What is IrfanView?

IrfanView is available at: http://irfanview.com

IrfanView is a free, flexible and powerful viewing program created by Irfan Skiljan. You can use it to quickly browse through a directory of images, convert images from one format to another, crop, rotate and optimize an image, create a slide show and even view movies or play sound files. One of it's most powerful features is the ability to do batch processing on images. You can select a number of files and then apply the same process(es) to each of them, directing the output to any directory on your computer.

As of the writing of this article, the most current version available is 4.10, and the software is being upgraded and improved. The list of supported file formats is as long, if not longer, than many other programs that cost a good deal more. You can use IrfanView when dealing with large numbers of images that need to be organized and formatted for a thumbnail gallery. With the batch processing capabilities of IrfanView, You can easily & quickly alter the names of any number of files, make thumbnails in a sub directory while leaving the original files at their original size. This can be especially useful when trying to pick out photos to use for a project. It is also good to create two copies of the originals, one for previewing on the web and one to use as thumbnails.

To access the batch processing dialog, go to File > Batch Conversion/Rename, or just hit “B” once you've opened IrfanView. The space on the left side of this dialog is the files you have selected to modify. The space in the top right corner is where you find the files to modify. Once you've selected the files you want to modify, click the Add button. You'll also want to specify an output directory before starting the process. At the middle of the dialog on the right, you'll see a button labeled “Use this directory as output.” You can browse to where you want to output the files in the space above and click this button to select a directory, or just type in the directory in the text field below. Below this are three radio buttons. This is where you decide what IrfanView will do to the files. Conversion means changing the content some way. This can be changing the size, orientation, file format or a number of more advanced modifications. If you want to rename the files, IrfanView makes it easy to name the files with incremented numbers. Digital cameras often name the files “DSC12345.jpg” or something like that, which doesn't tell you much about the images. You can rename them “camping_trip_2007_32.jpg” which tells you much more about the files, and is a good pattern for images displayed on the web. IrfanView allows you to set this naming pattern, and a few additional options at the very bottom of the dialog, if you have selected to rename the files.

If you're just browsing through images in a directory, IrfanView has a very nice interface to do this. When you open a file, there are shortcut keys that will allow you to move through the files in the directory. You can use the Space key to move forward, and the Backspace key to go back. If your images are larger than your monitor, it might be helpful to enter full-screen mode. Just hit Enter, and you'll just see your image on the screen. It's helpful to note that the file name of the image displayed is at the top of the screen. When you're in full-screen mode, you have a few more options for browsing images. The arrow keys and your right & left mouse buttons can be used to move back and forth through the images in a directory. When you've reached the last file in the directory, you'll be presented with a dialog asking where to go. By default, the current directory is selected, but you can also go up a directory (the one that contains the current directory) by selecting the (..). Any directories contained within the current directory will be listed, and you can select any of them.

There is an FAQ available on the web site, and at the bottom of that page are links to some tutorials developed by the community. There is also a forum, where help can be found for specific questions.

IrfanView is available at: http://irfanview.com