Reported Outline Text Box Add Tex Outline text option gives TOOLS.DLL error

[jlconrod]

I have both IrfanView 4.40 x86 and x64 installed, along with 4.40 Add-Ons for each.

System Specs FYI:
OS: Windows 10 x64 Home (Insider Preview Build 10565), running desktop mode
1 TB Hard Drive, 40% free
8 GB RAM
2 GB dedicated VRAM on AMD Radeon HD 7650M integrated Mobile GPU
Latest beta graphics drivers installed. (Issue also tested with current WHQL drivers).
Screen (native resolution): 1920x1080, 32-bit
All Windows Updates are current.

I frequently annotate PNG and JPG images for use on a web site. With 4.40 when I delineate a text box area, choose Add Text, Choose Font and various text options such as choosing and sizing fonts and font colors. There is no problem if I choose the Shadow option for the text. However, when I try to choose Outline for any font, IrfanView 4.40 gives an error that tools.dll is missing (or invalid). The error occurs with both x86 and x64 versions.

As a test, I exited IrfanView x86, then checked Program Files (x86) for IrfanView and confirmed tools.dll is present in the PlugIns subdirectory, file date 2015-01-14 13:05, size 184kb. I cannot find a newer tools.dll on the IrfanView plugins pages.

This issue seriously affects my options for annotating image with text. Is this a bug or am I overlooking something? FYI, I've used IrfanView since it was first introduced. It's still my go-to program for most of my graphics designing and image manipulations. Any suggestions, or can someone point me to a newer tools.dll to resolve the problem? I've attached the installed tools.dll ro (x86) in a standard ZIP file created with WinZIP Pro 20. I'm also attaching a PNG image with outline text created with IrfanView x86 4.38 with Add-Ons.

Let me know if you need any other files or information.

Thanks in advance.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

My Tools.dll in the x86 folder is dated 19/10/2015 and its size is 65 Kbytes

My Tools.dll in the 64-bit folder is dated 14/01/2015 and its size is 184 Kbytes

So, it looks like you have installed the 64-bit plugins in the 32-bit folder. I suggest cleaning everything out and starting again.

[Mij]

My x86 version of Tools.dll which appears to be the latest has a Created date of 14/01/2015. The Modified date is shown as 23/08/2015 but that is the date I installed it.
It is v4.39 and the Outline option in Edit text.. works OK. It seems that the Outline option is the only thing that needs the Tools.dll plugin. The Shadow option and everything else I tried still worked OK without it.

I suggest you download the Zip version of Irfanview from the direct link and extract a new copy of Tools.dll from there.