View nfo files on Windows with GetDiz
Many demoscene and warez group releases ship with .nfo files which contain information about the release as well as credits, messages and art.
A .nfo file can be opened in any plain text editor to read the information it contains. While that is the case, it won't display the art properly and may sometimes align text improperly as well.
That's where so called nfo readers come into play that display .nfo files correctly. These readers use the Terminal font to display the files the way they have been designed. The special thing about the font is that it offers patterns that can be combined to create the ASCII art displayed in those files.
It is interesting to note that .nfo files are mapped to the System Information tool on Windows systems (msinfo32.exe) which does not support plain text .nfo files at all and won't display them because of this.
GetDiz is a free .nfo file reader for Windows that has been designed specifically to display the contents of .nfo files correctly.
It works out of the box after you have installed the program on the system.
The only thing you may need to do is change the width and height of the program window so that the supported 80 characters are displayed in a single row.
The program displays the nfo files as white text on a dark blue background by default. You can change colors and various other features in the program options. Other options of interest include changing the font style, size and even the font type. The latter may distort the Ascii art of the file however and is generally not suggested unless the wrong font type is being used by default.
If it is locate Terminal from the list of fonts and select it to make sure everything is displayed properly.
GetDiz supports nfo files but also text, diz and ini files which you can load manually into the program or automatically by associating the file extensions with it. This can be done during installation or later on using Windows' control panel.
The application supports text editing which means that you can use it to create nfo files if you want or edit existing ones. The integrated ASCII table comes in handy for this especially if you are new to the art form as you can look up characters using it.
Content can be copied or saved, and there is even an option to save the file as a gif to the local system.
Closing Words
GetDiz is a great nfo viewer for Windows that works almost automatic out of the box. The customization options it offers are handy for users who only want to read nfo files on their system in the proper design.
Users who create or edit these file types on the other hand find a couple of helpful options as well ike the aforementioned ASCII character list.
If you use Sublime Text 2, you can use it to open NFO files as well.
You just need to set the fallback encoding to DOS (CP 437).
jane (just another nasty editor) is my .nfo viewer of choice. Pretty obscure, but packed with good options, and a very nice gui.
http://www.kifoth.de/jane/html/
Using NFOPad for long time, it’s an excellent NFO Viewer well integrated to shell.
I open nfo files in Firefox. With linkification I can go almost immediately to video’s imdb or TV.com page.
Used DAMN NFO Viewer for a couple of years in past, but then switched to Infekt (https://code.google.com/p/infekt/) — more functional and very handy viewer, also has no issues with encodings as it was in DAMN NFO Viewer.
Me too. iNFekt is without a doubt the best nfo viewer that is actively being developed/maintained. You can easily switch between a rendered version of the document, the classic design or the basic text-only version. It also recognizes hyperlinks and allows for easy copy & paste of regular text even in between the nifty designs of the nfo.
For past 8 years I have been using “DAMN NFO Viewer.” Selection does auto-copy. Works mighty fine for me.
I’m also a DAMN NFO Viewer’s fan. Yes, I tested it yesterday.
“GezDize is a free .nfo file reader…” Whoops…
I wasn’t using those buttons, so i thought that maybe i can hide them somehow. No point to have them displayed if i never used them and will not use them in the future, too.
Thank you for trying to help, Martin.
Thank you very much!
It’s been quite a while since last update. I’m using it as a Notepad replacement. So far, i’ve been more than happy with it even tho i have one little problem with it. Is it possible to somehow hide or disable those buttons (Copy, Cut, Paste, Save and Exit) at the bottom of GetDiz window?
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Could not find an option to do so.