How I put arrows and text on pictures....
 

A couple folks have asked me how I am able to take a picture and add arrows and text to it to simplify the process of communication when troubleshooting, so i thought I would post the answer for all who are interested.

The program I use is called Irfanview. It has been around since the computer stone age began.
It is FREE, really. I have sent in donations from time to time because I love the app.

A link to the website is here:http://www.irfanview.com/

A quick list of the main features I use are:

Control-R - Reduction
F12 - Open the paint dialog.
Once you open this you can use the Arrow and Text tool to append your images
You can change the arrow and text foreground/background colors by clicking on them and selecting a new one.
You can set the line thickness (I usually use 6)
When drawing an arrow, it draws a line at the start and an arrowhead at the end.
Control-Z UNDO (I use this a lot when not happy with the placement of things)

It also has an amazing feature called batch processing.

You can open the batch processing feature, select from one to an entire directory of files, choose the effect from resizing, to renaming, to changing the gamma, and anything else you can think of, you can select a new target location and click begin to have it process them all.

For example, I select a folder full of 3000x2000 images, tell it to resize to 25%, and append "_SM" to the filename, then select a subfolder called "small" (it will create it on the fly if needed) and then start the batch process. 1 minute later I have a whole folder of resized files to be able to post with.

I hope this is useful for folks.

Thanks for this info. I am not very tech savvy, but this sounds like a useful tool.

sorry, I forgot about that. I used the CNET. just now to test and it worked well.

I'll have to check it out! I hope Mac users can use it too!!

Thanks Steve. I will download it and begin to play with it.

Thanks for this helpful information. Can't wait to play with this.

No problem. I have been using it for so long I forget to share sometimes.

A Warning
 

:hunf: I discovered very quickly that the downloaded Irfan came with spyware and malware. It took my online computer support people about an hour to scan and remove the "bad boys". Perhaps if I had been a little more computer savvy my computer would not have become infected.

FYI: I use "Paint" to add text and lines to my pictures. "Paint" has been available on all Windows machines that I have ever worked on (no downloads necessary). If you need some help in using this program I will sure try to walk you through it.

Thanks for the heads up.
I will stick to paint...

I know, silly me. I am always willing to learn something new, usually the hard way LOL. A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing sometimes. Thanks for the offer Judy. I may "play" with both programs to see which one has the easiest learning curve.:o

WOW! I am SO sorry that this happened. I will look into this and see what is up. PLEASE do not download this until I have had a chance to check this out.

and yes, the "paint dialog" in Irfanview is the same one used on the Paint program that is included in Windows. The Irvanview app just offers more features.

Ok, I have just finished looking into this.

Here is the Wiki on the software
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IrfanView

Here is one review of the issue:
latest version of the utterly brilliant freeware imaging tool. When you install it, it now asks if you want to install the Google Toolbar – a BHO for Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer which lets you search using Google. Some sources reckon this is spyware, and indeed Spybot Search & Destroy will detect and remove it, but others say it isn’t.
Although I have previously withdrawn endorsements for programs after they became spyware-infested, I will make an exception here, since:
----- I can’t be sure that it really is spyware
----- Removing it using its uninstaller is painless and effective
----- It is optional (although ticked by default)
----- Irfanview is so damn useful

Here is another review of this subject.
""Irfanview itself is not malware, but when Irfanview began optionally installing the Google Toolbar with it's executable installations, many of us raised eyebrows. I am very leery of corporate toolbars, such as the Google Toolbar.
Upon installing Irfanview, you can opt to not install the Google Toolbar. Irfanview had long been thought of as one of the best Image Viewers available, but in past years it's become somewhat bloated. The association with the Google Toolbar was the straw that broke some long time users backs and caused them to look for replacement software.


In that light, check out a very fine freeware image viewer and manipulator programs that rival Irfanview:
Faststone ImageViewer Http://www.faststone.org/""

I am not sure if the corruption came from CNET or what but I have downloaded the file directly and have scanned it myself. I installed it on a clean PC here and did a series of scans. The only thing that Irfanview tried to install on this system was the Google toolbar which I unchecked during installation so it would not.

Again,I really apologize for this issue and if anyone would like to try it but would rather not risk spyware, PM me and I will shoot you a direct copy.

To quick touch up, crop, add type or arrows, I use picmonkey.com It used to be picnik. The great thing is there is nothing to download, it is all done online. It probably can't do as much as the mentioned software, but it is quick and easy.
Linda

Yes this is still too confusing for me, there were too many boxes to check or not check and I got out of there...then I saw the post about malware.

I have windows, don't recall ever seeing 'paint' ... will go take a peek.

thanks for trying to help those of us who are not computer techs, technologically inept.

Thanks for the info. I use Irfanview, but did not know you could do this.