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Google's Picasa: Peer at it closely and you'll find an app teeming with features that do everything from import to edit to upload to share photos and videos online. Let your eyes glaze and that feature set blur, and Picasa is still as easy to use for the photo management basics as it was when it was first conceived, before it came into Google's fold. Firmly in the consumer camp, Picasa doesn't strive to be the most powerful image manager or editor in its class, but for all its tools, this freeware middleweight does hold the distinction of being the most easygoing option for a wide swatch of home users.
Picasa scans your hard drive for photos and organizes them by folder, making it easy to find pictures and videos taken over the years. Editing tools include light adjustment, straightening, effects, and retouchers to cover over blemishes. You can annotate and geotag photos, and can turn pictures into collages, and pictures and video clips into movies. But where Picasa really shines is in its online storage and sharing tools. Syncing and sharing buttons on the album level let you keep folders up-to-date on your free, online Picasa Web album--all without leaving the desktop app. The same goes with sharing. Select contacts and Picasa will e-mail them the link to the online photo album as it simultaneously uploads photos to that very album.
The latest version integrates facial recognition technology that spots faces and lets you identify them with an address from your Gmail account, or just with a name. Although time consuming at first, the genius of this exercise in visual metadata is revealed the next time you hunt for an image and find yourself searching not by an individual album, but by the name of the subject within that sought-for snapshot.
There is one 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 lightly edit and share.
Picasa 3: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.
What's new in this version: Version 3.5 build 79.81 improved stability during import and fixed a crash related to Quicktime.
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All versions:
4.2 starsout of 1,546 votes
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Current version:
4.3 starsout of 35 votes
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My rating:
Write review
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"As good as ever"
Version: Picasa 3.5 build 79.81
Pros
Has everything most people want to edit their photos, the basics. If you want more i'm afraid you'll have to pay for it !
Cons
None ! for the price/ free !
Summary
Best free basic photo editing suite !
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"has its pros and cons but worth having for the pros"
Version: Picasa 3.5 build 79.81
Pros
quick fixes and ability to easily view contents of each album as thumbnails. My favorite feature is the 'caption'...you can add SO much information on each photo.
Cons
lack of ease in moving or copying to a different folder. I arrange a folder in Picasa or Web Album and when I download it my sorting is adjusted! I spend a lot of time arranging my pictures within a folder and I want them to STAY where I put them.
Summary
"My favorite feature is the 'caption'...you can add SO much information on each photo." However, I didn't find out until AFTER I had spent a great deal of time adding detailed captions to my photos in Web Album that the downloaded version of that album would not have the captions...they apparently have to be entered in Picasa that lives on your computer. They can still be viewed in WA but not downloaded. I'm not sure if this is still the case, but a couple of years ago I 'invited' friends to view one of my web albums and Picasa was a little pushy in downloading the software before they could do so. They may have missed an option to avoid this, but the responses I got weren't as positive as they should have been, due to the intrusion of Picasa. They both uninstalled the program after seeing my photos. And I'm no dummy but I have had difficulty getting my head around the album/folder/file issue with Picasa. I still go back to my resident program (USED to be Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, now Photo Gallery but that's a whole other story!!) to copy or move from folder to folder. Again, I may be missing something here, but I've spent a lot of time reading the forums and whatever other information I can find online. It's a good program but has a way to go to become great. Granted it's free, but I'd still be prepared to pay for a program that allowed better organizing. Picture and Fax Viewer was better by far in that department. Facial recognition is neat.
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"View many many folders quickly"
Version: Picasa 3.5 build 79.81
Pros
Fast way to zoom through your graphics files.
Cons
I don't use the web, editing, face recognition or resizing features so for me it's not any better than 2.7 was.
Am trying to give the photo viewer a fair trial, but dislike it.Summary
For what I use it for it's great, but bloated.
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"Very easy to use."
Version: Picasa 3.5 build 79.81
Pros
Makes it easy to edit, print, share pictures.
Cons
no cons for the price...
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"works fairly well. excellent for the price"
Version: Picasa 3.5 build 79.81
Pros
saves time classifying photos by person
Cons
no apparent way to save people info, unless you subscribe to their on-line storage. if there is a way haven't found it, and none of the blogs or Picassa help have any clue.
Summary
would be great if I could save the info on my backup drive.
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"Excellent photo program."
Version: Picasa 3.5 build 79.81
Pros
Ease of use. Editing tools.
Cons
None as yet.
Summary
Not having used any program other than Picasa for the past 10, or so, years makes it difficult to compare. But I am more than satisfied with its simplicity and end results - plus it's free.
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"Great face recognition program"
Version: Picasa 3.5 build 79.81
Pros
Well organized
Cons
none as of this date
Summary
Great program
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"Super program!! Use it daily. Easy as 1-2-3"
Version: Picasa 3.5 build 79.81
Pros
Easy up and downloads. Accessability once in my computer is great. Why would you not use a program that is so easy to use? And it's FREE.....
Cons
Works fine for me....no negatives.
Summary
Try it, you'll like it!
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"100 pct ok"
Version: Picasa 3.5 build 79.81
Pros
easy to use
Cons
For regular user no contras
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"I like Picas 3.5"
Version: Picasa 3.5 build 79.81
Pros
Easy to use when trying to upload pictures.
Cons
Nothing. It make eveerything so much easier to do
Summary
it makes it easier to upload things to the web. Before I got Picas 3.5 I was having trouble uploading my pictures but now it easy.
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