HOW TO USE IRFANVIEW (I-View)

HOW TO USE IRFANVIEW (I-View)
By Vic Jaras
Irfanview is a freeware graphics viewer that is installed on the network workstations.
You may also use Irfanview on your home computer or laptop. There are many features
in Irfanview that will save you time when working with digital images.
This handout will provide you with a good overview about the basic functions of this
wonderful graphic viewing and editing software.
BASIC IMAGE EDITING:
OPEN AN IMAGE-Finding your photo and viewing it in Irfanview
SAVE YOUR IMAGE-To preserve any changes and make the picture smaller
HOW TO CROP-How to save only the portion of the photo you want
HOW TO UNDO A MISTAKE-What to do in case of a problem
HOW TO ROTATE-A fast way to correct a bad camera angle
ADD SPECIAL EFFECTS-Check out the cool effects and use plug-ins
MORE ADVANCED FEATURES:
SLIDESHOW-Watch out PowerPoint, Irfanview is faster for a quick slide show.
RESIZE AN IMAGE – Shrink or enlarge your photos in a snap.
BATCH IMAGE CONVERSION-Reduce the size of hundreds of digital images
in seconds with a few mouse clicks.
SCANNERS AND DIGITAL CAMERAS-use the Acquire feature in Irfanview to
obtain images directly from a scanner and many digital cameras.
COPY MACHINE-If you have a scanner, you can use it as a copy machine.
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First time with Irfanview
Irfanview is installed on all computers attached to the new network. However, because it
is FREEWARE, you can easily install it to a laptop or home desktop computer. You can
visit the website (www.irfanview.com) or borrow a CD from Educational IT to obtain the
install program. When you install Irfanview it will place an icon in the menu and on your
desktop. Within the district, Irfanview is only found from the menu.
(Irfanview Icon)
In the district, to find Irfanview:
Click on the Start button
Move up the menu to Programs
Move over to the right for the Apps folder
Move up until you select the Accessories folder
Move down until you see the Irfanview Icon.
Click to start the program.
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When you first open Irfanview you will see the program window but the center will be
blank until you open an image for viewing.
Lets take a quick look at the Irfanview menus:
Title Bar- Displays the title
of the program until you
open an image. Then the
name of the image is
displayed here
Menu Bar- Click your left
mouse on File, Edit, Image,
Options, View or Help and
a drop-down menu will
appear with options to use
Tool Bar- This is a quick
menu with pre-set icons for
the most often used features
of the program. Note that
some options will be dim
until you open an image.
Minimize icon
Maximize /Restore icon
Close program icon
These icons are found in
all windows programs to
control the window that
is running the program.
The bottom portion of the Irfanview window will display “no file loaded” until you open
an image.
After you open a file you will see information displayed at the bottom that you may find
useful from time to time.
TIP: When you move your mouse over a toolbar icon you will see a pop up display of
what function that icon is used for.
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BASIC IMAGE EDITING
OPEN AN IMAGE
Irfanview is a great program to look at images with. It loads them quickly and this will
save you time when working with a lot of pictures.
Click on File, and select the Open option from the drop-down menu.
You will need to find the folder than contains the image(s) you want to look at.
Select the picture you
want to view by
clicking on it. Note the
highlight.
The picture will be
displayed at the
bottom of the open
box (if your preview
active box is checked)
Note that you will also
see the resolution of
the image measured in
width and height. The
physical size is also
displayed.
If this is the correct
picture, click the
OPEN button.
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The Irfanview window
Now that your image is
displayed, most of the
toolbar icons are available
for use.
Notice that Irfanview
provides you with
information about the
image being displayed at
the very bottom of the
window.
A
B
C
A) First, we have the size
of the image in pixels
(how digital photos are
measured).
D
B) Next, we have the
current view size
displayed in percentage
(which could be smaller than actual size like 45% or larger than actual size 150%).
C) The physical size of the image measured in kilobytes (kb stands for thousands of
bytes).
D) The last section provides you with information on the current date and time
TIP: Some mega-pixel (millions of pixels) digital cameras produce images so large that
they will not fit on a floppy disk. You can fit an image up to 1,400,000 kilobytes on a
floppy disk. If you have multiple images you want to save them to a folder and burn a CD
to be able to share the photos. Each pixel is a single dot and the greater the number of
pixels, the better the image quality will be. However, more pixels will increase the size of
the picture too.
THE TOOLBAR
There are short-cut icons for Open
Slideshow, Save As, Delete File
There are icons for Cut, Copy and Paste
There are Undo and Information icons
Zoom in (+) and Zoom Out (-)
Previous Image file and Next Image File
Toolbar icons not show on the left: the P icon (image properties), About Irfanview Icon.
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SAVE YOUR IMAGE
It is always a good idea to save your image. Especially since you may want
to edit an image while keeping the original view intact.
Click on File and Open and find an image on your computer to work with.
Click on File and move down the menu to the Save As option.
In the File
name box,
change the
name of your
original image
file.
You can add a
number to the end
of the name or if it
is a cryptic
number generated
from a digital
camera, you may
want to change
the entire number
to a descriptive
name.
Click the
SAVE button,
to create a
copy of your
original image
with a new
name.
TIP: You do NOT have to save your image as a JPG- you CAN select the file type
and create a GIF, BMP or many other types from the drop-down menu.
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There are many types of graphics you can save your
image as.
For example, if you wanted to create an animation you
would need to save your pictures as GIF or Graphics
Interlaced Format.
If you wanted to create wallpaper for your desktop you
could save your picture as a BMP or Bit Mapped Picture.
PNG pictures are becoming more popular on the Internet.
TIF pictures are the common graphics format for desktop publishers.
PCX is an older style type of clipart.
JPG is an image type that is great for pictures because it supports 16 million different
colors. In contrast, the GIF file format supports only 256 colors.
ICO is a type of graphic for desktop icons.
And there are even more somewhat obscure types of graphic files you can save your
picture as.
TIP: If you click on Options and move down the menu to Set as Wallpaper, then
you can instantly change your wallpaper with a few easy mouse clicks.
However, this will not work on the network, but will work at home or on a laptop.
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TIP: One of the outstanding features of Irfanview is that is automatically saves image
files with a high rate of compression. It is common to open an image and save it using
Irfanview to discover that your image is now a 40% smaller file while retaining all the
quality of the original image.
Another way to reduce the size of your image is by cropping out the material in the
picture you do not need. Cropping also helps you create better looking graphics that are
more focused and quickly convey the message you want. For example if you have
someone standing next to a fence on a crowded street, you can crop out the extra people
until you are left with your subject standing next to a fence.
HOW TO CROP
Irfanview makes cropping easy. With your image open to normal view, (you cannot crop
an image that has been
zoomed in or out-it must be
at normal view) you can
simply click and HOLD your
left mouse button and draw a
box around the part of the
image you want to keep.
Follow these steps:
1) Click and HOLD your left
mouse button and draw a box
around the part of the image you
want to keep (see picture on
left).
2) Click on Edit and select
CROP from the
drop down
menu.
Notice that after cropping, you have a smaller image with all the extra
information that cluttered your picture gone. Save this new image but be
careful NOT to simply click save, since that will erase your original
picture
3) Click on File, select Save As from the menu. Find a location to save your work to and
then give your cropped image a NEW NAME.
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HOW TO UNDO A MISTAKE
Everyone makes mistakes, it is how you react to them that makes all the difference.
Irfanview will let you undo the very last thing you did. For example, if you cropped too
much of a picture and want to quickly cancel the results of the crop, simply:
1) Click on Edit, and select UNDO from the drop-down
menu.
TOOLBAR TIP: There is also a handy toolbar icon that you can click on which
functions exactly like clicking on edit and selecting undo from a menu.
HOW TO ROTATE AN IMAGE
If you have ever turned the camera when taking a picture, you might
get an image that cannot be properly viewed without turning your
head on an angle. With Irfanview we can rotate the digital image
until it is aligned for proper viewing.
Here is what to do:
Before Rotation
1) Click on Image, select Rotate Right.
2) Check to make sure the image displayed
correctly.
3) Save your corrected image. You may want to
overwrite the original image after you have
rotated your picture.
ROTATION TIP: Notice that there are 2 ways to rotate an image and 2 ways to flip
an image.
Notice the difference after the picture was Rotated to the
Right.
After Rotation 9
ADD SPECIAL EFFECTS
Irfanview has several cool effects you can
add to your photos.
For those special “cute as a button” pictures
you might want to create a 3D button.
CREATE A BUTTON:
1) First crop the area for your button or
select the area within your picture that
will be changed into a button.
2) Click on Image, and move down the
menu and select Effects. Select 3D
button from the menu that appears.
3) Save your button as a new file with a
new name.
Button Effect
Another popular special effect is Emboss which can make a
picture appear to be etched in stone.
All the effects are applied just like the procedure for creating a
3D button. Select the image or part that you want to use an
effect on, then select your affect and click.
Experiment with each of the image effects one at a time with
your own photo. Use Save As to create a new picture with each
effect.
Emboss Effect
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There are addition settings for effects that are found in the SETUP option (of
the Image menu). Set Parameters simply means to change a setting or value
for an operation. In this case, we will adjust the settings of the effects menu.
You can adjust the value of how
sharp you want an image. You
can control the values for Blur,
Oil Paint, and Median Filter.
You can control the mask for
Explosion and Pixelize.
You can adjust the degrees of
fine rotation.
You can adjust the borders of
your 3D button.
TIP: If you go overboard and
change the settings beyond a
reasonable level and need to
quickly restore settings, then
click the Set Default Values button.
PLUG-INS
To see what plugins are installed,
click on Help, and
Installed Plug-ins.
Irfanview supports a wide
variety of plug-ins that
enhance the features of
Irfanview. You can add a
plug in to view flash
animations, listen to real
audio and even view
movie files all within
Irfanview.
Many graphics programs
use plug-ins.
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MORE ADVANCED FEATURES
SLIDESHOW
What slideshow will do is allow you to view an entire folder full of pictures in full
screen mode by simply hitting the space bar to go forward or the directional arrow
key to go backward if needed. To stop the show, simply hit the ESC key.
To start SLIDESHOW, Click on File, and move down the menu to
Slideshow.
1) In the Slideshow window (below) you will have to select a folder
with images in it.
2) Next you have to select the individual pictures you want to include in your show.
Select the file and click the ADD button. You should see the image listed on the left
hand column of the window that says: SLIDESHOW FILES.
3) If you make a
mistake and add
a wrong picture,
simply select the
picture and click
the REMOVE
button.
4) You can
control slide
advance and
even save your
settings to a text
file to reuse
later.
5) Click the
PLAY button to
start your
slideshow.
Slideshow
provides a quick method for presenting a group of pictures to a group. Simply put
your digital photos into a folder, and choose ADD ALL, then click the PLAY button.
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RESIZE AN IMAGE
When you buy a digital camera you are told that the larger the number of pixels, the
better the quality of the image. While this is true, these large images are great for
publishers but make the average user resort to reducing the size of the picture in order
to make the image useable.
A mega-pixel image will exceed the size of the PowerPoint slide or spill over the
sides of a Word document. And many email servers do not allow you to send images
that are
that large.
The
answer to
this
problem is
to use the
resize
feature of
Irfanview.
This image is a mega-pixel JPG 2048x1536 (2 mega-pixel) notice how we are seeing
only the upper left hand corner? NOTE: This image has been formatted to fit.
The information Icon was used to display facts about the picture file in view.
1) Click on Image, move down the menu to Resize/Resample.
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When the
resize/Resample image
window appears you
can simply click on the
HALF button to get an
instant reduction of
your image.
Then Click OK.
However, if you are
one of those tactile
people who like to
touch., then you can
adjust your image by
typing in the new width
and height or you can
use percentages.
You can also click in a
radio button for a preset dimension.
There is also a place to select which filter you want for a resample.
Here is the
same image
with half the
size
(1024x763).
Notice the
little girl who
we could not
even see
before image
reduction.
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BATCH IMAGE CONVERSION
Imagine that you have a folder full of mega-pixel images that all need to be re-sized
in order to use them in PowerPoint. You could spend hours reducing the size of each
image one at a time or you could harness the power of batch conversion and be done
in seconds.
The batch
conversion
window
operates
much like
the slide
show
window.
However,
you are
changing
file
attributes.
To re-size the entire folder of pictures, Click the ADD ALL button.
Then, you need to click the Advanced Options button.
TIP: The output directory is where your new, converted images will be stored. It is a
good idea to create a new folder for your new images. You need to have your new
folder created before you attempt to store batch-converted images there.
Click the browse button to select a folder for
storage of your new images.
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The Set Images window has control over your image options.
A quick way to reduce
the size of a folder full of
images is to click on the
Percentage of Original
radio button.
Check the preserve aspect
ratio box.
Then set height or width
to the percentage you
want (50%, 70%). With
preserve aspect ratio
checked, if you type in
one box the other will
automatically adjust.
Finally, click the OK
Button.
Wow, within seconds you can reduce the size of hundreds of images!
NOTE: You can also rotate an entire folder or group of pictures. Note the Other
Options section.
TIP: If you know that you ONLY need smaller images you could check the box in
the miscellaneous section that says: “Delete original files after conversion”.
However, I do not recommend this method since mistakes are common and you may
lose some really great pictures. It is always a good idea to have a back up of anything
you work with on the computer.
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SCANNERS AND DIGITAL CAMERAS
There are many programs that will scan or connect to a digital camera to download
the picture directly into the software. Irfanview is easy to use to acquire images from
twain digital sources like a scanner or camera.
1) With Irfanview, click on File and move down the menu to the
item: Select Twain Source. Twain is a way that scanners and
cameras can communicate with software programs.
2) The Select Source window will appear. You need to select the
device you will be using to transfer pictures.
3) Click the
SELECT button.
4) Click the
Acquire button to
start
communication
with your scanner
or digital camera.
Software from your
scanner or camera
should appear with some options for
you to select. When you are
finished, your picture will be
downloaded directly into Irfanview.
You can use your scanner like a copier.. check out the COPY SHOP feature..
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COPY SHOP
A new feature added to Irfanview (version 3.51 to 3.7) is the COPY SHOP.
This allows you to use your scanner like a copy machine. You can scan a
piece of paper and have the digital input go directly to your printer.
1) Click on File, move down the menu to the Copy Shop option.
TIP: If you do not have this option, then you need to upgrade to a newer
version of Irfanview.
The copy shop window will appear
2) Click the SELECT TWAIN SOURCE
button to make sure you
Have your scanner selected.
3) Make sure the correct Active Printer is selected. If not, click the Select button.
4) Select the number of copies (try 1 to test your settings before doing multiple
copies).
5) Click the Start button. The scanner should start and the printer should print your
copy. What a great feature!
Now you should be more comfortable using Irfanview. Visit the Irfanview website
at: www.irfanview.com to download the latest version, new plug-ins and other addons to this terrific program.
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