Free Kodak Software Helps Find, Organize, Fix and Share Photos
If you get a digital camera for Christmas or Hanukkah this year and start snapping away, you can accumulate hundreds or even thousands of digital pictures amazingly quickly. And even if a lot of them are fuzzy images of red-eyed relatives, you'll soon need a good way to find and organize them on your computer, and to easily touch them up, email them, upload them to the Web and print them.
You could use the software that came with the camera for some of this, but, in general, software created by hardware companies isn't very good. Since most people use Windows computers, they will likely just dump the pictures into the My Pictures folder that Windows provides. But this folder was never meant for true photo organizing.
If you use an Apple Macintosh, you're in much better shape, because Apple provides a very good built-in photo-organizing program called iPhoto. But iPhoto isn't integrated with any of the popular online photo sites that let you store and share pictures. And, of course, it's unavailable to the vast majority of people, who use Windows.
WALL STREET JOURNAL VIDEO
WSJ's Walt Mossberg says Kodak's free EasyShare software helps users find, fix, organize and share photos.However, there's a very nice photo-organizing program out there that's free, works on both Windows and Mac and is closely integrated with one of the best online photo sites. It brings most of the best features of iPhoto to Windows users, and for Mac users, it offers tight integration with a Web-based photo site.
This free software is called EasyShare, and it comes from Eastman Kodak, though you don't have to own a Kodak camera or printer to use it. It works with any brand of camera and printer to easily organize, email, print and touch up your pictures. And it's closely linked to Kodak's EasyShare Gallery online photo site, formerly called Ofoto, which is one of the best Web photo services and is free to use.
I've been testing EasyShare, on both a Windows and a Macintosh computer, and I like it. It's the exception to the rule that hardware companies can't create good software. EasyShare comes with all Kodak cameras and printers. Owners of other brands can download it by going to kodak.com and clicking on "Downloads & Drivers."
Photo-organizing programs are different from traditional photo-editing software like Adobe's Photoshop. Where traditional photo software is mainly about tweaking and perfecting your pictures, organizing programs are mainly about finding, arranging and sharing pictures, with a little light editing thrown in.
There are other popular Windows programs that aim to help you organize your pictures. Among the best known are Picasa, ACDSee and Corel Photo Album. Adobe had a good organizer called Photoshop Album, but it has since folded it into its editing-centric Photoshop Elements.
But most of these programs fall short of the combination of simplicity and power that Apple's iPhoto pioneered. They often require users to know too much about the Windows folder and file system. By contrast, EasyShare, like iPhoto, frees you from the file system, relying instead on its own system for organizing your pictures.
As in iPhoto, a key feature of EasyShare is the virtual album, which doesn't correspond to any folder on the hard disk. Any picture can appear in an infinite number of virtual albums without having to be copied or taking up extra harddisk space. For instance, a picture of Sally opening a Christmas gift in Providence, R.I., in 2005, could appear in albums called "Christmas," "Sally," "Providence trip," "2005" and so on.
EasyShare lets you burn CDs of your photos, easily email them to friends and print them in creative ways. It also has some very nice touch-up features, including a one-click fix function that previews changes by splitting the picture temporarily into "before" and "after" halves.
Kodak's EasyShare on Windows
The Windows and Mac versions of EasyShare look very different, but they share the same basic commands and about 95% of the features. The Windows version has a few editing features the Mac version lacks, including editing of uncompressed RAW photo files. The Mac version also has some things the Windows version lacks, such as automated backups and the ability to create "smart albums," which automatically gather up photos based on criteria you set in advance.
Once your photos are in virtual albums inside EasyShare, these albums can be uploaded to the online EasyShare Gallery. You can also designate pictures in any album as "favorites," and they can be automatically synchronized with a favorites collection online.
Obviously, this integration with the online site is a business strategy for Kodak: Once your pictures are stored on its online site, Kodak hopes you'll order prints and gifts made from them. But you don't have to join the site to use EasyShare, even though the program will nag you to do so. And if you do join, the Gallery is free and very useful. It provides a safe backup for your photos and a way to share them without emailing copies all around. Instead, you send emails from the software that offer links to the photos on the Gallery.
If you're getting a new digital camera or are just buried in pictures from an old one, Kodak EasyShare software is worth a try.
柯达软件助你管理照片
如果这个圣诞节或光明节（犹太纪念节日之一）你收到的礼物是个数码相机，并开始到处拍照，那你就会以惊人的速度积攒起几百张甚至几千张数码相片。即使其中很多是对焦模糊且没有经过防红眼处理的亲戚的照片，你也会很快需要一个好方法，来搜索、整理、简单编辑它们，然后或是将照片发送电子邮件，或是上传到网上和打印出来。
你可以利用数码相机附带的软件来实现上述部分功能，但一般来说，由硬件厂商开发的软件并不很管用。由于大多数人使用的是Windows操作系统，这些软件很可能把照片直接存进Windows的“我的图片”文件夹，但这个文件夹不能提供真正的照片管理功能。
如果你使用的是苹果(Apple)的Macintosh电脑，那情况会好很多，因为苹果电脑里内置了一个出色的照片管理软件叫iPhoto。但iPhoto没有与众多热门的网络相册站点整合起来，而且绝大多数人无法接触到该软件，因为他们使用的是Windows个人电脑。
好在另外还有一个很不错的照片管理软件可以免费使用，其兼容Windows和苹果操作系统，而且整合了最好的网络相册站点之一。该软件将iPhoto中的大多数优秀功能带给Windows用户；对苹果电脑用户来说，它能提供与网络相册站点之间的无缝连接。
这个免费软件的名字叫EasyShare，由伊士曼-柯达公司(Eastman Kodak)开发，不过没有柯达相机或打印机也能使用它。它适用于任意一款数码相机和打印机，能轻松整理、发送、列印和编辑照片，而且和柯达公司的EasyShare Gallery网络相册站点整合在一起，该站点之前的名字叫Ofoto，是最好的网络相册之一，而且完全免费。
我在Windows电脑和苹果电脑上都测试了EasyShare，它让我很是喜欢。这个软件是那条“硬件公司开发不出好软件”规律的特例。所有柯达相机和打印机都把它作为附赠软件，使用其他品牌的用户也可以在kodak.com网站的“下载和驱动”中下载到它。
照片管理软件和Adobe的Photoshop等传统照片编辑软件不同，传统的照片编辑软件主要是给照片加工润色，而照片管理软件的主要作用是寻找、整理和共享照片，并有一些简易的编辑功能。
也有其他一些流行的Windows软件可以帮你整理照片，如Picasa,、ACDSee和 Corel Photo Album等。Adobe公司也曾有一款不错的照片管理软件叫Photoshop Album，但后来并入了以编辑功能为主的Photoshop Elements软件中。
然而，这些软件大多无法像苹果公司的iPhoto那样集简单性和功能性于一体。它们经常要求用户对Windows系统的文件夹和文件管理体系有很深的了解。与此不同的是，EasyShare和iPhoto一样有一套自己的照片管理系统，使用户不需了解文件管理体系就能使用。
和iPhoto一样，EasyShare的核心功能之一就是虚拟相簿，它不与硬盘上的任何文件夹相对应，任一照片都能在不限数量的各种虚拟相簿中显示出来，无须将照片拷贝到不同的相簿中或占用额外的硬盘空间。举例而言，一张2005年萨利(Sally)在罗德岛打开圣诞礼物的照片，能在“圣诞”、“萨利”、“罗德岛”、“2005”等虚拟相簿中欣赏到。
EasyShare能让用户自己把照片刻录到CD上，轻松地以电邮方式发送给朋友，并以创意十足的方式列印出来。它还有一些出色的编辑功能，包括将照片临时分成“编辑前”和“编辑后”两部分，简单一按键就能预览修改后的照片。
Windows和Mac版的EasyShare外观很不一样，但基本命令和95%的功能都相同。Windows版的软件有一些Mac版没有的编辑功能，包括直接编辑未压缩的RAW照片文档；反之亦然，Mac版也有一些特有的功能，例如它有自动备份功能，并能根据预设条件创建自动收集照片的“聪明相簿”。
你的照片进入EasyShare的虚拟相簿后，这些相簿就可以上传到EasyShare Gallery上。你还可以将任意相簿设置为“最爱”，其内容就能自动更新到网络相册上。
显然，与网络相册的整合是柯达一种的商业策略：一旦你的照片被存储在网络相册上，柯达公司希望你能通过该站点列印照片或订购礼物。不过，虽然EasyShare会经常提醒你去加入网站，但不加入的话也能使用软件。使用免费的网络相册也很有用，因为能安全地备份照片；而且让朋友看照片时，不需通过电子邮件发送过去，只要发送网络相册的链结就可以了。
如果你很快就有一台新的数码相机，或正在埋头整理大量照片，那柯达的EasyShare软件值得你一试。
