This week I am sharing some of my favorite software gizmos from my Web-marketing toolbox.
Today’s gizmo: Irfanview
Tasks: Image viewing, printing, adjusting
Cost: Free
Get it here: www.irfanview.com
Do you hate the clunky software that came with your digital camera? Do you need to resize 34M tif files from your photographer, but hate waiting for Photoshop to load? (Or just the price of Photoshop?)
I use Irfanview every day. It opens nearly every image file type there is, and quickly. I use it as my default image-viewer. Then if I want to modify the image, the tools are right there.
Part of the secret of any software, but especially a single-task software, is knowing exactly what it can do and accessing it fast. Here is my primer for Irfanview.
(First, be sure to set ‘view>display options>Only fit large images to window’. Miss this and you will be frustrated with what you see on your screen.)
- Navigating between pictures in a folder: space & backspace…slick!
- Resizing images: ctrl-R to get a window of choices
- Adjusting color/brightness: shft-G (I use the gamma slide bar instead of brightness)
- Saving to same folder: ctrl-S (saves to folder you opened image from)
- Saving to different folder: “S” (helpful when you want your modified pics to go elsewhere)
- Printing: ctrl-P of course, but this is such an nice feature…all the options you’d want for printing the image are right there on one window, including a preview.
- Batch editing: “B”. Be sure to check out the ‘advanced’ button for resizing options.
Yes, I still have a couple 16 oz. hammers in my toolbox (Fireworks, Photoshop), but this 12 oz. hammer is the one that goes on my toolbelt.