Kodak EasyShare Review. Kodak EasyShare is a video and photo cataloguer that allows you to organise your media files, tag them and even value them with stars. With Kodak EasyShare you can also edit your photos, delete red eyes, cut or add text. You can also share your photo albums online and print your favorite ones. Jan 11, 2016 - I am trying to install Kodak Easyshare software to my new laptop which runs. Photo editing software that IS compatible that I can download?
Kodak Liberates EasyShare Software
By MIKE PASINIEditor
The Imaging ResourceDigital Photography Newsletter
Review Date: December 2002
It's free at last. Kodak's EasyShare software for organizing, editing andsharing your images can now be downloaded free of charge (http://www.imaging-resource.com/cgi-bin/nl/pl.cgi?esy).
The dial-up download takes about an hour but the cable/DSL download is justminutes. Go figure. Versions of the software are available for Windows 98/2000/XPand Mac OS 8.x-9.x and OS X. The earlier Mac version is actually a suite ofthree applications. But you get the picture.
Details vary from one version to the other. We'll discuss the XP experiencehere since it's the full Monty, but we have screen shots of the more limitedOS X version's Viewer, Printat Home and Email tabs. OurXP screens shots are iconized here. Just click on them to see the full-sizedscreen shot.
INSTALLATION
The download performs an automatic installation. So be sure to disable Nortonor any anti-virus utilities before downloading and installing the package. Weknow of one case where havoc was wreacked by Norton during an EasyShare install,so this is not your usual disclaimer.
Apparently, you can't download the EasyShare XP automatic installer, burnit to a CD and share it. If you want EasyShare on CD, just order the CD version(http://www.kodak.com/go/shop).
After installation, a restart is required.
But even after the restart (for Windows), EasyShare still has a little workto do.
First EasyShare asks if you want to download the One-Touch print package tooptimize your prints on Kodak paper automatically. This consists of a softwareapplication and driver for your inkjet. A great many inkjets are supported,but they aren't all supported under each OS. The Web site will so inform you.
EasyShare surprised us with support for so many non-Kodak products. Printerswas just one example. Cameras (as USB storage devices) and online photofinishersare two others. If you think this give-away is just for Kodak products, thinkagain.
The next step is building an index of your images. EasyShare will automaticallylook in My Documents and My Pictures for images files.
INTERFACE
On XP, the interface is simple -- and that's saying something. Instead ofunreadable icons cluttering a window, there are four screens easily navigatedwith tabs on their left side that access EasyShare's four activities:
- My Collection lets you add images from your camera or otherdisks to the index. You can also rotate them. And you can even edit them,removing red-eye, for example.
- Print at Home turns images you select from your collectioninto prints on your printer. Using Kodak's One-Touch system, your inkjet printersettings are automatically optimized for glossy Kodak paper.
- Order Prints Online guides you through placing an onlineprint order.
- Email provides a simple form with fields for who is sendingthe image, who to send it to, what the subject is and a short message. Selectedimages are optionally resized on the fly, too.
Just below the buttons, reading left to right, are:
- A checklist of steps to perform for the selected task.
- The work or display area, and
- Thumbnails of any selected (active) images.
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That's the 'easy' part of EasyShare.
MY COLLECTION
To share something, you have to acquire it. EasyShare starts building yourcollection of images as soon as you launch it. And you can automatically addimages directly from your camera, if you like, or manually from any other source.
| Thumbnails |
| List View |
| Large Thumbnail |
Your collection is actually an index of your images, but the image itselfdoes have to reside on your hard drive to take advantage of EasyShare's otheroptions.
You can choose among three different views of your collection. A thumbnailview, a list view and a thumbnail with enlargement view.
The buttons available when My Collection is selected include Add Pictures,Edit Picture, Properties, Rotate, Zoom, Slide Show, Organize, Select All, DeselectAll and Help.
| Add Pictures |
Add Pictures lets you manually add images anywhere on your hard driveto the index, but after cataloging your existing images, you'll do this automaticallywhen transferring images from your digicam. As long as your camera functionsas a USB storage device, EasyShare is able to recognize it when you plug itinto the USB port. After EasyShare sees your digicam, it copies its picturesto your hard drive and synchronizes your digicam's clock to your computer.
| Edit Pictures |
Edit Picture provides another set of buttons to improve any particularimage. Those include Crop, Red Eye, Enhance, Brightness/Contrast, Exposure,Fun Effects, Rotate, Zoom and Help. Exposure darkens or lightens the image andFun Effects provides some quick special effects like Fish-eye. The other commandsdo just what you expect.
| Properties |
Properties displays some basic information about any image includingName, Caption, Date taken, Date acquired, Date modified, Format, File size,Picture size, File location and Keywords. No exposure information is provided.
| Keywords |
You can create keywords but even if you don't, EasyShare picks up the foldername as one. You can organize your keywords into Subject, Event, Location andOther categories, too. To apply a keyword, select the images that should betagged and click on the keyword's checkbox.
PRINT AT HOME
The Print at Home tab offers Setup, Options, Align Paper, Create To Do, GetPictures, Edit Picture, Select All, Deselect All and Help buttons.
| Just Click 'Print' |
The first three access your print driver options to configure the driver forphoto printing. You can also set some of these options from the main screenitself: paper size, paper type and print layout on the right. On the left, youcan set the number of copies to print of each image.
| One-Touch |
If you install Kodak's One-Touch print package, you can enable or disableit from the Options menu.
Create To Do introduces an interesting wrinkle. When you don't havetime to print or email your images, you can 'queue' the activity, setting areminder to do it later.
We printed images from EasyShare to a small dye-sub printer. It was remarkablysimple. Just select the image in My Collection, click Print at Home and thenclick on the large Print button at the end of the checklist.
ORDER PRINTS ONLINE
EasyShare excels at making the hard things easy. Navigating the Internet toprint photos online isn't as easy as printing a picture on your own printer.But EasyShare makes printing online as easy as printing at home.
Buttons include Setup, Create To Do, Get Pictures, Edit Picture, Select All,Deselect All and Help.
| Setup Comprehensive and simple |
Setup runs Kodak's Service Locator with a long list of online photofinishersto pick from. Pick any one to use the Order Prints Online tab. The default KodakEasyShare print service hooks you up with Ofoto, now owned by Kodak.
| Setting Quantity Just one way to do it |
After setting the quantity for each of your selected images, you proceed tothe order screen, which displays a thumbnail of your image, several print-sizeoptions with their cost and a field where you can adjust the quantity. An iconto the right of each print-size option indicates (green) if the image has sufficientresolution to make that large a print. The order total is displayed at the bottom,too.
| A Typical Order Screen Green icons confirm there's enough resolution for that size |
One of the more baffling tasks for many new digital photographers is how tosend their pictures by email. EasyShare handles this with uncommon grace. Itrequires only that you are already logged onto the Internet using your usualmethod.
Options on the Email tab are New Message, Create To Do, Get Pictures, EditPicture, Select All, Deselect All and Help.
| Emailing an Image |
Messages are very easy to create. EasyShare provides four fields to fill out:From (for your email address), To (for the recipient) with a button to accessEasyShare's address book, Subject (to tell them what you are sending) and Messageto write a short note to accompany your images.
Thumbnails of the images that will be sent with the message are displayedalong the right-hand side of those four fields and can be deselected or addedto.
Radio buttons on the left-hand side of the fields determine whether you sendthe large original file or EasyShare automatically resizes your images for email.We were easily able to resize and send a test image. And it even looked goodas a snappy 384x288-pixel image that was sharp, too.
| Address Book |
EasyShare's address book lets you addentries containing fields for Email address, Camera nickname (required ifyou store the email address in your Kodak camera), First name, Last name, Address1, Address 2, City, State, Zip code, Country and Phone number.
And that covers the 'share' part of EasyShare.
HELP
We were delighted to see the depth and detail of the EasyShare Help text.With a simple, straightforward interface, you might expect minimal explanationof what's going on behind the scenes. But Kodak spells everything out in theHelp system.
| The Help System Surprisingly Extensive and clearly written |
We don't think you'll need it but when you do, you really do. Outright, prolongedapplause to Kodak for doing it right.
PREFERENCES
You can set a few preferences to customize the way EasyShare behaves.
- General preferenceslets you set the quality level of the JPEGs EasyShare saves when you editan image.
- Transferpreferences lets you adjust the default 10-second Transfer Countdown windowdisplay (which you can disable by selecting 'no delay'). You can also deselectany camera EasyShare has recognized if you prefer it not automatically transferimages when you connect it in the future. You can set a directory other thanthe default 'My Documents/My Pictures/Kodak Pictures' here, too. And, finally,you disable EasyShare's synchronization of your camera's date and time withyour computer (on by default, which is a good idea, not only to deal withDaylight Savings time changes, but also when traveling).
- After Transferpreferences lets you select if print tagging on your camera indicates imagesshould be sent to your online photofinisher or printed at home. You can alsoset that to occur when the images are transferred or just have EasyShare putthe task on your To Do list. For cameras without print tagging, EasySharecan order prints of all the transferred images, print them all at home (optionallywithout preview) or do nothing. If your camera permits email tagging, youcan set EasyShare to email after the transfer or put emailing on your To Dolist.
- Proxy Settingspreferences let you set an HTTP proxy server address and send a user nameand password (for corporate environments).
CONCLUSION
EasyShare lives up to its name.
Installation was trouble-free, the main screen was uncluttered and comprehensible(which means you don't have to remember much), options were clearly laid outand convenient, performance was brisk and reliable -- and even the tough jobsof sharing your prints were easy.
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Not only does EasyShare make it easy for you to do things, but it makes iteasy for your printer, too, setting it for optimum photo output using Kodak'sOne-Touch print package.
The To Do list and Address Book are nice touches. And the image editing handlescommon editing tasks (like red-eye removal) with ease and even has a few funthings to try.
And you can't beat the price.
If you'd like an easier way to manage your photos after the fun of takingthem, take a look at EasyShare.