Is Picasa a good editing program?

[Greenish]

I'm looking for an editing program for my photographs to have on my laptop, because I can't edit and resize them without having to upload them onto the family computer.
I tried uploading Adobe Photoshop 3.0 off of the CD that dad had, but it wasn't compatible with Vista, so I was just wondering what people on here thought about Picasa?
Also, I was wondering if it's easy to understand? All comments will be appreciated.

[Jim Ford]

A lot of people like 'Faststone', which has basic editing facilites.

Jim

[charlieb]

It's free, so give it a go and see how you get along with it.

[Hedera]

I've only been at this digital photography since New Year, and have found Picasa 3 with Vista very easy to get on with after a bit of practice. It's free, too!

[Greenish]

Hi, thanks for all of your comments. I have just downloaded Picasa, and I was pleased that it only took about two minutes to download. I was just wondering if anyone could tell me how to resize the photos via Picasa?

[loripo]

If you have Vista you possible have the Microsoft Photo manager, that does resizing, adjustments to colour,brightness etc.
Try one one photo right clicking and select 'open with' and see if you have it.

I have Paint.net also free to d/load and I use that to resize phots for the image library.

[Stevelphoto]

I would recommend photofiltre for the needs you describe - it's very simple to use, and will do all the basic stuff; it's almost like an extended version of microsoft paint!

[Hedera]

After editing your pic, click on Export on bottom tool bar. this givers you a panel to choose size you need. Then choose folder to send it to OK.

[richnfamous]

First things first: Picasa isn't a fully fledged photo editor but it does have the basics. Having said that, it's an excellent viewer and file handler.

Resizing in Picasa isn't that hard but it's a bit counter-intuitive. You have to export the images to a different folder and there you get some options, one of which is to resize them.

If you haven't opened Picasa already, then open the relevant folder. When you doubleclick on the image, Picasa will display it. On the left of the arrows beneath the image, click 'edit in Picasa'.

Select the picture (or group of pictures) that you are going to resize and add to the website. The pictures you selected should also be shown in the picture tray at the bottom left corner of the screen.

Click on the File menu and then click on "Export Picture to Folder..." or click the "Export" button below the image.

In the Export to Folder Window, adjust the settings as follows:

1. Location of exported folder. Click on "Browse..." and select the folder you want.
2. Name of exported folder. Type a name that will help you identify the group of pictures you will resize (picasa will create a folder with that name)
3. Image Size options. This feature allows you to specify the width of the resized pictures. The height will be adjusted proportionally.
4. Image Quality. If you are not sure about this feature, just leave the default setting as it is.

Click OK and you're done.

The good thing about this approach is that you don't overwrite your original images.

Picasa also has some useful automatic corrections etc. Play around with them and you'll get the hang of it.

hope that helps.

[loripo]

Good point about not altering the original. I've got a Wildbrit folder and I put a copy into that of anything I want to put into a post, then work on that one.
Once I get an ID I add the details to the original image and delete the downsized copy.
Or at least thats the theory