Launched in 2002 by tech company Ideas Lab and sold to Google two years later, Picasa was originally an application that managed photo storage on users’ own computers as well as offering editing features.
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However, what made Picasa unique when it launched was that it also allowed users to create photo albums online, share them with friends and add them to websites. This, together with its simple-to-use interface, meant it offered something to suit everyone’s needs. The icing on the cake? It was free.
But in February 2016 Google said it would no longer support Picasa’s offline storage and editing features, and would migrate users to its own cloud-based Google Photos app.
ACDSee is the Picasa Alternative that acts both as photo editing software as well as an image management tool. With this app, you can easily edit the images and quickly perform all the actions. Whichever way you want the images can be changed with the ACDSee image editing software. Also, you can easily search for a photo through the name of the. Picasa is Google’s photo manager and editor, whose latest stable version is 3.9. This shows that Picasa is under the constant development, so it actually became quite useful and interesting photo editor for Mac OS X. Picasa is a multimedia application that lets you organize and manage your photographs. It comes with basic photo editing functions that let you enhance your pictures, including strengthening, adjusting contrast and color, an enhancing sharpness. In addition, the app also allows you to create posters, montages, screensavers, and even movies.
Below, we’ve rounded up some of the best free and paid-for editing apps that can help you move on from Picasa.
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Alternatives to Picasa
Best for editing images on your device
- Adobe Photoshop – From £10 a month / Windows, Mac
- Photoshop Elements – £80 / Windows, Mac
- Photoshop Express – Free, with in-app purchases / Android, iOS
Adobe’s Photoshop is a firm favourite among both professionals and amateurs for manipulating and editing digital images. Photoshop is the creative professional tool, which you can buy as part of a Creative Cloud subscription as a single app or as part of a package with other Adobe applications. Photoshop Elements, a standalone version of Photoshop for a one-off price, is aimed at knowledgeable amateurs. Photoshop Express is a free mobile app (you need to create an Adobe account to use it) that offers lots of options on your phone or tablet.
As well as traditional correctional tools, it also gives users the option to get creative with photos. It lets you crop, colour correct, add captions, filters, coloured backgrounds and even draw on the screen.
All the apps will take time to get to grips with, but offer plenty of features to dig into.
Best for advanced editing and managing a photo library
- Adobe Lightroom – From £9.98 a month / Windows, Mac Free, in-app purchases / iOS, Android
Lightroom is another string to Adobe’s bow, offering photo library management and editing tools that allow you to apply corrections to more than one photo at a time. This is aimed at professionals, and the mobile apps, which are free to download, are designed to help pro photographers manage their workflow on the move. You can do some basic editing such as cropping, applying filters and sharpening for free, and pay to upgrade to more advanced editing features.
Lightroom on desktops aims to streamline big photo libraries and batch editing, and integrates with Photoshop, if you have it, for when you need more detailed or powerful pixel-level editing tools
Best for storage
- Google Photos – Free (15GB storage) / Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, ChromeOS
Google Photos replaced Picasa as Google’s own photo management and editing app in 2016. While it lacks some of Picasa’s most-loved features, it does offer editing tools such as cropping and rotating images, filters to change the overall look of the photo and the ability to write and draw on images – although the Picasa caption tool is no more
Google Photos’ biggest appeal is that it’s cloud-based, which means your photos are available on any compatible device: you can either use the mobile app or a web browser to access your photos. The service has hitherto offered unlimited free storage if you select the ‘high-quality’ setting (images are a maximum of 16Mp, and any over that size will be compressed down. Videos are stored in 1080p high definition), although Google has recently announced that it is to limit free storage to 15GB – although photos uploaded before June 2021 won’t count towards that limit. You can add paid-for storage if you want to add best quality images and videos.
Google uses AI to tag your images, which means its search is very powerful. It can, for example, identify photos of the same person, which you can then label with their name. You can also search by location and even the contents of photos – for example, ‘churches in Spain’.
The software also creates albums automatically and even photobooks, which you can then order to be printed.
Best for quick & playful edits
- Pixlr Basic – Some tools are free, premium from $3.99 a month / Mobile app is free, but ad-supported; in-app purchases / Online, or app for iOS and Android
Pixlr offers browser-based editing via two online apps. Pixlr X is for more ‘playful’ edits such as applying effects, cropping, removing blemishes and adding text to photos. The more advanced Pixlr E has an interface similar to Photoshop’s. The former is easy to get to grips with and quick to use, but also suitable for those with more advanced skills.
There’s no photo management option: edits you do via this tool have to be saved to your hard drive, but you can share them directly to social media accounts from the browser.
Best for advanced editing
- Gimp – Free / Windows, Mac, Linux
Gimp is a powerful free open-source alternative to Photoshop, popular with amateurs and those with more advanced skills. As it’s open-source, its community contributes to and maintains it.
It offers a lot of functions but isn’t the most immediately user-friendly software. Be prepared to spend time getting to know it – beginners to image editing might find it overwhelming.
As it’s open-source, anyone can take the code and develop a version, so there are mobile versions in the iOS App Store and the Google Play store, but those are often ad-supported and/or offer in-app purchases.
Best for storage & managing your photos on your PC
- Phototheca – Free. $39.95 for advanced features / Windows only
One of the key appeals of Phototheca, which runs on your Windows PC (aside from being free) is that it makes storing photos straightforward.
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Phototheca’s filing system is simple and efficient. Once you’ve imported your photos (there’s a maximum of 5,000 allowed in the free version), it will then encourage you to add tags your images.
The more you tag, the more organised your library will be.
Phototheca also uses AI to categorise your photos and make searching easier, and uses that to sort photos into albums.
Best for storage
- Dropbox – Basic service free, upgrades from £7.99 a month / Windows, Mac, Android, iOS
Dropbox is one of the many cloud-based options you have if you’re looking to store images and share them with others. It also lets you connect online image-editing tools such as Pixlr to your Dropbox account, meaning you can do some editing of your images stored there and save your edits back to your Dropbox storage.
Dropbox is useful if you want to share images, and if you want to access your stored pictures across all your devices.
The free tier only gives you 2GB of storage, which you’ll use up quickly, but you can add more with the paid plans.
Can I still download Picasa?
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It’s very tempting to download the versions of Picasa that you can find on third-party software sites, but we don’t recommend this, for two reasons.
First, it’s no longer supported by Google, which means it hasn’t had any security patches since it was discontinued. That means not only will any existing security holes not be fixed, but also should cybercriminals discover more holes, those won’t be patched either. Using unsupported software puts you at risk from hackers.
Second, software from third-party sites often comes bundled with extra programs such as adware, browser banners and other PUPs (Potentially Unwanted Programs), or even malware. Always download software from its official website.
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Picasa was one of the most wondrous image organizers of its time and provided other important quick editing tools. But, its discontinuation in 2016 left many of us stranded in the thoughts of Picasa alternative.
Though Google Photos took its place for following services but all those who wish to try their hands on multiple other features, we have got you covered with the best replacement for Picasa.
Here Is The List Of Best Picasa Alternative
- Adobe Lightroom CC
- Flickr
- Photo Organizer
- Microsoft Photos
- Photoscape
- FastStone Image Viewer
- IrfanView
Let’s explore each of the Picasa alternatives in detail below.
Picasa Alternatives in 2021
1. Adobe Lightroom CC
Give yourself this best replacement for Picasa that helps in image management as well as editing effectively. It totally works on Windows, Mac, Android or iOS. What is cool about this best substitute for Picasa is that edited images are saved separately, whereas the original image is kept far.
Another important feature to note is the capacity to save photos in the cloud so that you can access your pictures from anywhere, no matter which device is being used. All the editing tools are easy to grab, and even beginners do not need the training to operate it. You can go for a free trial before finally putting your hands completely on the same.
2. Flickr
When searching for the photo storage solution, Flickr stands tall. This is one of the best photo managers, which is simple to use and even allows photo sharing with others. It lets you find your community whom you can inspire or get inspired by as well. No matter how high the photo quality is, the uncompressed version can even get uploaded well.
Enjoy ad-free browsing experience here and even check how well your uploads are performing.
Use Flickr.
Also Read: 10 Best Photo Apps for iOS
3. Photo Organizer
The tool runs on Windows pretty well to optimize your photo collection smartly. It scans your whole PC and finds all the images that are scattered all over the system. Later it organizes them all intelligently in folders based on metadata. Moreover, the subfolders could also be made according to month, date, camera model, etc.
In fact, duplicates can be deleted here, and renaming of batch images is also very much possible. This Picasa alternative allows you to quickly access the required picture, without any hassle of a manual search. Cool, right?
Use Photo Organizer.
4. Microsoft Photos
Available on platforms like Xbox One, Windows PC, mobiles and Holo lends, Microsoft Photos is one of the best replacements for Picasa. You can view your photos, make videos, edit them, make movies out of them, and even create own albums. Its video editor allows fine adjustments including filters, motion, music, and text addition.
Additional 3D effects like butterflies, lasers, or explosions can be simply added to make the overall experience exciting. Indeed, the best replacement for Picasa to call for.
Use Microsoft Photos.
Also Read: 10 Best Android Photo Organizer Apps
5. Photoscape
Make some exciting changes in your photo gallery with Photoscape. How? Enjoy viewing your own photos through the slideshow. Now you can edit one image or simply go for batch editing. From here, now you can resize, change brightness, adjust colors, make corrections, add text, draw pictures and whatnot.
In fact, merging of multiple images to form one final stop is available with some animations to be added. Where you can make so many editions, enjoy this one of the best alternatives to Picasa.
Use Photoscape.
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6. FastStone Image Viewer
If you think it stays limited to the image viewer, you need to read ahead. FastStone is also a powerful editor that comes with good effects for free. It provides a slideshow, gives the option for quick editing and offers batch editing for multiple pictures at a time.
Though the interface can be said to be a little cluttered, ease of use and leading suites make it stand apart from the list and known for best Picasa alternative.
Use FastStone Image Viewer.
7. IrfanView
IrfanView is one such tool that is powerful for professionals and supports various files and formats, to begin with. Its essential features include batch conversion/editing, aligning of pages, directory browsing, painting, slideshow, etc. It is being used for photographers around the world to make multiple changes within.
Enjoy this fast and compact style of IrfanView which is one of the coolest Picasa alternatives to look for today.
Conclusion
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Well, they say that no single tool could have done justice to Picasa. Though Google Photos is one such tool but others like Adobe Lightroom, Photoscape and IrfanView are matching the same level. These Picasa alternatives will make your pictures look better in any manner as well as create various other versions like videos, clips, etc. from the same.
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With that, take a quick check here:
Since Picasa has already waved a goodbye sometime back, which tools did you choose after that? Or rather, which one you will be choosing from the list above? We would like to know your preferences and feedback in the comment section below.
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