One program displays all?

There are more and more different kinds of computer files every day meaning that you have to have more and more programs on your computer to view them especially if you often receive files from other people.
I still haven’t found a single program that can be used to view everything but I have found one that will let you view most picture files and play just about any video and audio format that there is. The program is called IrfanView (pronounced earfan) and, amazingly enough, is free for personal use. I first encountered it years ago when it was nice compact graphics viewer but I see that it has grown up quite a lot since then.
I had been frustrated by the fact that my usual graphics programs could not read the RAW files from my new digital camera and that the camera’s software could not display the files created in my graphics program. I read in an Internet forum that IrfanView could display both types so I went to www.irfanview.com and downloaded the program again.
As it turns out, it can’t display my RAW images yet but it seems that that someone is working on the matter and it soon will be able to do so. Those images apart, however, it does seem that IrfanView can display just about anything else.
It comes with a number of built-in tools which can be used to rotate, flip and resize pictures and make basic enhancements such as sharpening, red-eye reduction and colour and exposure correction. You can also apply a number of special effects such as a painterly effect or convert the image to black and white or sepia.
One interesting tool lets you create a slideshow with any number of pictures in it and then save them into a screensaver file or an executable file which other people can play back on their computers. It is decidedly unsophisticated but it will be all that most people will want and, as I’ve said before, the price is right.
IrfanView was developed by Irfan Skiljan, who was born in Jajce, in Bosnia, and attended the Vienna University of Technology. He does ask for pyment if the program is used commercially and for a donation of Euro10 if you’re a private user.I would be most intrigued to know what percentage of people pay for it; the percentage needn’t be very big seeing that the program has been downloaded a million times a month ever since 1993. You can get more info and download the program at www.irfanview.com.