I use
IrfanView as my regular image viewer, and perhaps because of that, for cropping. The fine-mesh grid it can overlay is sometimes useful. Occasionally I use it for other things.
Recently I've been using
FastStone Image Viewer (FIV) more, for three things:
- The Compare feature can put two to four images on screen at once, so you can view subtle changes of composition, exposure, whatnot.
- Resizing to standard sizes: File > Email (equivalent to F6) <Pick a standard size> from a dropdown
- Renaming image files numerically so they're in the order I want. FIV allows you to drag-and-drop files into whatever order you wish, then rename them with prepended numbers. Then you can view them later with any file viewer and it will show them in the intended sequence. This is a trick I learned from asking on DC.
For a much more Photoshop Elements-like experience, I've dabbled with
Photo Toolbox (PT) Photo Editor. There are free basic and (at the time of writing) US$29.95 Pro versions; you need the latter for batch, watermarking, and some advanced tools. I bought a discounted license when it was on
Bits du Jour once. The web site says "Free Upgrade," but I don't know if that's forever or limited. I haven't got far into the program. The author claims it's "amazingly light weight." He could well be right. It has so far run uncomplainingly on my old Vista Home Premium laptop, where Elements 10 is nearly crash-o-matic.
A couple of more specialised programs:
Peter Bone's Resize (mentioned on DC before). It's small, old, free, portable, and does a fuss-free job of resizing. I especially like its ability to resize a batch of images so that the long edges all end up with the same number of pixels, which helps make layouts neater.
QuickImageComment:
QuickImageComment displays EXIF, IPTC, and XMP properties of digital images (e.g. JPEG and TIFF) and allows to edit them. Especially editing of user comment and artist (author) is supported by using the last entered or predefined values. These attributes are read from the EXIF, IPTC, and XMP properties of the image and are stored there.
Overview of features are:
The program displays all EXIF, IPTC and XMP properties, as well as some other file properties such as modification date.
In addition to the full lists of EXIF, IPTC and XMP properties a list of properties is displayed, which is configurable.
In addition to user comment and artist further EXIF, IPTC and XMP properties can be changed. The list of modifiable properties can be configured.
Data templates can be defined to set several properties in one step.
Via placeholder it is possible to copy values of properties in others.
Changes can be carried out simultaneously for two or more files.
EXIF, IPTC and XMP properties can be deleted, thereby exceptions can be defined. Single properties can be deleted selectively.
Files can be renamed using Exif, IPTC and XMP properties.
The EXIF, IPTC and XMP properties contained in the files can be compared.
A special mask is used to synchronize the recording time of a set of images taken with different cameras. Images are grouped by properties (mostly camera model). For each group, a shift of the recording time can be entered. Then the images are immediately sorted in order to check whether the images are then in the correct timely order.
Selected image properties of all images in a folder (including any subfolders) can be exported to a text file.
All image properties of selected images can be exported to text files (one file per image).
Display metadata (XMP) of video files as well (depending on the operating system and, if necessary, installed components) display a frame of the video.
Display of image details with graphical and numerical representation of brightness and RGB values.
Display recording location in a map using the GPS coordinates; change of coordinates by selecting a position on the map.
The program also supports various RAW formats. In order to display the images, the Microsoft Camera Codec Pack needs to be installed additionally (http://www.microsoft...etails.aspx?id=26829). The properties can be viewed and modified without the codec package.
Further processing of the images (e.g. adjusting the contrast and brightness) is not the purpose of this program.
It has a GPL license, and is the first free (as in beer) WinGUI program I've seen that can do all that. Note the "Selected image properties of all images in a folder (including any subfolders) can be exported to a text file" feature, which could be used, for example, to generate a list of the focal lengths you've used most, to inform future camera or lens purchases.
