![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() GIMP, there isn’t much contest: GIMP is by far the more powerful and capable image editor. It makes more sense to have a heavyweight editor like GIMP when I need it, and a lightweight editor like IrfanView when I need a quick edit that doesn’t need top-tier quality. I could remove the plugins, but they’re useful. They’re useful when I need them, but if I’m just making a quick screenshot with some markup commentary to share with a friend, I don’t want to bother to open GIMP and wait around while it gets going. When I load GIMP, I’ve got a few plugins like Cyan and darktable that slow down the launch speed a bit and require some extra interaction to get GIMP properly loaded. They’re far more effective when used together, with IrfanView acting as a quick editor and GIMP acting as a more powerful and flexible image editor when precision and quality matter the most. Using GIMP and IrfanView TogetherĪs I pointed out in the introduction of this article, GIMP and IrfanView are only partly in competition with each other when it comes to basic image editing. I suppose if you don’t have access to a more complete program, they’ll be helpful, but I find the user experience to be a bit frustrating once you go past the basics. Overall, IrfanView is a great quick image editor, but I’m not sure how useful the additional plugin features are. IrfanView also offers batch editing of IPTC metadata It does offer some basic painting and brush-based editing tools, but you’ll have to enable the Paint toolbox in order to access any of the tools. IrfanView began its career as an extremely fast image viewer with a very small installation size (the whole program, with all its plugins, is still under 20 MB in size to this day), and gradually new features were added until it became a multi-function multimedia viewer/player/editor that it is today.īilled primarily as an image viewer, IrfanView supports an impressive range of image file formats as well as many common audio and video formats ( see the full list here). ![]() Irfan Škiljan, the program’s developer and namesake, is still actively developing IrfanView. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, IrfanView has actually been around as long as GIMP, also getting its first release back in 1996. Even though it can be a bit difficult for new users to learn, the blend of power, flexibility, and value that it provides is well worth your time. These features are currently available through plugins, but it would be nice to have them built in.Īside from these minor quibbles, GIMP is a truly impressive piece of free software. RAW photo editing and CMYK colorspace support are much-needed additions and may be available in the near future when GIMP 3 is released, although, at the time of this writing, no date has been set. Even after the recent adjustments, the interface could really use some polish and consistency, and new users are often completely bewildered the first time they open GIMP (which, fortunately, is where comes in to help!). While GIMP is extremely capable as an image editor, it’s not exactly perfect. The same applies to its celebrated ability to edit PSD files, Photoshop’s native file format PSD files saved by newer versions of Photoshop may not work properly in GIMP unless they stick to the basics. It can even incorporate plugins and filters designed for Photoshop, although each new version of Photoshop risks breaking this compatibility. Layers make advanced image compositing very simple ![]()
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