DiRT (Digital Research Tools) has a new home! Please visit Bamboo DiRT to explore this excellent collection of research tools.

Web site: http://www.irfanview.com/

Date of first review/ name of reviewer: 5/21/08 [Lisa Spiro]

Additional reviewer(s):

Produced by:  irfan skiljan

Cost: Free [donations encouraged]

Description: IrfanView is an easy-to-use image editor and viewer

Platform: Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista 

License: "IrfanView is provided as freeware, but only for private, non-commercial use (that means at home). IrfanView is free for educational use (schools, universities and libraries) and for use in charity or humanitarian organisations."

Maturity: now on version 4.10 [first released in 1996]

Features:

• Supports many file formats
• Batch conversion
• Supports scanning
• Supports cropping, resizing, effects, etc
• Fast and lightweight

Advantages:

• Essential tool for quickly and easily batch converting files.  For instance, you can rotate a folder of images, resize them, convert them to JPGs, etc--using a simple interface.
• Use IrfanView to enhance an image by adjusting contrast, applying effects, etc.
• You can also use IrfanView to rename files in batches.

Disadvantages:

• It's not available natively on the Mac.  Since switching to a Mac, IrfanView is the software I miss most.

Tips:

• If you are going to convert images in batches, make sure you have backup copies, and test the conversion first on a couple of images.

Tutorials:

• Nortel's Imaging Tutorials (short videos, nicely produced)

More information:

•  Lifehacker Download of the Day: IrfanView (Windows)

Developer Resources:

• IrfanView Forums: plugins, bug reports, feature requests