In the quest to find free photo editing software, I have compiled a list of minimum requirements for the “Free software” category. Of course, in the paid category, more features would be required. The min-requirements list for your photo editing software should include: auto-scan, create album, join one picture to multiple albums, password protect pictures, fixes, basic editing, sharing, printing, and backup.


Auto-scan should be able to scan your entire computer hard drive for pictures and catalog them in a generic fashion such as date. This will then free you up to do the creative part of categorizing them instead of the tedious part of finding them!

Album creation is just tagging your pictures into a collection by name. This name is your album name. It’s that simple.

You should be able to join one picture to multiple albums because pictures are multi-dimensional. You may take a picture of a flower in South Dakota and file it in the “South Dakota trip” album; however, later you build a “Flowers” album and now you need to store that same picture in the “Flowers” album also. You don’t want to use up disk space with multiple copies of the picture you just want to set two references to it. That is the power of joining one picture to many albums.

Password protecting is always a good feature for your photo album. There are pictures that mean a lot to you but you want it to stay private. You could have pictures of the placement of valuables that are hidden but you want to have pictures to help you find them again if you forget. This is just one application of password-protecting pictures.

Fixes are the features that allow you to make it fast and easy to crop, remove red eye, fix the contrast and color, and enhance your digital pictures.

Basic editing encompasses the ability to add visual effects, add captions, zoom, and tilt.

You should be able to share you pictures with your photo editing software. You should be able to send them via email, publish them to the web on your own website. You should be able to make slideshows or move them to your iPod.

Printing is self explanatory. If your photo editing software can’t print your pictures to a nice and expensive photo paper to keep or share in hard copy form, you’re limited…very limited.

Your photo editing software should also give you a convenient way to backup your pictures. You need to be able to keep them safe in a location other than your local drive.

What is my specific recommendation for free photo editing software? It is Picasa. Click the Google Pack Button below and install a copy for yourself plus the other goodies that come with it called Google Pack.

Free Photo Editing Software

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