Composition program for mosaics and collages

[Ty]

Although XnView meets most of my needs for image manipulation, one thing it does not do is allow me to make one large image from multiple smaller ones. "Collage" and "Strip of Images" are great at what they do, but I would like a free-form option, where I can insert and position various images on the new "page" I am building. I think this is NOT an appropriate job for XnView, so I'm asking if any XnView readers know of a good, simple, cheap/free program that I can use for such compositions. Thank you.

[XnTriq]

Photoscape: Make one photo by merging multiple photos at the page frame.

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[Ty]

Thanks, XnTriq. I'll check it out.

[JohnFredC]

Picasa has a nice collager/compositor that generates grids, piles, proof sheets, etc., allows drag and drop placement, random shuffles, etc.

[XnTriq]

• Microsoft Home Magazine: Create a digital photo collage
• Microsoft Wave: AutoCollage
  AutoCollage, an advanced computer vision and image processing program which automatically creates collages of your pictures.

[Ty]

JohnFredC: I'm familiar with Picasa's various collage-making options, but not with the drag-and-drop capability to which you refer. Perhaps that choice is well hidden? In any case, thanks for the suggestion.

XnTriq, thanks for the additional leads. I'm checking them out.

[XnTriq]

Fotowall is an opensource creative tool that lets you play with your pixels as you've ever wanted! Make the perfect arrangement with your photos, add text, live video from your webcam and the best internet pictures.

With fotowall you can

• create original pictures, wallpapers, postcards and covers
• print superbig posters with a small printer
• play with live video, internet content, text and pictures

[Ty]

I checked out the various suggestions from above and found that Photoscape, Fotowall and Picasa provide a good range of composition options. There doesn't seem to be any one program that "does it all" (maybe PhotoShop?), but these three cover the bases pretty well. I especially like the cool things one can do with Fotowall, specifically "tilting" a picture. Thanks to Enrico, FredJohnC, and XnTriq for the tips.

[XnTriq]

PhotoSketch – Internet Image Montage (via The Web Life @ ZDNet.com)
We present a system that composes a realistic picture from a simple freehand sketch annotated with text labels. The composed picture is generated by seamlessly stitching several photographs in agreement with the sketch and text labels; these are found by searching the Internet. Although online image search generates many inappropriate results, our system is able to automatically select suitable photographs to generate a high quality composition, using a filtering scheme to exclude undesirable images. We also provide a novel image blending algorithm to allow seamless image composition. Each blending result is given a numeric score, allowing us to find an optimal combination of discovered images. Experimental results show the method is very successful; we also evaluate our system using the results from two user studies.

[Ty]

XnTriq, where do you find these things?!!! This is extremely cool, very science-fiction sort of stuff. A little beyond my needs at least for the moment, but thanks for the link. It's extremely interesting.

[XnTriq]

XnTriq, where do you find these things?!!! This is extremely cool, very science-fiction sort of stuff. A little beyond my needs at least for the moment, but thanks for the link. It's extremely interesting.

Glad you like it, Ty

Microsoft's AutoCollage is my favorite so far. Please don't forget to tell us about any other programs you may find!

Wondershare Photo Collage Studio 4.2.9 is a simple yet powerful tool to make amazing photo collages and digital scrapbooks for print. With plenty designed templates, clip arts and photo frames, you can easily assemble your still photos into an artistic compilation. What’s more, you can create photo books, greeting cards, calendar and more you can image. Try to make this Father’s Day more fun and impressive with it now!

Features:

• Turn photos into collage and scrapbook;
• Plenty collage templates and layouts;
• Multiple-page Designs;
• Wordart, cliparts, stamps & more;
• Photo retouching and effects;
• Magic doodle drawing;
• DIY personalized calendar;
• Print directly to share anywhere;
• Save as JPG, JEPG, PNG, BMP, TIFF formats;
• Quick and helpful online support.

[Ty]

Hey XnTriq....

I checked out AutoCollage, and as you say it is very slick. However, it is useful only if one makes collages, which I don't. Good tip, though.

Here's another I discovered, also from Microsoft "Research." It's called "ICE" for Image Composition Editor, and it is used for stitching images together and/or making panoramas. Unlike other programs I've used for that purpose, this one doesn't ask if you want vertical or horizontal stitching, or what sequence to put the images in; it figures out all that stuff and creates an impressive finished image. No file size limits either, so you can work on huge files (my two originals were each 3000x4000 pixels).

Anyway, it's pretty interesting. And here: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/ ... s/ivm/ICE/

Attention Helmut, Pierre, other moderators: Should we consider having a separate forum for "Other Programs" (or something) so that people can list and look for other programs that they use in conjunction with XnView? Perhaps each topic in such a forum could be a program category (stitching; paint; composition; EXIF tools; etc).

[XnTriq]

Attention Helmut, Pierre, other moderators: Should we consider having a separate forum for "Other Programs" (or something) so that people can list and look for other programs that they use in conjunction with XnView? Perhaps each topic in such a forum could be a program category (stitching; paint; composition; EXIF tools; etc).

I don't think anyone expected this section of the boards to become that popular. As of today there are 280 topics! No doubt, we should move some of them into sub-categories.

Here's another I discovered, also from Microsoft "Research." It's called "ICE" for Image Composition Editor, and it is used for stitching images together and/or making panoramas.

While on the subject of photo stitching:

JohnFredC recommended an exciting Panorama Tool some time ago.

According to the official Windows Live Photo & Video Blog, Image Composition Editor and possibly Group Shot (Tree in the way? No problem!) are tightly integrated with Windows Live Photo Gallery.

[XnTriq]

Wondershare Photo Collage Studio 4.2.10 is an easy and funny tool to make amazing photo collages and digital scrapbooks for print. With plenty designed scrapbooking templates, stickers and photo frames for any occasion, you can easily assemble your still photos into an artistic compilation. What’s more, you can create photo books, greeting cards, calendars and more you can image. Try to make this Thanksgiving and Christmas more fun and impressive with it now!

• Turn photos into collage and scrapbook in minutes
• Plenty collage templates and layouts for Thanksgiving, Christmas…
• Multiple-page Designs in one project
• Wordart, stickers, photo frames, stamps, masks & more
• Photo retouching and one-click filters such as old picture and more
• Magic doodle drawing
• DIY personalized calendar & greeting cards
• Print directly to share anywhere
• Save as JPG, JEPG, PNG, BMP, TIFF formats

• dotTech.org » Reviews
  • Wondershare Photo Collage Studio
  • Easily create photo collages with Photovisi

[Ty]

XnTriq and others who've posted here, thanks a lot for all these suggestions. I think this thread/topic has become a very useful source of info on image composition tools. I've tried out several of the offerings and learned a lot about what's out there. Some of these are great programs, others less good. But thanks to everybody for all the suggestions. I recommend that we keep posting notes on related products to this thread.