Google Picasa 3 for Mac: An able, free iPhoto alternative
The Mac blogsphere is alive with reviews and reports on iPhoto ‘09, which was introduced at Macworld San Francisco and is finally shipping. The problem is you do not have a $99 MobileMe account and you are not in the mood to plunk down $79 for iLife ‘09—what’s a body to do?
An obvious choice is Google’s Picasa, a free and reasonably full-featured photo editing and management tool for the Mac (dual core Intel only). Moreover, Google also offers Picasa Web Albums, a free service with similar bells and whistles as MobileMe without the cost.
A solid tool
After downloading (17.2MB), installing (drag to the applications folder) and then launching Picasa, the application asks where it is allowed to search for photos and images, and sets about the task. Given that my iPhoto library includes tens of thousands of picture, it took a little less than 10 minutes for it to locate all—and I do mean all (NSFW)—my photos.
Picasa’s interface is classic iPhoto (<-click through to view) with a slider to scale images and a tray on the left that lists albums by date, etc, as well as various function buttons located in a tray below, including export, print, create movie, create CD, etc. Double clicking an image brings it to the front for editing and double clicking it again returns you to thumbnail view. There is a simplistic slideshow viewer and you can even export it as a QuickTime (.mov) or YouTube movie file. Thereupon, there are 10 transitions (dissolve, pan & zoom, etc), 10 slideshow background templates and a method for embedding audio—ie simple open file dialogue.
The photo editing tools are basic and include the items you will most need (crop, straighten, redeye, brightness/contrast, etc.), as well as a relative handful of effects, like sepia and B&W.
The one tool in Picasa that really impresses is Collage, which does what it says it does. Therein, Google uses a single control (kind of looks like an egg timer with a draggable tab) that allows the user to scale (pull the tab) or set the angle (rotate the tab) of any picture any single picture. Also, Collage includes scramble and shuffle tools that make creating a quick n’ dirty layout a snap.
What about our family’s Kodak EasyShare camera and iPods? Picasa automatically recognized our camera, iPod touch and iPod nano, displaying these devices in the “Import” tab. No worries—it just works.
And, sharing on the web? If you have a Google account (ie Gmail, Analytics, AdSense, etc), you can set up Google Blogger or Picasa Web Album (1GB free storage) accounts quickly, though you will need to download and install Google Uploader. Still, it is free and the results speak for themselves.
Conclusions
I like Picasa a lot. It is easy to use and controls are where you would expect them and they do what you expect. I really like the Collage and slideshow/movie features, which are better than one might expect from free software.
Another thoughtful feature in Picasa is that performs edits on iPhoto library images only after creating a new copy, so your originals stay pristine.
The integrated web sharing, once it is set up, is effortless and the 1GB of free space (Albums) will be adequate for most users.
Severals feature iPhoto has that Picasa does not include “Edit Using External Editor,” FaceBook and Flickr integration, and of course there is no MobileMe integration. And, no Picase doesn’t offer iPhoto ’09’s face recognition. Naturally, you won’t find integration with Apple’s other iLife applications or the iWork suite in Picasa either.
Bottom line? If you are not a MobileMe subscriber and iApp integration is not that important, then Picasa is fine and capable tool that is, best of all, free. For those of us who use the iApp, MobileMe via iPhoto workflow, there is just no substitute…
What’s your take?
Related Posts:
February 5th, 2009
A little slow in finding this? It has been up for at least a week (which is when I downloaded it) and yes, it works great.
July 12th, 2009
Installs google sofwtare updater that hogs up memory (use activity monitor, it’s hidden). You also have to manually remove the Google Software Updater if you should uninstall Picasa. The software updater communicates a little too frequently for simply checking for updates. Something pretty flaky IMO.
November 3rd, 2009
Hey Dudes
Welcome to BigBrotherWorld. You still think there is a free lunch? Even as awesome as google is, they have gotten greedy with their success. Right about now, entering from stage left, is the next challenger to the throne. Who can (or will it be?)