Any good programs like Picasa for Mac?

What are you going to be doing? Will you simply be storing/printing/viewing photos, or are you wanting to edit them too? And what sort of photos - family snaps, or more professional photos/designs?

I'm surprised you don't like iPhoto, plus it doesn't sound like you gave it much of a go.

I've never used Picasa, but I've used plenty of other photo management apps and iPhoto beats them all. What sets iPhoto above the rest IMO is its powerful searching capabilities. If you apply comments and keywords to your photos you can use the various search methods to find photos fast. If using it for family photos, you can't beat iPhoto's slideshows for a quick and impressive gift for grandma!

Anyway, enough ranting. If you don't like it you don't like it.

I've heard good things about iView Media Pro (21 day trial available)
 
I've used Picasa, and it's almost exactly like iPhoto. In fact, Picasa is the non-Apple, Windows answer to iPhoto. I think you're trying to work with iPhoto asif it were Picasa, which is usually not a goodidea to do in general with any software package, even operating systems. Learn to use iPhoto and you'll see that it's very useful.
 
"I've never used Picasa, but ..."

I'm with IceDigger on this one. Picassa is <i>dramatically</i> better than iPhoto and I've also been searching for a Mac equivalent. In a nutshell, Picassa manages to do everything that I need, makes it insanely easy to to find pictures, and does so in a manner that - oh I hate to say this - is totally seamless and intuitive.

If getting up and running took even one tenth of the time that I've wasted trying to use iPhoto I would have deleted Picassa immediately.

I'm not sure how long nixgeek spent looking at Picassa, but it most certainly is nothing like iPhoto.

I've spent a couple of hours with the latter and have had nothing but irritation.
 
bit harsh there barryruger. iPhoto isn't for everyone but I can;t believe it could provoke such hatred. Even if Picasa is better than iPhoto, iPhoto is still a great app in its own right.

I find the people who talk badly about iPhoto are usually those who A) Don't give it a chance; or B) Have a slower system (Admittedly, iPhoto does need an awfully powerful system considering the type of app it is - which is certainly a downside).
 
Thank The Cheese said:
bit harsh there barryruger. iPhoto isn't for everyone but I can;t believe it could provoke such hatred. Even if Picasa is better than iPhoto, iPhoto is still a great app in its own right.

I find the people who talk badly about iPhoto are usually those who A) Don't give it a chance; or B) Have a slower system (Admittedly, iPhoto does need an awfully powerful system considering the type of app it is - which is certainly a downside).
Click to expand...

I concur. :D
 
I would have to think that a brand new G4 Powerbook would be fast enough to handle i iPhoto. As for features, I stand by my assessment. Picassa is faster easier and more intuitive than iPhoto.

I have in fact spent several hours with iPhoto and have yet to make it do anything useful. The reason that Picassa is still on my PC is because it just did everything that I wanted - and more - without the slightest effort. It just works!

maybe it will do everything that Picassa will do but if so it sure isn't obvious. That speaks to bad design.

I don't hate iPhoto, I just tire of people who haven't even used Picassa telling me that it's just as good
 
I'm just switching from Windows to Mac. I got a Mac Mini and I thought that at least for photos it will be much better then PC. Now I have the problem. I have 10000 photos that I was managing using Picasa since about 3 years. I'm trying to move this to iPhoto but its probably not possible at all.
People who use only iPhoto from the beggining probably don't understand this. They think that it is like it should be. If you look at the list of functions, mayby iPhoto has more (this is what I thought). But to do something with iPhoto I need 10 times more time. I can't accept that after holiday I will spend 10 days putting them inside iPhoto (with picasa it takes 10 minutes).

My only hope is that google will make iPhoto for mac.
 
As a Mac-er I prefer iPhoto, it's just always been there. I have seen Picassa in use and although I cant comment on speed the only major difference I picked up on was the use of funky sliders instead of folders. At the end of the day the functions are pretty much the same.
 
did someone put that picasa ad on this page or is it just some incredible coincidence? :confused:

Edit: The ad changed, i guess it was an incredible coincidence! BTW, it was a google ad for a software program called "Picasa" a photo management program..
 
iPhoto has always been quite slow for me, even on a 1.33 GHz G4, with 1.25 GB of RAM and a 7.2K hard drive. It's especially slow when loading up, don't ask me why, but it just is. Maybe one day, they'll sort it out.
 
whitesaint said:
did someone put that picasa ad on this page or is it just some incredible coincidence? :confused:

Edit: The ad changed, i guess it was an incredible coincidence! BTW, it was a google ad for a software program called "Picasa" a photo management program..
Click to expand...


Google ads pick up on key text on the page and shows ads relating to it. it saw picassa, searched for adverts, and displayed them.
 
Viro said:
iPhoto has always been quite slow for me, even on a 1.33 GHz G4, with 1.25 GB of RAM and a 7.2K hard drive. It's especially slow when loading up, don't ask me why, but it just is. Maybe one day, they'll sort it out.
Click to expand...

7.2kb hard drive!

Mac SE?
 
Lt Major Burns said:
7.2kb hard drive!

Mac SE?
Click to expand...

LOL!! Looking at it again, I think he might have meant the RPM, since 7.2K would be 7200 RPM. Just a thought. :p
 
Ok barryrueger et al. Can you give us some examples of what you couldn't figure out in iPhoto? I haven't used Picassa (yet -- but I'm downloading it to try on my Power Mac.), so I'm not criticizing your opinions.

To be honest, I finally decided to really trust my photo collection to iPhoto after, what, three years? So, I'm in the process of learning more about how it works.

One last question. Did you try out the (until today) latest version of iPhoto, in iLife '05?

Doug
 
I am also looking for a picasa replacement. The main issue I have with iPhoto is that it want's to manage my picture folders. I hope I have missed something. The issue is I have 5+ years or so worth of digital pictures in folders that I have sorted by date. I don't want iPhoto to re-arrange them for me. I want the folder structure to remain the same and iPhoto to just scan them. This way I am not stuck to iPhoto if I choose to change in a year. Any thoughts?

Roger
 
monkey.net said:
I am also looking for a picasa replacement. The main issue I have with iPhoto is that it want's to manage my picture folders. I hope I have missed something. The issue is I have 5+ years or so worth of digital pictures in folders that I have sorted by date. I don't want iPhoto to re-arrange them for me. I want the folder structure to remain the same and iPhoto to just scan them. This way I am not stuck to iPhoto if I choose to change in a year. Any thoughts?

Roger
Click to expand...

This is precisely the concern I have had too, ever since iPhoto was introduced. iPhoto's nonsensical filing system is just ridiculous. The problem could simply be solved if iPhoto gave you an option not to import pictures into it's filing system, but rather keep them where they are. iTunes allows this type of option with MP3 Libraries so why not iPhoto?

I've recently converted my mother to a Mac from Windows - well, mostly. She now loves her PB, but refuses to transfer her archive of photo's until a Picasa for Mac (or equivalent) becomes available, I can't blame her.

Picasa is simply excellent FREE software, and I'm sad to say Windows users do have a one-up against us with this program. The only issue I find bothersome with Picasa is that its thumbnail database is kept in order by invasively leaving tracking files in every folder on your Hard Drive/s that contains a picture image. Obviously though, this is how Picasa works so effectively and probably worth the potential inconvenience.

iPhoto is great for showcasing a moderate selection of your favourite photos, but I would never recommend it for archiving purposes. You load in too many Pictures, even a full blown G5 can end up struggling to efficiently render access to it's own thumbnail library. It's just flawed software engineering and iPhoto should be overhauled entirely to rectify it. As for retrieving pictures out of it's filing system without using iPhoto, Forget about it.
 
There is a little bit of good news. iPhoto 06 does now let you not import your pictures. The funny part is all they have done is create a alias in the same folder structure. This is a little bit of good news. However the performance issue is still very present.
 
monkey.net, have you personally tried the new iPhoto? I heard performance had increased. Of course, at Macworld it was demo'd on Intel machines.

I have "only" 1400 pictures in iPhoto (iLife '04) and the performance is good on my DP1.8 GHz G5 with 1.25 GB RAM. But I will be updating to '06.

We'll see how it goes.

Doug
 
That is good news monkey.net

I notice Apple claim to have overhauled iPhoto 06 and it now has -
"Blazing Performance" - Words to *DaZzLe* you, I say.

How does it really compare with Picasa now?
 
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