ABOUT FACTS NET

Product Review

Picture Source - Clipart.com

Click Here to see the specs of the computer this software is run on.

InfanView is a freeware program that has been around for years. Each year it seems to get better and more popular. It is not only a comprehensive viewer, by that I mean it can show just about any type of photo or graphic, video and even play audio, but it also manipulates photos and graphics. As I said the program is free but you can make a donation if you like. I did because I felt that the program is one of the best around and this includes comparing it against commercial programs that sell for quite a few dollars.

InfanView is easy to operate, that is part of it's charm. It accepts plugins that were written for it which enhance the powers of the program even more. It uses the usual drop down menus plus a tool bar which allow you to access it's features. When you first load it up it will bring up a screen which lists all types of file extensions and ask you to check off the ones you want the program to be the default loader for. If you want to be able to use programs like Windows Movie viewer as a default loader for Windows movie files, make sure you don't check the box for InfanView to be the default program for this type of file. Checking the box however is not such a bad thing as the software if capable of viewing these files.

The Basics:

InfanView will load and view almost any type of image file. Once the photo or graphic is loaded you can easily save it, print it, change the size, rotate it, flip it, make it into a panorama by adding other photos, adjust the colors, change it to black land white from color or gray scale, fix red eye, crop the photo or graphic, cut parts of the photo or graphic, create a thumbnail, insert text, cut, copy, paste, sharpen, zoom in and zoom out. You can also create a slide show. These are the parts of the program that would get the most use by the average person, but there is more, much more.

Advanced Features:

You can use an external editor to open any photo or graphic. You can select a source, such as a scanner or camera and acquire scanned photos from it. You can do batch scanning. There is a custom selection option for photo and graphic sizes. You can take any photo or graphic that you saved to the clip board and paste it into InfanView, this is very handy. Image boarders are adjustable. There is an option to obtain info on any image being viewed. This option gives you everything you would need to know and maybe even much more such as loading time. You can create an empty image as well as decrease the amount of colors in an image. There is an effects menu that allows you to use effects and see a preview in the effects browser before committing the image to the effect. Some of the effects that are available are: 3D, blur, emboss, oil paint, edge detection, median filter, explosion, pixelize, sharpen, and use of some Adobe filters along with other filters. Many of these filters have adjustable values. You can swap colors or manipulate the palette.

Available Options:

There is an options menu that contains a property menu for the program. The Property menu contains 10 tabs. The JPG/PCD/GIF tab allows you to exercise certain options on loading these types of images. For Jpeg you can auto rotate the image or load as grayscale. Of course as with all the options, you don't have to select anything and just use the default settings. Photo CD lists several base options and Gif list two options, one of which is the ability to play animated gifs and the other is to show transparency in normal gifs. The Extensions tab gives you access to all the different extension types that InfanView can be the default loader for. It also boasts a few other options for a shell menu There is a Miscellaneous button on this menu that will allow you to make InfanView the default loader for you scanner and camera. The File Handling tab contains common options such as picking the default directory for images etc. The Viewing tab allows you to preset some display options such as Gamma Correction, Zoom, Dither and resetting the Resample option. There are also options for loading using original size, fitting images to the screen, stretching images, setting the background color, setting text background color, showing transparent text, hiding the cursor, and showing text and a text pattern display generator. The Video/Sound tab allows you to use an external player, internal player, loop, hide play bar, and set the video window size. It also allows you to use Quicktime, the Apple movie viewer. The Language tab allows English or German and there may be other languages available, I am not sure about this. The Misc 1 tab allows you to decide if you want to be able to view all files in a directory, show hidden files, notify on reaching end or beginning of directory, ask to rename if incorrect extension, jump to next image if mouse wheel or or up/down key pressed, ask to overwrite file for Save or Save as, Display save dialog, only run one instance of program, use undo, use right mouse button for context menu, Close TWAIN dialog after acquire, Show PNG alpha/transparency color, Show TGA alpha color, Start in full screen mode, Warn on pressing ESC exit, Disable multiple monitor support for fullscreen/slideshow, Show full file path in the title bar. The Misc 2 tab allows you to setup an external viewer and send the file name, center the window, remember the window size and position, open slideshow dialog in last used slideshow folder, open batch dialog in last used batch folder, add MRUDs to menu File( the max is last 5 directories), clear the MRUDs (Most Recently Used Directories) list, create a desktop link to InfanView and set the default printer for the software. The Misc 3 tab allows for font colors and font types along with background color. It also allows you to pick the tools for the slideshow tool bar and the background color to cut. The last tab is the Plugins tab. This allows you to select load preview image, load using Canon DLL or load using formats plugin. It also allows the use of automatic white balance, camera white balance, gamma select, brightness select, red multiplier and blue multiplier. You can add default text for TTF files.

In the options menu you can start the multimedia player, send a file by email, use JPG lossless operations, capture a screen shot, sort directory files, select an image to use as wall paper, minimize the program or set it to always be on top.

The view menu also contains many options:
You can show or hide the status bar, tool bar, menu bar and caption. You can go to full screen or select the display options sub menu for other sizes. You can select images by back and forth, first or last, or random. There is a refresh option along with a stop/start automatic viewing option. There is zoom in, zoom out, lock zoom and original size option. You can view the image in Hex view if you want. By the way there is also an option in the file menu to open an image in Hex or ASCII. There are also several options for dealing with multi page images.

The help menu contains the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions), general help, keyboard shortcuts, installed plugins information, thanks, credits, registration, usage info and about.

I just don't know how anyone could expect more from this type of program no matter what they paid for it but since this is free it is a miracle of software development. It is truly a must have program.