Picasa, acquired by Google in 2004, is an image viewer and organizer program available to be downloaded as free software.
Photo Import and Track provides features for photo importing and tracking as well as tags, facial recognition, collections for sorting and simple editing functions. In addition, this program facilitates external use such as emailing or printing by reducing file sizes and creating page layouts.
Organizing your photos
Once Picasa has finished scanning your folders (this may take quite some time depending on how many images there are), it will begin indexing them. This indexing won’t do any harm; in fact, it might help find files which were lost or ignored by your file manager software. Using the Tools tab you can select which folders to include or exclude in its search, as well as sort them according to name, date or size.
Picasa offers the added benefit of remembering your manual sort order when uploading photos to the web, but this custom sorting won’t remain when viewing your file manager – sorting by name or date will simply alter them back into their default state used by Picasa.
Picasa also features the option to create albums, which provide a way of organizing multiple folders of photos together into collections that you can present to others easily. Images can easily be moved between albums; but removal from an album won’t delete its file from your hard drive.
Picasa is an effective photo organizer, but could use some improvements. For instance, exporting albums would allow them to move with you between photo management programs easily.
Picasa provides more than just storage of images; it also performs some simple edits and offers options for printing and sharing them. The program can prepare them for emailing or printing by reducing file size and setting page layouts, while you can retouch, add text to them, crop them and create slideshows from them all – free download but requires an account from Google (originally Lifescape but now owned by Google since 2004) plus online albums available 24/7 if needed! Originally developed by Lifescape but acquired by Google in July 2004, now accessible both Windows and Linux computers worldwide!
Editing your photos
Picasa provides you with a range of editing capabilities. It can adjust colors, adjust brightness and contrast levels, remove red-eye and implement auto-white balance; but lacks some of the more advanced image processing features available in programs like Adobe Lightroom. However, Picasa can still be used to edit photos that have already been imported to your library from outside applications – simply select each photo and click on File, “Open with Editor”, which will launch your default image-editing software and open up that photo for editing purposes.
Once you’ve edited your photos, Picasa will rescan them to update its library – something which may become frustrating if no new pictures have been added to the folder in which Picasa stores its images since you last scanned them. To save space and save rescanning times for certain folders, select “Remove from Picasa,” or have it watch for new images that come into its storage and automatically update its library if that folder changes over time.
Picasa makes editing photos a snap by offering an array of editing controls in its main editing window, including its one-click fixes for cropping, straightening and brightness/contrast adjustments as well as more comprehensive color correction with sliders to allow gradual adjustments. When you choose Photo Edit from the top bar menu, Picasa displays this main editing window complete with all its editing controls and one-click fixes such as cropping/straightening/brightness/contrast adjustments in two tabs: crop/straighten/b/cont/edits are easily navigated using its top bar arrows/window arrows/window arrows/window arrows/window to switch between editing actions available; use its arrows at its top to switch between edit types available; use its top bar arrows/window to switch between them using its top arrows at its top-top window containing its editing controls: cropping/straightening/adjusting brightness/contrast etc; while its second tab gives more control over color correction using sliders to make gradual adjustments with gradual color adjustments using gradual slider adjustments available in its second tab.
The third tab offers several predefined effects such as sepia, black-and-white or sharpening filters, while you can create custom ones using the “Filter” option in the Edit menu. All filters and settings in Picasa are nondestructive: each time you apply any change and save it, Picasa creates a copy of the original file which will then be stored under “.picasaoriginals”, giving you complete undo capabilities should anything go awry during processing.
Picasa may no longer be supported by Google, but it still serves a useful purpose for users who require basic organizing and editing tools for small image collections. However, larger collections might benefit from more modern alternatives with greater features and ongoing support.
Printing your photos
Google Picasa software makes creating photo projects incorporating photos and graphics quick and easy on your computer, ready for printing at home. Unlike most online photo-sharing services, Picasa doesn’t require registration with either Google or any other service in order to use its program.
Once you import your photos into Picasa, they are automatically organized into albums on your desktop computer in folder-like fashion. Furthermore, Picasa scans all hard drives and CD’s for all photo and movie files and organizes them based on when they were taken/scanned/created/scanned etc.
If you receive photos via email or from friends, dragging and dropping them directly into Picasa albums will allow them to be organized automatically by file type; Picasa will also recognize and display thumbnail versions of those files on screen for easy browsing.
Your images can be printed as wallet (nine per page); 3.5x 5 inches; 4 x 6 inches; 5x 7 inches; 8x 10 inches and Full Page photos, with this program also offering the ability to produce contact sheets.
The Print dialog box gives you access to a number of settings for customizing your prints, such as “Shrink to Fit”, which resizes large photos to fit a smaller paper size, printing captions on borders, and printer setup options. Picasa displays the resolution of original photographs so you know whether or not they will produce acceptable prints at your selected size.
Picasa will notify you if the resolution of your image does not meet what is needed for the print you select; this feature is particularly helpful since digital cameras and scanners often produce photographs with slightly different proportions than desired for printed images.
Picasa provides another useful feature – printing out an album-specific list of photos and their captions – which comes in handy when creating slideshows or books of your photos for special events.
Sharing your photos
Picasa from Google provides free software that makes managing pictures stored on your computer much simpler, including basic photo editing features and sharing your pictures via a Web album service. Picasa can help organize digital photos into an easily shareable slideshow to share with friends and family as well as print images using various online vendors.
Picasa provides an intuitive user interface and numerous options for organizing digital photographs. It scans your computer for pictures stored there and synchronizes its software with where these pictures reside; Picasa also features basic photo editing functions like red-eye reduction and cropping for quick organization of digital pictures. Furthermore, labels can be created which include information such as the date and location where a photograph was taken.
Picasa also comes equipped with a feature that enables you to search for duplicate files on your hard drive and remove them, useful if there are multiple copies of a similar file located throughout multiple folders on your drive. Furthermore, this software helps organize photos into albums which correspond with folders on your hard drive so they’re easier to locate when needed.
Picasa can be an invaluable tool for organizing and editing photos, yet it has several significant drawbacks when working across networks. Since Picasa was designed as a standalone application, multiple users using it simultaneously is not possible – leading to bottlenecks and inefficiencies when teams collaborate to manage digital assets together.
Picasa remains an ideal solution for organizations that must manage large volumes of photos. Thanks to Google’s integrations and applications, Picasa provides organizations with an efficient means of posting photographs to websites or blogs; uploading them directly into Facebook accounts boosts social media presence of businesses; as well as accessing Hello for secure, peer-to-peer sharing of pictures or other media.
