Picasa 3 vs. iPhoto
Picasa and iPhoto are photo organization programs available on the Mac operating system. Both programs provide a simple interface for transferring your photos from a camera or cell phone so that you can easily edit and organize your pictures. Although there are few differences between the programs, there are a few finer points that distinguish each offering.
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Organization
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Although both programs feature similar interfaces, the underlying organizational structure is substantially different. The iPhoto software stores all of your photos in a central database file within your profile directory. The program loads your photo library from this database and you can view individual photos by events, faces or locations. As a result, you can only access your photos through iPhoto. Picasa, on the other hand, does not rely on a database file and instead loads pictures directly from the folder you configure the software to access. Once loaded into your program, you can organize your photos by date, location and person.
Editing Tools
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Since both programs are focused primarily on organizing your photos, the editing tools in both are fairly basic. Both iPhoto and Picasa have cropping, red eye correction, color and saturation adjustments and other basic editing tools. Picasa integrates with Picnick, a Web-based photo manipulation tool that includes more advanced photo editing tools including paint tools, advanced photo effects and more.
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Online Sharing
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Picasa features tight integration with the Picasa Web photo sharing service. With just a single click of the mouse, you can upload entire photo albums to Picasa Web. You can also easily control the privacy settings of photos you upload to Picasa Web from the "Upload" dialog. Using iPhoto, you can upload your photos to a wide variety of photo sharing websites including Facebook, iCloud and Flickr.
Other Features
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Both iPhoto and Picasa feature geolocation tools that enable you to plot your photos on a map. Once plotted, the geographic data is stored within the metadata of your photos so that you can display the photos on a map. Both programs also enable you to tag the faces that appear in your photos so that you can easily view your photos by person. Since iPhoto is a native Mac application, it is generally far more integrated with other programs on your computer like Mail, Safari and iTunes.
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