Added: Jun 27, 2010 08:36

Recently updated, this Windows utility lets you paste images directly into documents created with Gmail, Google Docs and most blog editors.

Charles Moir, founder and CEO of PicturePaste, sums up its origin: "Cloud-based solutions are the future, but there are areas where products such as Google Docs and Gmail are less productive than traditional desktop software. The inability to copy and paste graphics and images from desktop apps into cloud-based editors is one of them. We were so frustrated by this we created a product that solves the problem." It's worth noting that Moir is also the founder of Xara Ltd., best known for its creation of the Xara vector drawing application.

The utility would seem to be particularly useful for those involved in the image-intensive realm of blogging, with PicturePaste said to be compatible with Blogger, WordPress and similar blogging platforms. The most recent release, version 1.5, adds the ability to resize and crop images prior to pasting, as well as supporting a wider range of image types. It also introduces a new Enterprise 'private server' version that can work behind company firewalls. This is in addition to a Premium consumer version that provides unlimited picture conversion and requires no server configuration, currently priced at $19.95 (regularly $29.95) and a HomeHost version, priced at $9.95, that also provides unlimited photo conversion, but uses the server of the user to host the images. A free trial version is also available for download. More information is available on the Picture Paste site.

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