Goodbye Picasa Hello Shotwell Photo Manager

[badaveil]

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_yJ5Rhn3UxL4/TdcOQ6BZe3I/AAAAAAAAD8w/35U6Ai70M3A/s800/Screenshot-1.png

A computer operating system (OS) gets better with every upgrade but a problem that may arise is when supporting applications have not caught up with it making that application incompatible and does not function. This is what happened to me when I upgraded from Ubuntu 10.10 to Ubuntu 11.04. Picasa which was worked well with previous Ubuntu versions did not function directly. What is means is that it still could function indirectly! I found this out when I decided to investigate the Shotwell Photo Manager that comes along with Ubuntu. I had always been using it merely to import my photos from camera to pc but upon inspection, I found it had upgraded itself too and could function also as a photo editor where on clicking the various sub-menus, I found that it already linked itself and optimized Picasa features at the backend. I didn't like to tinker with the colour resolution but found that it's brightness and contrast adjustment bar a child's play and my most frequent favourite tool. Cropping features was also similar to and I suspect borrowed form Picasa. Well "goodbye" Picasa and Hello Shotwell. We'll have a long life together!

[william_nbg]

I had the same problem, and decided to do the same thing.

Shotwell has gotten better. And Google has gotten worse regarding Linux support, although, they entire company runs on Linux.

Maybe, if Picasa released a real Linux port, I'd give it a go, ... maybe

:)

[badaveil]

I had the same problem, and decided to do the same thing.

Shotwell has gotten better. And Google has gotten worse regarding Linux support, although, they entire company runs on Linux.

Maybe, if Picasa released a real Linux port, I'd give it a go, ... maybe

:)

Hi Elvis ;)

I also found out that Shotwell integrates well with Gimp, the external editor because I regularly downgrade the resolution for uploading purposes on the internet which Shotwell doesn't have so as a package, it solves my needs.

[Dustin2128]

IIRC, picasa's just bundled with a stripped version of wine. If google's coders can't be bothered to release a real linux port, good riddance to it! Glad to hear you like shotwell though.

[badaveil]

IIRC, picasa's just bundled with a stripped version of wine. If google's coders can't be bothered to release a real linux port, good riddance to it! Glad to hear you like shotwell though.

Yes, now that I've explored it further, I'm very happy with it.:guitar:

[Lucradia]

<< Would rather have GIMP over shotwell.

[badaveil]

<< Would rather have GIMP over shotwell.

I won't argue that GIMP is more powerful but I prefer starting off with Shotwell coz I'm lazy :biggrin:

[gcshum]

Curiously, can Shotwell upload photos to picasaweb?

[william_nbg]

Gimp is my all time favorite application and part of the reason I switched to Linux. But that's work stuff. I want something quick a can sort out the million holiday pictures my girlfriend takes and send off 12, via email, to the folks back home, without a lot of messing around.

[badaveil]

Curiously, can Shotwell upload photos to picasaweb?

All I do know is that under Shotwell preference, there is a plugin to select for Picasa web album

[danbuter]

Shotwell should be the default picture viewer in all distros, imo. It's a great program.

GIMP is great for editing pics. It takes way too long to open to use as a quick picture viewer, though.

[dawiba]

I want something quick a can sort out the million holiday pictures my girlfriend takes and send off 12, via email, to the folks back home, without a lot of messing around.

Can you tell me how you manage to send pictures by email from Shotwell?

I'd like to be able to do this, but don't see how I can do it from Shotwell, in the way that I can from F-Spot.

[william_nbg]

True: Shotwell doesn't email as easy as F-spot, or Picasa, but quick batch resizing is the greatest problem for emailing. And this you can do fairly easy.

Just mark the photos you'd like to mail, go to file/export and change the scaling constraint setting however you like: I find between 400 and 600 pixil good for emails.

Save them somewhere and insert them into your mail.:)

[badaveil]

Shotwell should be the default picture viewer in all distros, imo. It's a great program.

GIMP is great for editing pics. It takes way too long to open to use as a quick picture viewer, though.

Agree :cool:

[mgmiller]

I just tried using shotwell for the first time. I don't think it can be used to print pictures. It insists on putting the name of the file on the bottom of the print. Useless if I want to frame a picture. If I'm just making proofs, then ok, put the file name on the print, but not the finished print suitable for framing. I googled around a lot about this and it seems this is a "feature" of the program that can't be turned off.

If someone can tell me how to stop this activity, I would appreciate it. For now, I'm back to using Picasa 3.0, which in natty, behaves a little oddly, but is still very usable, with a huge feature set of effects search tools and image tweaks. Far superior to any native Linux photo management application I have ever tried.

[eric-yorba]

Can you tell me how you manage to send pictures by email from Shotwell?

I'd like to be able to do this, but don't see how I can do it from Shotwell, in the way that I can from F-Spot.

It's super easy to e-mail from Shotwell.


Select the photos you want to send.
File -> Send To
Select the options you want (size, format, etc.)
Hit OK
Then select your e-mail program from the list


Ah, but what if your e-mail program isn't in the list? This is actually a bug in Ubuntu. The "send to" function relies on Nautilus, and there's a packaging bug that prevents it from seeing your e-mail program.

Solution to this for Natty is here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=10753508&postcount=5

[alphacrucis2]

I just tried using shotwell for the first time. I don't think it can be used to print pictures. It insists on putting the name of the file on the bottom of the print. Useless if I want to frame a picture. If I'm just making proofs, then ok, put the file name on the print, but not the finished print suitable for framing. I googled around a lot about this and it seems this is a "feature" of the program that can't be turned off.

If someone can tell me how to stop this activity, I would appreciate it. For now, I'm back to using Picasa 3.0, which in natty, behaves a little oddly, but is still very usable, with a huge feature set of effects search tools and image tweaks. Far superior to any native Linux photo management application I have ever tried.

Probably should file a bug or feature request upstream with yorba.org. It does seem pretty silly that you can't turn that off.

[bambam82]

Because of lack of integration into gnome with picasa i have put my parents to shotwell. It is much easier for them with importing pictures.

What I like about shotwell is the feature it writes the info to the files in exif format.

What i'm missing is a nice email function using gmail. Like picasa has.
Also I have almost all my photos tagged with face recognition. This makes the step really big to move to shotwell...

cheers

[NightwishFan]

Probably should file a bug or feature request upstream with yorba.org. It does seem pretty silly that you can't turn that off.

I think you can disable that by doing File -> Print | Image Settings -> Uncheck Print Image Title

[badaveil]

Also I have almost all my photos tagged with face recognition. This makes the step really big to move to shotwell... cheers

Personally, I do not think this is a good idea from a security aspect as it can be easily abused.

[tjeremiah]

Shotwell, in my opinion, is the best photo manager on LINUX. Much props to the developers.

[AlanR8]

gcshum

Yes it can export directly to Picasa web albums. Did just that last night.

[CreativeReach]

Love it as well! cant wait to see were yorba takes it!

[badaveil]

Shotwell, in my opinion, is the best photo manager on LINUX. Much props to the developers.

Since I now advocate Shotwell Photo Manager but didn't do much homework, I do like to know how you came to that powerful statement? What others did you compare if I may ask?

[Bazzz420]

Thanks a lot...i'm a new creature in linux galaxy and was founding the alternate of picasa...thanks for your information...shotwell is very good

[tjeremiah]

Since I now advocate Shotwell Photo Manager but didn't do much homework, I do like to know how you came to that powerful statement? What others did you compare if I may ask?

well, base on the ones I tried (Fspot and some other one that I cant remember) , shotwell just functioned better. From organizing your photos to displaying them, shotwell was just better.

[Yettie]

Curiously, can Shotwell upload photos to picasaweb?

Yes I use Shotwell 0.10.1 to upload to Picasaweb with no problems.