Sometimes a full featured image editor is just too much. That is the case when you simply want a quick way to view some files. In those scenarios, I have a tool that fits my needs perfectly. And you can’t beat the price since it is completely free.
Irfanview allows you to view most every bitmap format ever invented. Together with the plug-ins that can also be downloaded for free, I don’t think I’ve found a format it couldn’t open. I use Irfanview often to quickly flip through a folder full of images. I’ll admit that I probably don’t even use 10% of the features.
It can be used to convert images and I’ve used this occasionally when I need to convert a file for later editing with Corel PHOTO-PAINT. Other features like optimizing, slideshows and batch processing have also gone unused on my system. When I look at the feature list and see all of the things I don’t use, I realize just how much power this little program packs. Download a copy for yourself and let me know what you like most about it.
IW is just the right companion to Photo-Paint. You can use IW to browse throught folders, something PP does not allow (yet). And when you find something that you want to edit with a full-fledged photo editor, you can even open it with an “external editor” of your choice (mine is PP).
Since Photo-Paint also lacks metadata fields of the IPTC standard, I even use IW for that kind of stuff. It allows batch processing of IPTC data too.
When browsing though folders you can just hit enter and you will see the image in full frame view and all EXIF data on top of it. Very nice.
IW is just the right companion to Photo-Paint. You can use IW to browse throught folders, something PP does not allow (yet). And when you find something that you want to edit with a full-fledged photo editor, you can even open it with an “external editor” of your choice (mine is PP).
Since Photo-Paint also lacks metadata fields of the IPTC standard, I even use IW for that kind of stuff. It allows batch processing of IPTC data too.
When browsing though folders you can just hit enter and you will see the image in full frame view and all EXIF data on top of it. Very nice.