Image Viewer IrfanView 4.59 is now available

Martin Brinkmann
Dec 1, 2021
Windows software
|
18

IrfanView is one of the most popular image viewers (and more) for Microsoft's Windows operating system. The new version, IrfanView 4.59, introduces several new features and improvements.

Existing installations or portable copies can be upgraded easily. The new installer will upgrade existing installations of IrfanView on the target system automatically.

Select Help > About IrfanView to check the installed version while the program is running.

IrfanView 4.59

The new version of the image viewer and processing tool includes a new feature for JPEG images.

To use it, select File > Save As from the menu bar at the top and check the "Show preview dialog (during saving, adjust quality)" option. IrfanView displays a visual preview of the output image on the screen.

It acts as a preview of the output image and contains controls to change the image quality using a slider, and to set a file size for the output image. Any change that is made here becomes visible when you click on the preview image to refresh it.

The new feature offers a useful tweaking option for the output size of the image, as you see immediately how it will turn out. The preview does not support zooming though.

IrfanView 4.59 supports the image format JPEG XL, or short JXL, but support is disabled by default. IrfanView users may enable support for the image format under Help > Installed Plugins.

Note that you may need to install or copy the plugins before the new option becomes available. IrfanView 64-bit plugin downloads are available here, 32_bit plugin downloads here.

Here is the list of the other changes in IrfanView 4.59:

  • Tilt Shift effect under Image > Effects.
  • SVG Loading option under Properties > Plugins.
  • Show selection from Auto crop borders.
  • Improved support for EXIF data in HEIC and CR3 files.
  • New printing option Fill Paper for "Best fit to page" in the print dialog.
  • New command line option /contactsheet=(filenames) to make the Contact Sheet using dialog options.

Several plugins have been updated as well. These need to be downloaded from the official site linked above.

Closing Words

IrfanView continues to improve without sacrificing its identity in the process or ignoring its userbase. The image viewer has been around for a long time and it is still going strong.

Now You: which image viewer do you use, and why?

Summary
Image Viewer IrfanView 4.59 is now available
Article Name
Image Viewer IrfanView 4.59 is now available
Description
IrfanView is one of the most popular image viewers (and more) for Microsoft's Windows operating system. The new version, IrfanView 4.59, introduces several new features and improvements.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. Jake said on December 3, 2021 at 3:27 pm
    Reply

    and still using freakin small ancient ACdSee because it still has the best main window UI navigation/image viewing style that no other viewer for some weird reason include even as option (except of course “imagine” but even that’s not as good because you cannot change folder/picture viewing navigation keys)

  2. kermit said on December 3, 2021 at 4:15 am
    Reply

    > All the other image viewing apps I tried including Faststone could only display images in American date format i.e. Month/Day/Year which used to annoy me no end.

    Then you didn’t try them all, probably only tried proprietary ones instead of open source. Free doesn’t always mean “Free and Open Source Software” (FOSS)

  3. Han Solo said on December 3, 2021 at 12:28 am
    Reply

    Irfanview, while a very useful and easy to use free program, is proprietary (closed source) software without releases to Linux. Fail.

    XnView MP, which I consider to be the better of the two, while also being proprietary, offers releases for Linux.

    However, I would not use either on Linux, neither Irfanview with WINE or XnView MP as they are both proprietary.

    Linux offers several excellent choices which are easy enough to Google.

  4. Web-Creator said on December 2, 2021 at 8:06 pm
    Reply

    Thanks, for the heads-up.

    Still using v 2.2 (xp) and 4.38 (w7) , on ALL my systems, for decades.

    Unfortunately it’s a no-go, when connecting my Sony Xperia.
    Got Ms Photo Viewer only…

    I’m using it for fast quick-and-dirty, cut and paste editing, when creating stuff, in companion with Photoshop.

    Still voted by users, As Best
    Free Software.
    Is it 10 years in a row, now ?
    Can’t work without it.. .

    Have a nice Holiday, to you All.

  5. TelV said on December 2, 2021 at 3:53 pm
    Reply

    I switched to using Irfanview because it includes the option to view images sequentially in European date format i.e. Day/Month/Year.

    All the other image viewing apps I tried including Faststone could only display images in American date format i.e. Month/Day/Year which used to annoy me no end.

  6. ULBoom said on December 2, 2021 at 2:40 pm
    Reply

    Faststone. Irfanview has more editing capabilities, kind of a toss up between the two for casual viewing and simple editing.

    Irfan looks amazingly young!

  7. Gerard said on December 2, 2021 at 1:33 pm
    Reply

    IrfanView has been around for more than 25 years (since 1 June 1996). That must be (close to) a record for a freeware application. It’s a very good graphics viewer and more. Linux users may find it useful to know that it will run under WINE.

  8. chesscanoe said on December 2, 2021 at 12:50 pm
    Reply

    The new Circle Tilt Effect is uniquely effective on a suitable image. It is always good to know in advance all the tricks an image program can do so the user will know when to try it on a future image.

  9. Rigby said on December 2, 2021 at 11:44 am
    Reply

    Irfanview was available for Windows 3.1, kind of crazy that it’s still around and being updated.

  10. Artem S. Tashkinov said on December 2, 2021 at 12:46 am
    Reply

    An amazing image viewer limited to RGB888 color space unfortunately.

    Could be so much more useful if it supported deeper color depths and transparency. It can show transparent PNGs, GIFs, etc, but it’s unable to manipulate them properly.

  11. Noah R. said on December 1, 2021 at 11:55 pm
    Reply

    I prefer Nomacs image viewer, it works great on Windows and Linux!

    1. Captain Woodeye said on December 4, 2021 at 10:40 am
      Reply

      Unfortunately, at least on Linux, one can’t change the color of the window frame, it is too bright for dark mode users.

    2. Anonymous said on December 2, 2021 at 10:49 pm
      Reply

      I’ve tried Nomacs and I hope it keeps being improved but it’s always a frustrating experience as it’s missing really basic functionality that other similar viewers have and do.

  12. Mike J. said on December 1, 2021 at 9:07 pm
    Reply

    I.ve been using it for years. Pretty easy to figure out, even for digital morons such as I.

  13. Chris said on December 1, 2021 at 8:47 pm
    Reply

    I used Irfanview and was happy with it until I discovered that XnView had a ‘Levels’ tool – very useful for easily enhancing scans, especially of text pages which often benefit from a quick adjustment. I started with ‘Classic and now use the newer ‘MP.

    No choice now that I’m using Linux, although Irfanview can probably still be run using Wine at some possible security risk.

  14. RossN said on December 1, 2021 at 7:45 pm
    Reply

    Have used Irfanview as default viewer for what seems like many decades. Also for minor editing and bulk conversions.

  15. mo said on December 1, 2021 at 6:55 pm
    Reply

    Still one of the best software to view images.

  16. John G. said on December 1, 2021 at 6:51 pm
    Reply

    Very good software, easy to use and with optional plugins for all kind of purposes. :]

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