Ding ding ding! Big news here at Picnik World Headquarters! Today our crack team of server specialists cracked open the champagne in their Top Secret Server Lair high above downtown Seattle when the Official Picnik Tally Counter ticked over to one billion photo edits!

To put this into perspective:

One billion seconds: nearly 32 years
One billion minutes ago: Trajan was Emperor of Rome
One billion days ago: Lucy was still alive and well
One billion edits ago: it was October 2007!

To celebrate this HUGE number, Picnik Premium is free for everyone today! So enjoy those Effects, admire all that’s Advanced and go nuts with Seasonal from 9 a.m. today until 9 a.m. tomorrow, February 4th, Seattle time (PST)!

Time’s up! Thank’s so much everyone for helping to make this possible, and many happy Picniking returns!

There are just nine shopping days left till Christmas. Barely enough time for most delivery options, unless you want to pay for shipping, and who wants to do that. And then there are the usual complications: Shoe size, sweater color, computer platform, and the most common problem of all: What do you get the person who has everything?

Picnik Premium! A year of Picnik Premium is a whole year of photo editing awesomeness. It encompasses all seasons, it’s never out of date, it runs on any computer, and even if your loved ones already have Picnik Premium, a gift of Picnik Premium can be tacked onto the end of the current subscription period! No fuss, no muss, no shipping! Picnik Premium is always instantly available for last minute stocking stuffing.

What if you’re the one on the receiving end of all this largesse? What if your shoe size is difficult, your preference in sweaters is tricky, and the only thing you could possibly need on the computer, which is leaving a big fluffy cloud-shaped hole in your heart, is Picnik Premium? Then put Picnik Premium on your wishlist this year with our handy Letter to Santa (or Mom, or grandpa, or great uncle Ben) Generator, and bask in the generosity of loved ones.

It’s a short week here at Picnik World Headquarters, due to the American holiday of Thanksgiving, aka Turkey Day. While we’re off working on our holiday waistlines, the rest of you (including Canadians, who have been here already) can dive into our whole new section of Holiday hats, beards, jolly red noses, Christmas Lights, Frost and Nuts, winterizing effects and Frames!

And for you Americans, we’ve got just the thing for those of us who’ll be having friends and family over for the Thanksgiving holiday with fun projects like Recipe Cards, Place Cards, Holiday Cards and more in our new festive Fancy Collages. And for after Thanksgiving, get started early on your Christmas shopping (or Wish List writing) with Picnik Premium, of course!

You may have noticed that we’ve gone whole hog over Halloween here at Picnik this month! We’ve got a whole new section of new Effects, Stickers and Touch-Ups, plus fonts in skeletons, ghosts, and other creepy Text, for maximum spookiness.

But we didn’t stop there! In the Library tab we’ve got a whole other line of Halloween content for you: Halloween Fancy Collages!

Halloween is obviously a holiday we love here at Picnik World Headquarters. Maybe it’s because it was the first holiday after our launch two years ago and the first occasion for any seasonal content, or maybe it’s because we’ve all been transformed into werewolves, zombies, vampires and other manifestations of the undead. Whichever it is, we always have a lot of fun at this time of year and, with a little help from Picnik, we hope you do too!

As Summer fades into Fall and inevitably into Winter, we can help you hold onto those careless days in the sun. Pluck a few of our new Premium photo-realistic daisy Stickers and place them into any garden, vase, or flower press image.

No matter how rainy, windy, or snowy it is outside, you’re invited to relax on our evergreen grass fields and place a delicate yellow blossom behind your ear or craft a daisy chain as a crown. In sixteen lovely shades of yellow, white, and red, these resizable petal plants will add a soft accent to any photo in need of a little bloom.

Go Premium and enjoy daisies year-round!

Can I just say, we’re delighted? Not only are we delighted, but we’re enraptured and, I won’t lie, we have a little extra swagger in our step.

Last week we launched our amazing new Touch Up suite! Now with 15 cool effects like Sunless Tan, Airbrush, and Lip Color to guarantee that every picture shows your best side. Goodbye shine, goodbye wrinkles; hello Mascara, Blush, and Highlights! We’ve even added a few Advanced Tools (Dodging and Burning) to keep shadows off faces and make spotty lighting consistent. No more do-overs, no more detagging, now all you need is one shot to capture the perfect you!

Find these new tools under the Create tab. Look for the Touch Up section with the cosmetic jar.

Next week Team Picnik is giving away a couple one-year Picnik Premium Memberships in a new Twitter contest: Use Picnik to Tweet your favorite summer photograph, using the hashtag #SummerPicnik so we can see you, and Team Picnik members will choose the best ones, with winners announced on Friday, June 19!

Directions: Make a Twitter account, if you don’t have one! Announce yourself by following @picnik on Twitter! Take your picture, then upload it and edit it! Then find the Twitter page under the Save & Share tab to Tweet your summery masterpiece!

The contest runs from Monday at 12.01 am through Thursday at 2 pm PDT. So why are we telling you this early? Because it’s a beautiful weekend in June! So get outside and get those photos!

Note to our Southern Hemisphere Picnikers: You are entirely welcome to include your photos of the grumpy weather you’re having right now.

Update: The contest is now open! Feel free to start Tweeting your submissions!

Update #2: The contest is now closed! Thank you to everyone who participated! We will announce the winners tomorrow, June 19 at 2pm PDT. In the meantime, check out the submissions on Twitter by searching for “#SummerPicnik”.

Last week Brian, our Quixotic Softographer, told his incredibly pregnant wife about our latest additions of Stickers and Fancy Collages, and said that it was therefore safe for her to have their baby, because they were all set up for the announcements.

That’s right, for Picnik Premium members, we have two whole sets of Baby Fancy Collages! One for baby boys, and one for baby girls! Each set has a dozen adorable and tastefully laid out spaces for either single or up to three photographs of your little bundle (or bundles!) of joy. Plus, for the Customization-enthusiasts amongst you, or those who prefer to put together their own adorably-adorned baby photos, there are thirty cute and cuddly baby-themed shapes in the Stickers list.

And, sure enough, on Thursday last week the newest (and by far the smallest and cutest) member of Team Picnik came into the world: little baby Rowan. Congratulations, Brian and family!

A lot has happened here at Picnik World Headquarters in the past couple of weeks! You all might think that what with all the awards, the conferences, the talks, the surveys, and a fair number of birthday cakes, we wouldn’t have had time for many releases, but oh we have. The Quixotic Softographer’s been tilting at windmills, the Penguin Handler’s been chasing the little dudes around the data center, Steve’s been drinking the tea as fast as he can, and our Data Stylist’s latest data stylings have us all singing Handel. Meanwhile, the Designers have been putting a grassy sheen on all this output while Charlie’s been churning out the releases on a weekly basis. Here’s a brief tour of some of the stuff we’ve put out in the last little while:

The new Fancy Focus effect makes it look like you spent time and money on setting up expensive lenses to get a perfect shot, with your subject in focus and the rest slightly desaturated and slightly faded. Great for crowd shots, busy backgrounds, and cake.

The new Gritty effect is great for people wanting to look real, unvarnished, tough.


There are new Stickers! We often get Picnikers writing in asking for more butterflies and sports shapes! So here you go, both Butterflies and Sports!

Not to mention, Easter and Spring are free for all during the next couple weeks to help everyone embellish their photos of Easter Egg hunts, soccer games, badminton tournaments, and generally the ability to go outdoors again. Meanwhile, all the other stuff mentioned is for our Premium Members only (upgrade here!).

Hi! I’m Lisa and I’m the newest member of the Picnik team. Part of being new is learning, learning, oh and then some more learning. So I would like your help with my learning curve!

I know what I would love to see us do next but I want to know what you all think. I want to better understand how and why you visit Picnik. What you love and what you would love for us to do. So I (together with some of the magic-makers here at Picnik) have pulled together a quick survey! Everything is confidential but your answers will help guide what we should work on next.

So thanks ahead of time for helping make Picnik even better (and for helping me learn)!

Take the Picnik Survey! And Happy Picnicking!

Monday, March 16 Update: After a week of incredibly overwhelming response, we’re closing the survey and letting ourselves catch up with all your responses and tens of thousands of comments! We’ve already gone through half of them, and we’re going to to read every single one of them! Thank you all again for being so generous with your time, and in such numbers. And now that we know what you all think, we can’t wait to decide what we’re going to do next!