17

Google announced they're killing Picasa Desktop (and Picasa web). The software they propose in place of the Desktop version only allows you to upload to Google Photos (backup). There were other Picasa Desktop features that are/were useful:

  • photo editing
  • photo organizing (albums, tags, face recognition, etc.)
  • intelligent syncing photos from external cameras
  • etc.

I know Picasa will continue to work for some time (there has been little support over the years). But a follow-up product is certainly needed.

What free products exist that fill this gap?

I don't want to have to upload my gazillion photos to the cloud, for several reasons: privacy, bandwidth, image compression (lossy), and having to pay eventually for extra storage. I'm on Windows or Linux and use a hard drive for backups. I'm not a professional photographer, but take photos at work and with family.

Related question: https://superuser.com/questions/228260/good-process-software-for-organizing-photos-past-present

5
  • There is what appears to be a remarkably comprehensive comparison of image viewers available on Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_image_viewers Mar 10, 2016 at 6:24
  • Just read this: 9 open source alternatives to Picasa flip.it/MBCDm Mar 11, 2016 at 6:33
  • Fuhrminator, the photo managers in the above article appear to be for Linux only (1 KDE and 3 GNOME). It's my understanding that Picasa runs on Windows and Mac, but not Linux. Am I behind the times and missing something? Mar 11, 2016 at 16:22
  • 1
    @markproxy the article sez: "Picasa was available across multiple platforms, and while it had not been recently packaged for Linux, it still worked well for many Linux users inside of Wine." Mar 12, 2016 at 20:50
  • Thx -- I missed that! Mar 16, 2016 at 3:12

1 Answer 1

4

Xn View

XnView is organized as freeware for private non-commercial or educational use is really a utility for viewing and converting graphic files.

It supports Image IPTC, EXIF metadata, EXIF auto rotation, IPTC edition, Batch convert, batch rename, Create or edit Multi-page file (TIFF,DCX, LDF), 44 languages (Windows only), Multipage TIFF, Animated GIF, Animated ICO.

2
  • Thanks for the recommendation! Could you please edit your answer and include how Xn View fits the other requirements (photo editing (not just the metadata), syncing)? Also: is just the support of 44 languages restricted to Windows – or is the entire application available for Windows only?
    – Izzy
    Feb 14, 2016 at 15:26
  • XnView is cool but has no single feature about tags or metadata database, so doesn't fit the question.
    – Suncatcher
    Jan 31, 2020 at 13:48

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.