Friday, January 21, 2005

Picasa

If you read tech news, like I do, you've probably already heard about Google's release of Picasa 2. 2? What about 1?

Well, if you've never heard of Picasa, it's a photo organizing tool meant for the masses. In addition to organizing photos, it lets you download pics from a digicam directly - a few steps less than other apps. Version 1 was pretty cool and easy to use, but didn't add anything huge for me since I was used to Canon's Zoombrowser software to download shots from my cameras and I like using Photoshop since I like to think highly of myself (smirk).

So anyways, Picasa 2 just came out and it's been getting rave reviews all over the web so I decided to give it a try. Well, let me just say that this version is not only as slick looking at the previous version, it's got a lot of additional functionality that covers just about everything most people would need.

While I plan to continue using Photoshop, I realize that I rarely need the extra functionality. I may just start using Picasa more often since it covers a lot of mid-level photo adjusting and optimization and makes them easy to access and quick to utilize. The new optimization features will certainly help most people's photos look nicer.

The new version also has some cool things like the ability to make collages, web albums, slideshows, gift CDs, etc. And you can post photos to your blog (via a related app called Hello...I've been using Hello, but now I'll start using Picasa also). Good stuff.

If you've been looking for an easy-to-use photo organizing/adjusting/downloading app, then Picasa is what you need. You can replace the crappy photo app that came with your digicam and get something which is much more user-friendly, but which also provides some powerful functionality.

Highly recommended even for advanced users.

No comments: