Picasa for Mac

Publisher Google
Publisher web site http://www.google.com/
Operating systems Mac OS X 10.4 Intel, Mac OS X 10.5 Intel, Mac OS X 10.6 Intel

Download: Picasa for Mac

Picasa for Mac is a free app from Google for importing, editing, organizing, and sharing photos. The first time you launch it, Picasa can quickly search your hard drive (or select folders) for your existing photos, pulling them into the Picasa interface without actually duplicating them and taking up drive space.

Picasa's interface feels un-Mac-like at first, with a nonstandard scroll bar and even slightly fuzzy fonts--but it's still instantly recognizable (and usable) by anyone familiar with iPhoto, thanks to its similar toolbars and three-pane organization with folders and albums. Picasa makes it easy to create slideshows, movies, and collages, and--not surprisingly--the app has tight integration with Google's Blogger and the excellent Picasa Web Albums photo-hosting service (online companion to the desktop app). Picasa has good editing tools, as well, which let you try different effects and easily add text to photos. It also has an intuitive tag system that lets you add batch tags, geotags (using Google Maps), and even name tags using a fairly proficient face-recognition feature (which can tap into your Google Contacts).

Picasa isn't perfect--with flaws that range from its interface idiosyncrasies to an initial setup that's likely to grab many irrelevant images--but this app provides a relatively feature-packed and much cheaper alternative to similar photo-management apps. It's especially attractive if you're already using many of the Google services it accesses.

Posted in: mac software