Web Design's Swiss Army Knife

Is there a "Swiss Army Knife" of web design? The real Swiss Army Knife is well known as a versatile tool with a thousand uses. It can open a can, uncork a wine bottle, be a screwdriver, cut a cord and so much more. Well, there is a free software that is the web designer's equivalent of the Swiss Army Knife . . . the IRFANVIEW GRAPHIC VIEWER!

I have used Irfanview for over four years to do screen grabs, preview images on my harddrive, and do quick image conversions. However, the latest version has a breadth of features that make it so much more useful. Here is a list of some of the features and capabilities:

• Many supported image formats
• Thumbnail/preview option
• Slideshow (save slideshow as EXE/SCR or burn it to CD)
• Fast directory view (moving through directory)
• Batch conversion (with image processing)
• Multimedia player
• Print option
• Change color depth
• Scan (batch scan) support
• Cut/crop
• Effects (Sharpen, Blur, Photoshop filter factory)
• Screen Captures
• Extract icons from EXE/DLL/ICLs
• Lossless JPG rotation
• Many command line options
• Many plugins

Keep in mind that this is just a partial list! What is even more amazing is that the software is less than 1 megabyte in size. It is small, fast and extremely useful. I use this tool every day to do a range of quick graphic chores. While it does not have the image editing power of Photoshop, it serves as a useful sidekick to that program, doing quite a number of things that Photoshop is just too 'big' to do.

This amazing tool is absolutely free. that's right, free! There are no splash screens reminding you to pay a shareware free or donation. The author of this product is from Bosnia and deserves plaudits (and a bit of wealth) for providing a truly capable, useful and polished product.

Click here for IRFANVIEW GRAPHIC VIEWER