Can anyone recommend a free image viewer/editor please?

Allexie

I've been struggling with Photoshop but find it much too complicated and cumbersome for my needs. Can anyone recommend anything a bit simpler and preferably free!

Mostly I need to be able to cut/crop/rotate/flip/re-size/do batch conversions/sharpen/blur and change colour modes...( a few special effects would be nice too)

I've been looking at something called IrfanView which seems to be highly regarded but wondered if there was anything else that might do the job?

Thanks

newfoundglory

http://www.gimp.org/

http://www.gimp.org/windows/

NellyLock

if its for photos i have used and use picassa its made from a company google work with i like it and so do a lot of people i know, you can get it if you go http://www.picasa.com/ , im sure there are screenshots etc before u d/load it

neil

danmanchester

I use Irfanview 3.95...got it off a coverdisc (microsoft windows xp magazine) but I think it's a free download too...yes it is: http://www.irfanview.com/
find it really easy to use for converting and resizing images to jpgs.

moomintroll_3

I use IrfanView as well. Have done for years, its fast small and does the job perfectly.

g33za

irfanview and another called xnview are very good i found irfanview's thumbnail view wasnt entirely what I wanted.

EvilMonkey

Cor blimey Allexie, you say photoshops too cumbersome, but you've quite a list of requirements! ;-)

So the three mentioned so far are the big 3 free photo editors. 1st off the list is the GIMP, part of the open source movement it's a full on photoshop clone. So if you can't get used to photoshop I'd say this is probably a step too far.

Next up is Picasa. I'd say that anyone with a digicam should have this anyway. It's primarily a bit of photo album software, but it's quite good with a lot of editing tools. It also has a batch edit ability and a small special effect selection (sepia, B&W through to graduated tints and blurring/sharpening....) So this sounds like the one for you EXCEPT... Change colour modes....

Apologies if I'm insulting you with this question.... Do you mean making a colour pic sepia as above or changing a RGB colour pic to a CYMK pic for printing?

If its the second one then this is beyond Picasa, I don't know your usage, but its also a fairly rare thing I'd say (CYMK is normally used by professional printers etc.). Luckily this is where Irfanview comes in. If this is am absolute requirement, Irfanview can open and convert between a number of file types and colour modes. Personally speaking, I prefer the interface and photo album aspect of picasa and got used to photoshop for the big stuff, but irfanview is very simple and very easy.

Phewww apologies, I've kind of gone on a bit, but hopefully this helps a little!

E.M.

Toxteth_OGrady

IrfanView gets my vote too.

:cool:

TOG

rogue_element

I would defintely encourage people to download open source alternatives like gimp and pixia (not mentioned above) : http://park18.wakwak.com/~pixia/


Take a look here for more open source stuff:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open-source_software_packages

sicker

I've used a few but always return to irfanview which I reckon to be the best

John