and a few others we like too

For an explanation of Picasa Web Templates and installation instructions, see my article Use Picasa to Publish Professional-Looking Web Galleries.

Note: horizontal images will generally look better than vertical for web display. And if you have a template you’d like to mention or have us review, please comment or write us directly.

AutoViewer

This stylish, dark template is by Airtight Interactive, the makers of SimpleViewer and PostcardViewer, which are also great Picasa templates. It has a filmstrip style with large pictures and no thumbnails. Users can play the slideshow or click from picture to picture. Autoviewer would be suitable for proofing or for portfolio display. Customizable pro version for purchase.

Contains thumbnails: No

Slideshow: Yes, manual

>View Demo

Blur

I love the blur template. The pictures are big, taking the full size of the browser (or iframe) window, and the slideshow plays automatically. It’s a sleek way to present portfolios and let your images shine. Looks much better with horizontal images than vertical.

Contains thumbnails: No

Slideshow: Yes, auto

DBowman

This template one is nice for tutorials or any time you need text along with your images.

Contains thumbnails: Yes

Slideshow: No

>View Demo

Lightbox

A lightbox presentation is a bit different from a flash presentation: the images are displayed in a temporary window that lies above the web page. From a web design standpoint, they’re nice because you can display an image or photo that is bigger than the space available in the column that contains the gallery. There are different kinds of lightbox types and navigations–this one is nice since it allows the user to scroll from image to image. No slideshow, however.

Thumbs: Yes

Slideshow: No

Banana Album

Banana Album has been around in one form or another for years now. Besides being a nice Picasa template, you can use the app with Flickr and Jalbum. You have to purchase it if you want to remove the splash with a banana dropping into a box that loads before your gallery.

Contains thumbnails: Yes

Slideshow: No

Other Notable Templates

Pipiview

Ulm

Similar characteristics to the blur template. Very nice, professional template, though it is made for use with keyboard contols, not the mouse–a bit weird for me.

Highslide

Xfade

Xfade would have been put with the other featured templates if I could have figured out how to speed up the fade from image to image. Otherwise, I really liked this one.

http://galri.free.fr/classic/