|
IrfanView is a popular freeware computer program for viewing, editing, and converting image files using dozens of image formats. It does not have extensive image creation and painting capabilities like Adobe Photoshop or GNU's GIMP. Rather, IrfanView is designed to be a lightweight, fast image viewer and converter, sacrificing functionality for efficiency.
The program is named for its creator, Irfan Skiljan, and is pronounced "EAR-fan-view" [1] (http://www.irfanview.com/main_about.htm). IrfanView works under all modern versions of Microsoft Windows (i.e, Windows 95 and later). Aside from supporting popular image formats such as BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, and TIFF, IrfanView can be extended by third-party developers using plug-ins. The viewer can also be easily configured to view non-image media files such as Flash, OGG, MPEG, MP3, and even text files.
IrfanView's image editing capabilities, while lacking a freehand drawing mode, can still accomplish a wide variety of editing tasks. The program has built-in TWAIN support for retrieving images from scanners; it also has extended support for taking screenshots. It can crop, resize, and rotate images. Image colors can be adjusted by modifying the brightness, contrast, tint, and so forth.
Since version 3.92, it has been criticized for containing an eBay toolbar, which some characterize as spyware. Some people avoid version 3.92 or above for this reason; however, the eBay toolbar is optional and IrfanView can be easily installed without it.
See also
External link
|
