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Picasa 3 Beta's New Features
Posted by Kevin Purdy at 10:00 PM on October 6, 2008
Windows/Linux: Picasa, Google's photo management tool, has quietly announced a new beta that adds basic movie editing, fuller syncing to Web Albums, and many other features and changes. Actually, the biggest change in the new Picasa isn't in the software itself—it's a new "quick view" utility, which replaces the basic double-click viewing tool in Windows with a Picasa-friendly, drop-cloth-style window. Five new collage styles have also been added to the offerings, and Picasa's new "Movie Maker" tool lets you create slideshow-style clips out of stills or trim and paste video clips together. Check out Picasa's help section for more details on what's new and what's changed, or read on for a peek at some screenshots from the new release.
Note: These screenshots come from Picasa 3's Windows release. The Linux version—which, like previous editions, is basically an enhanced port run through WINE—lacks the movie editing function and has a few other differences (which you can read about at the Linux edition's what's new and what's changed pages).
During the installation process, Picasa 3 will ask whether you want to enable the "Picasa Photo Viewer," the aforementioned quick-view tool that opens when you double-click an image file. I like the way it puts a dimming "drop cloth" on the screen, as well as the scroll-button scaling and Picasa tools—including Gmail-friendly "Email"—available under the "More" button.
The "movie editor" is a bit under-powered, in my opinion. I like how, with still pictures, Picasa gives you an uncluttered selection of basic editing and viewing tools, but makes the geeky stuff available in the corner menus. With the movie editor, there's just basic trimming and ordering of clips. More annoyingly, there's no editing functionality with QuickTime/.MOV files—the kind that many consumer-grade digicams shoot. Still, if you're just putting together shots from a family gathering and you're already a Picasa fan, it's not a bad place to get it done. There's also easy YouTube integration and screencap tools.
Picasa added a whole bunch of collage types to its offerings, as well as jumped the level of control you have over spacing, file selection, and other options.
The text feature is slyly genius. For whatever reason, many photo editors make you outline a "box" to put your text in, and going back to make edits is often a real pain. With Picasa, you can just click anywhere, start typing, then grab and manipulate the box to edit it later.
Importing photos directly from a memory card seems to move a bit quicker, and, in a welcome move, the photos you're importing are now grouped together by the blocks of time they were taken together. In other words, you won't have to click and check through tiny thumbnails to figure out exactly where Aunt Lily's birthday ends and your ragin' BBQ party began.
The Picasa team pulled a major re-design on the bottom toolbar, hiding away some of the more simplistic tools and going big on the social ones. Depending on how and why you used Picasa in the past, this might be a welcome time saver. If not, you can always edit which options get the big-button treatment.
One thing you'll definitely notice is the continuing emphasis on uploading to, and using, Picasa Web Albums to share and back up your photos. There's a new button in the upper-right of every album folder that allows you to "sync" your photos to a web album, which would push your local changes to the web and pull down data to your desktop. If you're more of a Flickr user, the Picasa2Flickr button plug-in has been updated for this beta.
You can grab a copy of the free Picasa 3 beta for Windows and Linux at the link below. Already on-board the beta and got some grievances or glad-hands? Tell us about them in the comments.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
mcjw
Posted October 7, 2008 11:53 PM
What I can't find is a way to select multiple folders and move them to a new "collection." Otherwise, great feature upgrades. Screen shots automatic import is one of my favorite features. Unlike previous version, some of the buttons on the bottom cannot be removed... bummer.
_jadenesabela_13_
Posted October 25, 2008 10:50 PM
Can you do a Picassa 3 for mac?
please,cauz it's unfair,when it's only windows have! :(
I'd really appreciated it Thank you :)
caedus
Posted 11:42 PM 6/10/08
blah
caedus
Cwicseolfor
Posted 12:02 AM 7/10/08
...still waiting for OSX support. I've been using PicasaWeb Albums for a couple of years now, and it would be really nice to be able to sync those pictures to the 'ol desktop. I have about 50 lbs of photos ready to scan (all my parents pictures of my childhood) so they can be permanently in the cloud, but there's no use in putting them online without a sensible way to manage them. Jumping through hoops with Aperture or iPhoto trying to emulate a "sync" option is just crazy. I hope an OSX release is looming.
Cwicseolfor
chaos0815
Posted 11:55 PM 6/10/08
Also the red eye remover works better and finds those bunny eyes itself most of the time.
chaos0815
dmccall
Posted 11:53 PM 6/10/08
With Windows Live Photo Gallery around, I have no use for Picasa as long as they keep:
1) Only one level of the tag hierarchy
2) Place the tag metadata in a proprietary database file instead of the JPGs themselves.
dmccall
m4tt
Posted 11:53 PM 6/10/08
I noticed the copyright watermark last night and promptly added it, just to see how it worked. The new Picasa is a vast improvement, I am loving the "Sync" function, dropping files into a folder and letting Picasa take care of the upload is a wonderful idea.
Now, if I only had decent pictures to upload :P
m4tt
Meetloaf13
Posted 12:32 AM 7/10/08
@bubi73: bubi, I'm sure if you found the database or information file you could accomplish this. I would think it wouldn't be any different than moving your itunes library to a different location (you just have to edit the ItunesLibrary.xml to reflect the location change).
Meetloaf13
pezdaddy
Posted 12:32 AM 7/10/08
@dmccall: Tags you add to Picasa (called keywords in version 2, but I've read version 3 finally calls them tags) do indeed stay with the photo. They may be stored in a database for Picasa's uses, but the photo's metadata is also edited. Tag a photo in Picasa and try uploading it to Flickr. You'll see. The tags stay with it.
pezdaddy
zimzima69
Posted 12:25 AM 7/10/08
I CANNOT wait for a Mac Client, I Like iPhoto, but I think a Picasa for Mac would blow it out of the water.
zimzima69
skotmxpx
Posted 12:18 AM 7/10/08
@Cwicseolfor: Yep, it'd sure be nice if they'd focus on making Picasa truly cross-platform.
skotmxpx
bubi73
Posted 12:15 AM 7/10/08
Does it still lack the ability for me to move my initial picture collection location and preserve timeline, comments & index? There seems to be no good way to move an existing collection to an external hard drive without losing important info.
bubi73
spineduke
Posted 12:15 AM 7/10/08
@dmccall:
2) This is the biggest reason I avoid tagging with Picasa.
Picasa 3 sounds very promising though, one of the few apps that gets the Mac crowd green with envy.
spineduke
gpzbc
Posted 12:52 AM 7/10/08
FolderSahre was able to keep my Picasa 2 photo collection in sync on two computers. For example, If I reorganized pictures within an album or edited the album properties, the changes would also occur on my other computer. However, with Picasa 3 that doesn't seem to be happening. I haven't changed anything besides upgrading from Picasa 2 to Picasa 3.
Besides that, I'm enjoying Picasa 3
gpzbc
awraynor
Posted 12:51 AM 7/10/08
I like Picasa for it's simplicity and ease of sharing pictures with computer illiterate family members. The sync feature is way overdue and I really like the new facial recognition feature, but unless I am missing something why isn't it also in the desktop version?
awraynor
chustar
Posted 12:40 AM 7/10/08
Picasa 3 is decent. Photogallery was being stupid(crashing Windows Live Mail, burning CPU)but to use this I had to reorganize my photos in folders instead of tags.
chustar
ChambrasWeed
Posted 12:33 AM 7/10/08
NICE i love picasa. It is by far my best img tool for sharing pics. I will download it right now!
ChambrasWeed
ZeroCoolFool
Posted 1:30 AM 7/10/08
Picasa is too much eye candy. But still I would switch to using it more if only they would not hide the resizing and batch resizing options, which are useful for shrinking pictures for the web and printing
ZeroCoolFool
brownsin07
Posted 1:30 AM 7/10/08
I really like the new retouch tool, it helped me remove a booger from my nose in an otherwise very nice picture. For some reason it doesn't always work very well but if you go over the same spot enough its pretty functional.
The new picassa photo viewer is cool but it's a pain in the ass if you use rocketdock on the bottom of the screen
brownsin07
mw2006
Posted 1:36 AM 7/10/08
I'm so ready to drop iPhoto. Desperately waiting for this on a Mac.
mw2006
cidman2001
Posted 1:59 AM 7/10/08
I thought the coolest new feature was the facial recognition feature in the updated Picasa Web Gallery. I wish they would allow you to use this feature on the desktop. It's pretty accurate and it only took me 20 minutes (after it scanned) to get a couple of thousand pictures tagged. Sweeet!
cidman2001
burnblue
Posted 2:18 AM 7/10/08
@cidman2001: Windows Live Photo Gallery lets you do it on the desktop. It only recognizes that faces are in the picture and offers you a chance to "people tag" them.. it doesn't automatically group the photos for you.
burnblue
burnblue
Posted 2:14 AM 7/10/08
@dmccall: I want this double-click Photo Viewer Picasa has, but I don't want Picasa for photo management at all. Windows (Live) Photo Gallery is awesome.. I wish they would find a way to tag photos automatically (using the recognition features)
burnblue
Groovymarlin
Posted 2:48 AM 7/10/08
1. I love Picasa for local organizing
2. I love Flickr for web sharing
3. I use a Mac for personal stuff
Summary: I am screwed!
OK, not really, but it would be so nice if my three loves (Picasa + Flickr + Mac OSX) would work seamlessly together. As it is, I generally upload my digital photos to my PC, use Picasa to store and organize them, and then upload them to Flickr using a Flickr uploader. The errant photos that end up on my Mac, I use another Flickr uploader. Photos on my iPhone? I email them to my Flickr account.
I feel so...fragmented.
Groovymarlin
Matt
Posted 3:06 AM 7/10/08
Does it have facial recognition or is that only on web albums?
Matt
doogie
Posted 2:55 AM 7/10/08
@awraynor: The Picasa desktop app has the ability to recognize faces, just not the ability to apply names based on those recognized faces (like Picasaweb). Next to the "Star" and "Movie" buttons that let you view only starred pics or only movies, there's now a "Faces" button that lets you view only pictures of people. Like the Picasaweb version though, it's not 100% accurate.
Hopefully in an upcoming release they'll include the ability to name people based on recognized faces.
doogie
screwtape
Posted 3:27 AM 7/10/08
No Mac version = No love.
screwtape
HybridZero
Posted 3:53 AM 7/10/08
Has anyone else had stability issues with Picasa 3? Almost immediately after installing it, I noticed that my system was slowing down significantly. Even worse, when I actually used Picasa (either the program itself, or the image viewer), my computer would hang for 5-10 seconds, and then my screen would go black for 10-15 seconds before coming back. Has anyone else experienced anything like this in using the software?
HybridZero
holyspidoo
Posted 3:46 AM 7/10/08
Picasa's tagging sucks hard.
Live Gallery is slow as all hell.
Lightroom doesnt have a simple/fast mode for viewing and database maintenance is a pain in the neck.
holyspidoo
ShirinFedotenko
Posted 2:38 AM 7/10/08
iphoto needs a competitor...
ShirinFedotenko
bish
Posted 3:57 AM 7/10/08
@Groovymarlin: I'm almost the same way. We upload photos from our camera to iPhoto on the wife's Macbook. I then beg her for weeks to upload a select few to my flickr account. We're kinda content w/ iPhoto but would love Picasa on the Mac. Especially since someone at Google developed an uploader for iPhoto that talks to Flickr. I'd hope that would get built-in to a mac-native Picasa release.
bish
tpaine54
Posted 4:32 AM 7/10/08
@Cwicseolfor: It's rumored to be dropping this year!!
[blog.wired.com]
tpaine54
m-p{3}
Posted 4:17 AM 7/10/08
Does it now allow sending PNG files without loosing the alpha-channel? Stupid PNG to JPG converter.
m-p{3}
anithinks
Posted 4:15 AM 7/10/08
I would love to have a panorama maker feature in Picasa... that would make it a one-stop shop.
Does anybody know of any good FREE panorama stitchers?
anithinks
zaxl
Posted 4:41 AM 7/10/08
@anithinks: autostich is the best free tool I've seen.
zaxl
Alaska Jack
Posted 5:07 AM 7/10/08
Is Picasa 3's Folder Manager still suckalicious?
I use Picasa a LOT. It's a great program, but definitely has some weaknesses, the aforementioned Folder Manager probably first among them.
Example: Folder 1 is toggled on. Of its subfolders (1a, 1b, etc) some are toggled on and some are toggled off. If you toggle Folder 1 off, all subfolders are toggled off. But if you toggle it back on, only those subfolders that were previously toggled on will be activated.
In other words, there appears to be no way you can simply reset the folder manager, and say: "Look, Picasa. Toggle on Folder A, all subfolders in it now, and all subfolders I add to it from this point out."
Yes, Picasa does let you rebuild a corrupted library by holding down a combination of startup keys, but that doesn't seem to reset the folder manager.
Any tips would be appreciated.
- Alaska Jack
Alaska Jack
mightymt
Posted 5:02 AM 7/10/08
Just read the change/new features-pages linked above and it reads quite good.
I like the improved implemntation of tags (hopefully with properly working auto-complete) and the movie playback with progress bar. We'll see how those actually work.
I don't really understand what they write about cropping. It would be really nice if the ratio could be entred manually. That's acutally a feature I quite often wished Picasa had.
I also really want to try that new movie editing feature...
mightymt
suuuueee
Posted 5:31 AM 7/10/08
@Groovymarlin: i feel your pain! 'fragmented,' nice way to put it.
suuuueee
tmanAg08
Posted 5:21 AM 7/10/08
Does it still turn Canon RAW files red?
tmanAg08
GiuseppeMaia
Posted 4:28 AM 7/10/08
I love Picasa 3, but I am REALLY annoyed by the fact that the images in the bottom of the photoviewer, hides behind the play button, and that there isn't a next picture button (if you just feel like navigating by mouse). I miss the glory days of ACDsee.
GiuseppeMaia
QueenieKhawar
Posted 3:17 AM 7/10/08
Picassa is cool now that they've added Linux support :) but I agree with most users saying picassa should have an "upload to" flickr/photobucket/deviantart/etc
QueenieKhawar
KelvinTheoclymenus
Posted 2:11 AM 7/10/08
AHHRRRGGG!!! I was waiting for the facial recognition to show in this release. :(
KelvinTheoclymenus
VedieCaiti
Posted 1:54 AM 7/10/08
Still wishing that they would provide an option to determine where to save the Picasa database so that I can move my pictures along with me on a jump drive..
VedieCaiti
IlarioErmph
Posted 12:06 AM 7/10/08
Big grievances, all my custom tags are gone after I upgraded. They are stored inside the images (as meta-date), so I am flabbergasted why they don't show in picasa 3. They might use an other field for tags....strange....and anoying.
IlarioErmph
SaparnaFlayer
Posted 11:55 PM 6/10/08
My biggest hatred of version 2.0 is the automatic removal of images it cannot find. All my photos are on my desktop, if I happen to open picasa on my laptop and my desktop isn't switched on I'm faced with re-adding 30GBs of photos next time I start picasa and it is on. That wasn't written particularly well but hopefully it makes sense. There should be an option to enable or disable the automatic removal of missing images from picasa.
SaparnaFlayer
Posco Grubb
Posted 10:23 AM 7/10/08
@mightymt: Re: cropping ratio: yes, I've been missing that feature too. Sometimes I want a picture that is square, or a specific ration for a screen or some other application besides printing 4x6 and 5x7.
FastStone Image Viewer has a bunch more cropping ration defaults and also lets you set your own using ratio or physical measurements.
Posco Grubb
amrich
Posted 11:46 AM 7/10/08
the collage tweaks in Picasa 3 rock...Google seems to really listen to their users, and at times, read their minds and adds those features instead of adding horse-shit features like some other softwares do. How do they do it?
amrich
Daniel Milner
Posted 2:49 PM 7/10/08
Am I the only one that realizes that this was released the same day as Google Chrome?
Daniel Milner
caedus
Posted 2:39 PM 7/10/08
iphoto and picasa need to go the way of lightroom, and instead of copying your file when you make any edit, it should store it in a database and do non-destructive editing.
After that, iphoto should have better metadata support, letting you decide what fields to display and set as the default.
caedus
soul_grind
Posted 10:26 PM 7/10/08
I've been wanting to use picasa since launch... but their horrendous tagging system has never let me. Have they made it useable yet?
Its good that they've "borrowed" the Windows Live Photo Gallery import system... its a massive timesaver for me. But without any decent tagging system its kinda pointless.
soul_grind
ringsting
Posted 10:43 PM 7/10/08
The lack of tagging options is still a fatal flaw in picasa. I would like to use it but it's just not going to happen without a really decent tagging system. Why won't flickr do a desktop version?
ringsting
mskadu
Posted 2:08 AM 8/10/08
@m4tt: There's a better way to do this. Look under Tools >> Options >> Web Album tab
Check the "Add a water mark to for all photo uploads" and type in the text you would like to appear in this water mark in the box below.
Eg. Copyright (c) with me@myemail.com
mskadu
mbacon
Posted 2:05 AM 8/10/08
@Alaska Jack: I agree... totally suckalicious.
mbacon
mbacon
Posted 2:01 AM 8/10/08
@dmccall: I have always been frustrated with the keyword tool in Picasa. I cannot add two-word keywords, and there is no "keyword view"-esque UI... I can't just browse through my pics and see what the keywords are. Makes it hard to add or clean up keywords. I'd also appreciate a mass-caption tool.
mbacon
Alaska Jack
Posted 8:02 AM 8/10/08
As an addendum to my post above, about Picasa's folder manager:
The problem is described clearly and succinctly in a post on the Picasa Google Group. Just do a Google search for these terms: picasa folder manager infuriating
- AJ
Alaska Jack
dekay46
Posted 4:20 PM 8/10/08
Photoviewer is a gift from Dawkins.
dekay46
TheTick
Posted 11:41 PM 12/10/08
I installed Picasa3 as I needed to get a very short clip out of a video, but Picasa can't even go as short as I want. Only letting me get as small as about 48 seconds long.
TheTick
PC_Pal68
Posted 1:17 AM 13/10/08
@anithinks:
I haven't tried it myself, but you might want to look into Microsoft Image Composite Editor.
PC_Pal68