Pic(k) a Picture

excellent
key review info
application features
  • Convenient cataloging
  • (5 more, see all...)

One day I was tired of looking at my pictures in a simple image viewer. First of all, all of my pictures were all over the hard disk, and second, none of them was in the right place. As the song in the commercial says: ?What to do? What to do??, I decided to look for an image viewer equipped with options designed to put my pictures in categories, so that I won't be seeing the wedding pictures and once in a while an instance of me at one of the wildest parties (some of them my wife doesn't even know about).

So I proceeded to my quest on the Internet for such a software. I stopped at PicaJet Photo Organizer, a Softpedia pick. The developer, PicaJet.Com released the software free of charge, so you can use it wherever you want. The installation file is 4.7MB large, so you can keep it a little longer on your computer.

The process of organizing your photos begins with the installation of the software. Thus you can choose the wizard that will scan your computer for digital photos. After Next is pressed twice you will reach a window where you can select the folders you want the software to look in for the images. The wizard is so complex that it even has some scan settings (create categories from folder names, ignore files smaller than a user-defined size and include subfolders).

Another hit on Next button and the software begins the scan. To be frank, I never liked a machine to organize my pictures (I sometimes rename them as something really harmless, but the content proves to be a ?violent? one).

So, when I first opened the application I was impressed by the aspect of the interface (an icy gradient blue). On the left side of the application window there is the Categories section, where you can add as many as you want. If one of the categories needs a subcategory, that?s no problem, you can create it with the smallest effort.

The default categories in the software are Unassigned, Unsaved Metadata, Tray, Favorites, People (with subcategories Family and Friends), Places and Events. The user can copy the images from one category to another by simply using the drag and drop function.

Under each picture you will notice some stars and three little dots. The stars are for rating the picture and the little dots are for giving it a name, different from the one you have saved the under on your computer. Rating the images is easy. Suffice to click on one of the stars and drag the mouse pointer to the desired rating point.

Double clicking on one of the items will display it to an appropriate size which can be increased or diminished at whim (NumLock+/-). In the far right upper corner of the application window there is a little - apparently insignificant - button that once pressed will enable the Locate By window which will allow you to arrange the items by date, by rating, by imported order or by file location.

Once you select a picture, the Edit menu will become active. It is not a very thorough editing, but it will make available options like cropping, brightness adjustment, auto fix or Fix Image. The last of the options will load the picture in the editing window and there you can manually adjust the brightness, hue and saturation, levels. Sharpening and blurring are also available and the user even benefits from some effects: negative, sepia, grayscale, black and white and white and black.

Rotation can also be used, both clockwise and counterclockwise. If you want to study the end effect result more in depth than you can use the zooming option either by dragging by the slider or by pressing the magnifying glasses. Another option in the Edit window is the Red Eye Reduction which is also to be maneuvered by dragging a slider. The two views of the window will make you see easier the difference between the original file and the one that has been tampered with.

The Burn CD option is not activated in this version as you have to upgrade to PicaJet FX. But you will find the resizing feature in here that can be used for multiple files, too.

The Good

The application is amazing and - to be true to you - I was not expecting such power and clarity in this software.

Metadata editing (EXIF, IPTC and XMP) will allow you to save descriptions directly into the files without recompression, so quality will be preserved.

The built-in slide show viewer allows you to view all your photos without touching the mouse or the keyboard.

The Bad

Maybe the burning option should have been active or shouldn't have been mentioned at all. But this did not bother me at all, as I do all my burning with a different software.

The Truth

Simply fantastic software, I could not believe my eyes when I learned that it is completely free. Many similar softwares should use PicaJet as calibrator in their journey to conquering the market.

Here are some snapshots of the application in action:

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user interface 5
features 5
ease of use 5
pricing / value 5


final rating 5
Editor's review
excellent