Any good programs like Picasa for Mac?

[valsace]

I've recently switched to mac (MacBook 2.0ghz) after being raised purely on PC my whole life. I was prepared to love mac and in most instances I do.

However, I have to agree with the posters who have said that iPhoto does not compare to Picasa. I have the new iLife and the new iPhoto installed.
I was using Picasa for about 3 years on Windows and I just loved that it worked so well. I've played with iPhoto and I think it's a bit clunkier to work with and I haven't even uploaded all of my pictures on the mac yet. Picasa has one-touch solutions which makes it very very easy to edit pictures. iPhoto has its features but I'm a Picasa hardcore fan, I guess.

I wish google would hurry up and make Picasa for mac.

For those who haven't tried Picasa, please go ahead and try it before you say iPhoto is the same. You'll see the difference.

[k0rson]

hi there I am using Graphic Converter and am very happy with it.
highly recommended. k0

[tuffymccabe]

I bought a Macbook in December after 10 years of Windows machines. One reason was because I was jealous of Mac folks who seemed to be able to do all things vision + sound. I guess I should have done more research because iPhoto is a pain.

Here's all I want to do: Take 100 pictures of my new baby girl. Upload them to the computer. Pick out 8 of them and send them through Gmail, slightly reduced in size. Picasa2 does this very well.

I tried the equivalent in iPhoto with MacMail (or whatever it's called). The attached photos came in an email with piles of digital crap for Windows users. Like two screens of random characters.

I'll give you that I haven't RTFM but I basically have to drag or export to an outside folder and attach directly to gmail. I'm essentially not using any of iPhoto's "features."

Wish I could load boot camp but I don't have a non-upgrade XP installation disk and, frankly, have never met anyone who has.

[apilit]

Thanks to all who responded to my first inquiry! I still use Picasa on my Windows laptop and iPhoto on my G4 Powermac. I like Picasa better but iPhoto is not too bad so I will stick with it until Google gives us Mac users a Picasa to work with. Again, thanks to all!

[sylense]

After using both Picasa and iPhoto extensively, I have to agree that Picasa is superior in almost every way.

[JJiMAC]

This is my first post. I have an iMac that is 3 years old. The first time I heard Google had a Photo software program I believe it was only available for PC'S. But recently a friend out east told me his wife was working with Picasa on her new laptop and I knew she had recently retired and bought a new Macbook. That led me to Google "Picasa for MAC" and eventually find this site. I love to do more than just warehouse photos in albums and I have been storing many of them on the Shutterfly website. I find myself wanting to do more creative things with some of these photos. Does Picasa offer more options in this area than iPhoto. Would I be better off investing in Photoshop? Also this website (MacosX.com) looks like it could be helpful for me now that my warranty has expired and Mac tech advice is no longer free.
JJ

[entropos]

I came here because I've just wasted the past 2 hours doing in iPhoto what would have taken me about 15 minutes in Picasa. I was looking for an alternative to iPhoto that was as clever as Picasa - instead I found piles of folks just like me.

I'm a born and bred macuser who was stuck with a wintel laptop when my imac died. I couldn't afford a mac and needed a pc. Over time I've come to appreciate a great deal of the things being in windows allows, but hate the fragility of the system.

I was happy to be going back to mac...
...but not so much anymore.

It's like moving to tidy, regimented Singapore after having caroused around dirty, sprawling but free Houston. The confines drive me nuts. You MUST resize your window from THIS CORNER ONLY. etc. etc. etc.

iPhoto is clunky and requires too many nonintuitive steps to complete what comes easily and immediately to one using Picasa.


Bleh. I'm downloading aperture now, but I don't have much hope.

[bsirons]

Hi Entropos,

I too have just gotten back to Mac after many years in Windows. I thought Mac graphics were just "a given".

I also found that iPhoto didn't do what I wanted it to do as I had been used to Photoshop Elements 4 and really liked the organizational tools as well as the ability to adjust the pictures. The outstanding part of Elements is that it handles and displays video clips from within the program without having to launch a separate viewer.

I have just recently purchased Elements 5 and it has a few more features than elements 4. I know there is an equivalent version for Mac but I am running mine in Windows XP through Parallels Desktop (what a great program).

When Adobe finally come out with a version that runs natively in Mac, then I will buy it but in the meantime I will stick with the Windows version.

I really don't know much about Picasa except that it gets a lot of good press. It was a dealbreaker for me that it wouldn't run my video clips.

Just my 2 cents.