Photo Collage Maker

A collage is one of the most useful things you can do with a folder of photos. Instead of posting ten separate pictures, you combine them into a single, well-composed image — a travel recap, a birthday tribute, a product line-up, a before-and-after, or a moodboard. And the same idea works in reverse: you can take one large image and split it into tiles for a seamless Instagram profile or a swipeable carousel. This guide covers both, with practical tips, and you can do all of it with the free tool at the top of this page — the whole thing runs in your browser.

Two tools in one: combine and split

The tool has two modes, and it helps to know which one you want before you start:

• Collage takes several photos and arranges them into one image — in a grid, side by side, stacked vertically, or freely placed.
• Grid split takes one image and cuts it into equal pieces — either an N×N grid (the Instagram puzzle-feed look) or a row of carousel panels.

You switch between them with the tabs at the top of the editor. Everything else — the live preview, the export options — works the same way in both.

How to make a photo collage (step by step)

1. Add your photos. Drag several pictures onto the tool, click Choose photos, or paste them from your clipboard. Add as many as you like — you can always add more later with the + button.
2. Choose a layout. Use the grid and set the number of columns, or switch to side by side (a horizontal row), stacked (a vertical column), or freeform (drag each photo where you want it).
3. Reorder if needed. Use the arrows on each thumbnail to change the order; remove one with the ×.
4. Style it. Set the gap between photos, an outer frame, rounded corners, a border around each photo, and the background colour. Watch the preview update live.
5. Pick the size and format. Choose the aspect ratio and output size, then JPG, PNG, or WebP.
6. Download. Your collage saves straight to your device.

Fill vs fit: the one setting that changes everything

When photos of different shapes go into equal cells, the tool has to decide how to handle the mismatch. That’s the Fill / Fit choice:

• Fill crops each photo so it completely fills its cell. Every cell looks uniform — ideal for a tidy grid — but the edges of some photos are trimmed.
• Fit shrinks each photo so the whole thing is visible, leaving a little background around it (letterboxing). Nothing is cropped, which is the safe choice when every detail matters.

For a clean Instagram grid, use Fill. For a comparison where you can’t lose any of the image, use Fit.

Merging two photos, side by side or stacked

The most common collage is the simplest: two photos together. A side-by-side merge lines them up horizontally — perfect for a before-and-after or a this-or-that. A stacked merge places them top to bottom — better for tall content, a step sequence, or a long screenshot.

Add a small gap and a thin border so the two halves read as separate, or close the gap for a seamless join. Keep both photos the same size with Fill, and they’ll line up perfectly.

Backgrounds and transparency

The background shows in the gaps between photos and around the outer frame. You can set it to any solid colour, or make it transparent — useful when you’ll place the collage on another background later.

Making an Instagram grid (the seamless profile)

An Instagram grid — sometimes called a puzzle feed — slices one large image into equal tiles that reassemble into a single big picture across your profile. Here’s how to do it well:

1. Switch to Grid split and choose the Instagram grid option.
2. Pick the grid size. 3×3 (nine tiles) is the classic. You can go up to 6×6 for a bigger mural.
3. Choose the area. “Centre square” crops the largest square so every tile is a perfect square — the cleanest look. “Whole image” keeps the full frame.
4. Download the ZIP. All tiles save together, named tile-r1-c1, tile-r1-c2, and so on.

The catch is the posting order. Instagram fills your profile from the top-left, but each new post pushes the older ones to the right. So to build a 3×3, you upload the bottom row first, right-to-left, then the middle row, then the top. The filenames make the order easy to follow.

Carousel panels from one wide image

A carousel splits a wide image into equal vertical panels that you post as a single swipeable Instagram post. Choose the Carousel option, set the number of panels, and the tool slices the image into even strips — again delivered together in a ZIP. This is a neat way to turn a panorama into a post readers swipe through.

Quality, size, and where it happens

Each source photo is drawn at full resolution onto the output canvas, so a collage stays sharp. The only thing that softens it is a low JPG/WebP quality setting — keep quality around 90 and the result looks crisp. For a guaranteed-lossless save (graphics, screenshots), choose PNG.

The entire process runs in your browser using the Canvas API, and the splitter zips the tiles locally with a small library — the new files are created on your own device. How any data associated with this tool is handled is described in our privacy policy. If you’re working with something highly sensitive, an offline desktop app is always the most private option.

A few practical tips

• Crop or resize first if needed. If a photo needs trimming before it goes in, use the crop tool; to change its dimensions, use resize.
• Compress the final collage if the file is large — the compress tool shrinks it without visible quality loss before you upload.
• Even numbers look neat. A grid is tidiest when the photos fill the rows evenly — four in two columns, nine in three. A short last row is centred automatically so it still looks balanced.

Pick the right shape, choose Fill or Fit to match the look you want, and keep the quality high. With those habits, the tool above turns any pile of photos into a polished collage — or any single image into a scroll-stopping grid — in seconds.