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To open photos on the PC, one needs a photo viewer app. Microsoft offers a native app to do it known as Microsoft Photos. However, not everyone is a fan of the Microsoft Photos app, which is the successor of Windows Photos Viewer. Some aren’t happy with its speed, while others don’t like its interface.

As a result, people look for the alternatives to the Photos app. While there are many of them, two special ones are IrfanView and XnView. You may wonder which one to use.

Don’t worry. We have done the hard work for you. In this post, we will compare IrfanView and XnView. By the end, you will be able to judge as to which photo viewer to use on a Windows 10 PC.

Let’s get started.

Size Matters

IrfanView seeks to create unique, new and interesting features, unlike some other graphic viewers, whose whole 'creativity' is based on feature cloning, stealing of ideas and whole dialogs from ACDSee and/or IrfanView! (for example: XnView has been stealing/cloning features and whole dialogs from IrfanView, for. IrfanView is one of the most advanced image viewers that is available for Windows. IrfanView 4.53 was released last week; it is the first release of the program in 2019 and one that introduces several new features and options. Just like the password manager KeePass, IrfanView belongs to a category of well designed powerful programs for Windows. IrfanView is a fast and compact image viewer/converter. It is trying to be simple for beginners and powerful for professionals. It supports file formats and features.

One may think that a photo viewer app will weigh at least more than 50MB considering the amount of work that is expected from it. However, both the apps are less than that. While XnView goes up to 20MB, IrfanView has a negligible size of 3MB only.

Download IrfanViewDownload XnView

App Working

Think of XnView as a proper gallery app where you can see all the folders and the pictures inside. Clicking on any picture will open it in the full version. It even supports tabbed view so you open multiple images at the same time.

XnView also offers some viewing and sorting modes that one expects from a photo viewer app. You can add or remove any feature and layout. The entire app is customizable. So you can make it look and work according to your need.

On the other hand, IrfanView doesn’t list images in the app. You need to use the Open option in the app to view individual pictures. Then you can use the navigation keys to move between the images in that particular folder. You can also view images in it from any folder on the PC using Open with option. Even though it also offers a thumbnail view, the thumbnails open in a separate window.

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User Interface

User interface plays a significant role in a photo viewer. Both these apps have the old Windows interface with menus at the top. I prefer the old layout as opposed to the modern interface of Windows apps.

Anyway, in IrfanView, you will find the File, Edit, Options, View, and Help menus at the top. Clicking on either of them will reveal extra options. Below the menu bar, lies the toolbar housing important items. Next, you will have the image. At the bottom lies the status bar showing information like image size, dimensions, date added, etc. You can change the theme of the buttons in the app.

While XnView also has a similar interface with the main menu at the top followed by the toolbar. However, between them lies various tabs if you open multiple images.

Unlike IrfanView where the main area is occupied by the image only, here you will find the image explorer on the left side with an image preview window on the right side. Clicking on any image will open it in one of the tabs. You can keep scrolling through the images without the full-screen mode too. If you don’t like the layout, you can customize it under View > Layout.

Speed — Fast is Better

Irfanview Magyar

While both the apps are fast, IrfanView feels slightly faster. I tried to view a folder housing 15MB images in both the apps and IrfanView was quick to change the images. There was a slight delay in XnView. For smaller images, you will not notice any difference, it’s big images where you can feel one getting ahead of the other.

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#comparison

Click here to see our comparison articles page

Editing and Effects

Even though both the apps provide basic editing tools, they aren’t easily apparent. You will have to take some time to understand where each option is located. Once you get hold of them, it will be easy to use them. Honestly, both provide similar editing features. You can change the canvas size, auto crop images, invert colors, add filters, and achieve much more in them.

Plugin Support

In case you have been wondering about plugin support, we are glad to say that both of them support plugins. While some plugins are preinstalled, you can install others from the website.

XnView supports plugins such as HEIF, OpenRaster, WebP format, ZIP, FTP, Paint, etc. Similarly, IrfanView lets you download plugins such as AWD, DPX, FTP, KDC, Paint, Real audio, etc.

Other Features

Apart from letting you view and edit photos, you can perform other funtions in these apps too. For instance, you can batch process files, swap colors, save files in different formats, set as wallpaper, view EXIF information, etc. Further, both support all the known file formats.

Is Everything Free

Fortunately, you won’t have to shell a penny to use any app for personal use. However, if you intend to use XnView for commercial purposes, you must purchase a license.

Fun Fact: IrfanView is named after the developer of the app (Irfan) who single-handedly runs the software.

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Which App Should You Use?

I prefer XnView because of its interface. While IrfanView is faster for big files, XnView feels more user-friendly to me. That said, several people swear by IrfanView and have been using it for years now. I would suggest downloading both the apps and use them for a few days. Your personal need will help in identifying the better one for you.

Next up: Want to display dimensions or any other column in file explorer permanently? Here’s how to add columns in Windows 10.

The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.Read NextHow to Add Columns Permanently to All Folders in Windows 10 File ExplorerAlso See#photo #Photo Editing Apps

Did You Know

In December 2009, the Apple version of WhatsApp was updated to include photo sharing features.

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Irfanview Homepage

IrfanView

IrfanView version 4.33 showing a photo of Schloss Ort
Developer(s)	Irfan Škiljan
Initial release	1 June 1996; 24 years ago[1]
Stable release
Operating system	Microsoft Windows
Size	3.42 MB(IrfanView 64-bit) 25.2 MB(Plugins 64-bit)[3]
Available in	English, German Other languages available as download.[4]
Type	Image viewer
License	Proprietary, free for non-commercial use
Website	www.irfanview.com

IrfanView (/ˈɪərfænvjuː/) is an image viewer, editor, organiser and converter program for Microsoft Windows.^[5][6][7] It can also play video and audio files, and has some image creation and painting capabilities. IrfanView is free for non-commercial use; commercial use requires paid registration.^[5] It is noted for its small size,^[6] speed,^[6] ease of use, and ability to handle a wide variety of graphic file formats. It was first released in 1996.^[7]

IrfanView is named after its creator, Irfan Škiljan, from Jajce, Bosnia and Herzegovina, living in Vienna.^[8] The current version of IrfanView, 4.56, works under all versions of Windows from Windows 2000 SP4 to Windows 10, while all older versions are compatible with Windows 95/98/ME^[7][9] and can also be run in Linux under Wine^[7][10] and in macOS using WineBottler.^[7][11]

Features[edit]

The basic 32-bit installation of IrfanView occupies 2.36 MB of disk space, and a full install with all optional plugins requires about 16.1 MB – with the 64-bit versions taking up more space.

IrfanView is specifically optimized for fast image display and loading times. It supports viewing and saving of numerous file types including image formats such as BMP, GIF, JPEG, JP2 & JPM (JPEG2000), PNG (includes the optimizer PNGOUT; APNG can be read), TIFF, raw photo formats from digital cameras, ECW (Enhanced Compressed Wavelet), EMF (Enhanced Windows Metafile), FSH (EA Sports format), ICO (Windows icon), PCX (Zsoft Paintbrush), PBM (Portable BitMap), PDF (Portable Document Format), PGM (Portable GrayMap), PPM (Portable PixelMap), TGA (Truevision Targa), WebP, FLIF (Free Lossless Image Format) and viewing of media files such as Flash, OggVorbis, MPEG, MP3, MIDI, and text files.^[12][13]

While viewing images, there are several fit-to-screen scaling options and an automatic slideshow function. The viewer can open in sequence all the image-files and video clips (of most formats, including AVCHD) contained in a folder. Slideshows can contain both still images and video clips.

IrfanView can create screensavers and slide shows from collections of images with optional accompanying MP3 audio. These can be saved as stand-alone executables which run on Windows computers without IrfanView installed. For slideshow creation, screensaver creation and batch image translations, preset image processing steps can be applied to selected sets of images.

IrfanView can create icons by converting common graphic files into .ico format. It supports Adobe-compatible 8BF image processing filters, including many freely downloadable ones, primarily for application to whole images.

The program has TWAIN and WIA driver support for retrieving images from scanners, and can be used to cut and paste images into OneNote 2016 and other Office 2016 programs which no longer provide direct scanning support. It also has extended support for taking screenshots.

Irfan Viewer Download

Image editing includes crop, resize, and rotate. Images can be adjusted by modifying their brightness, contrast, tint, and gamma level^[14] manually or automatically, and by converting them between file formats. Many of these changes can be applied to multiple images in one operation using batch processing.^[15] Batch processing can also be used for renaming, and for the production of HTML web pages. Resize can be applied towards the display of animated GIF images to make them larger in either windowed or full-screen modes.

A plugin allows IrfanView to support lossless JPG operations: horizontal or vertical flip, rotation by 90° increments, and cropping.^[16][17]

IrfanView can direct the active image to open in an external graphics editor (Adobe Photoshop, for example) if it is installed. Four more keyboard shortcuts allow the files to be renamed, moved, copied or deleted individually, while multiple files can be processed quite easily too via the thumbnails window (before the batch conversion dialog if need be).

The program has been internationalized in over twenty languages; English is the default. The IrfanView toolbar can be skinned from many sets of icons.

Plugins[edit]

IrfanView uses plugins to handle a variety of additional image, video, and sound formats and to add optional functionality such as filter processing or other program features.^[3][7] With the variety of format plugins, the program has been recommended for viewing obscure image formats, or corrupted files, which commercial photo editing software cannot read.^[18][19]

Thumbnails[edit]

This function displays thumbnail file previews, allowing picture organization and management, at sizes from 50 × 50 to 600 × 600 pixels. The user can select a number of thumbnails to perform Copy/Move/Delete operations on them, or send them to IrfanView's Batch Processing module or an external program such as Adobe Photoshop.

Search engine toolbar[edit]

Prior to version 4.41 installer versions of IrfanView supported a number of browser toolbars. Version 4.40 optionally installed the Amazon 1Button App (formerly the Amazon Browser bar).^[1] Versions prior to 3.97 included the eBaybrowser toolbar, with installation selected by default. As of 4.41 no toolbars are included in the installer.

Reception[edit]

Irfanview has been positively reviewed as 'really good' for easily and rapidly viewing and manipulating images, with its editing and drawing tools.^[20] Other writers have focused on its ability to open a wide variety of image formats.^[18][19] In a series of image quality tests conducted in 2004, compared with commercial image compressors and Adobe Photoshop 7, Irfanview 3.91 produced 'consistently better images than the Adobe Photoshop JPEG encoder at the same data rate', and its JPEG2000 compression quality 'closely followed' the best codec, JasPer.'^[21] According to IrfanView's official website, since 2003, IrfanView has been downloaded over 1 million times per month. One independent review in 2017 described Irfanview as 'the Swiss Army Knife of image viewers'.^[15]

Author[edit]

Irfan Škiljan graduated from the Vienna University of Technology. In a 2006 interview, then 32-year-old Škiljan said that he was able to more or less live off the software, generating income with the sale of licenses for commercial users and of special versions for different customers.^[22]

Logo/mascot[edit]

According to Škiljan, the IrfanView logo and mascot is a 'road cat' (there is a tire track across the smallest icon)^[23] but that he 'likes cats', and the icon is 'a joke' – the IrfanView website pictures him holding a white domestic cat.^[8]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abHistory of changes for older versions of IrfanView
2. ^Skiljan, Irfan. 'History of changes'. IrfanView. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
3. ^ ^abIrfanView PlugIns Irfanview.com. Retrieved 12 July 2010.
4. ^Additional languages for IrfanView
5. ^ ^abGralla, Preston. 'IrfanView'. PC World. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
6. ^ ^abcPash, Adam (6 October 2006). 'Download of the Day: IrfanView (Windows)'. Lifehacker. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
7. ^ ^abcdefBoudreaux, Ryan (23 August 2011). 'IrfanView: A robust (and free) image editor for your toolkit'. TechRepublic. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
8. ^ ^abSkiljan, Irfan. 'About the author'. Irfanview.com. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
9. ^'Windows 10 Compatibility for IrfanView by Irfan Skiljan: Compatible'. Windows Compatibility Center. Microsoft. Retrieved 4 August 2015.
10. ^'IrfanView 3.x, 4.x (test results)'. WineHQ.org. Retrieved 14 May 2011.
11. ^'Irfanview for Mac: Apple Support Communities'. Retrieved 26 May 2011.
12. ^'List of supported formats'. Irfanview.com. Retrieved 12 July 2010.
13. ^Harris, Andy (2010). HTML, XHTML, and CSS All-in-One For Dummies (2nd ed.). For Dummies. p. 107. ISBN978-0-470-53755-8. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
14. ^Crowder, David A. (2007). Google Earth for Dummies. For Dummies. Indianapolis: Wiley Publishing. pp. 289–290. ISBN978-0-470-09528-7. Retrieved 23 June 2010.
15. ^ ^abEllis, Cat; Marshall, Carrie (5 May 2017). 'IrfanView review'. TechRadar. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
16. ^'IrfanView Plugins'. Irfanview.com. Retrieved 1 September 2019.
17. ^'Lossless jpegtran applications'. JPEGclub.org. Retrieved 1 September 2019.
18. ^ ^abBrundage, Barbara (2009). Photoshop Elements 8 for Windows: The Missing Manual. O'Reilly Media / Pogue Press. p. 73. ISBN9781449379520. Retrieved 23 June 2010.
19. ^ ^abNelson, Sharon D., Esq; Simek, John W.; Maschke, Michael (2009). The 2009 Solo and Small Firm Legal Technology Guide. American Bar Association. p. 104. ISBN978-1-60442-321-1.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
20. ^Harris, Andy; McCulloh, Chris (2008). HTML, XHTML, and CSS All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies. Wiley Publishing. p. 97. ISBN978-0-470-18627-5. Retrieved 23 June 2010. Features extensive introduction and opinion.
21. ^Ebrahimi, Farzad; Chamik, Matthieu; Winkler, Stefan (November 2004). 'JPEG vs. JPEG2000: An Objective Comparison of Image Encoding Quality'. In Tescher, Andrew G. (ed.). Applications of Digital Image Processing XXVII. Proceedings of the SPIE. Applications of Digital Image Processing XXVII. 5558. pp. 300–308. CiteSeerX10.1.1.65.5495. doi:10.1117/12.564835. S2CID6393903.
22. ^Hosbach, Wolf (2006). 'Hat es sich gelohnt?' (in German) (6). PC Magazin. Retrieved 28 October 2008.Cite journal requires |journal= (help)(English tr.)
23. ^'IrfanView Frequently Asked Questions'. Irfanview.com. Retrieved 27 September 2015.

External links[edit]