CNET Editors' review
Picasa for Mac is a free app from Google for importing, editing, organizing, and sharing photos. The first time you launch it, Picasa can quickly search your hard drive (or select folders) for your existing photos, pulling them into the Picasa interface without actually duplicating them and taking up drive space.
Picasa's interface feels un-Mac-like at first, with a nonstandard scroll bar and even slightly fuzzy fonts--but it's still instantly recognizable (and usable) by anyone familiar with iPhoto, thanks to its similar toolbars and three-pane organization with folders and albums. Picasa makes it easy to create slideshows, movies, and collages, and--not surprisingly--the app has tight integration with Google's Blogger and the excellent Picasa Web Albums photo-hosting service (online companion to the desktop app). Picasa has good editing tools, as well, which let you try different effects and easily add text to photos. It also has an intuitive tag system that lets you add batch tags, geotags (using Google Maps), and even name tags using a fairly proficient face-recognition feature (which can tap into your Google Contacts).
Picasa isn't perfect--with flaws that range from its interface idiosyncrasies to an initial setup that's likely to grab many irrelevant images--but this app provides a relatively feature-packed and much cheaper alternative to similar photo-management apps. It's especially attractive if you're already using many of the Google services it accesses.
Watch the CNET video review of Picasa:
Publisher's Description
From Google:
Picasa is an easy way to find, edit, and share your photos. Manage your photos in one place, and find photos you forgot you had. Eliminate scratches and blemishes, fix red-eye, crop and more. Turn photos into movies, collages, slideshows, and other creations. Upload seamlessly to Picasa Web Albums to share with friends, family and the world.
What's new in this version:
- Fixed various crashes.
- Fixed name tags and contacts issues.
More Popular Media Management downloads
- Picasa
3,154 downloads
- CorelDRAW
1,713 downloads
- Apple iLife
1,040 downloads
- Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
606 downloads
- The Print Shop
318 downloads
-
All versions:
3.6 starsout of 62 votes
-
Current version:
0 stars Be the first to review this product -
My rating:
Write review
-
"bad for developers and beta testers"
Version: Picasa 3.8.9.390
Pros
nothing good about app
Cons
Picasa Downloaded everything on my computer even my beta testing bugs..I was wonder what was going on with all my apps I was testing so I cleaned my computer twice. This is no good I had to delete everything. It copies everything you make on the computer.
It even downloaded my developing tools and other apps I was developing. This app had to be destroyed.Summary
Dont download this app unless u are going to use it for pics only. it is a clutter bug. I have a better app that works better and saves all apps on my computer on my Desktop.
-
"Picasa not allowed on my Mac"
Version: Picasa 3.8.9.390
Pros
would have been nice IF
Cons
Could not use Picasa as my Mac OSX is not Intel base
-
"Didn't do what I wanted it to"
Version: Picasa 3.8.9.390
Pros
Didn't do what I wanted it to
Cons
Didn't do what I wanted it to
-
"Excellent Product"
Version: Picasa 3.8.9.390
Pros
Nice user interface... easy to use!
Cons
Would like to work directly from a drive rather than having to import like thumbsplus
Summary
Nice product for what it is :-)
-
"zzzzzzzzzzzzzz"
Version: Picasa 3.8.8.383
Pros
zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Cons
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Summary
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
-
"Very good and easy to use"
Version: Picasa 3.8.8.383
Pros
Has all requirements of a good photo management program.
Cons
Cannot key copy photo to paste elsewhere . Must export.
Cannot configure all folders to arrange photos by date, and keep as default. Must repeat this choice for each folder.Summary
Prefer Picasa to iPhoto
-
"a fine assist to organization"
Version: Picasa 3.8.8.383
Pros
a well organized tool making image management easy and pleasant
Cons
the new picasa is easy to use . being a beginner i find it most useful
Summary
fine example of a tool which makes order out of potential chaos. most welcome
-
"A free photo editing and cataloging tool from Google."
Version: Picasa 3.8.5.326
Pros
It is free and it is from Google. Picasa is very fast and has excellent suite of photo-editing and cataloging / album-making tools. It has comprehensive features for searching images reminiscent of Spotlight and what it does with words for the MacOS.
Cons
Picasa is comprehensive and therefore will take quite some time to learn in its entirety. In all probability most users will only use a small subset of its features. It is not always intuitive in its operation.
Summary
Photo / image management isn't yet at its zenith but there can be no doubt that Picasa is heading in the right direction. For example, see Picasa's web extension for Web Albums. This extension allows a user to synchronise albums in his Picasa collection with those published on the Web for easy sharing and hosting.
Picasa is equally adept at managing photos and videos while offering basic photo-editing features that are very useful to the amateur and professional photographer.
Picasa 3.8.5.326, the latest version, is absurdly quick and launches instantly if a camera is connected via cable to a USB port on the host computer. Once launched the user is presented with various ways of easily categorising their photos and images by batch renaming, tagging / commenting or adding 'stars'. The folder hierarchy is easy to manage and navigate and is largely intuitive.
Sharing photos is easy with built-in buttons for emailing, uploading to other Picasa Web-based albums and the user has the option to install third-party plug-ins to allow integration with other Web-based services such as directly uploading photos to Facebook or Twitter.
A key feature of Picasa is the ability to edit photos and images. The photo editor is very basic compared to PhotoShop Elements (say) but is comprehensive enough for the amateur photographer or artist. Editing features include cropping, straigtening, constrasting, highlighting, shadowing and colour effects, including toning: monochrome, sepia, halftones, etc. Once the edits have been saved, Picasa makes a separate backup copy of the original file in a hidden folder: a useful feature if the user wishes to abandon the edits and revert back to the original photo / image.
Picasa 3.x.x.x features tagging. For example, human faces are automatically tagged and as long as the user names them initially, Picasa will automate the whole process in subsequent usage.
Web Albums is probably Picasa's most useful feature. The user can synchronise their photos with the Web and hence share them with others via privacy controls to determine who has access to them. The Web interface is very easy and intuitive to use.
Doubtless future versions of Picasa will include many more enhancements. -
"Mac OS X - PPC NOT Supported"
Version: Picasa 3.8.7.261
Pros
Well ... there would be a pro if this were a universal binary. However it seems as though Google has taken the shorter path and decided to leave the Mac OS X (PPC) Community out in the cold.
Cons
There are many PPC users left I am just one of many. Whilst I do have an Intel iMac. I still use my PowerBook G4 which is based on PPC technology. Running Mac OS X 10.5.8 (PPC).
Summary
Why should I upgrade my hardware because a developer is too lazy to create a Universal Binary that could be used on Both PPC/Intel architecture. So I will find another alternative to the Google empire.
-
"almost as good as iPhoto"
Version: Picasa 3.8.7.261
Pros
super fast upload/downloads, face detection works very well
Cons
doesn't recognize faces well enough, having to select many youself
Summary
great program
Add Your Review
Submit your reply
E-mail this review
Report offensive content
See more CNET content tagged:
Previous Versions:
