Monthly Archives: November 2020

Calling PureJPEG and PngCrush from Far Manager

Software

I like to keep images that I upload to blog and websites small and free of metadata (EXIF etc). PureJPEG and PngCrush are two tools that help me to reduce image file size without affecting quality.

I invoke them from Far Manager using F2 user menu:

Far Manager user menu

Here’s how to configure it:

  1. Press F2 to open user menu.
  2. Press Insert key. Select ‘Insert Command’.
  3. Enter ‘j’ as hotkey, ‘PureJpeg’ as label and the following as command:
    “C:\Small Programs\PureJpeg\purejpeg.exe” “!.!”
  4. Press OK to save
Far Manager command to invoke PureJPEG

Far Manager replaces “!.!” with selected file name in double quotes.

I keep small apps and tools in ‘Small Programs’ folder. You might have them somewhere else.

Follow the same procedure for PNG Crush. Use this command:

"C:\Small Programs\Pngcrush\pngcrush.exe" -ow "!.!"

Note the -ow switch – it tells pngcrush to overwrite the source PNG file.

Now you can compress an image file losslessly by simply selecting it in Far Manager, pressing F2 and selecting PureJpeg or PngCrush.

Folder Shortcuts in Far Manager

Software

You can quickly jump to your favorite folders in Far Manager by pressing right Control + 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and so on.

Adding a shortcut is very simple:

  1. Go to your favorite folder in Far Manager
  2. Press Ctrl + Shift + 1 (or 2, 3, 4, 5, …)

Now you can press right Ctrl + 1 to jump to that folder.

You can view all your folder shortcuts by pressing F9 to open the top menu, then C to open Commands submenu, then D:

I have right Ctrl + 1 assigned to my temp folder, I gave it 1Temp name so that it’s always on top and also to remind me that it has 1 as shortcut. Usually I put there files and folders that I’m going to upload somewhere. I train myself to delete everything from that folder from time to time.

You can assign more than folder to a single shortcut. In this case Far Manager would show you a menu with all folders when you press that shortcut. I have folders that I use from time to time assigned to right Ctrl + 0 (zero). Typically they are so deep in the file system that it would be too long to navigate there the normal way:

Folder shortcuts menu in Far Manager