I had never heard of the website Picnik.com until I got the message that Google bought Picnik as part of the Picasa group. Picnik has been around for a while as an online editing tool for photos that you upload from your computer, or that you link to on Picasa Web Albums and many other Photo Sharing Websites like Flickr, Facebook, and Photo Bucket.
Why would you want to use Picnik?
If you don’t have Picasa or any other program on your computer for cropping, color-correcting, and retouching your photos, Picnik will do it for you completely web-based. Even if you do have Picasa, Picnik has features that Picasa lacks, like the ability to add frames and round the corners, callouts, and special clipart images called ‘stickers.’ Here’s the results from my playing for just a few minutes with one of my photos:
Is Picnik Free?
Yes and No. A lot of the editing tools, frames, and stickers are completely free. You can start using Picnik for free. Then, you may discover some more advanced tools, like Curves, Levels, and Cloning, that require a Premium Account. For $24.95/year you get all the tools, plus Priority Help Support.
What Will Google Do?
Hopefully they’ll make it faster. Picnik is very bandwidth intensive, if you have a slow connection, you better have a lot of patience! I expect that Google will keep maintaining the Picasa software for your computer, but they are looking to the future when nothing is on your computer! Your pictures will go directly online from the camera to Picasa Web Albums, and you’ll do your editing with Picnik. I’m certainly not ready for this yet .. but that’s what my crystal ball sees for 5-10 years from now.
You may also be interested to know that Picnik is available to Flickr users. Picnik is automatically invoked when the edit function is selected. I assume that it has the same Picnik features as those in Picasa, however, I don’t use Picasa so I cannot verify this observation. Flickr is, of course, a Yahoo partner so it will be interesting to see if the Google purchase impacts Flickr customers.
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Chris, I just wrote a comment re: the streets and trips, etc. and also told you that I just got a new computer. I haven’t added Picasa to it yet either (been too busy learning Windows 7). Can I install it with the DVD that I bought from you last year? If not, how do I go about installing it (I’ve forgotten how I did it before on my previous computer)! Will be waiting for your reply.
Mary,
The best way to install Picasa is to go to the website, http://picasa.google.com/ and download it from there. Then you’re getting the latest version.
RE: Windows 7 – I know people are anxiously awaiting my videos on Windows 7 (it’s on my todo list – I promise) but, meanwhile – if you’re coming from Windows XP, all the videos on Vista will also help you with 7. http://www.geeksontour.com/vista.cfm
I HAVE A PHOTO DISPLAY AT ARTICHOKE CAFE IN ALBUQUERQUE. MY FIRST SHOWING, ALL FROM PICASA. I DOUBT PICNIC HAS ANYTHING FOR ME. DON’T LIKE FRAMES, READ CLUTTER. I AM USING SONY HX5 NOW, SUPERIOR TO ANY I’VE HAD. IF YOU GET BACK TO ALB., I’LL STILL BUY LUNCH. GOOD LUCK ON THE ROAD!