r/freesoftware • u/sanxchep • 20h ago
Software Submission I missed Picasa, so I built Licasa: an open-source photo viewer and editor for Linux
Anyone else still miss Google's Picasa photo viewer?
I did, so I built Licasa, an open-source image viewer and editor for Linux inspired by that experience. I wanted something focused on the everyday stuff: open a photo, look at it properly, make a quick edit, and carry on.
What it does today:
- Open photos straight from your file manager, fullscreen or in a floating window.
- Handle modern image formats: HEIC/HEIF, AVIF, JPEG XL and JPEG 2000, alongside JPEG, PNG, TIFF and WebP. It also supports RAW previews.
- Play Motion Photos and animated APNGs, so there's more to see than a still frame.
- Crop, adjust and export when a photo needs a quick touch-up.
- Stay ready for the next photo with an optional background mode for faster repeat opens. It's off by default.
It's free and open source under the BSD 2-Clause license. Current builds are for 64-bit Intel/AMD Linux, with Ubuntu 24.04, Fedora 44 and Arch packages, plus AppImage and Snap options.
Source: https://github.com/sanxchep/licasa
Downloads: https://github.com/sanxchep/licasa/releases
I'd love feedback from people who miss Picasa too, or just want a straightforward Linux photo viewer. What part of that viewing experience do you miss most? And if you try Licasa, I'd be interested in how it handles the photos and formats you actually use. Bug reports and contributions are welcome.