[kiss]

my PC specks.

windows xp home sp3.
dell dimension 2400.
2 gigs of ram 70 gig hard drive.

i'm loooking for a free "photo collage software".

does any one know of any ?.
i tried "picasa", from google , i dont like it .

are there any other free kinds ?.
i'm asking , so i can try and avoid adware and spyware.

i want to thank all those who reply to me.
yours truly karen.

[etaf]

the gimp www.gimp.org

I will move your post into the Digital Photography & Imaging forum, as you should get more answers

[Squashman]

What don't you like about Picasa?

[Squashman]

Just a couple of options I found Google Searching. Never tried these but look promising.
http://www.shapecollage.com/
http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/sof...plus/index.asp

[Hughv]

Ditto. Picasa is easy, free, flexible. In short, near perfect for this use.
Be specific about your complaint and we can probably advise you.

[Knotbored]

Originally Posted by Hughv

Ditto. Picasa is easy, free, flexible. In short, near perfect for this use.
Be specific about your complaint and we can probably advise you.

I agree entirely. I suspect what is being attempted is different from "photo collage software" if Picasa doesn't do a good job.

[fairnooks]

I have to reluctantly go with the OP on this one, Picasa does more of a fancy contact sheet than a collage. However I haven't gotten around to using version 3.5 yet so maybe its improved? AutoCollage (http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/...s/autocollage/) is one project I've tried and its pretty good but if I remember right there's some limitations on usage and I don't know if its for sale or just free to use, etc.

Cozi (http://www.cozi.com/Photo-Screensaver.htm) has a screensaver that does kind of a cool collage effect randomly sorting and picking through your digital photos.

[Hughv]

I fail to understand. There are seven different types with a lot of control over spacing, colors, order, etc.
What's not to like ?
Yes, you can do more with PS or The Gimp, but that's not what she asked for.

[kiss]

the reason might be silly, picasa worked fine, its ok, did close to what i want, its google that i have a tiny complaint about, awhile back i tried google chrome after i installed picasa. the google browser does not give you a choice to how i want to update, it just updates itself, always running in the background. cuz of that it some how messed up my google earth and picasa, so i had to un-install my google earth and picasa and the google browser "chrome" , i'm using firefox now, it has a setting in it that google chrome dont have , firefox lets you check for updates on your own.

i had to clean out my registry and hard drive, because of google chrome, i will never use that browser again, so for right now , i'm looking for a free program that works like or better then picasa.

maybe when google fixes some of the issues , i will try it again, but not right now.

i am sorry i was not more clear, please forgive me.
yours truly .
karen

[Hughv]

That's unusual, because I have all that software and never had a problem.
Chrome is Beta, of course.
Just install Picasa without Chrome and you'll be fine.

[fairnooks]

I was provoked to try Picasa 3.5 recently and I almost fully recind my comments concerning the collage feature. It's hugely improved from when I last tried it, in fact, its pretty darn good. Glowing enthusiasm will be forthcomming if there is some good options for saving a collage in a large, low lossy or lossless format (haven't had a chance to explore that yet).

[Hughv]

Picasa only saves in jpg.
Why would you want anything else? You can certainly convert it to anything you want (From jpg), but nothing is lost just by opening a file, or just because it's a "lossy" format.

[fairnooks]

I like to save collages in a lossless format so I can open them up and apply tranparency, spot lighting and texture effects until the final version is produced and THEN reduce and compress as desired.

I haven't seen anything for setting compression on a jpeg file save in Picasa. Its an acceptable format if I can set it to 5% or less compression for an interim photo (collage).

[Hughv]

Picasa seems to use the compression settings of the originals. Most cameras save in jpg format, so that makes sense.
Create your collage, save it, change the file type when you do your editing.

[kiss]

i want to thank all of you for replying back to me.
i will keep pacasa on my list. maybe i might give it another go, i will keep an eye out for it .
i just hate that google updater thingy that always runs in the back ground, i like to have control over that stuff, thats just me.