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IrfanView

CNET Editors' review

by: Seth Rosenblatt on November 08, 2008

This image viewer and editor is a longtime favorite among our staff, and with good reason. IrfanView is simple, fast, and free for individual use. Upon installation, the app attempts to install two Google programs, but you can opt out.

The program lets you open and edit images, as well as multiple media formats. You can cut and crop images, apply batch conversions, add, sharpen, or blur effects, create panoramas, and change color modes easily. The program continues to add support for an array of file formats and has plug-in support for most image, video, and sound formats, including MP3, AVI, audio CD, and WMA. The interface is far from fancy but should be easy enough for most users to figure out. An IrfanView Thumbnails shortcut on the desktop offers an Explorer-like file tree that quickly displays all images in a particular folder. The latest version includes a basic drawing palette made accessible by hitting F12. It contains simple Erase, Draw, Fill, Rotate, Draw an Arrow, and Color Picker commands, perfect for grabbing screenshots and highlighting image specifics.

IrfanView does what it does well. It's not going to replace a major paint program, but why use a meat cleaver to cut a stick of butter?

 
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Publisher's Description

From Irfan Skiljan:

IrfanView is a fast and compact image viewer/converter. It is trying to be simple for beginners and powerful for professionals. It supports file formats and features. Features include: multi-language support, Thumbnail option, Painting, slideshow, toolbar skins, fast directory browsing, batch conversion/editing, multipage editing, file search, change color depth, scanning, cut/crop, IPTC edit, capturing, lossless JPG operations, effects, watermark image option, ICC support, EXE/SCR creating, many hotkeys, command line options and plugins.

What's new in this version: Version 4.32 adds much faster zooming/resample, option to add a watermark image, many new formats (like WebP), Face detection plugin, several plugin updates.

More Popular Image Editing Software downloads

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All User Reviews
  • All versions:

    4.3 stars

    out of 3,269 votes

    • 5 star: 1791
    • 4 star: 981
    • 3 star: 284
    • 2 star: 91
    • 1 star: 122
  • Current version:

    4.7 stars

    out of 63 votes

    • 5 star: 47
    • 4 star: 12
    • 3 star: 4
    • 2 star: 0
    • 1 star: 0
  • My rating:

    0 stars

    Write review

Results 1-10 of 63

  • 4.0 stars

    "Versatile, simple, thorough and free little program."

    February 3, 2012  |   By vera22copley

    Version: IrfanView 4.32

    Pros

    A must for any photo enthusiast.

    Cons

    None that come to mind.

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  • 3.0 stars

    "the price was right, aa free download"

    January 26, 2012  |   By grex0

    Version: IrfanView 4.32

    Pros

    I can't think of any - however I was not totally disappointed in it so it must have some...

    Cons

    there were no options for usage of open photos. I wanted to send some one way, others in other directions. This I was unable to do. I had to close the app first... this meant I had to memorize file names in order to move more than one at a time. Unable to control magnification spot when enlarging photos in the viewer. This meant I had to use sliders to see the portion of the photo I wanted magnified and to see if it was big enough or needed more mag.

    Summary

    It just does not serve my purposes the way I like to use a photo viewer.

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  • 5.0 stars

    "Does almost anything graphical"

    January 20, 2012  |   By clamoreaux

    Version: IrfanView 4.32

    Pros

    Crops easily
    Exports/converts to various formats
    Facilitates sorting libraries, with easy deleting.
    Prints pictures more easily than some expensive graphics programs do.
    Can load from clipboard to make graphic savable and manipulate-able.
    Convenient in transferring between Adobe Reader and Powerpoint.

    Cons

    Can't think of any

    Summary

    I put it on my desktop, but it also automatically loads when I click on a graphic file name. Been using it for several years.

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  • 5.0 stars

    "excellent viewer and light editor"

    January 17, 2012  |   By ed the hippie

    Version: IrfanView 4.32

    Pros

    very fine viewer , with extensions , it opens EVERYTHING !! also very good at light and preliminary cropping and colour adjustments and even good at light titling

    Cons

    certainly not as good as gimp for heavy duty stuff

    Summary

    i have been computing as a hobbyist since 1978 , before the beginning as it were , and i highly recommend this ! superb !! my thanks to the programmer(s ) !!

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  • 5.0 stars

    "Best free image viewer & fixer, powerful, easy to use."

    January 17, 2012  |   By yuyiya

    Version: IrfanView 4.32

    Pros

    View and resize with optional resampling.
    One-key fix for photos (Shift-U).
    Most manual photo correction tools in one (Shift-G) dialogue box.
    Now has paint tools to clone areas or replace colours.
    Straighten and rotate tools.
    Auto-crop borders.
    Easily rename, resize, edit, sharpen and fix a whole batch of pix.
    Simple slideshow maker.
    Add text annotations, with coloured or transparent background.
    Active guidelines for composing best crop of a photo.
    Create and apply custom area selections.
    Creative tools such as colour swaps and filters.
    Runs Photoshop plugins.

    Cons

    No macro programming language.

    Summary

    Best (picture tool) thing since sliced cheese!

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  • 5.0 stars

    "A desk top editor I can't do without."

    January 14, 2012  |   By dougiec3

    Version: IrfanView 4.32

    Pros

    Irfanview has been my image desk top editor for more years than I can remember. It's an instant load and so easy to use. My workhorse program is Photoshop, but I don't like to wait for it to open every time I want to edit an image, so I use Irfanview to resize, enhance, adjust resolution and file new images. For a couple of years I tried to make the move from PC back to Apple and the program I missed the most was Irfanview. Now I'm back to PCs and Irfanview is also back. Use it and contribute.

    Cons

    Irfanview doesn't handle a few file types.

    Summary

    Irfanview is fast, convenient and free, but you'll like it so much you'll contribute to the creators.

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  • 5.0 stars

    "Video viewer and pics file size reducer."

    January 14, 2012  |   By kleczerx

    Version: IrfanView 4.32

    Pros

    It is especially excellant as a video file player. Definitely like the ability to 'Crtl+S' a JPG pic file to reduce the file-size but not the pics view-size thus saving hard disk space and providing an ability to attach more pics to a single email.

    Cons

    Need to be keen on option settings to cut down on warning windows and have the program give you what you need.

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  • 4.0 stars

    "Everything You Need for a Picture Browser"

    January 14, 2012  |   By shaftmonde

    Version: IrfanView 4.32

    Pros

    Excellent intuitive folder/file tree, with thumbnails to view.
    Everything you need to navigate through your photos and videos.
    Does nearly all what other paid-for programs do.

    Cons

    Can't understand the connection between the Irfan viewer and the thumbnail viewer. - Why the need for a separate viewer? (Maybe my inexperience with this program yet.)
    Thumbnails a little slow to load, but no big deal.

    Summary

    I was using an old ACDSee program which I lost, and was looking for a replacement. This is it.

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  • 5.0 stars

    "Fabulous program"

    January 14, 2012  |   By SorrelAQHA

    Version: IrfanView 4.32

    Pros

    Does every simple task I've wanted it to do, quickly and easily.

    Cons

    None - love this program

    Summary

    I've used Irfanview almost exclusively for about 12 years. It's simple and feature rich for quickly editing single or multiple photos. I'm writing the review now because I just got a new computer and I needed to download a copy for this computer.

    With the "new" ability to draw on photos, it will most likely be the only photo program that I need.

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  • 5.0 stars

    "It does what you need simply easily"

    January 12, 2012  |   By WebWeaver64

    Version: IrfanView 4.32

    Pros

    This simple, fast, and easy to use program has been on my computers for over 7 years. It's my number 1 goto suggestion for anyone looking for a quick easy way to edit, move, copy or rename images. It's also quick and fast for screen prints, and listening to wav files.

    Cons

    I don't really have any cons, other then the interface is a bit outdated looking but I don't really care what it looks like because it works so great.

    Summary

    If you're looking for a simple fast phone machine this is the one!

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Results 1-10 of 63

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