Still have years of family pictures sorted in Picasa? Google’s retired photo organizer arranges scanned images into a visual library, with tools for face labeling, photo edits, and collages.
Picasa builds a browsable library from photo folders
Picasa scans picture folders and displays their contents in a library organized around folders and dates. The folder view keeps images associated with their source locations, while date-based browsing makes it easier to find a group of pictures from a particular period.
The People area groups faces that Picasa recognizes. Add a name label to a face group to identify the person and find other photos associated with that label. Albums let you gather selected images into collections without reorganizing the files on disk.
Editing tools cover common photo corrections
Open a picture in Picasa’s editing view for straightforward adjustments. Basic Fixes includes crop, straighten, and red-eye correction; additional controls adjust lighting and color, while the Effects tab applies preset treatments.
Changes can be previewed as you work, and Picasa keeps the original image available until edits are saved to the file.
Picasa makes collages from selected images
Select pictures in the library and open the collage tool to arrange them on a page. Layout choices include a picture pile, mosaic, and contact sheet, with controls for the image placement and page background. The finished collage can be saved as a new image.
The desktop program remains discontinued
Google retired Picasa and ended development. The desktop application continues to work for people who already have it, but it receives no future updates. Photos and videos from Picasa Web Albums can still be accessed through Google Photos; Blogger images are managed in Blogger.
Pros
- Groups photos into browsable folders and date-based views
- Includes face grouping and name labels
- Creates photo collages from selected images
- Provides crop, straighten, and red-eye tools
Cons
- Google retired Picasa and will not provide further development or updates
Does Picasa still work on a computer?
The desktop application continues to work, but Google has retired it and will not develop or update it further.
How does Picasa organize photos?
It scans picture folders into a visual library with folder and date-based browsing. You can also label recognized faces and create albums.
Can Picasa Web Albums still be accessed?
Most photos and videos from Picasa Web Albums can be accessed through Google Photos. Blogger images are managed in Blogger.