"Picasa" on Google has received high praise, and it is free.

The "best way to go" is the RAW format if your camera and its bundled software supports it.  It is just a
digital copy of the data that the camera stored.  It permits very flexible editing of your pictures.
However, it creates very large files for your pictures.  This limits the amount of pictures that you can
store in digital memory and increases the refresh time between taking pictures.

JPEG is a compression technology that allows you to store your pictures in much smaller files -
especially important if you intend to send them via email to friends and relatives without broadband.

What you can actually use depends on what your camera and its included tools will support as well as any
additional editing software that you have available.

So, my point is that there is no such thing as a "best way to go."  It all  depends on what tools you
have and what you want to do with your pictures.  As you experiment with your camera and the software
that you use, the trade-offs and limitations will become clearer to you.

----- Original Message -----
From: alan smith
Sent: Saturday, July 02, 2005 10:24 AM
Subject: [PCSOFT] JPEG


I've just purchased a digital camera so I'm new to computer camera usage.
I've been told that JPEG is the best way to go. Can anyone recommend
a good download program( preferably freeware ) that I can use??
OS win2kpro, ram 1Gb. Many thanks for your help,  AL SMITH

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