That's right, Timethief. I've been working with images for years and although I've used PaintShop Pro in the past, I'm now a firm fan of IrfanView (free download at www.IrfanView.com).
It's free, supports nearly all file formats, and it's constantly being updated.
One feature I use a lot is the screenshot (capture) function (Ctrl-F11).
It can come in handy if you want a record of how a news site (or even a forum page) looked at a particular moment in time.
One tip on manipulating jpg images - you can make as many changes as you want from an original image in IrfanView - resize, crop, rotate, compress, enhance colours ... - but try to do each step in just one step. For example, if experimentation shows that you want a Gamma correction of 0.45 for a photo, go back to the original and do it in one shot, rather than as 0.9, 0.5. Same with cropping - always do it from the original. Then, most importantly, only save the new file once, when you're done.
This is because each 'file-save' operation results in a loss of jpg image quality. Keep those save steps to an absolute minimum.
This is why I love IrfanView - you can do all the image manipulation live on screen, and it's undoable at every stage. Finish the job and then save only once, right at the end.
Good luck !
bluebirdgrainfarms
