A LOOK AT PICASA

Friday, July 29, 2005

I downloaded Picasa recently and had a go on it. What I was looking for was something like this -

1. A quick and easy way to manage images, with no learning curve involved.
2. A way to create albums for posting on the web.
3. An image inventory system with ability to show thumbnail of images across all directories



Point One was especially important since I did not have much time. And my image inventory was growing and I had to put them in order. My Canon Digital Photo Profession or Zoom Browser - software that came with my camera should have helped me organize things but the user interface was terrible and I was not keen to go through the manuals.

So I decided to try Picasa and installed it. It seems to fulfill all my requirements. It took me hardly a few minutes to get going. I did not have to configure anything; Picasa took care of searching the images on the computer and created its database. And it was a flash to get to know the software and understand the features. So I think I am going to stick to this one until I have time enough to setup something else(Coppermine is something I have in mind).

The feature set is simple. It has some basic editing features(like redeye correction, sharpen, contrast, color) too which I am unlikely to use. I can generate albums, view thumbnails, search images, and assign keywords and ratings that are vital features for me. The real appeal of the software is the simplicity(Google Style?) that it comes with.