Free photo album software

Free Photo SoftwareNow that we have all ditched our film cameras, we need software instead of shoeboxes. Preferably free photo software: for editing, cataloging and displaying our photos. The end result is a local or, better, online photo album that you can be proud of and share.

Software4free.org has selected the free photo tools you need.

Picasa

For a free program, Picasa offers an excellent solution to the task of finding, organising and sharing your photos, all in one package.

Picasa is a free software download from Google that helps you:

• Locate and organise all the photos on your computer.
• Edit and add effects to your photos with a few simple clicks.
• Share your photos with others through email, prints and on the web: it’s fast, easy and free.

Learn more *not available for Mac, but Picasa Web Albums is.

Flickr

Flickr is the most popular, and one of the most feature rich of all photo hosting sites. It allows you to:

• Upload – Upload from your desktop, send by email, or use your cameraphone.
• Organize – Use collections, sets, and tags to organize your photos.
• Share – Use groups and privacy controls to share your photos.
• Maps – Share where your photos were taken, and see photos taken near you.
• Make Stuff – Sexy cards, photo books, framed prints, Target pick up, DVDs, etc.
• Keep in Touch – Get updates from family and friends

There are limitations, of course, this being a free site. They are • 100 MB monthly upload limit (5MB per photo) • Photostream views limited to the 200 most recent images • only smaller (resized) images accessible (though the originals are saved in case you upgrade later).
If you are only interested in snapshots, the best idea is to downsize your photos to 1 MB or less before uploading them. To see higher resolution images and have unlimited uploads, you must sign up for a pay site like Smugmug or Flickr Pro.
Join Flickr

Gimp

Everybody loves Photoshop, but Photoshop costs several hundred dollars. Is there is free Photoshop alternative?
Yes there is: Gimp. Gimp (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a freely distributed piece of software suitable for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition, and image authoring. It is a powerful piece of software with capabilities not found in any other free image editor. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert-quality photo-retouching program, an online batch-processing system or an image-format converter. GIMP is very flexible, because it is modular which allows it to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions to do just about anything.

“That’s impressive. Now what’s the downside?” Just one thing, really – the installation process. It requires an extra bit of code to be installed separately. Visit a site like download.com to guide you through it.

Paint.net

Paint.net is free image editing and photo manipulation software for Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of powerful tools. An active and growing online community provides friendly help, tutorials, and plugins.It started development as a college senior design project mentored by Microsoft. It was originally intended as a free replacement for MS Paint, but now it has grown into a powerful yet simple tool for photo and image editing.

Serif PhotoPlus

Another Photoshop alternative: less powerful than the Adobe juggernaut, but more nimble, quicker to load and less resource hungry. It can even use the widely available Photoshop plug-ins. Plus, it is free…….
Serif PhotoPlus is an award winning photo editor. Start with photo images, eg digital camera photos or scanned pictures. Fix problems (e.g. red eye) or get creative. Use for web, email, or print. Photoshop plugins, animation, layers, editable text, extensive shaping and masking tools (freehand, smart shapes, font based), slicing and web image maps (automatically generates matching HTML), resize, web image optimization, and much more. Registration required.

InAlbum Lite

InAlbum Lite is a software package to help you turn your digital photos into stunning and funky photo albums. It is quick and easy to use.

Unlike slideshow software that produces a simple sequence of static pictures, InAlbum Lite adds motion and animation. The borders move, the images fade and dissolve into each other, and the words are presented in a number of animated ways. You can even add rain, lightning, and snow to your slideshow (if you like that sort of thing). This is the free promotional version of the full InAlbum, which allows you to export to html, make .exe versions and more.