Need Picture Viewer for Windows
Posted February 20th, 2004 @ 10:46am by Erik J. Barzeski
Please help. A friend of mine has 18 JPEGs and TIFFs (he can convert them to any format) that total 277 MB. He needs to burn a CD (on a Mac) that has the images in the highest quality possible. That's easy. Where I need help: he needs a picture viewer that works with Windows. It can't be an installer - it has to pretty much "just run" from the CD. In other words, we have to be able to deliver a CD and the recipient, on a PC, has to be able to view the pictures in high quality with little effort and no installs.
We can probably assume that they've got Windows 2000 or later, but not necessarily that they have QuickTime. Burning a DVD is not the best option - TV resolution is bad and these are very high quality pictures.
Your help is appreciated. I'll give a free copy of any of FSS's software to the person who first suggests the best option.
Donate Life
Posted 20 Feb 2004 at 10:48am #
IrfanView - http://irfanview.tuwien.ac.at/
Posted 20 Feb 2004 at 10:58am #
Darn, my IrfanView recommendation got beat to the punch.
Posted 20 Feb 2004 at 11:31am #
Why go with something new? Change the images to a browser-compatible format, make a simple HTML page to display them all, and optionally specify the HTML page in the autorun.ini on the CD so it opens automatically.
Posted 20 Feb 2004 at 12:30pm #
Phil, I was thinking the same thing. I'm sure that there is something like the XP PowerToy HTML Slide Show Wizard for the Mac.
Posted 20 Feb 2004 at 2:16pm #
Here is how I do that very thing.
Create autorun.inf:
[autorun]
OPEN=Wscript install.JS //B //nologo index.htm
Now create the install.JS file:
///////////////////////////////////////////////
// Create an instance of the scripting shell Object
WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell");
// Name of the default htm page to load
WshShell.Run("index.htm", 1, 0);
WScript.DisconnectObject(WshShell);
///////////////////////////////////////////////
Simple as it gets. Caveats: users must have windows scripting host installed. This is usually standard, but could cause some difficulties with older operating systems.
Posted 20 Feb 2004 at 7:59pm #
How about a standalone flash player that loads and displays the images one at a time.
You would need to tell flash what the image files were named - either in an array within the movie or recorded in an XML file. Alternatively you could number the files in an appropriate order and that way you could easily write a bit of actionscript to look for the next file in line.
Flash would certainly provide for some nice control over the details if you had any ned to be fussy.
I'm guessing there would be something like this already out there - so there wouldn't be a need to start from scratch.
Posted 21 Feb 2004 at 12:53am #
I'd go with a Flash solution, possibly using Screenweaver for full-screen and extra polish. Nab the slideshow component from Flashcomponents.net, slap it on the stage, customize/skin as you need, and bingo bango ...
Posted 21 Feb 2004 at 1:52pm #
I was at my cousin's and he had something called "Windows Picture & Fax Viewer" which was built in (?) to windows XP.
Posted 21 Feb 2004 at 4:00pm #
Damn, I wanted to suggest Irfan Viewer, too. I've actually used this program in a situation almost exactly the same as what you described. It should work well.
Posted 21 Feb 2004 at 4:09pm #
Basil, what product would you like as your prize?
Ollie and Sean, you lose points for being silly. Kevin, you lose a lot of points. My friend needed a very simple solution, not programming tutoring.
Posted 21 Feb 2004 at 9:16pm #
Wow, 🙂 FTPeel would be great, actually. Thanks, Erik!
Posted 22 Feb 2004 at 11:15am #
Oh well, I guess I thought making two text files, exporting an album from Photoshop and burning the whole thing to a CD would be easy enough. It least it's a free solution. Perhaps someone else can utilize it in a bind.
Sorry my solution was a bit too technical. 🙂
Posted 22 Feb 2004 at 12:21pm #
What about using Director and having the CD Auto-Run when inserted in the Windows machine. Just open Director, add the images, and use a simple 'go to X and stop' add a nice skin.. than again that may be too much work.
Posted 22 Feb 2004 at 3:54pm #
Those are all too much work. It was a very KISS type of project for both the creator (not me) and the recipient (also not me).
Posted 22 Feb 2004 at 8:17pm #
Erik: nothing on Windows is KISS, you should know that 😛
Posted 23 Feb 2004 at 12:57am #
Indeed, Andy, indeed!!!