- Quick specs
- Price: Free
- Operating system: Windows Vista, Windows XP
- Date added: April 22, 2009
- Total Downloads: 2,124,250
- Downloads last week: 6,899
- See full specifications
A newer version of Picasa is available.
(Download doesn't provide access to previous versions of this program.)
- CNET editors' rating: stars
- Average user rating: stars out of 622 votes
See all user reviews -

CNET editors' review
Reviewed by: Jessica Dolcourt on November 20, 2008
This photo organizer strikes us as the picture of simplicity, a hairy task considering that Picasa 3 stacks on over a dozen more features and refinements to improve the editing, creative, and sharing options onto what has for years been a solid consumer app. Although not the most powerful image manager on the block, Picasa has the distinction of being the most easygoing.
Picasa's editing tools now include a retoucher to cover over blemishes and an improved red-eye corrector that detects and fixes all orbs emitting a magenta glow, with fairly good results.
Picasa really shines when it comes to organizing, uploading, and sharing pictures. New syncing and sharing buttons on the album level let you keep folders up-to-date on your Picasa Web album without leaving the desktop app. The same goes with its neighboring 'Share' button, which uploads photos online and e-mails your contacts the link from Picasa's interface.
The latest version also greatly improves the collage tool and adds a basic movie maker that lets you intersperse a wide range of video with stills. Though we love the concept, the bare-bones tool needs work, and greater choice of outputs--right now it only churns out WMV files. One other caveat: Picasa eats a lot of memory, so be wary of a performance drag, oh ye of modest memory. In every other respect, this free photo editor and organizer program is an excellent choice for amateur shutterbugs with plenty of photos to share.
Watch the CNET video review of Picasa:
Publisher's description
From Google :Transfer, find, organize, edit, print, and share images, all with this easy-to-use product. Watch Picasa automatically organize all your pictures into elegant albums by date. Having all your photos in one place means no more time wasted searching for folders or files. The program works with JPEG, GIF, BMP, PSD, and movie files and is compatible with most digital cameras; it detects your USB driver and imports pictures into albums. Editing tools include cropping (standard or custom), removal of red-eye, and enhancing--even switching from color to black and white. Create slide shows set to your MP3s. Integration with Picasa's free Hello instant picture-sharing software lets you share hundreds of photos in seconds and chat in real time. E-mail photos with Picasa's built-in client to take the guesswork out of compressing images, and order photo-lab quality prints or print at home with no mistakes. You can also make instant backups to CD (or to other hard drives) of your photo collections, to organize your photos using labels and stars (just like with Gmail), to write captions for all pictures, and to organize videos as well as pictures.
Version 3.1 Build 71.36 has fixed an issue where unedited 'Original Size' uploads to Picasa Web Albums were being compressed.These uploads should now respect the compression value associated with the picture and fixed an issue that caused cropped images to display incorrectly when combined with sharpen or glow.
What's new in this version:
Version 3.1 Build 71.36 has fixed an issue where unedited 'Original Size' uploads to Picasa Web Albums were being compressed.These uploads should now respect the compression value associated with the picture and fixed an issue that caused cropped images to display incorrectly when combined with sharpen or glow.More popular Media Management downloads
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User reviews of Picasa 3.1 Build 71.36
- Average user rating: 4.2 stars out of 622 votes
- My rating: 0 stars Write review
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Showing 5 of 6 user reviewsSee all 6 user reviews
This software version | All versions -
Version: Picasa 3.1 Build 71.36
"Gives me everything I need for my photos."
Pros: everything
Cons: There is nothing I don't like about this program.
Summary: Same as quoted in item 2 it has everything I need and more.
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Version: Picasa 3.1 Build 71.36
Pros: most things are single click options with sliders to adjust.
Cons: does not correct halftone noise well needs a stronger photo fix to correct and a stronger sharpen mode.
Summary: It is my first use editor for camera downloads the photo view option is extremely useful for decision making.
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Version: Picasa 3.1 Build 71.36
"Wonderful program, very easy to use!!"
Pros: So easy to email photos
Cons: None to date
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Version: Picasa 3.1 Build 71.36
"A great easy to use programme!"
Pros: Very easy to use.Plus it's FREE!
Cons: I would like to be able to enlarge pictures.
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Version: Picasa 3.1 Build 71.36
"Does stuff that the others don't."
Pros: You pretty much have to use the other programs and this one to see what features they have. Picasa has a few that I really like. Most people including myself, have at least one other photo editor handy for use.
Cons: The only thing I find annouying is the way Picasa itemizes the photos, ittakes some searching to find the , Albums, verses Dates etc. Just let me find my own folders and pictures the way I want to.
Summary: Just have to get used to this program.
- See all 6 user reviews Write review
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