Can this be done in IrfanView?

In article ,
, Terry Pinnell says...

Dave Doe wrote:

In article ,
, Terry Pinnell says...

"Elias Fotinis" wrote:

On Sat, 23 Jun 2012 15:59:33 +0300, Terry Pinnell wrote:


An effect I use fairly often is a highlighted section like this:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4019461/ExampleHighlight.jpg
(Well, strictly it's a relative 'dimming' of the non-selected area.)

To do this I have to break off from working in IrfanView and load up
resource-hungry PaintShop Pro 8, a bit of a chore.

Over the years I've been delighted to find various features in IrfanView
that I wasn't aware of. I don't think this is one, but I'd appreciate
confirmation please.

AFAIK, IrfanView can only do rectangular selections.

Alternatively, any other fast-loading freeware tool that loads fast that
can do it?

Paint.NET (http://www.getpaint.net/) can do this. Use the Ellipse Select tool, invert the selection and use the Adjustments menu to dim the outside area.

Paint.NET is a nice intermediate tool to have when you need something more advanced than IrfanView, but also something lighter than, say, GIMP.

On installing I got message that it needed XP SP3. I'm still on SP2 and no
imminent plan to update.

Why???? - you're on an unsupported platform, IIRC.

Traumatic failure when I last attempted it a couple or three years ago.
And no obvious benefit - apart perhaps from the lack of official support
you highlight!

Well you've just highlighted one of the advantages - the .NET framework
- and I think you'll find other MS stuff won't install either without
SP3.

I've found the main reasons SP3 won't install is either: malware,
viruses, or antivirus (particularly Nortons/Symantec). Or a combination
of all three! Removing all of them (including any AV), and I've yet
to be *unable* to install SP3 on a PC.

I'd give it another go - many folk report a much improved PC after SP3 -
anecdotal AFAIK (not really seen a performance advantage myself).

Dunno why your SP3 install was so traumatic either, every failure I've
seen rolled back just fine (albiet, some PC's took a few hours (to (fail
to) install, then rollback).

IMO, you're in limbo/no-mans land. I bet you'll find that, should you
want to upgrade to Windows 7 one day, that you will not be able to run
the 'Windows 7 Easy Transfer Tool' on your current XP machine either!

--
Duncan.

Terry Pinnell wrote in
:

mike wrote:

SNIP...
change brightness, select region again and paste.
Depends on your ability to get the selection exact.

Thanks Mike, but apart from the precision needed that you rightly
point out, IrfanView can only make a *rectangular* selection as far as
I know, so the task I described is not in its repertoire.


IMO its not just a free selection tool that is needed but one with a
feathered selection facility. For general photography brightening a sharp
selection will show a sharp edge IME not very pretty. Of course if the
image consists of sharply defined geometric shapes etc then there is less
of an issue though I find a feathering of 2 pixels still improves the
effect. The only programs IME that offer selection feathering are
bloatware Photoshop or the Gimp though perhaps the latest editions of
Xnview, Photofiltre, Hornil Stylepix or similar now have this facility?

Thanks David. Perhaps I'm exaggerating the slowness. And I'm referring to
the speed from a cold start, not with PSP8 already running.

A 4000 x 3000 JPG takes about 6 seconds to open using R-click Open with
PSP8 from its Explorer folder. IrfanView, FastStone Viewer and
PhotoFiltre are under a second.

Although now getting old, this PC is still fairly well specified.
'MESH GTS Xtreme', Quad Core Q9450 2.66 GHz, 4 GB DDR2 667 MHz, 512 MB
nVIDIA GeoForce 8800GT
2 x 750 GB Serial ATA2 HDs, plus external 1 TB and 2 TB WD 'My Book'
drives.

I *would* like more RAM; that 4 MB is apparently not fully usable under
XP, so in practice it's under 3 MB. Guess that will have to wait until I
face the hassle and aggro of re-installing everything on a new PC,
presumably Win 7 or 8.

Note also my other point; it's not just the speed of starting PSP8 that
irks, but also its CPU and memory usage.


Terry, East Grinstead, UK
==================================================

Yes, around 3 GB (not 3 MB!) is about the limit under a 32-bit version of
Windows, but that's plenty for PSP8. If you get the appropriate version of
Windows-7, it includes a Windows XP Virtual PC (which you can download), so
your existing software could run under that - there may be no need to
migrate. Other virtual PC software is available.

If you keep PSP8 open, rather than close it each time, likely the Open With
time would be much reduced.

Cheers,
David
--
SatSignal Software - Quality software written to your requirements
Web: http://www.satsignal.eu
Email:

On Sun, 24 Jun 2012 10:18:15 +0100, Terry Pinnell wrote:

mike wrote:

On 6/23/2012 5:59 AM, Terry Pinnell wrote:
An effect I use fairly often is a highlighted section like this:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4019461/ExampleHighlight.jpg
(Well, strictly it's a relative 'dimming' of the non-selected area.)

To do this I have to break off from working in IrfanView and load up
resource-hungry PaintShop Pro 8, a bit of a chore.

Over the years I've been delighted to find various features in IrfanView
that I wasn't aware of. I don't think this is one, but I'd appreciate
confirmation please.

Alternatively, any other fast-loading freeware tool that loads fast that
can do it?

Not particularly clean, but you can select, cut selection, image/enhance
colors
change brightness, select region again and paste.
Depends on your ability to get the selection exact.

Thanks Mike, but apart from the precision needed that you rightly point
out, IrfanView can only make a *rectangular* selection as far as I know,
so the task I described is not in its repertoire.

Terry, Irfanview has a plugin called RGBSpot that will do what
you want. Very easy to use.
A quick and dirty specimen I did here.
http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/2...pboard0221.jpg

An effect I use fairly often is a highlighted section like this:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4019461/ExampleHighlight.jpg
(Well, strictly it's a relative 'dimming' of the non-selected area.)

Terry, Irfanview has a plugin called RGBSpot that will do what
you want. Very easy to use.
A quick and dirty specimen I did here.
http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/2...pboard0221.jpg

Do you have a link to the RGBSpot plugin?

On Sun, 24 Jun 2012 20:45:19 -0500, M.L. wrote:

An effect I use fairly often is a highlighted section like this:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4019461/ExampleHighlight.jpg
(Well, strictly it's a relative 'dimming' of the non-selected area.)

Terry, Irfanview has a plugin called RGBSpot that will do what
you want. Very easy to use.
A quick and dirty specimen I did here.
http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/2...pboard0221.jpg

Do you have a link to the RGBSpot plugin?

I forget how I came to get the plugin but on
the Irfan Forum there is this link, maybe you can
find it there.
https://irfanview-forum.de/showthrea...hlight=rgbspot

An effect I use fairly often is a highlighted section like this:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4019461/ExampleHighlight.jpg
(Well, strictly it's a relative 'dimming' of the non-selected area.)

Terry, Irfanview has a plugin called RGBSpot that will do what
you want. Very easy to use.
A quick and dirty specimen I did here.
http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/2...pboard0221.jpg

Do you have a link to the RGBSpot plugin?

I forget how I came to get the plugin but on
the Irfan Forum there is this link, maybe you can
find it there.
https://irfanview-forum.de/showthrea...hlight=rgbspot

Thanks for your response. Unfortunately the rgbspot.zip link on that
page was dead.

An effect I use fairly often is a highlighted section like this:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4019461/ExampleHighlight.jpg
(Well, strictly it's a relative 'dimming' of the non-selected area.)

Terry, Irfanview has a plugin called RGBSpot that will do what
you want. Very easy to use.
A quick and dirty specimen I did here.
http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/2...pboard0221.jpg

Do you have a link to the RGBSpot plugin?

I forget how I came to get the plugin but on
the Irfan Forum there is this link, maybe you can
find it there.
https://irfanview-forum.de/showthrea...hlight=rgbspot

Thanks for your response. Unfortunately the rgbspot.zip link on that
page was dead.

Yes, that plug-in sounded exactly what I need, but that link fails. Its
initial source appeared to be Sam_Zen but all his other links
unfortunately also failed.

Would it be possible to email me the file rgbspot3.8bf please?

It would be better to share that elusive file with the entire
community by uploading it to a public online sharing service such as
yousendit.com, filedropper.com, Dropbox, Adrive, Skydrive, Mediadire,
Badongo or a multitude of similar free services.

Terry Pinnell wrote in
:

Spamblk wrote:

SNIP...
The only programs IME that offer selection
feathering are bloatware Photoshop or the Gimp though perhaps the
latest editions of Xnview, Photofiltre, Hornil Stylepix or similar now
have this facility?



And, of course, the program I use: PaintShop Pro 8.

There may be other medium size or small raster graphics editors that have
this facility and perhaps someone could post the details to this NG if
there are.

There are quite a few editors out there most of which I havent tried:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari...aphics_editors

On Mon, 25 Jun 2012 15:41:08 +0100, Terry Pinnell wrote:

I'm pasting this relevant reply from alt.comp.freeware. (I'd hoped *all*
posts would go to both groups, following my original, but apparently not.)


p-0^0-h the cat wrote:

On Sun, 24 Jun 2012 22:57:02 -0500, M.L. wrote:



An effect I use fairly often is a highlighted section like this:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4019461/ExampleHighlight.jpg
(Well, strictly it's a relative 'dimming' of the non-selected area.)

Terry, Irfanview has a plugin called RGBSpot that will do what
you want. Very easy to use.
A quick and dirty specimen I did here.
http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/2...pboard0221.jpg

Do you have a link to the RGBSpot plugin?

I forget how I came to get the plugin but on
the Irfan Forum there is this link, maybe you can
find it there.
https://irfanview-forum.de/showthrea...hlight=rgbspot

Thanks for your response. Unfortunately the rgbspot.zip link on that
page was dead.

Pooh the cat, researcher extraordinaire presents

http://www.samshuijzen.nl/sam/samzen/links.html#plugz

http://www.samshuijzen.nl/sam/samzen...ew/rgbspot3.7z

Thanks for rooting those out.

I've downloaded them but I haven't much of a clue how to install and use
them in IrfanView, so hopefully someone who does will be along soon.

Executing

C:\Program Files\IrfanView\Plugins\Adobe 8BF\rgbspot3.8bf

asked me for my Adobe PhotoShop Elements licence code. Instead I chose the
option for a free trial (which apparently wouldn't let me *use* the
effects, only *preview* them I found from further research, even if I got
that far.) That started Adobe PSP Elements, which I know nothing about and
don't want to learn now. I closed that. I then d-clicked the other version
I'd placed here

C:\Program Files\IrfanView\Plugins\Adobe 8BF\rgbspot2.8bf

and that did some processing (installing?), without the message, and again
opened Adobe. I closed that.

Not sure what to do next. Help!

ta da

Let me know if it works plooose.

This guys has loads of stuff, and he's got a beard, so he must be
serious...

From my research earlier I found he was very ill in 2007 and seemed to
stop active web activity. So I have a horrible feeling that Sam Shuijzen
(user name often Sam_Zen) may have died.

The pathway I use is this,
OPen an image file in Irfanview, then
Click on (Toolbar) IMAGE/Effects/Adobe8BF,'then select the plugin from the
dropdown list.