IrfanView

It would be almost strange to imagine a modern OS without a built-in photo viewer. Even though the default Windows Photo Viewer gets the job done for most users, there are those that long for a bit more functionality.

IrfanView started in life as a simple JPG viewer as a student project for Irfan Skijan in 1996 and is now one of the best and most comprehensive graphic viewers you can get if you want to replace Windows' default photo viewer. Here's why.

The thing that makes IrfanView stand out as such a wonderful multimedia/photo editing suite is, of course, its feature set.

But, before talking about the plethora of provided features, it's important to note that IrfanView is by no means a difficult app to operate.

Even though it looks a bit dated, at first glance, the interface is exactly what most users want: simple, non-intimidating, and very functional, with plenty of room for the displayed image and a basic toolbar at the top.

One of the main advantages of IrfanView, and definitely one of its defining characteristics, is its friendliness towards a wide range of graphic formats. In short, you can use the app for viewing pretty much any format out there.

Another great aspect of IrfanView is that it allows you to effortlessly enhance its overall functionality via third-party plug-ins. The Official IrfanView Plug-in Pack is a great collection of tools you can use if you feel that the app's already impressive collection of options are not perfect for you.

Then there's also the fact that IrfanView is exceptionally lightweight. This means that you can view and edit bulky image files even on old computers without hiccups.

Last but not least, if you plan on making IrfanView your default photo viewer, then you might as well enable the context menu integration, and make its usage even more seamless.

As mentioned before, the app's GUI looks kind of plain at first glance. However, this is one book that shouldn't be judged by its cover.

A quick stroll within the app's menu bar will give you a general idea about just how complete this app really is. You can browse through your images, watch them as a slideshow, perform basic photo editing tasks, batch convert images, and even make use of the built-in scanner interface.

For example, you can add multiple effects to your pictures (sharpen, blur, Adobe 8BF, filter factory, filters unlimited, etc.), you can perform basic screen capturing tasks, change the depth of the color, create panoramas as well as cut, crop, straighten, and rotate images.

What's more, you can add both text and image overlays (watermarks), view EFIX, IPTC, and Comment-related information draw lines, extract icons, circles, arrows, as well as change the EXIF date information.

Other noteworthy features include multi-language support, Unicode support, various toolbar skin options, support for Adobe Photoshop filters, a fast directory view, multipage TIF editing, an effective file search, multiple undo steps, a multimedia player.

Its interface might be a tad old-fashioned, but that's just one of the reasons why IrfanView is so fast. The thing that the app excels at is, of course, the batch conversion of images and that's reason enough to have it installed on your system.

Be that as it may, it's nice to know that there are tons of other awesome features available in case you'll ever need them, and better yet, its functionality is quite extendable with the help of an official Plug-in pack.

IrfanView is a blazing-fast, user-friendly yet highly feature-packed photo viewer that can be used by everyone, from beginners to professionals.