Google announced the availability of Picasa 3 for the Mac OS, Google’s free photo organizing and editing software.  The release coincides with the opening of the Macworld expo in San Francisco, where Google will have a booth open for demonstrations of Picasa 3 on the Mac.

After having downloaded it and tested it out myself, I can confirm that it does indeed look and operate pretty much the exact same way that it does on the other supported platforms (Windows and Linux).

Probably the best feature of Picasa 3: the retouching tool.  If you’ve ever used the Healing Brush in Adobe Photoshop, you’ll be instantly familiar with the way the retouching tool works: pick a brush size, click on an area that you want to fix, and then click on an area where you want the brush to sample from.  I found it to be generally more user friendly than the Healing Brush in Photoshop, although perhaps a bit less powerful.  But for most intents and purposes, the retouching tool in Picasa 3 can easily fix any minor blemishes in your digital photos.

Other great features that were in previous versions: the ability to auto-correct color, contrast and brightness, straighten photos, and crop.

[Google Picasa for Mac]

Filed under: Apple, Consumer Web