Image editing seems to be one of those tasks that crop occasionally, regardless of the nature of our work. We’re not talking about professional photo and video editing. We are talking of very basic image editing tasks such as resizing or cropping an image, taking a few screenshots or collating a whole collection of images. The end resulting set of images maybe used in a PowerPoint presentation, a project, or just uploaded to a photo album hosting web service. The solution that comes to mind is MS Paint. It’s minimal but it’s not equipped to do all the kind of tasks we need to do regularly. It should be obvious spend a lot of time and effort getting things done through MS Paint. The results can be quite shoddy.
IrfanView is a very interesting image viewer and editor. It’s compact, it’s free and it’s been around for more than two decades. You can download and install it from www.irfanview.com. It’s less than 3.5 megabytes in download size but you will be surprised by how much it can help you. It’s a good idea to set it up on you as the default image viewer on Windows. You can do this by clicking on ‘Options > Set File Associations’. Click the ‘Images Only’ button and click OK.
Most tasks in IrfanView can be completed using keyboard shortcuts, so you save a lot of time. There are keyboard shortcuts for practically everything. You can navigate through images in a folder by pressing the direction keys or spacebar. Zooming is done using the + and – keys. You can start a slideshow for a set of images using the W key. The feature is also available through the File > Slideshow menu.
Resize images
Resizing images in MS Paint is difficult. It involves dragging the edges of the image and the canvas. The aspect ratio of the image changes in the process, resulting in a terribly warped image. IrfanView lets you resize images in a very simple manner by pressing the ‘Ctrl + R’ key. You can resize it to the dimensions (in pixels) you want. Choose to change maintain the aspect ratio always. Click OK to resize.
Batch edit and convert images
There are instances where we need to resize many photos. This could be screenshots clicked for a training module, or they just could be the entire collection of photos shots on our mobile phone or DSLR. Uploading so many photos online to say, Flickr can take a while. IrfanView makes resizing them a lot simpler. It gives you options to reduce the resolution, the quality and file size. The Batch Conversion feature is invoked using the B key or through the ‘File > Batch Conversion/Rename’ menu. There are several features here, but we will talk only about the essential ones.
First, find your folder with all the photos in it. Click on ‘Add All’ or ‘Add’ if you want to select specific photos. You can browse through different directories and add more photos like this. When you are ready, click on the ‘Output Format’ on the left top, then select the format that you want to save the images in. We prefer using JPG. Click on options and you can change the quality of the JPEG image. Click OK when you’re done. You can also choose to use the ‘Advanced Options’ checkbox to change more settings. Click on ‘Advanced’. Check the resize check box and select a new size. You can add filters to improve the quality of the photo by sharpening them or adjusting their contrast and brightness. Click OK when you’re ready. Select the output folder and click ‘Start Batch’ to start the conversion. You should find the converted files in the folder when the task is completed.
Batch rename images
Most of us click photos on our mobile phone and camera but the files are never named properly. They’re a bunch of gibberish with random numbers. IrfanView lets you rename batches of photos in seconds. The batch rename feature is very similar to the batch conversion one. The steps are similar. Open up the Batch Conversion/Rename screen. Select the Batch Rename radio button on the top. You should see the rename settings at the bottom. Choose a naming convention that best suits your scenario. For example, June_2020_#####. You can even do a test run by clicking the ‘Run Test Rename’ button. When you’re ready, click the ‘Start Batch’ button and IrfanView will do the rest.
Copy and move bulk images to selected folders
IrfanView has the unique ability to let you copy or move images to specified folders. Let’s take for example, photos clicked during a holiday. You want them sorted into separate folders for shortlisting, for printing or uploading. You can press the F7 key to manually select folder paths. You should create these folders first using Windows Explorer if you haven’t done it yet. You can now view single photos on IrfanView and hit the F7 key to choose the folder you want to move it to. Every assigned folder has a number – 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. You can press Alt + 1, to move the photo to the first folder.
Similarly, hitting F8 key copies photos instead of moving them. You can also use the Thumbnails view which can be accessed by pressing T, or by going to File > Thumbnails. You can manually select multiple photos at once then use the copy or move function.
Create accurately aligned images
We often need to create images for publishing online or to plug into presentations or journals. These images need to be of a specific resolution and size. If they aren’t, the resulting image tends to be warped or not properly aligned. Text on these images may not be legible either. IrfanView has a nice set of features which lets you either stack or align images within a set resolution. In simple words, you can align images with evenly distributed blank spaces around it.
The best way to go about this is by first resizing your original image to the height or width you need. Then you can decide whether you need white spaces horizontally or vertically. You can change the canvas size to add this space. Click on ‘Image > Change Canvas Size’ or use the keyboard shortcut, ‘Shift + V’. We can choose the new dimensions of the image using the second method listed there, then choose the direction in which the image needs to shift, if needed. You can also specify the canvas color at the bottom. Make sure it matches the background of the original image.
Create image stacks
There are instances is when we need to compile multiple images into one. This could be a sequence of screenshots or a visual storyboard. Start by first either creating a blank image or opening the first image in the sequence of the stack. Open a new IrfanView window and open the second image in the sequence in it. Select all and copy using the shortcuts, ‘Ctrl + A’ and ‘Ctrl + C’ respectively. The second image is now copied into the clipboard. Now, go the IrfanView window with the first image. Click on ‘Edit > Paste Special (Add on side)’, and then choose where you wish to paste this new image, above, below or on the sides of the original image. The canvas automatically expands with the new image stacked next to the old one. Just ensure you have a clear idea of the sequence of the images before you start.
Setting a desktop wallpaper through IrfanView
IrfanView lets you set a new desktop wallpaper in seconds. Simply open the image you want to assign, press ‘Ctrl + Shift + C’ to make it happen. You can also click on ‘Options > Set as wallpaper’ and choose one of the layouts.
Extening Irfanview capabilities using plugins
IrfanView has support for several plugins and this can be handy depending, on what kind of work you do. There are plugins that let you load several lesser common formats. There are plugins that let you view videos, even play music and transfer files over FTP. You can see the entire list of plugins at https://www.irfanview.com/plugins.htm and choose the packs you wish to install.
Adding a watermark to images
There may be times where we need to add a watermark to images used in presentations or content that we might publish online or use in a YouTube video. Simply click on ‘Edit > Insert Overlay/Watermark image…’ Choose the watermark image and the location of the watermark. Make sure that the watermark itself is compact and doesn’t take up a lot of space. Text can also be added similarly, using the ‘Edit > Insert Text’ menu.
IrfanView really has many more features than we have mentioned here. Some of those are the ability to paint and draw on images, even importing images from a scanner or creating slideshow CDs. We could go on and on, but we hope you find these features useful in your daily life.
