Rejected A marvelous addition to IrfanView would be robust .GIF player funtionality

[Sunday_Scour]

Hello all!

I am a new member, but have been using IrfanView for a very long time, nearly 15 years. This post is not a problem report, but the idea began with an issue I’ve had with versions within the last few years.

When IrfanView loaded animated .GIFs in the past, it played them just fine, at whatever speed the creator intended. Lately, in newer versions of IrfanView (I always install the full suite of PlugIns), ALL .GIFs play at maximum speed, limited only by my computer’s processor. I used to use a separate but ancient .GIF editor for a very old version of Windows to play the .GIFs, but I can’t seem to recall the program’s name anymore or find it.

This situation led me to think of a wonderful idea for a new feature in IrfanView, though I have no idea how difficult it would be to implement. The idea is that for animated .GIFs, a set of hotkeys (or even a set of menu items) would activate allowing the user to adjust the rate of .GIF playback, pause (IrfanView already does this), advance by a single frame, or reverse by a single frame. Perhaps even play frames in reverse order. Put simply, allow .GIFs to be played and interacted with like a DVR recording or a Blu-ray or DVD movie.

Because .GIFs are still quite relevant to today’s internet environment, the format offers unique features and nearly universal compatibility, and many users have vast collections of favorite .GIFs and memes assembled over years, the ability to engage with .GIFs in a more advanced way would be a superb addition to THE overall best image viewer ever made, free or commercial.

So that’s my pitch. Thank you to whoever reads this post from a long time IrfanView fan.

sunday_scour@aol[d.o.t]com

[JendaLinda]

Some GIF creation software doesn't properly set frame delays in GIF files. Such software set delays to zero, which means no delay. Web browsers usually limit the maximum speed of GIFs to prevent overloading the CPU. IrfanView doesn't have such limitation and plays GIF with the actual speed specified by frame delays. You may fix your GIF files by adding proper delay values.

After you stop the animation in IrfanView, you may step through the individual frames using PgUp and PgDown keys. However stepping backwards may not work properly if the GIF was optimized. Such optimizations store only differences in frames, so they rely on the contents of the preceding frames, being played in the right order.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Not a valid feature request because the fault lies with many GIF images. Perhaps a default frame rate could be set for GIFs without one defined, but that would be arbitrary.

[Sunday_Scour]

Wow! I was not expecting such a prompt response. This must be a very healthy forum.


The PageUp and PageDown do address many of the features I had wanted.


To add context to the request, I have many .GIFs in my collection that are improperly timed (set to 0 latency) for whatever reason, as downloaded from the internet. It would be nice to be able to allow the user to set the default minimum latency, in the options page for example, or by preset steps (10ms or 25ms) with a hotkey while viewing .GIFs, for viewing files that otherwise are incorrectly timed. I think that would take .GIF support to a new level, inline with IrfanView’s robust support of other formats.


Thank you again for addressing my post!


Sunday_Scour

[JendaLinda]

You may use a free program GifDirectEditor to fix your GIFs. The batch option allows to set all frame delays at once. On the Github page, click the green Code button and download ZIP. In the binary folder, there is the compiled program.

[Sunday_Scour]

Well, I did not get what I wanted. However, I do seem to have found what I needed. I am satisfied. You moderators have done your job, and this will be my last post on this topic.

Thank you.

Sunday_scour