Requested In-memory Format conversion (without saving file)

[backfire]

First off, I have used IrfanView for years and love it- thanks for a great freeware package!

I thought of a feature that I think would be very helpful. I often use IrfanView for Windows screenshots. I take the shot, and paste into IrfanView, then convert it to JPG, copy it onto the clipboard, and paste it into Outlook email.

This works great, but in order to execute the "convert it to JPG" step, I have to save my screenshot as a JPG file. It would be awesome if I could do an "in-memory" format conversion to JPG or some other format. This would allow me to not save the file to the disk (and subsequently create a whole slew of garbage temporary files on the hard drive.

Thanks again for the product!

[ChuckE]

You are working too hard. The Capture (just press C) command allows you to either:

• capture right into the main IV window (thus eliminating the "paste into IV" step) or
• capture to the format you want (JPG or GIF or over a dozen more), place the file into the directory of your choice, with the name you want (for example the MYSNAP-date/time) thus, eliminating the need for anything for you to do, other than just pasting it into Outlook.

I often used IV Capture to capture the involved steps of installing someone's software, and I needed to make instructions for others to follow. The HotKey (default: Ctrl+F11) was an easy way to snap, snap, snap, etc. as the install progressed.

[matera]

I think you both miss some points. Anyway, to backfire's suggestion - how can you convert something to a file format without creating a file? Ain't no such animal. I think that you should suggest to Microsoft that they add image processing capabilities to Outhouse, then you could just paste in the screenshots.

Put your shots all in a directory that will get cleaned out regularly - poof. Litter gone. Use something that runs automatically on a schedule or when you feel like clicking it and never worry about it again.

Alternatively, create a RAMdrive to save temporary things on. That seems to be the direction you are thinking in.

[ChuckE]

I think I've addressed the concern that backfire mentioned. You can already have IV save any screen capture (be it a full screen or active window or just the "client area" of the active window) into any of the IV available, savable, formats with no steps in-between.

I did forget to add:

As for pasting any screen capture into Outlook, my Outlook 2003 can already do that, without IV at all.
I just did both, an active window capture, and a full screen capture, and pasted both into an email I was creating in Outlook.
Then I emailed it to myself, on a whole other service, from Outlook to a webmail name I have.
Both pictures came through, in-line, as JPG files.

If there is some size editing a person wants to do, which IV can easily handle (along with some other edits) then you can still do them with IV. Then just do a simple Copy and then Paste into an open Outlook email, ready to send. No files need to be saved or converted.

It is Outlook Express that can't paste an in-line picture from the clipboard. With OE you have to have a file to get the picture in-line.

[matera]

What he wanted to do was NOT to save a file, but, as you describe, paste the screenshot directly into the e-mail without creating any image file on disk at all. He might have a different version of Outlook or is just confusing the two security pits. Either way, it's a waste of thought.

[backfire]

Thanks for the replies.

Chuck- Interestingly, when I use the "Capture" method in IrfanView and capture into the main window, it comes through as BMP format, not JPG, unless I capture it to a JPG file (which puts me in the same boat as before).

Also, you mentioned that when you paste into Outlook 2003 (same version as me) without IV, it pastes as JPG. That leads me to believe your screen captures happen in JPG format, and mine happen in BMP. Are you using Vista by any chance? I'm on XP- I'm wondering if there's a setting for that, or if it's a difference between Windows versions.

The suggestion of the RAM drive is the closest to what I'm looking to do. But, I really don't have the ability to set that up on my work PC.

Thanks again for the replies. I'm going to also look into my Windows settings to see if there's anything I can change there to make screen captures save into memory as JPG instead of BMP.

[ChuckE]

When you do a screen capture there is no graphic format type associated with that, it is simply a raster dump into the clipboard. The nearest approximation to that is BMP, but there really is not a type ... yet. The clipboard has the data, and until you save it somehow, it is all in some "Windows known format" but nothing defined outside of the OS.

Then when you paste into the IV window, there is still no graphic format associated with it, yet, because it is still not a file yet. It is only a screen raster copied into the IV window. It is when you go to save the IV window, that is when you decide what format to save it in.

So, I am wondering why do you think that your screen captures are BMP? Is it because the last save you did was BMP? Perhaps you ought to see what happens if you do a couple saves as JPG, then close IV, then reopen IV and see what the Save As setting is then.

My OS is WinXP Pro, also. So I don't think that is your issue.
Most times I save my screen captures as GIF, unless there is something that I need to maintain the colors with. (GIF, a very common and compressed format, that can maintain sharply defined edges and lines, unlike JPG. So, as long as the 256 color limitation of GIF is not a problem, I prefer GIF.)

I just looked into the various options of IrfanView and saw nothing there to define what is the default format to save a file in. But you might want to set the Capture (keypress C) default Saving method, Save as: format to either JPG or GIF; and go through any other settings to define them to something other than BMP.

There is even an i_view32.INI file in the IrfanView program directory, if you are comfortable in editing .INI files, you could go through it and see if there are any BMP references in there that may be removed.

FYI: In my INI the only places I have BMP at are in the [Extensions] section, in the lines:
AllExtensions=
CustomExtensions=

[backfire]

The reason I assumed BMP is because when I paste it into Outlook, then click the properties of it, it defines it as "Device Independent Bitmap", and the size of the file closely resembles a bitmap (uncompressed). I don't know that it's actually a BMP format image.

I have no problem with saving a file in JPG and then attaching it in Outlook, and can continue to do so.

I think this is the best way to explain what I was looking to do: I was looking for a quicker way to convert the image sitting in my clipboard after a screen capture (using Print Screen) from the uncompressed Windows image to a compressed JPG (or GIF). I use IrfanView as a tool to do this, and was wondering if I could use it as a tool without actually doing a File-Save operation. It sounds like that is not the case (which is why I requested it as a new feature).

[ChuckE]

...I was looking for a quicker way to convert the image sitting in my clipboard after a screen capture (using Print Screen) from the uncompressed Windows image to a compressed JPG (or GIF). I use IrfanView as a tool to do this, and was wondering if I could use it as a tool without actually doing a File-Save operation. It sounds like that is not the case (which is why I requested it as a new feature).

As long as it is in the Clipboard it is still not a file. Its format is unimportant since it is only the Windows OS that "sees" it. Once you paste it into something, it is with that something that you may have the ability to force its format, as IrfanView does. But it only does it when you save the image as a selected file format.

By doing so, how are you expecting to avoid the File Save operation?

I again return to my own results, if I paste an image screen capture into an editable Outlook email, and then send it out, it gets received as a JPG. I do not assume what it is before sending. I'd like you to try that.

[backfire]

As long as it is in the Clipboard it is still not a file. Its format is unimportant since it is only the Windows OS that "sees" it. Once you paste it into something, it is with that something that you may have the ability to force its format, as IrfanView does. But it only does it when you save the image as a selected file format.

By doing so, how are you expecting to avoid the File Save operation?.

That's why I'm asking for a new feature! Convert it without creating the file! Why can't the binary structure that is in IV after my paste operation be re-serialized to represent a JPG image, exactly the same as what must be happening when I do a File-Save operation (except that puts it out to disk, rather than to memory). I don't see why this concept is so difficult to convey.

OK, think of it this way... When I first open IV, the image in my clipboard is in an uncompressed format. When I close IV, the image in my clipboard is in JPG format. That's the input/output of what I'm doing. To reach that point, I have to do a file/save. I'm asking that a feature be added that doesn't require that, which sure seems possible to me. I don't know... I'm starting to feel like I'm in the twilight zone because what I'm saying seems pretty cut and dry, and yet I can't seem to get the point across despite trying to explain it multiple ways.

I again return to my own results, if I paste an image screen capture into an editable Outlook email, and then send it out, it gets received as a JPG. I do not assume what it is before sending. I'd like you to try that.

As I mentioned, I already tried it but it does not get pasted into outlook as JPG. I end up with massive image files being sent out. That's why I'm thinking there must be a windows setting or something that determines the format of print screens (or the pasting of them).

[ChuckE]

The images in view in the IV window are raster, essentially bitmap. Not JPG, and won't be, and I expect can't be, JPG, since JPG is a compressed file format. JPG in its compression scheme sort of says "for the next string of image pixels we can approximate their representation by saving the pixels as these 2 bytes of data" (or whatever number of bytes it takes.) (There is MUCH more to JPG compression scheme, since it at adjustable, and even varies as to what the nearby pixels are, too.)

A raster image, is the actual pixels on the screen, there is no compression. It is wholly imaged image on the screen, as you see it.

It would be like the difference between a bowl of soup and a bouillon cube. Now, why can't you just swallow a bouillon cube and enjoy a "hot bowl of soup"?

If you want IV to make a JPG, you have to instruct it to do so, since the current image has to be evaluated and the result adjusted per the amount of compression (per the quality slider) you want.

As for your pasting of images into Outlook, and resulting in "massive image files" you never mentioned just what format those pasted images are. Just because it is massive does not mean it is not JPG. I have some JPG images that are many megabytes big, but they are JPG.

[matera]

A raster image, is the actual pixels on the screen, there is no compression. It is wholly imaged image on the screen, as you see it.

- and if you don't believe that, ask IrfanView. You can see it right on the status bar. The size of a JPG on disk is followed by its size as loaded into memory as a raster image. It can also be seen in the Information window. The difference can be ten times the disk size. Ooof.