looking desktop to your friend.

You need to explain to a friend how to use a program from a distance. After you take a screenshot, open Paint (windows), either Edit > Paste or open a saved version of the screenshot, then draw illustrations on it with a pencil in Paint, for the purpose of being a mini-tutorial for your friend!

Lets compare the manual process with the Irfanview procedure of capturing a screenshot:

Manual:

Decide beforehand what image program you want to use for your screenshot. When you have the view you want to capture, hit the 'prnt scrn' button. It won't be obvious anything has happened but an image of what was currently on your screen was captured and sent to the clipboard viewer.

To see the Clipboard in action, it's located typically in your (windows xp) C:\WINDOWS\system32 folder; click on clipbrd.exe. Now when you hit your Prnt Scrn key, you will see the image appear in the clipboard viewer. It will remain there until you copy/cut something else or restart your computer.

Now open Irfanview or (any image viewer), go to Edit > Paste; your screenshot will be displayed.

Irfanview:

With Irfanview, getting the screenshot is simpler. Instead of needing to Edit > Paste the screenshot into Irfanview, it's done for you.

If you want to capture a screenshot of your desktop, make sure nothing is behind Irfanview. Go to Options > Capture/Screenshot. The default hotkey capturing method is CTRL+F11.

When you are ready to begin the capture, press start on the capture setup (Options > Capture/Screenshot). Pressing start minimizes Irfanview to the taskbar. What's left after Irfanview is minimized is what your screenshot will show.

Now use the capture hotkey, CTRL+F11. Irfanview will come back to the front of your windows (if you have any others up) with your desired screenshot loaded.

Now you can save your screenshot as an image file to your desktop or preferred location for emailing.

Note: Using the irfanview method of capturing a screenshot does not incorporate the clipboard viewer located in the windows folder.

Tip:

Many times I have emailed an image to someone thinking it was the perfect size but it was actually massive because I forgot to resize the image. The person who received it may or may not have known how to resize it.

Make sure the image you are working is the size you want before you save it. The info at the bottom of Irfanview provides you with the following:

Image Size (800x600)
Position of file within the folder it's located (11/117)
Zoom in percent (100%)
File size of the current image (1.37 MB)
The date and time the current image was created (6/10/2004 / 15:49:53)

Before saving an image check both the file size and percent. If the image is being emailed to someone with dialup, it will take them longer to download. Receiving more than one large (file size) image with dialup is frustrating, not to mention time consuming.

Before saving the image, the zoom percent should be at 100%. This means what you see in Irfanview is what you get. If the percent indicates your image is at 50% even though the image appears to be the exact size you want, it will be larger when you reopen the saved image. To correct this, look for the plus/minus sign in the magnifying glass on the toolbar.

If the image is at 50%, click the plus sign (zoom in) until the percentage reaches 100%. This is how your saved image will look. If the info at the bottom of Irfanview indicates your image is more than 100% (110%), click the minus sign (zoom out) until the percent is on 100%.

There are many more things you can do with Irfanview but these six are the most commonly used.

[Source]
http://www.irfanview.net
and
personal experience with Irfanview