Picasa 2
Posted on May 2, 2005
Filed Under Uncategorized
[Google](http://www.google.com) has done it again. [Picasa 2](http://www.picasa.com/) is fantastic.
I know they bought Picasa from another company. From what I’ve read Google improved on a good thing.
Don’t get me wrong, [iPhoto](http://www.apple.com/iphoto) is good. But if given the choice of which to use to organize snapshots, I’m choosing Picasa. I use [iView Media Pro](http://www.iview-multimedia.com) when I have large files to deal with. I use that application to catalog stock photography, for example. Or when the files are from different applications (InDesign, PDF, movies, Photoshop, etc.) But when I dump photos off my camera that I took off the kids, it’s going to the PC.
Here’s what’s really cool about Picasa 2 (aside from the fact that it’s a free download and you don’t have to buy video and music editing software with it). I haven’t tried the latest version of iPhoto, so if this is covered now my apologies:
You don’t have to worry about adding photos to its library. Tell it where to find your pictures, and files are indexed automatically. You can select your whole drive, the “Pictures” folder, or whatever folders you like. Picasa respects your filing system. No “libraries” to convert, although I’m sure there’s a database catalog file or two somewhere that you shouldn’t mess with.
You can review your digital photos before they’re imported. As soon as you insert media (in my case an SD card), you get a window with the first picture in a slide-show like interface. Click through each picture and click “Exclude” on any you don’t want to import. Then click the import button when you’re ready. It may be my imagination, but importing photos using Picasa appears to be much, much faster than iPhoto.
Once the photos are in, the interface is very similar to iPhoto.
Similar to iPhoto, the editing won’t replace Photoshop but it does a pretty good job with light fixes…adjust color, redeye, crop, light-duty special effects. I find it just fine for cleaning up snapshots before printing.
Apple ties iPhoto tightly with .Mac and offers little option. With Picasa, you have your choices. A few weeks ago, I took some snapshots at my uncle’s 75th birthday party. My uncle has congestive heart failure and is in a nursing home so odds are this will be his last party. My aunt invited a lot of family and old friends to the home to celebrate. I had a few great pictures on my card. I imported them into Picasa, and then used the “Make web page” command get them quickly into a web reviewable format. I didn’t have to use .Mac’s homepage. I didn’t have to pick bells and whistles. Just a clean simple folder that I was able to upload. I sent the URL to my family. My mother loved one picture of my aunt & uncle together and she wanted to get a good 8×10 print right away. Using Picasa, I was able to select the print, crop and clean it up and then “Order”. This is where it gets fun. Picasa gives you buttons to pick between Shutterfly, Walmart, Ritz Camera, Kodak and Snapfish. Choice! Google probably gets a cut from each, but I don’t care…I’m not stuck with Apple’s way or no way. What if I don’t want to order from Kodak? Tough, export your files and you’re on your own. In Picasa, you set your account up with the vendor of your choosing, and then enter the login info in Picasa. Picasa uploads the photos for you already organized in albums, and then you finish the transaction (select sizes, quantities, billing & shipping options) on the vendor’s website. For this project, I selected Walmart so my mother who lives 90 minutes away from me was able to pick up the print that afternoon from her local store.
Like iPhoto, Picasa retains EXIF information and lets you star/rank photos. You can make a backup to CD or DVD. You can do slideshows, movies, collages and print contact sheets and full page prints in a variety of formats. I really like the print dialog box that tells you how many pixels per inch you’re printing. It may look nice on screen, but if the window says it’s 60 pixels per inch it ain’t gonna look that great on the paper. For an inkjet, I find it’s best to aim for around 200 ppi. You can get away with less depending on the paper and other print settings.
There are hooks into Google’s own [Hello](https://secure.hello.com/index.php) and [Blogger](http://www.blogger.com) but I don’t feel as trapped into using Google services as I do into using Apple .Mac in iPhoto. It would be great if 3rd party applications hooked into Picasa, similar to the way [ecto for OS X](http://ecto.kung-foo.tv) pulls from iPhoto. I should write to [Alex](http://www.mineblogging.com/) and suggest it.
So in short, my preference for Picasa over iPhoto repeats a standard complaint against Apple software. Apple’s philosophy is “You can do whatever you want as long as you’re doing what I want you to do in the way I want you to do it. You want to use different software or a different workflow? Sorry. Besides, don’t you know all the really cool kids are doing it my way?”
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A great companion to Picasa is their image instant-messaging software called “Hello”. It’s great for sharing images with friends, and/or clients.