To begin with, Irfanview is a graphic viewing program that is more than
just a viewer. It can do some editing, is very good at changing graphic
formats and, with the plugins, can play sound files, read and save out Mr.
Sid files and copy, resize and move grapic files.
If you do not have a copy of Irfanview, you can obtain it from
It should be noted, that the installation of Irfanview is clean and only
to its own folder. There are no other files scattered about the hard
drive. The plugins will install to a subfolder to the main Irfanview
(Iview) keeping a very compact installation. It is for this reason,
that placing a copy of the Iview folder on a cd which contains graphic files
is very useful for the reasons you will see below.
Installation
Upon downloading the installation file, (be sure that you place it where
it can be found easily .... either the desktop, or My Documents or
... my recommendation.... Create a folder under C: called Downloads. Placing
all downloaded files first in this folder will set the automatic download
location so that all downloads will be automatically directed to this one
and allow you to easily find them for later installation.). Once you
have located your download, double click on it to begin the installation.
Once done, a window will popup which will allow you to select the graphic
file associations. I would suggest that to begin, you select "all graphic
files". This will mean that when you double click on any graphic file, Iview
will automatically open and load the graphic file.
Operations
File Menu
Open..... Will allow you to browse your hard drive to the locations
of any graphic files. Once found, clicking to select will then give
you a preview of the graphic and allow you to open it in Iview. There
is an option to screen by file type with the "all formats" (called common
graphic files) at the top of the list.
It is advisable to read the help. Its quite extensive and informative
with examples
Using Iview to resize for email attachments.
Most digital cameras and many scanners will result in a file that it too
large to be easily emailed as an attachment. Iview can easily resize
it for transmission. ALWAYS save the resized file with another name
or modification of the orgional name. This allows you to redo or edit
the orgional file without losses caused by manipulating a file.
With the file of interest loaded into Iview, select the Image, Resize/Resample
menu. In that popup window, there is a list of standard size
dimensions in pixels. For transmission, either the 640x480 or 800x600
options will result in a file that is suitable in size for sending.
Once this is selected and OK is clicked, the file has been resized. By
pressing "S" on the keyboard, the "Save As" option is shown allowing you
to save it as another name. (I frequently use the same name followed
by an "s" for "sized" and keep it in a JPG format. Most browsers can easily
display this graphic format).
Note where you have saved it (recommended, the same folder as the orgional
to keep them from becoming scattered all over the hard drive). Once
this is done, you can close Iview. I would not recommend trying to
email directly from Iview. Some email programs do not behave well with the
plugins of Iview intended for emailing. With the resized file in a
folder that you know, you can open that folder, minimize it and start your
email program. Compose the email and either use the attach or drag
and drop the resized graphic file onto the email (this will vary some with
the particular email program you are using). Send as you would any
other email and you have sent the individual the graphic as well.