Picasa Settings Utils ===================== Utilities for working with Picasa database / settings files, as a precursor to porting years of edit-history from the discontinued but handy Picasa photo management + non-destructive editing tool, into more modern alternatives. Usage ===== To get a JSON Dump of a given folder's ".Picasa.ini", run the following Python script: ```shell $ python3 picasa_loader.py [path/to/albumName/picasa.ini] > [output/dir/albumName.json] ``` References ========== The following resources have been invaluable in developing these tools: * [1] https://gist.github.com/fbuchinger/1073823/9986cc61ae67afeca2f4a2f984d7b5d4a818d4f0 Notes on the Picasa.ini File Format * [2] https://sites.google.com/site/picasaresources/picasa/how-picasa-works Community-driven site with lots of useful tidbits about how Picasa works and/or can be used. * [3] https://github.com/ashaduri/embed_picasa_tags PHP script for converting face-tagging / other tags from Picasa.ini into per-file tags * [4] https://superuser.com/questions/151146/what-file-format-database-format-does-picasa-use This is a treasure trove of links to info about the database format(s) that Picasa uses. * [4a] https://forensicir.blogspot.com/2007/07/picasa.html Notes about all the files, folders, and registry keys it uses (from 2007) * [4b] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1467004/how-to-access-the-picasa-desktop-database/8482061#8482061 General info about the Picasa database formats. Most pertinent tips: * thumbs.db is the standard "thumbs.db" format that Windows uses ** [4c] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/228304/is-there-any-c-lib-to-read-thumbnails-from-thumb-db-in-windows-folder ** [4d] https://vinetto.sourceforge.net/docs.html * PMP format contains a bunch of metadata not found in other files ** [4e] https://sbktech.blogspot.com/2011/12/picasa-pmp-format.html Original Author =============== Joshua Leung (@Aligorith) July 2025