Organize your photos

The all-new Google Picasa keeps the same interface structure of previous versions, but features new enriching options to manage, edit, and show off your photos in an even more comfortable way, both offline and online – thanks to the Picasa Web Album syncing tool.

Picasa displays all your indexed photos in a handy folder structure. You can let the program scan the whole drive in search for pictures or select specific directories. A double click on any image will display it in full screen and let you access to a handful of basic editing tools: cropping, straightening, adjusting color and light or fixing red eye, among others.

New features

The latest version of Picasa includes a couple of exciting new features: facial recognition and geo-tagging. The first one means that Picasa can now scan your photo library, recognize and extract people's faces, and finally let you add a name to them. The process takes a while to get started – loads of faces to tag and names to write down – but if you go to the Unnamed tag under the People album, you'll be able to add new names and faces in batches and get the job done much quicker. As for the geo-tagging function, it's now easier to use thanks to the embedding of Google Maps in Picasa: simply select the photos you want to geotag, open Google Maps by clicking on the 'Places' button, navigate to the appropriate location and click OK.

We especially like Picasa's Photo Viewer, which you can configure to replace the original Windows default image viewer. It offers more tools and displays photos on a much nicer interface when viewing them directly in Windows Explorer, so when Picasa asks you if you want to use it, don't hesitate!

But Picasa is not only about viewing and fixing images. You can also give free rein to your imagination with its tools to create posters, collages, screensavers and even movies. The greatest thing about these tools is not only the fact that they give you the ability to create something unique and original with your photos; it's also that they're surprisingly easy to use, and don't require any tech abilities or photo editing skills at all.

Conclusion

The all-new Picasa has successfully completed what seemed a difficult task: improving a software app that was already very good.

Download Picasa 3.9.1.535 in Softonic

Applying such features can prove tricky in some programs, but not in Microsoft Photo Story. The fact is, you don’t need to tweak a whole bunch of settings because the program does it for you, automatically generating transitions and zoom/pans without you having to set it up yourself. What's more, the ones generated by default look great.

While you can simply sit back and let Microsoft Photo Story do everything for you, there's still plenty you can play around with if you’re feeling adventurous. For instance, you can build your own custom soundtracks for your slideshow. You can pick from a bumper range of music genres, tempos, instruments and effects, giving you the chance to match the audio precisely to the mood of your show.

Output from Microsoft Photo Story is in Microsoft's WMV file format, which is more compressed than MPEGs or other movie type files. You can choose from various resolutions in order to optimize your slideshow. Unfortunately, however, the output movies from the software are not as sharp as they’d be in VCD or DVD format.

It's a shame that Microsoft Photo Story does'’t support burning DVDs and VCDs with the created slideshow, and you’ll need your own DVD authoring app to do this. There are applications, such as ProShow, that contain burning options and support for higher resolution output, but there's not much that can match Photo Story in terms of its ease of use and automated features.

So, if you want a quick way to create stand-out photo presentations, Microsoft Photo Story is well worth downloading.

Download Microsoft Photo Story 3 in Softonic

Kodak Easyshare includes pretty much all the tools you would expect from a photo manager, such as being able to organize photos in albums, adding tags, retouching those that need a bit of optimization and sharing them in several ways. You can choose between burning them to a CD or DVD, uploading them to the Kodak Gallery and publishing them on YouTube or Facebook.

While Kodak Easyshare seems quite good at photo sharing, I found it a bit limited as photo manager. The range of tools is fine, but not spectacular and definitely not better than other similar apps. The program's interface design doesn't help either: it's confusing, a bit messy I'd say. On the upside, the program is thoroughly documented.

You can use Kodak Easyshare without actually having a Kodak account, however you'll find many places in the application where it encourages you to do so. Not having a Kodak Easyshare account will in any case limit your use of the application, as you won't be able to order printed copies of your photos or create projects.

Kodak Easyshare is a digital photo organizer that includes a bunch of tools to manage and edit photos, and also gives you access to Kodak photo services online.

Download Kodak Easyshare 8.2 in Softonic

This program automatically generates a Flash website that you can use to display your images on the Internet. There's no need to code anything in Flash or any other complicated programming language; you only have to select the pictures you want to show, choose the layout, add some optional background music and upload the whole project to your web space via FTP.

The downside to it, besides the obvious fact that you need an FTP space, is that the program, at least in my opinion, is not as easy to use as it seems at first sight. There are too many fields to be filled in and too many parameters to be tweaked. Being a program intended to users without any technical knowledge, I think the program should try to make the whole process a bit more graphical and more intuitive. Also, there are only two templates available.

Gallerymanager is the easiest way to create Flash photo galleries to publish online; it's a bit limited, but you don't need any Flash knowledge.

Download Gallerymanager 2.0 in Softonic

Using Hofmann Digital Album is very easy, thanks to the program’s step-by-step album setup process and intuitive customization interface. All you have to do is select a few basic settings for your album, such as cover, design and number of pages, and choose the photos you want to include in it. Note that you must select complete folders, not individual files.

Once the initial setup is complete, you’re ready to start customizing album details. Hofmann Digital Album displays your album in a multi-paned interface, with different areas for selected photos, album pages and extra effects – which you can apply just by dragging and dropping them onto the album’s page.

Hofmann Digital Album includes tons of different covers, page layouts, album backgrounds, clipart, masks and frames to turn your photo album into a truly personal work of art. The Preview function enables you to check the album’s final appearance before ordering it online.

With Hofmann Digital Album you can easily turn a collection of digital pictures on your computer into a fully customized printed photo album.

Download Hofmann Digital Album 8.1 in Softonic

The good thing about this tool is that it takes care of everything. The whole album creation process is totally automatic. All you have to do is select the pictures you want to include in the album, choose a template and export the result to HTML.

Being that easy, creating a web photo album is a matter of minutes. However, the downside to such an automatic creative process is that there's little room, if any, for customization options.

Download Web Photo Album 0.9 Beta in Softonic

PhotoSynth is presented by Microsoft as an innovative and original way of publishing and sharing your photos on the Web. It's as easy to use as other photo sharing websites, only that its photo player includes special 3D features that makes PhotoSynth especially suitable for panoramas.

After logging in with your Windows Live ID and creating a PhotoSynth profile, you're ready to start using the program. Use the client to choose and upload photos, and then check your creation on the web browser (you'll need a special plug-in for this, but this is automatically installed with PhotoSynth). You'll be able to navigate the panorama in a three-dimensional environment by dragging and clicking your mouse around the stitched photos.

While Photosynth is definitely an easy yet impressive way to share your pictures online - especially with the full-screen viewer - it lacks all the social tools you find in other similar websites, such as being able to rate pictures or leave comments, just to mention a couple of them.

With PhotoSynth you can create, publish and share online your photos in a nicely design interface, with special support for 3D panoramas.

Download Photosynth 2.0.1403.6 in Softonic

JetPhoto Studio doesn't really compare with the big boys but it does offer a greater degree of control and processing power over your images in certain areas. JetPhoto Studio will import pictures from your camera as soon as you connect it. Alternatively, you can browse to albums on your PC or allow JetPhotoStudio to perform a full scan of your system.

The main interface is well presented and allows you to browse photos by date. There is a set of basic editing tools which allows you to crop images and add a few effects such as sepia, black and white, image contrast, and auto enhancing. You can also batch resize your photos and protect them with a watermark. JetPhoto Studio also enables you to rate your own photos via a star system, as well as tag them. However, tags are not transferable from one album to another and you have to create a new one every new album you create.

One of the better aspects of JetPhoto Studio is the ability to create screensavers, wallpapers, slide-shows and Flash movies from your collections. Unfortunately, however, there ¡s very little control over the types of animations and speed of the transitions. Finally, it's worth adding that you send JetPhoto Studio images via SMS or infrared, to your friends’ mobiles, although this only works within the US. The developer has also recently added geo-tagging for GPS recognition in Google Earth. The best way to share your photos in online though and JetPhoto Studio makes this relatively easy via Flickr or the JetPhoto server.

Jet Photo Studio is a comprehensive photo management tool that's a bit bloated in areas but offers some interesting features.

Download JetPhoto Studio 4.11 in Softonic

The only drawback is having to build the album itself, but this task is made easy with PixMatrix. This tool enables you to build an HTML photo album in no time, just by following a simple wizard. Then the only step left is to upload the album to your web space with the embedded FTP client.

Let's face it: the program's design is not really attractive, nor are the two hundred templates included with it. But at least it provides novice users with a quick, easy way of getting their photos online.

Download PixMatrix 2.1 in Softonic

The principal feature of the utility is its ability to import photos from any source (either on your PC or direct from your camera) and sort them into albums. Things are made easier thanks to the inclusion of an Import Wizard, making it great for those taking their first steps in digital photography. However, this method can get a little annoying after a while, and seasoned users are likely to be left dreaming of drag-and-drop capabilities, which are notably absent from PhotoMeister.

If you’re the type of person who likes to bore everyone with your holiday photos then PhotoMeister opens up a world of possibilities. The tools under the ‘Impress’ menu give you a plethora of options for sharing images, allowing you to insert them into web pages, slideshows, email, photo books, screensavers, PDA albums or burn to CD. Although the quality of the web album templates isn’t great, it provides a very quick way of sharing your latest escapades with everyone, with no technical knowledge required.

Image editing is not PhotoMeister’s strong point, and it’s lacking in the kind of advanced manipulation features you’d find in Photoshop Album or Paint Shop Pro Album. Having said this, it contains a neat one click optimization function, which auto adjusts the picture to make it as pleasing on the eye as possible. There’s also a batch conversion mode to help you speed up the process of applying a change to multiple images.

If you’re looking for something to help you manage and share your pictures more easily, Photomeister is great, especially if you’re new to computing. Just remember, that you’ll need an external image editor alongside it to get the best out of your digital pictures.

Download PhotoMeister 2.6 in Softonic

This app lets you create a Flash-based animated photo gallery with your favorite pictures, and share it in various ways: burn it directly to a CD or DVD, save it to your hard drive as standalone SWF files or share it online – though only through the developer's own sharing website.

Using SkyAlbum Photo Gallery Builder is a breeze. It's perfect for the not so tech-savvy who would like to do something creative with their photos, without having to spend the whole weekend learning how to use a program. The program features a tabbed interface divided into three main areas (Photo, Theme and Publish) in which you can select the images you want to use, pick the theme for your album and generate it, respectively.

SkyAlbum Photo Gallery Builder includes dozens of customizable templates with varied designs and supports background music, transition effects, annotations and clipart. On the downside, the template preview didn't seem to work for me.

If you want to share your photos in a more stylish way but don't want to spend too much time on it, try SkyAlbum Photo Gallery Builder.

Download SkyAlbum Photo Gallery Builder 1.0 in Softonic

There are a lot of different photo editors out there that let you manipulate your own digital images. Picaboo adds an additional service of allowing you to be able to purchase and have a hard copy of your creations sent to you.

Picaboo requires no programming or design knowledge. You just pick the type of project you'd like to make and follow the step by step instructions. With Picaboo, you can make calendars, collages, photo albums and other creative content by choosing photos you already have saved on your computer and uploading them into the program.

On top of its easy navigability and usability, Picaboo is also a gorgeous app. It's got some great backgrounds to display your photos on while you're arranging them. Conveniently enough, the backgrounds aren't in the least bit distracting either.

In addition to being able to make your own different types of photographic content, there's also a convenient feature called BookGenie you can choose if you're not feeling all that creative yourself. BookGenie will automatically pull photos from your computer and then creates a read-to-edit photo book for you.

Of course, the big downside (or perk, depending on how you're looking at it!) is that to receive hard copies of your creations, you'll have to shell out some money. Picaboo's ultimate service is photo printing. Of course, if you just want to share your creations on your computer with friends and family, that doesn't even cost you a dime.

Note that Picaboo requires Adobe AIR to run.

Picaboo is a lightweight app that makes arranging your photos into creative masterpieces a snap.

Download Picaboo 3.2.0.2070 in Softonic

Photo! Web Album offers and easy way to create photo galleries for the web with an emphasis on being user friendly and usable. This makes Photo! Web Album ideal for beginners who aren't looking for anything that looks great but works quickly and in a straightforward manner. From the moment of installation of Photo! Web Album, you're asked how you would like to post your photos to the web via a built-in wizard which makes it simple to use.

There's no need to worry about hosting either - Photo! Web Album allows you to share your photo albums on the developer's own website although how much space you've got here is not clear but it's likely it's not particularly generous. What's nice though is that by using the Photo! Web Album service, you can edit your photo presentation and online creations from the Photo! Web Album desktop interface. All changes are made in realtime so there's no waiting around for the server to catch up with edits you make. Photo! Web Album also lets you add subfolders of photos related to another subject which means that it's actually a better way to organise your photos than even Picassa.

Basic photo editor, uploader and hosting in one, Photo! Web Album is a competitive solution for novices or those new to photo uploading.

Download Photo! Web Album 1.1 in Softonic

Although the interface feels a little crowded it will provide a good way of exploring your folders for pictures and quickly selecting the ones you want to put into your album. JAlbum also includes a good set of editing tools to tweak your pictures a bit, like removing red eyes, blurring or sharpening.

However the strongest feature in the program is certainly making albums. This is very easy to do and JAlbum comes with a number of styles to start out with. You can also download more skins from the developer's website. Once you're album is done, you can either upload it to your JAlbum account, if you have one, or to any other server if you have the login details.

With a good set of editing tools, and a straightforward process, the free JAlbum makes for a great way of creating photo albums to share with your friends.

Download JAlbum 10.7 in Softonic