Digital Imaging and Picasa

Al Gore, Compulatelist

With the widespread use of digital cameras, scanners, and graphics for the Web, there has been a need to not only create or edit digital images but also to organize them as well due to the sheer number of images one can acquire.

The more popular traditional graphics editing programs such as Adobe’s PhotoShop, Corel’s Paint Shop (formerly Jasc) or even Apple’s iPhoto now have added organizer components to their application. Photoshop’s is integrated and Corel bundles a separate organizer. These programs still retail for over $100 although there are promotional discounts and upgrades at reduced prices.

But for many, these programs have far more power than someone who is just really interested in digital images like those from a camera. For those users, Picasa may be ideal.

Picasa was originally marketed like the above programs but the product was acquired by Google and now is available as a free service to all. Although not intended as a high end graphics editing program replacement, it is has a lot of power features found in the higher priced programs.

Picassa Organizer Screen.

Like many image organizers, it will automatically monitor folders as these are added to your library. The library is organized by folder location but you can add comments to images to aid in documenting them. It can also do the primary photo editing type functions such as crop, rotate, and image adjustments such as brightness, contrast, and color correction.

Another nice feature is that it does not alter the original images permanently. You can undo changes like cropping at a later date to create a different version of the image. To permanently save a set of changes, you create an additional image.

Picasa is an ideal tool for someone who has to manage many images such as for eBay lots. It is very fast, easy to use, and well polished for something that is free. You can register for an account with Google to use it.