Using Picassa

[lightwisps]

Any body use Picassa to edit their shots? I am looking for a good program without out having to mortgage the house so that I can organize my shots to post on various sites, including here and I need one that helps me size them by either physical and/or number of pixels. I am using Windows 7 if that makes a difference. Thanks in advance, Don

 

[mr rusty]

Irfan view will do everything you need for free including easy resizing http://www.irfanview.net/

 

[ajmiller]

I'd recommend having a look at Faststone Image Viewer (image browser, converter and editor). It's surprisingly full featured for a small program and free to home users.

http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm

 

[Truzi]

Another good, Free Open Source Software (FOSS) offering is GIMP:http://www.gimp.org/I've used irfanview also, and it is good. I just prefer GIMP at this point.

 

[ntenny]

For quick-and-dirty purposes, GIMP is great. Unfortunately it's limited to 8-bit grays, which isn't really enough for critical editing---but if your editing in the digital domain is critical, it's off-topic for APUG anyway.

In the Mac world, at least, there doesn't seem to be a free alternative with 16 bits per channel. GIMP keeps getting closer but isn't there yet.

-NT

 

[mgb74]

Also consider Adobe Elements. You can often find an older version - which performs the basic tasks just fine - for very cheap or free. It was often bundled as a free add on with printers and scanners.

 

[Richard S. (rich815)]

Buy a generation or two back version of PS or Lightroom.

 

[Dennis S]

Picasa converts photos to Jpeg but it is good for printing b&w without colour cast. Adobe CS-2 is free and works quite well except for printing. The choice is a trade off. One of the best reasons to stick with dkrm printing.

 

[removed-user-1]

Another software publisher to look at is Corel. AfterShot Pro and PaintShop Pro are both available for Windows, at a fraction of the cost of their Adobe counterparts (Lightroom and Photoshop, respectively). I'm looking at PaintShop Pro myself, as I have no interest in Adobe's latest "Creative Cloud" subscription-based product.

 

[MattKing]

Aftershot Pro is also available for Mac and Linux platforms, and the license permits a single user to use it on both Windows and Linux, if you dual boot.

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

Have used Picasa for a few years now, certainly from version 1; nothing flash. Clean, simple, fast and easy to organise and it automatically recognises devices connected to PC. It's strong point is the organisation of albums, duplication, and rudimentary editing (more detailed cloud editing options are available) which does have a good amount of user-control, so it is suitable for non-technical types. It's a treat for exporting original photos to varying sizes for web or social media. Everything goes through Picasa here, but for more precise editing control I use Nikon's ViewNX2. This will show the same file system as Picasa, just provides more detailed technical information and analysis of images, whether by scanner or from digi camera.

Adobe Elements is a step up again with filing, editing and exporting all in the one place too. It has a very good interface for resampling (resizing images) in whatever units you can dream up.
At a start, I would definitely give Picasa a go and see how mesh with it.

 

[removed account4]

adobe cs2 is free
no need to mortgage the house.