IrfanView

{{Infobox software

| name = IrfanView

| logo = IrfanView Logo2.svg

| logo size = 48px

| screenshot = IrfanView.png

| caption = IrfanView version 4.33 showing a photo of Schloss Ort

| developer = Irfan Škiljan

| released = {{Start date and age|1996|06|01|df=yes/no}}[http://www.irfanview.com/history_old.htm History of changes] for older versions of IrfanView

| latest release version = {{wikidata|property|reference|P348}}

| latest release date = {{start date and age|{{wikidata|qualifier|P348|P577}}}}

| operating system = Microsoft Windows

| size = 3.57 MB (IrfanView 64-bit)
26.02 MB (Plugins 64-bit)[https://www.irfanview.com/64bit.htm IrfanView 64-bit version] Irfanview.com. Retrieved 1 December 2021.

| language = English, German
Other languages available as download.

| language footnote = [http://www.irfanview.com/languages.htm Additional languages for IrfanView]

| genre = Image viewer

| license = Proprietary, free for non-commercial use

| website = {{URL|https://www.irfanview.com/}}

}}

IrfanView ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɪər|f|æ|n|v|j|uː}}) is an image viewer, editor, organiser and converter program for Microsoft Windows.{{cite magazine | url = http://www.pcworld.com/article/231723/irfanview.html | access-date = 11 March 2016 | first = Preston | last = Gralla | magazine = PC World | title = IrfanView}}{{cite web | url = http://lifehacker.com/205801/download-of-the-day-irfanview-windows | date = 6 October 2006 | access-date = 11 March 2016 | first = Adam | last = Pash | publisher = Lifehacker | title = Download of the Day: IrfanView (Windows)}}{{cite magazine | url = http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/web-designer/irfanview-a-robust-and-free-image-editor-for-your-toolkit/ | date = 23 August 2011 | access-date = 11 March 2016 | first = Ryan | last = Boudreaux | magazine = TechRepublic | title = IrfanView: A robust (and free) image editor for your toolkit | archive-date = 12 March 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160312063822/http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/web-designer/irfanview-a-robust-and-free-image-editor-for-your-toolkit/ | url-status = dead }} It can also play video and audio files, and has some image creation and painting capabilities. IrfanView is free for non-commercial use; commercial use requires paid registration. It is noted for its small size, speed, ease of use, and ability to handle a wide variety of graphic file formats. It was first released in 1996.

IrfanView is named after its creator, Irfan Škiljan, from Jajce, Bosnia and Herzegovina, living in Vienna.{{Cite web|url=http://www.irfanview.com/main_about.htm |title=About the author |first=Irfan |last=Skiljan |publisher=Irfanview.com |access-date=27 September 2015}} The current version of IrfanView, 4.70, works under all versions of Windows from Windows XP to Windows 11. Version 4.44 and older versions were compatible with Windows 95/98/Me{{Cite web| url=http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/compatibility/CompatCenter/ProductDetailsViewer?Type=Software&Name=IrfanView&ModelOrVersion=4&Vendor=irfan+skiljan&Locale=1033&LastSearchTerm=&BreadcrumbPath=irfanview&TempOsid=Windows+10 |title=Windows 10 Compatibility for IrfanView by Irfan Skiljan: Compatible |work=Windows Compatibility Center |publisher=Microsoft| access-date=4 August 2015}} and can also be run in Linux under Wine{{Cite web |url=http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=163 |title=IrfanView 3.x, 4.x (test results)|publisher=WineHQ.org |access-date=14 May 2011}} and in macOS using WineBottler.{{Cite web |url=https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2524633?threadID=2524633 |title=Irfanview for Mac: Apple Support Communities |access-date=26 May 2011}}

Features

IrfanView is specifically optimized for fast image display and loading times. It supports viewing and saving of numerous file types including image formats such as BMP, GIF, JPEG, JP2 & JPM (JPEG2000), PNG (includes the optimizer OptiPNG; APNG can be read), TIFF, raw photo formats from digital cameras, ECW (Enhanced Compressed Wavelet), EMF (Enhanced Windows Metafile), FSH (EA Sports format), ICO (Windows icon), PCX (Zsoft Paintbrush), PBM (Portable BitMap), PDF (Portable Document Format), PGM (Portable GrayMap), PPM (Portable PixelMap), TGA (Truevision Targa), WebP, FLIF (Free Lossless Image Format) and viewing of media files such as Flash, Ogg, Vorbis, MPEG, MP3, MIDI, and text files.[http://www.irfanview.com/main_formats.htm "List of supported formats"]. Irfanview.com. Retrieved 12 July 2010.{{Cite book| title=HTML, XHTML, and CSS All-in-One For Dummies |author=Harris, Andy| publisher=For Dummies |edition=2nd |page=107| isbn=978-0-470-53755-8 |year=2010 |access-date=9 September 2011 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-LdlRI0fT_UC&q=irfanview&pg=PA107}}

Image editing includes crop, resize, and rotate. Images can be adjusted by modifying their brightness, contrast, tint, and gamma level{{Cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EKblq5NS4AAC&q=irfanview&pg=PA289 |title=Google Earth for Dummies |pages=289–290|last=Crowder |first=David A.| publisher=Wiley Publishing |location=Indianapolis |isbn=978-0-470-09528-7 |year=2007| access-date=23 June 2010}} manually or automatically, and by converting them between file formats. Many of these changes can be applied to multiple images in one operation using batch processing.{{cite web |last1=Ellis |first1=Cat |last2=Marshall |first2=Carrie |title=IrfanView review |url=https://www.techradar.com/uk/reviews/irfanview |website=TechRadar |access-date=4 May 2020 |language=en |date=5 May 2017}}

A plugin allows IrfanView to support lossless JPG operations: horizontal or vertical flip, rotation by 90° increments, and cropping.[https://www.irfanview.com/plugins.htm "IrfanView Plugins"]. Irfanview.com. Retrieved 1 September 2019.[https://jpegclub.org/losslessapps.html "Lossless jpegtran applications"]. JPEGclub.org. Retrieved 1 September 2019.

=Plugins=

IrfanView uses plugins to handle several additional images, video, and sound formats and to add optional functionality such as filter processing or other program features. With its diverse set of format plugins, the program has been recommended for viewing obscure image formats, or corrupted files, which commercial photo editing software cannot read.{{Cite book|title=Photoshop Elements 8 for Windows: The Missing Manual| author=Brundage, Barbara |page=73 |publisher=O'Reilly Media / Pogue Press| year=2009| isbn=9781449379520 |access-date=23 June 2010 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uB5H3R_VvFwC&q=irfanview&pg=PA73}}{{Cite book |last1=Nelson |first1=Sharon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1VX3G8lasuwC&pg=PA104 |title=The 2009 Solo and Small Firm Legal Technology Guide |last2=Simek |first2=John W. |last3=Maschke |first3=Michael C. |publisher=American Bar Association |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-60442-321-1 |page=104}}

Reception

Irfanview has been positively reviewed as "really good" for easily and rapidly viewing and manipulating images, with its editing and drawing tools.{{Cite book |title=HTML, XHTML, and CSS All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies |last1=Harris |first1=Andy |last2=McCulloh |first2=Chris |publisher=Wiley Publishing |page=97| isbn=978-0-470-18627-5 |year=2008 |access-date=23 June 2010 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w9kLLI-0exgC&pg=PA97}} Features extensive introduction and opinion. Other writers have focused on its ability to open a wide variety of image formats. In a series of image quality tests conducted in 2004, compared with commercial image compressors and Adobe Photoshop 7, Irfanview 3.91 produced "consistently better images than the Adobe Photoshop JPEG encoder at the same data rate", and its JPEG2000 compression quality "closely followed" the best codec, JasPer."{{cite book |chapter=JPEG vs. JPEG2000: An Objective Comparison of Image Encoding Quality |last1=Ebrahimi |first1=Farzad |last2=Chamik |first2=Matthieu |last3=Winkler |first3=Stefan |title=Applications of Digital Image Processing XXVII. Proceedings of the SPIE |volume= 5558 |pages=300–308 |date=November 2004 |editor-last=Tescher |editor-first=Andrew G. |doi=10.1117/12.564835 |citeseerx = 10.1.1.65.5495|s2cid=6393903}} According to IrfanView's official website, since 2003, IrfanView has been downloaded over 1 million times per month. One independent review in 2017 described Irfanview, as "the Swiss Army Knife of image viewers".

Author

Irfan Škiljan graduated from the Vienna University of Technology. In a 2006 interview, then 32-year-old Škiljan said that he was able to more or less live off the software, generating income with the sale of licenses for commercial users and of special versions for different customers.{{Cite journal|url=http://wolf-hosbach.de/computer/irfan.html |author=Hosbach, Wolf|title= Hat es sich gelohnt? |number=6| year=2006 |publisher=PC Magazin |language=de |access-date=28 October 2008}} [https://translate.google.com/translate?u=http://wolf-hosbach.de/computer/irfan.html&hl=en&langpair=auto|en&tbb=1&ie=UTF-8 (English tr.)]

= Pronunciation =

The author claims that the software is pronounced as "EarfanView"; it is named after himself and is an Islamic Arabic name, Irfan.

=Logo/mascot=

According to Škiljan, the IrfanView logo and mascot is a "road cat" (there is a tire track across the smallest and the biggest icon for Windows Explorer, as well as the version for Microsoft Store){{Cite web|url=https://www.irfanview.com/faq.htm#Q76 |title=IrfanView Frequently Asked Questions |publisher=Irfanview.com |access-date=27 September 2015}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/irfanview/9nl0r0jnnzm0 |title=Get IrfanView - Microsoft Store |publisher=Microsoft |access-date=21 January 2021}} but that he "likes cats", and the icon is "a joke" – the IrfanView website pictures him holding a white domestic cat.