Download the gallery program for Android. Changing the default image gallery for Android. The best gallery app for Android

Storing photos has never been so convenient. Keep them always at hand in a convenient form, edit and share them! Experience special features with well-designed galleries on Android.

Every person who owns a modern mobile device prefers to capture special moments with the camera of his gadget. After all, it is not only high-quality and fast, but also convenient. At any moment you can return to the photographs you took and re-experience the moments in which they were taken. It's unforgettable! Pros mobile camera too many to count, but the method of storing photos in galleries will seem inconvenient to many and lacks sufficient functionality. Firmware developers are in no hurry to pay due attention to this. But active user wants to see everything in a convenient form, this is why third-party galleries on Android were created and continue to be improved. We have compiled a review of 5 galleries with pictures that clearly show ease of use. With them, even the most demanding user will be completely satisfied!

5. Photo gallery and Album (Download)

A convenient and free alternative to the built-in gallery. Storing photos has become even more reliable, and viewing is faster. But it would be no different from the usual one if it didn’t allow you to correct photos using professional tools and share them with friends in a couple of clicks. Main advantages of the application:

1. Support for everyone popular formats images. Display up to 1000 pictures in a few seconds. It takes 3 seconds to find the desired photo;
2. View the album as a slide show in high quality, 3D effect and the highest realism;
3. Editing, full control photographs, installation as a screensaver on your desktop;
4. Friendly app design, good optimization for all phones and tablets;
5. Share pictures on social networks, send them by mail in a matter of seconds.

4. A plus Gallery (Download)

Gallery for Android owners combined with the style and stability of the iPhone is a great replacement for the stock option. The application has a stylish and youthful design creative person. Just the appearance of the program already gives good mood all day. In this gallery, even previously unsuccessful photos seem great! It is convenient to work with a huge amount pictures, nothing will be hidden from your eyes. And now, first things first:

1. Elegant design from iPhone. At detailed comparison Only the smallest details differ from the original;
2. Synchronize photos with other devices, copy to Amazon cloud drive, Dropbox, Facebook;
3. Watching videos has become much easier. Immerse yourself in a highly optimized video feed and enjoy every second;
4. Create and organize albums by title and date. Attaching a photo to a specific place on the map - you will remember every moment;
5. Recover from the cloud by mistake deleted photos in 2 seconds.

3. MyRoll Gallery (Download)

This gallery was included in the top 100 most popular applications all over the world due to high user recognition. This gallery will relieve you of long search the necessary photos and will help you organize them correctly. The developers take into account all the wishes of users! The application is based on a smart function that learns itself and ultimately creates a unique type of gallery for you personally. You've hardly seen anything like this, but there is whole line basic advantages:

A very practical program from all sides that can easily replace the standard gallery on any device. You can finally put things in order in your media library, make it simple and functional. The application doesn't really represent the usual way storing images and videos, as well as good opportunities to work with them. Appreciate the 3D appearance of the gallery, unrivaled ease of management and processing of any image. The program is suitable for devices with average characteristics and higher, since its operation places a serious load on the processor and video memory. If you like 3D mode, then feel free to download this gallery. It also contains:

1. Clear adjustment of animation speed and image quality. Customize the application to your taste and viewing style;
2. Correct support for animation in GIF format;
3. Don't want someone to view your photos and videos without your knowledge? Hide an entire album and don't worry about protecting it from prying eyes.

1. QuickPic Gallery (Download)

If we talk about galleries on Android, then it’s simply impossible not to mention QuickPic. Everyone loves him, regardless of their place of residence and language. Take your photos under full control, no matter how many there are. The application has a pleasant and powerful interface, as well as excellent user support. They come out periodically useful updates, the project does not stand still and is developing. Main advantages:

1. Modern design and colorful design themes. User interface will not leave anyone indifferent, beautiful effects will create a unique look for you;
2. High-quality optimization for any device and instant viewing of thousands of photos. Supports special gestures and complete absence advertising;
3. High level of confidentiality, protect your data 100%;
4. Quick creation backup copies and recovery of deleted images. Store photos on cutting-edge Amazon S3 servers;
5. Convenient file management features. All operations are done with one click.

Dear readers! If you have any questions or comments on the topic of the article, please leave them below.

To view photos on Android smartphones, use the image gallery. The standard gallery supports formats such as: JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP and WebP. But, often, the functions of the standard gallery are not enough for users. If you need additional modes viewing images, reading metadata, supporting cloud services and other functions, you can always install an alternative image gallery. In this article we will talk about the best of them.

Navigation

• For those of you who have large collection photos on cloud services, the best solution would be to install the JustPictures multi-platform viewer! This long-lived application, which was used on smartphones running Android 1.5, can be used to view local images (in the device memory or on a memory card), as well as those stored on: Tumblr, OneDrive, Flickr, Deviant Art , Smugmug
• After installing the program and launching it for the first time, an interface will open where you can add image storage locations. The second and subsequent launches of the program, the main interface will by default show photos uploaded in chronological order. But, the display mode can be changed by name, tags and file size
• Tags for photos can be entered manually, either individually or in batches. You can add date, geotags and other data to a photo
• In the JustPictures gallery! The developer was able to make file management quite comfortable. When you select a photo, a context menu opens where you can select the functions of deleting, moving, editing tags, etc. In addition to basic actions with files, you can send them to friends via Email and MMS. But today it’s unlikely that anyone will use these functions if there are instant messengers
• Synchronization with “clouds” and image hosting sites is well implemented. Directly from this application you can search for photos by tags, title
• Unlike other galleries and file managers at JustPictures! You cannot select a file shortcut with a long press. When you upload photos to your accounts, the program itself will be able to track updates and index new files
• JustPictures app! This is a simple and convenient image gallery with the ability to integrate with cloud services. But, at the time of writing this review, the application could not be found on the Play Market. Although it is present on third-party catalogs

• Unlike JustPictures! QuickPic gallery is present in the Play Market. And, as the rating shows, it is one of the most popular utilities for Android smartphones and tablets. This application easily combines an organizer and an image editor. And, what is very important today, it is synchronized with cloud services
• QuickPic app supports standard files images, GIF animations and video files. In viewing mode, you can choose to display in a list, grid, or gallery view. This application has a very convenient explorer, thanks to which managing your photo library is very easy and convenient
• A great feature of QuickPic is hiding unused images. Initially, after indexing, this gallery will show all the images. If you do not want covers of music albums, books and some other images to be displayed in it, you can simply turn them off
• If you have a very large library of files, then in order for the application to work quickly and without freezing, you can activate the cache for preview images in the settings. For protection purposes personal information You can set a password for media files. After which they will become hidden from public access. But, you need to understand that if this application is deleted from the device’s memory, then the hidden files will again become visible to everyone who gains access to the device
• In QuickPic, you can view EXIF ​​information (geotags, format, etc.), and some data (date, etc.) can be edited.
• This alternative image gallery allows you to sort, rename, copy and move files. It is possible to create and work with folders, as well as the function of transferring files via Wi-Fi
• All currently popular portals Google Drive, Flickr, Dropbox, OneDrive and Google Photo are supported from cloud services and photo hosting sites. But simple integration with social networks not currently available in QuickPic

• In F-Stop Media, you can display photos on the screen in a list, expanded list, grid, or large thumbnails. You can sort photos in this application by name and date. If folders are displayed, then by the number of images in them
• A great feature of F-Stop Media Gallery is the creation of smart albums. To do this, you can select folders that should be combined into an album. You can add and remove subdirectories within folders, as well as combine photos by date, tags and other parameters
• Like QuickPic, this application has a file protection feature. Using a password, you can block the display of folders. However, you cannot separately prohibit viewing files. And the defense, to put it mildly, is very shaky. When you uninstall the application, the folders become visible again
• In F-Stop Media Gallery you can perform actions on files standard operations: deleting, copying, etc. By long pressing on a file you can activate batch operations
• This gallery does not have its own image editor. But, it can be used as a shell for other programs. Including external editors

• This dedicated alternative gallery for Android allows you to store your photos securely using 128-bit AES encryption. Also, the protective function of the application is to automatically go into sleep mode when there is no activity.
• Files hidden using this application will not be accessible through the main gallery. And in order to unlock them you need to go to Secure Gallery - Gallery Lock and remove the password from the files. But, as is the case with other alternative galleries, when you uninstall the application, protected photos will again become visible through the main gallery
• In all other respects, except for file protection, the functionality of this gallery is quite limited. It is possible to view photos, and that’s probably all. You cannot move, delete or copy files

Gallery KK - Gallery ICS

Gallery KK - Gallery ICS application is an improved version of the standard gallery Android KitKat. The main feature of this gallery is the built-in photo editor with the ability to apply quick filters. In addition, in such an editor you can crop the image and rotate it. It is possible to draw and trim videos.

Gallery KK - Gallery ICS has a well-implemented sorting of images by albums, meta tags, geopoints, etc.

Another alternative gallery that has many interesting features: file sharing, photo organizer, personalization, etc. The main function of MyRoll is to show “moments”, that is, display photos by date. At the same time, such “moments” can be edited, covers applied to them, exported to Facebook, sent by email, etc.

Cyanogen Gallery

For lovers of all kinds of bells and whistles, Photo Gallery 3D & HD will appeal to you. This 3D alternative gallery for Android devices has many interactive features. It supports many formats, including those that are not supported by the operating system kernel.

In the editor of this gallery you can crop and rotate the image. But otherwise, the functionality of the Photo Gallery 3D & HD application is not very rich.

Pictures

The main features of the Piktures image and video viewer are its great support for gestures. The user can also resize images and sort photos into folders. It is worth noting the output of images with vertical rewind. Photos can be displayed by time or by shooting location.

Images can be sent to your Facebook accounts and WhatsApp, as well as by GMail. There is no built-in editor, but the application supports external image editors.

Video. QuickPic - Gallery for Android

The standard image gallery for Android 4.x successfully copes with the task assigned to it - viewing images. Supported by default following formats, built into the OS kernel: JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, WebP (according to multimedia formats).

Another thing is that this gallery does not fully meet the needs of users. If you put forward increased requirements for viewing images, they will sound like this:

• Viewing Images: Additional Viewing Modes and Categorization Methods
• Availability of additional (including batch) file operations
• Reading metadata, working with tags
• Online functions: support for social and cloud services
• Editing (although, in principle, specialized applications are intended for these purposes)

We will dwell on these possibilities in more detail. For detailed review Three galleries were selected - they have a relatively complete range of functions. In addition, we cannot fail to mention the other image galleries listed in the “Worth Seeing” section.

JustPictures! - multiplatform viewer standard formats images and organizer for Android OS 1.5 and higher. The product primarily stands out due to its integration with cloud and social services. Their list is quite wide: Picasa, Flickr, Smugmug, Photobucket, Deviant Art, Imgur, MediaRSS, Windows Live, Tumblr and others. JustPictures Gallery! undemanding to firmware (Android 1.6>) and works on older devices.

Viewing Images

After launching the program, the user is taken to the interface for adding local records and online services. On home page local account files are displayed in chronological order: last 7 days, 30 days, 90, etc. The sorting order can be changed - by name, keywords(tags) and size. There are no display modes for thumbnails other than a vertical list.

Metadata support

As already mentioned, in JustPictures! Navigation by tags is available. They can be added manually through the context menu of the selected elements - in individual and batch mode.

In addition to the set date, you can use information from the image metadata (if there is EXIF ​​in the file).

Also JustPictures! allows you to specify the location of a photo, search for coordinates on a mini- and enlarged map - both for the image and for the album.

File operations

Managing files through the gallery is quite convenient. When selecting elements, in context menu The following operations are available: selecting, deleting, moving, editing marks and transforming. For batch mode, you can also use the corresponding menu option. In addition to basic file operations, it is worth noting the downloading and transfer of files via MMS or Email.

What’s unusual is that in JustPictures! You cannot select a file with a long press; you must activate batch mode. Very supported limited set gestures, which does not affect convenience for the better.

Online functions

Speaking about integration with web services, first of all you should pay attention to batch and individual uploading of images to Picasa, Facebook, Flickr, Smugmug, Photobucket and Imgur hosting.

Another "plus" sharing JustPictures accounts! - the ability to search across several accounts simultaneously (by titles, tags, etc.). The search takes into account tags from Picasa, Flickr, Smugmug, Tumblr and Deviant Art.

And finally, the third aspect of integration is tracking updates for connected services (except Flickr and Photobucket).

However, no matter how attractive the online opportunities are, in practice the user is faced with an inconvenient interface for connecting accounts. It’s quite difficult to log in through the login manager, but latest version JustPictures (at the time of review) adding an account was not available at all.

Editing

JustPictures Editor! does not differ in any features. Move, delete and rotate available local files. Using the editor for more complex photo processing (applying filters, drawing) will not work.

According to statistics Google Play, QuickPic is one of the most famous alternative galleries for Android OS 2.0 and above. Combines the functions of an organizer and graphic editor. Similar to JustPictures!, QuickPic allows you to connect cloud services.

QuickPic works with a standard list of formats, with some features: in particular, it can display GIF animation and standard video files. For transparent photos, an alpha channel (transparency layer) can be specified.

Viewing Images

There are only three viewing modes: gallery, grid and list. In addition to this, the menu has an “Explorer” option - viewing file paths directly in the viewer window. At the same time, thumbnails of folders are also available, convenient for viewing nested elements. All this contributes easy navigation And quick control files.

By default, all images found on the map are available to the user. For greater convenience and quick search, you can include only the folders specified for display and, accordingly, hide unused ones.

In the QuickPic sidebar, you can switch to viewing grouped by directory or date - it is often easier to find photos from the camera by viewing in chronological order.

It is worth noting convenient control“iPhone style”: you can move and flip through images, change the scale with a single or double click, at the user’s discretion.

It was noticed that sometimes viewing photos in QuickPic occurs with slight freezes, but in the settings you can enable the cache for thumbnails - this allows you to speed up the full-screen display of images.

To protect confidential data, QuickPic provides password protection. By setting a master password, the user can create a protected area in the device memory - images will be hidden from public access. The corresponding option is located in QuickPic settings under the name “Protect hidden folders”. However, this protection is very unreliable: it can be removed by simply uninstalling or deleting the application.

Metadata support

QuickPic reads the geodata of the image, and you can view the coordinates on the map. In the file details, all EXIF ​​information about the file is available for viewing: resolution, camera, format, shooting date. If you need to correct the file date, you can use the context menu and overwrite the data from EXIF. This action applies only to individual files; i.e., changing the date in batch mode will not work.

When working with web services, you can also view metadata: shooting date, location, file format, etc.

File operations

The QuickPic menu contains standard commands file management - sorting, renaming, creating folders, copying and moving images. From batch operations it is noteworthy group renaming by mask.

When devices are detected on the network, file transfer via WiFi is available, with the ability to monitor the queue.

Online functions

Cloud capabilities of the application - viewing photos for accounts Google posts Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive. I was also pleased with the support of specialized photo hosting sites: Picasa, Flickr, 500px. Integration with social services like Facebook is not provided.

While viewing images on the server, you can switch between a grid and a list, and sort files by name and date. In the case of cloud services, selective synchronization is provided.

And although the choice of web services is not as wide as in JustPictures!, there are no problems with authorization in QuickPic. It’s easy to add an account for the selected service - and in the future it will be displayed in the sidebar navigation.

Editing

There is a camera button available in the corner of the QuickPic gallery. It was expected that after shooting it could be applied to the photo quick effects. But the only thing possible action here is to take a photo and return to the gallery.

The functions of the graphics editor built into QuickPic include vertical and horizontal reflection, cropping, and changing resolution. In general, you should use specialized editors for editing, which will be discussed in the next issue.

F-Stop Media Gallery is an organizer and viewer of standard formats for Android 4.0 and higher. The free version of the application displays advertisements.

Viewing Images

To view photos in the gallery, there are 4 display modes - grid, list, expanded list and large thumbnails. The grid and expanded list show folders with attached files as thumbnails. In list mode, you can see the creation date and location of files. Large thumbnails are arranged in columns on the screen. And although the latter mode is not as informative, it will be useful when working on a tablet.

You can sort files by name, modification date, and number of files (in the case of folders).

Used for quick navigation side panel. You can add quick links to it using the folder's context menu. Single files can only be added to favorites.

In addition to folders, F-Stop allows you to create albums and smart albums. In the first case, we're talking about O manual addition files into the created directory, in the second - you can select specific folders by including or excluding subdirectories from them. The album will be automatically filled with photographs that meet the specified criteria taken from EXIF ​​(date of shooting, tags, ratings, etc.).

A useful feature identical to QuickPic is secure storage. The principles of restricting access are the same: a master password is set, folders are added to a special area.

In principle, this protection is formal and tied to QuickPic. In addition, the adding interface itself is not implemented perfectly: for example, you cannot install protection through the context menu or for an individual file.

Metadata support

Regarding metadata, the most interesting things in F-Stop Media Gallery are tags and ratings (from 1 to 5) - they can be saved directly to JPG or external file, after which you can view images grouped by the specified tags. Moreover, each image can have several tags assigned to it.

In addition, the Media Gallery can retrieve information from EXIF, XMP, and IPTC metadata.

File operations

The gallery context menu contains standard file operations plus commands related to metadata (which are mentioned above). It is convenient to perform batch operations in the gallery - just select files with a long press and select the required operation.

Online functions

Media Gallery does not provide any online functionality. Sharing to popular applications (such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Dropbox, Picasa, Skitch, Evernote, Google+) is available through the Android system menu.

Editing

The application does not have its own image editor, but export to other programs, including external editors, is possible.

Summary

The gallery is convenient as an organizer: display options are available, sorting is available, and EXIF ​​meta tags are supported. Together with extensive web integration, the application allows you to upload files to connected services. Disadvantages include inconvenient adding of accounts and poor support for gestures.

It can be offered as a replacement for the standard gallery - with expanded support for gestures, informative display modes, and web integration. The integration is quite convenient for viewing account photos. To complete the functions, it lacks the ability to download files to the phone’s memory and upload from the device to the server (as is implemented in JustPictures!).

We can advise users who are interested in image display settings, categorization by tags, albums and ratings. The gallery gives the most details about metadata, allowing you to make changes to them. Integration with web services is not implemented here - which, given such a set of functions, is not a significant drawback.

Worthy of attention

Secure Gallery - Gallery Lock

Gallery specialized in storage confidential information with the ability to set a password (with 128-bit AES encryption). Among the security options, it is worth noting the automatic transition to sleep mode (in the event that the user forgot to exit the application), as well as the absence of any visible traces of activity.

As a result, photos and videos will be hidden - at least from the list in the main gallery. To access closed files no need to perform many manipulations: unlocking is carried out in 3 clicks. True, similar to galleries with the function password protection, the action of Gallery Lock is limited to the scope of the application itself, and the password can be easily removed by uninstalling the gallery.

The application has a very ascetic set of functions; file operations and other viewer features are not available here.

Gallery KK - Gallery ICS

Improved version of the official gallery for Android KitKat. Notable Feature- the presence of a photo editor with the ability to use quick filters, which can be useful when processing photos from a smartphone or tablet camera. In the editor you can rotate the image, crop it, draw any figure. Gallery KK even offers “editing” - video trimming.

In the application settings, you can specify the thumbnail display mode (number of columns for landscape and portrait display), sorting (by name and date). Thanks to the support of meta tags, it is also possible to view images by albums, places, dates, and other parameters.

Other features: Gallery KK allows you to determine the size and color of thumbnails and quickly hide unnecessary folders.

MyRoll Gallery comes with many cool features, including photo organizer, personalization, file sharing, and device discovery.

The main feature of Flayvr that makes the application stand out from the background is the display of “moments” in the timeline. Essentially, it's a way of organizing photos by date, similar to Facebook's timeline. Moments can be edited (change cover, location), add them to favorites. Export is provided - creating an album on Facebook, sending by email, providing a link to the publication.

This Cyanogen add-on is included in the same Android firmware. The main feature of the gallery is cloud synchronization. The following photo storage services are supported: Flickr, Picasa, Dropbox and Facebook.

The second feature and advantageous difference from the standard Android gallery is smart folders. Their filling depends on user installed filters based on image metadata. Thus, thanks to smart folders, you can conveniently organize your collection without resorting to manual sorting.

Finally, the third distinctive feature of Cyanogen Gallery is the use of quick filters and the creation of photo frames in the editor.

Photo Gallery 3D & HD is a 3D gallery for Android. It is notable precisely because, due to flexible controls, it gives the photo gallery greater interactivity. In addition, lovers of effects and “pretty” will like it.

In terms of supported formats, the list includes BMP, JPEG, GIF, PNG, PCX, TIFF, WMF, ICO and TGA - some of which, it may be noted, are not included in the Android kernel.

Photo Gallery has an editor with a set of simple actions: cropping and rotating the image. In this regard, the application does not live up to the standard gallery.

Pictures - Photo Album Gallery

Pictures - free viewer images and videos for Android platforms 4.0 and higher. Available: wide support for gestures, resizing pictures, hiding albums, several viewing modes. Separately, it is worth noting the calendar display with vertical scrolling. Piktures reads meta tags - so you can view photos by location (filter by city).

Regarding social functions, sending files via GMail, Facebook and WhatsApp is available.

Editing photos in Piktures is only possible through an external editor, but you can resize images using profiles (VGA, HD, Full-size).

And again we publish you another “Our selection” of applications, and this time we will tell you about alternative galleries for Android. In our reviews, we try to look at the most popular and high-quality copies, talk about the pros and cons of each, and compare them with each other.

Today's review of the most popular applications for viewing images includes: QuickPic, Monte Gallery, F-Stop Media Gallery, Gallery KK - Gallery ICS And Carousel.

QuickPic

Monte Gallery

Monte Gallery– most likely the most functional alternative gallery that can be found in Google Play. Convenient organization of control elements, as well as automatic sorting into various categories will prevent you from getting confused in your own images. You can sort by: shooting time, date, location. In addition, if necessary, you can create your own filter.

Also, when viewing an image, you can add a “tag” to it, a small description, both text and audio (unusually), move the image to an album, or even edit it altogether, adding several built-in effects, changing brightness, adding contrast, or simply add a frame around the photo.

After creating an album, you can set a password on it, which is a good feature of the program, because you don’t always want someone to admire your personal life. In addition to the above functions, the Monte Gallery application received user-friendly interface, in which it is impossible to get confused, and its use cannot but delight.

The application is distributed in Google Play just on on a paid basis, and you can buy it for $1.29.

Pros:

• User-friendly interface;
• Enough fast work applications;
• Lots of settings;
• Built-in mini image editor.
• Calendar.

Minuses:

• Lack of Russian language.

F-Stop Media Gallery

F-Stop Media Gallery – good tool to view images and video files on your device, which may be a good replacement QuickPic. The application has a very clear and structured interface and boasts of its functionality.

If we take into account the general functionality of the application, we can highlight three main features: convenient viewing images and video files, a structured interface with the Russian language and the ability to set a password, both for entire folders and for individual files. Once you have set a password for a photo, it stops being displayed in all galleries on your smartphone, be it a standard gallery or an alternative.

In addition to the above functionality, the application has the ability to create special albums that are different from the rest. The differences are that the pictures taken will be automatically placed in this album if they contain certain parameters, for example, rating, shooting date, or even a tag.

Application F-Stop Media Gallery distributed in two versions. The free version differs from the full version by the presence of advertising, and the lack of the ability to create “subfolders”. That is, create an album within an album, I really don’t think that this function can be called vital.

Pros:

Gallery KK - Gallery ICS– a gallery that will be familiar to all Android 4.0 owners. To a large extent, there is no point in installing this gallery for owners of Android 4.0 and higher because it is completely identical to the standard gallery used in new versions of the operating system Android systems. But if your device operates at lower Android versions, and you really liked the gallery, then you can easily download and install this application.

As for the functionality, there is nothing new or unusual here. We can also view photos, videos, edit images using the built-in editor, and share the results with friends via social networks.

I would like to note the high and smooth speed of operation Gallery KK - Gallery ICS. The only unpleasant thing about this gallery is the presence of an advertising banner that remains even when viewing a photo. Otherwise, there simply cannot be any complaints about the program’s performance.

Pros:

• Convenient, familiar interface;
• Built-in mini-editor.

Minuses:

• There is no convenient sorting;
• The presence of an advertising banner that can be disabled only for money.

Carousel

Result:

To summarize, I would like to say that all the applications presented in today’s review are worthy of the maximum rating and can be used on your devices. In my opinion, the best of the presented ones is precisely Monte Gallery, but the choice will be yours in any case.

The Windows Live Photo Gallery graphics editor is included with core Windows components. To work with images on a computer you need special program, to work with graphic files. In core Windows components, this program is Photo Album.

Included in the supply of the operating room Windows systems 7 does not include Photo Album, Film Studio and a number of other programs.

These free programs can be downloaded from the center Microsoft downloads. They are part of a software package called Basic Windows components Live.

You can download them completely free of charge as part of the entire package, or by selecting only some programs to download. When downloading, the copy of your operating system will be verified as authentic.

You can download Windows Live core components from trial period using a copy of the operating system.

I have already reviewed the package Windows programs Live Essentials on the page. Download the Windows Live core components here, when installing on your computer, select necessary components, among them Photo Album.

You shouldn't expect any features from this program. Adobe Photoshop. For most novice users, for the first time, it is quite suitable. Let's move on to an overview of the main functions of the Windows Live Photo Album program.

Key features of Windows Live Photo Gallery

When launching Photo Album for the first time operating system selects it as the default photo viewer. To do this, you need to agree with the proposed choice or refuse it. A photo album combines all your photos on your computer into a single gallery.

By default, the program indexes photos from the Documents folder. Photos will be sorted by month and year of shooting.

The program has a ribbon interface and when switching between tabs, you can select the appropriate tab to work with your photos.

In order to add photos and video files to the Photo Album, if they are stored elsewhere, click on the “File” menu. In the context menu, click on the “Include folder” item.

In the new window “Paths to the “Images” library”, click on the “Add...” button. In the Explorer window, select a folder with photos, select the folder, and then click on the “Add Folder” button. In the “Paths to the Images Library” window, click on the “OK” button.

The folder with photos has been added to the Photo Album. All photos from this folder are sorted in the main Photo Album window by date of shooting.

To remove a photo from the Photo Album, select the desired photo, right-click on it and select “Delete” in the context menu (or in the “Edit” tab, click on the corresponding icon).

Please note that the photo will be deleted not only from the Windows Live Photo Album program, but also from the computer to the Trash. To delete a folder only from the Photo Album, select the “Delete from Photo Album” context menu item. Individual photos and folders can simply be dragged from their location into the Photo Album window.

Let's look at some of the features of this program. Photos and videos can be imported from a camera or scanner by clicking the “Import” button. From the File menu, photos and video files can be sent to Print or burned to a CD or DVD.

Edit photos in Windows Photo Gallery

In the “Edit” tab, by clicking on the “Auto-Correct” button, you can make automatic setup selected photo. By selecting the appropriate menu item, you can crop a photo, retouch it, get rid of red-eye, add effects, adjust lighting, resize photos and perform other necessary actions.

If you are not satisfied with the result of the editing, then you can click on the “Return to original image” button to undo the changes you made to the photo. If you click on the close file button, the photo will be saved with all the changes you made while editing it.

Photos can also be sorted using tags. To do this, in the “Edit” tab, by clicking on the “Tag and Title” button, you can select the appropriate item in order to then easily find this photo by tag.

You can make the photo you select as the “Desktop” background, send the photo to cloud storage files, to YouTube video hosting and to some social networking sites.

The photo can be sent by e-mail through mail program Microsoft (it is possible to change the image size), in Writer Blog Editor for further publication on a website, in Windows Live Movie Studio.

Create a panorama in Windows Photo Gallery

In order to create a panoramic photograph, you first need to have several combined photographs taken from one place.

If such photos are available, then to create a panorama you need to go to the “Create” tab, and then select and select several combined photos. Selected and highlighted pictures should be arranged in order from left to right.

After that, click on the “Panorama” button. The “Panoramic Photo Combination” window appears. After the process is completed, in the Explorer window, select a save location (if the photo is in this album under this name, it will take the place of the original photo), give a name to this file and click on the “Save” button.

A panoramic photo appears in the program window. Now you need to edit the photo to remove the black bars located along the edges of the photo.

To do this, click on the “Crop” button. Here you can choose the crop proportions (Custom Mode is selected by default).

A rectangular grid appears on the photo, and you are in manual mode determine the final size of the panorama by moving the grid at the marked points according to your size. After that, click on the “Crop” button, and in the context menu click on the “Apply crop” item.

After that, double-click on the photo, the changes to this photo are saved. Now you can see the resulting panorama (view from Mount Mashuk).

Create a collage in Windows Photo Gallery

To create a collage, you need photographs of the same type, taken from the same point, with the same lighting. Find such photos, select them, and then in the “Create” tab, click on the “Collage” button.

The program begins to align the photos. In the next window, by moving the rectangle along the selected points, you determine the size of the place in the photo that you want to change and select the best option from the proposed options.

To edit a photo, go to the “Edit” menu, and then click on the “Crop” button. Use the rectangular grid to set the size of the photo. Click on the “Crop” button, and in the context menu select the “Apply crop” item.

In the image we see the edited final version of our collage.

Selecting a Slide Show Theme

To select a slide show theme, go to the “Home” tab, and then after clicking on the “Slide Show” button, in the context menu you can select a theme from those offered to you: “Shift and Zoom”, “Modern”, “Cinematic”, “ Disappearance", "Black and White", "Sepia".

After clicking on the corresponding context menu item, a slide show starts showing on the monitor screen. You can select any image in a folder, and after pressing the “F12” button on the keyboard, the display of all images from this folder will begin.

When showing a slideshow, you can choose themes with different visual effects for transitions between photos. You can also create a slideshow movie from your photo collection.

Additional tools

Windows Live Photo Album cannot convert images from one format to another, create ready-made web galleries, or send video files and photos directly to blogs.

In the Create tab when you click on the button Additional tools", in the context menu there are items to launch Microsoft programs Research Cliplets, which can be used to create “live” photos, and Microsoft Image Composite Editor, which is a more advanced program for creating panoramic images.

You can launch these free programs from the Photo Album if you have previously installed these programs on your computer.

Conclusions of the article

Windows Live Photo Album is designed for storing and easily editing images; you can make panoramas and collages in the program.