Last month it was announced that Picnik – the online photo editing software that Google bought in 2010 – was closed. No more could you enjoy the special tools it brought to the table like framing your pictures or adding ‘stickers’ (little clip art) or wrinkle removal, or shine-be-gone. Picnik fans were very disappointed.
Picnik is now Creative Kit
But wait … reports of Picnik’s death may have been greatly exaggerated! Have you noticed the extra 2 tabs of effects in Picasa 3.9? Most of those features were taken from Picnik. And, if you use Picasa Web Albums, or Google+ to share your photos online you have the online editing features called ‘Creative Kit.’ Creative Kit is Google’s reincarnation of Picnik – for Google photo products. They’ve reorganized it, streamlined it, and made it faster.
Picasa still includes ‘Edit in Picnik’
The surprising thing is that the Picasa desktop software still has an Edit in Picnik button – and it works! It sure looks exactly like Creative Kit to me (the 3 stars is the logo for creative kit), but all the labels still read ‘Picnik.’ So, if you have resisted upgrading to Picasa 3.9 because you didn’t want your ‘Edit in Picnik’ button to go away – fear not! It is still there, and it works better (faster) than ever. (5/17/12 note: I just downloaded the latest update to Picasa and the button now correctly reads “Edit in Creative Kit” – that’s build 136.02)
It doesn’t have all the features that Picnik had. For example, I know a lot of people liked the special redeye removal for furry friends – I can’t find that feature anymore. But, other things, like ‘Wrinkle removal’ have just changed names … it’s ‘airbrush’ now. And, ‘Teeth whitener’ may be gone, but you can accomplish the same thing with ‘Face Paint’ using the white color and a high level of transparency.
Try it – you’ll like it!
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6 Responses to “Is Picnik Really Dead?”
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Maybe you have mentioned this and I have missed it. But Picnik is alive and well and hiding. It now goes under the name of Ribbet. at http://www.ribbet.com My old Picnic sign in name and password worked although my pictures in their library had been erased. But I now can get a few of my favorite features that were missing on Creative Kit.
I wish the Clone tool was available in Picasa. It is very useful! I have to use Ribbet to access it.
Thanks for this update. I had hesitated even getting into Picnik because I’d heard it was going away. I just now went into it and was having a ball. I love taking my photos up an extra notch!
How much is it? can it be used with xp? thanks.
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