Collage Maker

Every layout is a fixed set of frames. When the number of frames matches the number of photos, nothing is left over. When it does not, the tool tells you: photos that do not fit get a dashed outline in the photo row, and empty frames are saved in the background color.

Auto grid is the one to use for awkward counts such as 7, 10 or 11. It splits the canvas into rows of equal height and gives rows with fewer photos wider frames, so 7 photos become rows of 3, 2 and 2 instead of a 3 x 3 grid with two holes. On a tall output size such as a story, it prefers more rows than columns.

The 4 strip layout is the classic photo booth strip. Pair it with the Story size or a custom size such as 600 x 1800 if you want a long, narrow print.

• Square 1080 x 1080: a feed post. Most social apps show it without cropping.
• Portrait 4:5, 1080 x 1350: the tallest shape most feeds show in full, so it takes up more of the screen than a square.
• Story 9:16, 1080 x 1920: stories, reels covers and phone wallpapers.
• Landscape 16:9, 1920 x 1080: slides, video thumbnails and desktop wallpapers.
• A4 print, 300 dpi: 2480 x 3508 pixels portrait or 3508 x 2480 landscape. That is the full A4 sheet at a print resolution most home and shop printers handle well.
• Custom: type any width and height from 100 to 8000 pixels.

The output size is independent of the layout, so the same 2 x 2 grid works as a square post or a printed page. Frames stretch with the canvas, and each photo is cropped to fill its frame, so changing the size changes how much of each photo is visible. Check the preview after switching sizes and drag the photos back into place if a face was cut off.

Each frame shows its photo using a fill-the-frame crop: the photo is scaled until there is no empty space, and the part that does not fit is hidden. Dragging inside the frame moves which part is visible. If the photo has the same shape as the frame there is nothing to move until you zoom in.

Zoom goes from 1x (the whole frame filled, nothing more) to 5x. On a phone, put two fingers in the frame and spread them. On a computer, click the frame and use the zoom slider that appears under the preview. Reset puts the photo back to 1x and centered.

The small grip button in the top-left corner of each frame is for swapping. Drag it and drop it on another frame; the two photos trade places and both reset to 1x centered, because a crop chosen for a tall frame rarely suits a wide one. Swapping with an empty frame moves the photo there.

The photo row below the preview is a second way to arrange things: tap a frame, then tap any photo. If that photo was already in another frame, the two frames trade photos. A photo with a dashed amber border is not in the collage yet.

Spacing and corner radius are measured relative to the shorter side of the output, so a collage looks the same whether you save it at 1080 pixels or at A4 print size. A spacing of 12, the default, is a thin white line on a square post. Set it to 0 for photos that touch edge to edge.

Border around the outside controls whether the same gap also runs around the edge of the canvas. Turn it off for a borderless look where the photos meet the edge but still have gaps between them.

The background color shows in the gaps, behind rounded corners and in any empty frame. With PNG output you can switch on Transparent instead, which is useful if you will place the collage on a colored page or slide later. JPG has no transparency, so the switch only appears for PNG.

For printing, choose A4 print (300 dpi), set a spacing of 15 to 25 so the white gaps survive trimming, and save as JPG, since a PNG of photos at 2480 x 3508 pixels gets very large. Print at 100% or Actual size, not Fit to page, so the 300 dpi sizing is kept.

Photos smaller than their frame are scaled up, which makes them soft. As a rough guide, a photo should be at least as many pixels wide as its frame. Phone photos (usually 3000 pixels or more on the long side) are fine for any frame on an A4 page; screenshots and pictures saved from chat apps may not be.

• To put photos in one straight row or column at their natural proportions, without cropping, use Combine Images.
• To put one photo per page in a PDF, use Image to PDF.
• To add a title or caption on top of the finished collage, save it and open it in Add Text to Image.
• To make the file smaller for an upload limit, run it through Compress Image.

The tool takes up to 12 photos. Every photo is decoded by your browser, and the collage is drawn on a canvas in the same tab, so very large inputs (for example a dozen 50-megapixel photos) use a lot of memory and may be slow on older phones. The saved file contains only the pixels: camera details and GPS location from the original photos are not copied into it. Nothing is sent to a server at any point.