Using IrfanView to Edit Your Photographs

How to crop a photograph

Cropping photos is useful for trimming unwanted material from one or more edges of the image. For example, you may have a picture of yourself posing with your ex-girlfriend, and you wish to remove her from the photograph. Or you may desire to trim some of the background to put more emphasis on you. To crop a photo using IrfanView, click and drag using your left mouse button to select the area that you wish to save. Then click EDIT, then CROP SELECTION. If you make a mistake, select EDIT, then UNDO. ("Click and drag" means this: put your mouse cursor at the top left corner of the area you wish to save. Click the left mouse button and hold it down as you drag the selection box to the bottom right of the desired image area, then release the left mouse button.)

How to resize a photograph

Click IMAGE, then RESIZE/RESAMPLE. Under SET NEW SIZE, type in the desired width of your image (typically 200 to 600 pixels). If the PRESERVE ASPECT RATIO checkbox is checked (it is by default), when you type in a new value for the width, the height will automatically change as it should. If your image is small, do not stretch it by increasing its width or height. That will make the image larger but more grainy and less attractive.

How to save a photograph

Click FILE, then SAVE AS. For the SAVE AS TYPE, select JPG - JPEG Files. A secondary box entitled JPEG/GIF SAVE OPTIONS will appear. Use the SAVE QUALITY slider to set the image quality. In general, JPEG settings of 25 to 75% give reasonable picture quality while minimizing the file size. (Tip: With JPEG images, higher % settings give better image quality but have larger file sizes — thus increasing the download time for people viewing your images. Some of them may have slow dial-up modems, so choosing the best JPEG picture quality is not advisable.) Choose a file name with lower-case letters (and numbers, if desired), but do not include any spaces or special characters. Now click SAVE.