Windows Photo Gallery

Not to be confused withWindows Live Gallery.

Windows Photo Gallery

Windows Photo Gallery 2012
Developer(s)	Microsoft
Stable release	2012 (v16.4.3528.331) / April 18, 2014(2014-04-18)
Operating system	Windows 7,Windows Server 2008 R2,Windows 8,Windows 10
Platform	x86-compatible withSSE2
Successor	Microsoft Photos
Type	Image organizer,image viewer,raster graphics editorandphoto sharing
License	Freeware
Website	Archived official websiteat theWayback Machine(archive index)

Windows Photo Gallery(formerly known asWindows Live Photo Gallery) is a discontinuedimage organizer,photo editorandphoto sharing program.It is a part ofMicrosoft'sWindows Essentialssoftware suite. The product has been unavailable for download since January 10, 2017, as theWindows Essentialsline of products have been discontinued.

Features

Windows Photo Gallery provides management,tagging,and searching capabilities for digital photos. It provides an image viewer that can replace the default OS image viewer, and a photo import tool that can be used to acquire photos from a camera or other removable media. Windows Photo Gallery also allows sharing of photos by uploading them toOneDrive,Windows Live Groups,FlickrandFacebook.

Photo management

Windows Photo Gallery provides the ability to organize digital photo collection in itsGalleryview, by adding titles, rating, captions, and custommetadatatags to photos. There is also limited support for tagging and managing video files, though not editing them.

Windows Photo Gallery uses the concept of hierarchicaltagging(e.g. People/Jim, Places/Paris) to organise photos. Deleting a tag from Windows Photo Gallery will also remove it from all photos in the utility.Adobe Systems'sExtensible Metadata Platform(XMP) metadata standard, a descendant of the ubiquitousExifstandard which almost all digital cameras currently support, is also supported. This allows for data such as the tags to be stored and edited much more efficiently than EXIF orIPTC.

Since Windows Live Photo Gallery 2011,geotaggingand people tagging(withfacial detectionandrecognition) is also supported. For some supported image file types, People Tags can be read and saved using the Microsoft People Tag XMP Schema.

Photo editing

Windows Photo Gallery allows photos to be edited for exposure or color correction. It also provides other basicphoto editingfunctions, such as resizing, cropping, and red-eye reduction. Users can view a photo'scolor histogram,which allows them to adjust the photo'sshadows, highlightsandsharpness.Further, Windows Photo Gallery also includes editing tools such as blemish remover and noise reduction.

Photo editing technologies developed byMicrosoft Research,includingPanoramic stitching,Photo Fuse,andAutoCollageare also included in Windows Photo Gallery.

Windows Photo Gallery also supports the ability to batch resize photos, where multiple photos can be resized in one single action,as well as the ability to rotate videos.

Photo and video import

Windows Photo Gallery's photo/video import tool provides the ability to view, select, andtagphotos that are automatically grouped by date-taken.

Format support

Windows Photo Gallery is based on the PIX engine which uses theWindows Imaging Component(WIC) library. The application has native metadata handling and tagging support and since the Windows Imaging Component is extensible, it can organize and view any image format for which a third party WIC codec is installed. Therefore, the supported formats depend on the Windows version, additionalWIC codecsforQuickTime/raw image formats/Webp,and platform updates,e.g.,JPEG(.jpg,.jpeg),BMP(.bmp),PNG(.png),TIFF(.tifand.tiff), HD Photo.wdp(later replaced byJPEG XR.jxr), andGIF(.gif) images,as well as most common video formats. Windows Photo Gallery uses theWindows Color System.Legacy image formats such asPCXandWMFwithout WIC codec cannot be viewed. For animated GIFs only individual frames are shown.

History

Digital Image Photo Library 9

The application started development in December 2001 as a new "Photo Library" offering (code named "POD" ) that was added to the established "Picture It!" product. The combination was released under the name "Digital Image Suite". This was the first photo organization and management tool offered by Microsoft. It was released with Digital Image Suite 9 on June 3, 2003.

Digital Image Photo Library 10

The second version was released on June 12, 2004.

Digital Image Photo Library 11

The third and final version branded Photo Library was released April 22, 2005. A further "Anniversary edition" that included Windows Vista compatibility fixes was released August 18, 2006.

Windows Photo Gallery in Windows Vista

Windows Photo Gallery

The first version of Windows Photo Gallery was included with all editions ofWindows Vistaand replacedWindows Picture and Fax Viewer.Themed photo slideshows with smooth transitions were only available in the Home Premium and Ultimate editions.

Windows Live Photo Gallery (Wave 2)

With the release ofWindows 7,Microsoft decided not to bundle Photo Gallery within the operating system. Instead, Windows 7 came bundled with a software calledWindows Photo Viewer,which has the editing capabilities of Windows Photo Gallery removed. The full suite of Photo Gallery was released as part of theWindows Live Essentialssoftware suite instead, and as such, the application was also renamed to "Windows Live Photo Gallery". The first version of Windows Live Photo Gallery beta was released on June 27, 2007,and the last version released on November 6, 2007.

Windows Live Photo Gallery 2009 (Wave 3)

Windows Live Photo Gallery 2009 came out in beta with the rest ofWindows Live Essentials 2009beta in September 2008, with a new interface. On December 15, 2008, the "beta refresh" versions of Windows Live Essentials 2009 applications were released including Photo Gallery. This release included many changes since the previous beta release based on user feedback. A significant visual change in this release was the introduction of a new application icon which added a common design theme to all the Windows Live Essentials applications. The words "beta" was removed from the build number. On January 7, 2009, the "beta refresh" versions were released as the final versions, with the exception ofWindows Live Movie Maker.

Windows Live Photo Gallery 2011 (Wave 4)

Windows Live Photo Gallery 2011 beta was released byMicrosoft,along with the rest ofWindows Live Essentials 2011beta, on June 24, 2010. The 2011 version features new additions such as batch people tagging, blemish remover and noise reduction. The beta refresh was released on August 18, 2010, and the final version of Windows Live Photo Gallery 2011 was released as part of the final version ofWindows Live Essentials 2011on September 30, 2010. It was updated with ahotfix(along with the rest ofEssentialsexcept forMeshandFamily Safety) on December 1, 2010.

New features in Windows Live Photo Gallery 2011 include addition of aribbonto theuser interface,batch processing,aclone tool,facial recognition,geotaggingwith support forBing Maps,image stitching,andnoise reduction.Windows Live Photo Gallery 2011 also integrates withFacebook,Flickr,OneDrive,YouTube,and the now defunctPicasa Web AlbumsandWindows Live Spacesto facilitate file uploads to online services.

Windows Photo Gallery 2012 (Wave 5)

The Wave 5 version was released on August 7, 2012, as Windows Photo Gallery 2012; Microsoft dropped theLivebranding from its title. Windows Photo Gallery 2012 introduced anAutoCollagefeature that allow users to automatically create a collage of their images, as well as the ability to publish videos toVimeo.

External links

• Official website(Archive)