IrfanView Photo Editing/Signature Creation

[Monica]

I would like to first note that I am not very familiar with IrfanView as I use PSP 7 or a Ulead program for editing photos. I have tried to figure it out for myself to create a guide for others who may not have their own photo editing software. IrfanView is a free program to doing simple photo editing, so with that in mind, and hoping this is not TOO confusing, I hope this helps!

IrfanView

IrfanView is a free image editing software program that you can download at http://www.irfanview.com and is a simple and great way for novices to easily resize and edit photos!

Once you start the program, IrfanView will open with a black screen. To open a photo to edit, click on “File” and go down to “Open…”. From here, if need be you can rotate the image “Left” or “Right”, by going to “Image”, and going down to “Rotate Left” or “Rotate Right” . These are good to use if the image was taken with the camera sideways. After the photo appears right, you can then resize the photo by going to “Image”, and down to “Resize/Resample…”.

After clicking on “Resize/Resample…”, you can use the standard set dimensions on the right side for quick and easy resizing, or choose a size of your own under ‘Set new size:’. "Set new size" is great for smaller images or even thumbnails or avatars! Once you choose how you are resizing the photo, you can then choose the resizing method, i.e. “Resample” for better image quality, or “Resize” for smaller photo.

After you have resized the photo to the size that you want, go back to “Image” and go down to “Sharpen”. Clicking on "Sharpen" will make the image appear clearer and not blurry, which makes the image appear to be better quality (should appear to be similar quality to that of the original file before editing).

Once you are done editing your photo, go to “File” and down to “Save As” so that the original file still remains the same, and the image you just edited will be for your use.

IrfanView Signature Image

To create an image of your critters for your signature, you can use the Panorama option under “Image”. Simply click on “Create Panorama Image…”, choose horizontal, and add photos. If need be you can rearrange the photos. Once finished, click “Create Image”. This will show your images in a line with all the images being the same size. For best viewing, it would be a good idea to keep the entire image smaller than 700 pixels wide, and 100 pixels high. If you resize the image, be sure to use the “Sharpen” option afterwards for a clearer image.

If you would like to add text to your image, simply left click and drag the mouse to create a rectangle. The box that is created is only temporary and you can always make another one with the first disappearing. Once you have the box where you want it, go to “Edit”, and down to “Insert Text Into Selection…”. Once clicking on “ITIS”, you can add text into the white box, and choose to align it within the temporary box created within the image. You can click on “Choose Font” to change the size of the word(s), and color. Once you have chosen both, click on “Ok”, then “OK” in the next box, and the text will appear on the image. Just save the image and voila!



Quick Keyboard Shortcuts:

O --------------- Open an Image
R --------------- Rotate right
L --------------- Rotate left
I --------------- Image information
S --------------- Save as - dialog
CTRL + S --------------- Save - dialog
CTRL + R --------------- Resize Photo
CTRL + C --------------- Copy to Clipboard
CTRL + V --------------- Paste image from clipboard
CTRL + T --------------- Edit -> Insert Text into selection
CTRL + P --------------- Print dialog
CTRL+ Z --------------- Undo Last Action
SHIFT + S --------------- Sharpen
SHIFT + M --------------- Send image by Email


F1 --------------- Help
F2/F6 --------------- Rename

[cfulhage]

Wow Thanks Monica! I didn't know about the signature image thing- my sig pics are all different sizes, so I'm going to work on that!

[basketbagley]

I will go and check this out Monica. I'm on an iMac, and not all software will download to the Macs, but I'll give it a try.