Unicode Filenames

[jbo.s]

Unicode filenames

IrfanView cannot show images with Unicode characters in filenames.

I have photos from holiday in Norway and IrfanView shows "file not found" messages while opening images with æ (ae) and ø ("slashed zero") characters.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

It is not a bug. IrfanView doesn't support Unicode filenames. Please search before posting. A quick search for "Unicode" would have told you all you need to know. Irfan has known about this for a long time. Unicode support will be added when he has time. It requires a great deal of work as it affects a lot of code.

[mfx]

Vista x64 unicode folder access problem.

Irfan 4.10 in Vista x64 cannot access files stored in folders with unicode characters in folder name.

Before You Post

[kurg]

IPTC UTF-8 support

In my language there is lot of "cool" characters like ö and ä. Furthermore, it's sometimes important or just fun to put some special characters to IPTC-fields. As always, there is lot of different character set and sometimes it is little problematic.

I noticed, that IPTC supports UTF-8 (example Exiftool, PS CS3 and PhotoME). So, it is final sollution once and for all .

It would be very nice to get UTF-8 in IPTC-fields (IPTC:CodedCharacterSet-tag) support for Irfanview.

[GreatWizard]

That's a really needed feature. I would consider helping if it was opensource (and I could see if I'm familiar with the libraries used). Seriously, if Irfan would consider a second developer doing it, I would consider if I'm fit to help - based on the code.

-Great Wizard

[pabouk]

I fail to see how the lack of Unicode filename support could be a great menace to IrfanView.

I think one needs to keep a sense of proportion here. IrfanView is not going to be replaced by other free image viewers due to lack of Unicode support. Other features should be a higher priority for Irfan to spend his precious development time on fixing.

I have to contribute to this thread too. I must say that I like IrfanView very much and I would like to use for most of the work with pictures I need but unfortunately it is not possible because of the lacking unicode support.

1. I receive a lot of files with various national character in their names and I do not want to rename them because of the redundant work, lacking time and loosing of important information.

1a. I cannot directly open many images attached to an e-mail. I would have to first save the image, then rename it and finally open it in the viewer.

2. I work with files in shared directories with national characters in their names and it is not simply possible to rename the directories.

3. When I show the program to my friends they like it very much until they realize that they cannot open files with national characters. At that moment they are not usually interested in IrfanView anymore.

If Irfan is not planning to add the important feature to the program. Please, please describe the limitation at least in the FAQ. The annoying thing is to install an application just to realize that it does not fulfil my basic needs.

[3000gt]

Doublebyte characters in folder names

Just reporting that Irfanview will not open images in a folder whose name contains doublebyte characters. Is there a fix for this?

Thanks,

Julius

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

IrfanView doesn't support Unicode filenames. Please search before posting. A quick search for "Unicode" would have told you all you need to know. Irfan has known about this for a long time. Unicode support will be added when he has time. It requires a great deal of work as it affects a lot of code.

[kjbaumga]

I'm sure this isn't true for everyone, but I for one would be happy if IrfanView simply offered the option to rename files with unicode filenames. So, just as IrfanView offers the option to rename a JPG file with a GIF extension, it could offer the option of renaming a file with a unicode filename to something with standard characters.

An alternative idea, more appealing to some users, would be to give the user the option of opening files with unicode names using the alternative image viewer you set up under IrfanView's preferences. So the moment you hit a file with a unicode name, IrfanView woud ask if you want to open the file with the alternative viewer.

That way you could use IrfanView as your primary viewer, but still conveniently use some other viewer to handle these oddly named files.

Just a thought...

[j7n]

One must realize that the special characters turn into "?" or "_" when 'converted' to ANSi by the operating system. Let's say we have a file called image_ё.jpg. A legacy program can't ask the OS to rename image_?.jpg to anything, because no such file exists. The OS can't take the q-mark as a wildcard and rename image_1.jpg, image_2.jpg and image_ё.jpg to a single target filename.

It is also impossible to pass this name with question marks to another program for opening.

[kjbaumga]

So I'm assuming by what you're saying that legacy programs can't mix in some code that supports unicode filenames? The one suggestion (offering to open the file with a different program) would need only a small module supporting unicode. Once the file was passed off to another program, the rest of the code would be unchanged...?

[pabouk]

Unicode filenames are supported now!!

The version 4.2 supports files with unicode chracters in their names. From the help:

Use Unicode PlugIn: the Unicode PlugIn allows IrfanView to open file names using unicode characters, like Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew, Eastern Europe etc. characters.

You have to restart IrfanView to get the PlugIn active.

It seems that you can even save files with unicode names.

Thank you

[Ryusennin]

Irfan: THANK YOU!

This is a great day to remember for IrfanView.

[Yennick]

Wait, so if version 4.2 has Unicode support then why is Irfanview still freaking out when I try to open images in my Japanese named image directories?! Seriously, this is getting to be a BIG hassle for me as there is becoming more and more of a need for me to deal with Japanese file names and directories (I'm even running a Japanese install of Windows XP now).

I've loved Irfanview in so many other ways and it has been my viewer of choice but if I can't resolve these issues it's having with Japanese file names I'm going to have to move to another image browser. Speaking of which, does anyone else here know of some good image browsers that DO have full Japanese support?

[Laurent]

Hi Yennick,

Not yet tried 4.20 and no Unicode filenames here. But I just read pabouk's post. So I wonder if you installed the necessary plug-in.

Laurent