FigrCollage Help: Learn to Make a Collage of Figures & Shapes
Table of Contents
- Quick Start Video (Must Watch)
- Recommendations for Shape
- Use a Custom Shape
- Invert Shape
- Cell Style
- Cell Aspect Ratio When Using Rectangular Cells
- Cell Placement
- Background
- Is each picture used at least once?
- How can I reduce duplication of pictures in the collage?
- How to use a customized size for your collage?
- How to print the created photo collage?
Quick Start Video (Must Watch)
This video gives a brief overview of FigrCollage. The video uses Mac OS X software for the demo, but it can be used by Windows users as well because the Windows PC software has similar user interface and functionality.
Recommendations for Shape
A shape with fine lines, complex patterns, very small text, and intricate features would require a large number of very small photos to represent. On the other hand, a simple shape can easily be created and represented using fewer and bigger photos.
Here’s a comparison of two shapes — the world map and the home.
The world map is a very complex shape with fine details, and it requires smaller cells to represent.
As shown below, a simple shape such as a home can easily be represented using fewer bigger photos.
Use a Custom Shape
If you can’t find a shape of your choice in the standard set of shapes that come along with FigrCollage, you can use any shape of your choice. Here’re the steps to use a custom shape:
1. Use an image editor of your choice to create a picture using a white background with the shape represented using black color. For example, here’s a sample custom shape:
2. Save this image to a jpg or png file.
3. In FigrCollage, go to Shape section in Settings, click "Use Picture" as shape and select the custom image that you had saved in the previous step.
4. You would be presented with an option to crop the selected shape and make some optional adjustments. Once you complete these, you’d be ready to use your custom shape.
<< IndexInvert Shape
You can invert your shape so that the pictures are placed outside the shape, instead of inside the shape.
Here're the sample collages generated for the shapes above:
Cell Style
You can select a Rectangular, Hexagonal, Circular, or Freeform cell for your picture collage. Here’s a comparison of the various cell types:
Cell Size When Using Rectangular Cells
Rectangular tile cells can have an aspect ratio of 1 : 1 (Square), 4 : 3, 3 : 4, 3 : 2, 2 : 3, 16 : 9, and 9 : 16.
Pictures that have a different aspect ratio are automatically center cropped for example the following sample photo shows how a picture will be automatically cropped for a 1 : 1 cell.
Cell Placement
You can choose either one of the three ways to place images in your shape: Default, Shape Edges Only, and Shape Masked.
Default cell placement setting fills the shape using images, as shown in the sample image below.
Shape Edges Only (available in v2.7.1 and later) places images only at the shape edges, as shown in the sample image below.
Shape Masked (available in v3.0.1 and later) is similar to the Default placement where images fill-up the whole shape but additionally masks the placed images using the shape.
Background
You can set a color for your figure collage background. You can also use a transparent background. When using a transparent background, you should export your image as a PNG file because JPEG files don’t support transparency.
<< IndexIs each picture used at least once?
You obviously want that each one of your pictures appears somewhere in the output collage.
Starting from version 2.5.9 and newer, FigrCollage ensures that each picture is used at least once in the collage — so that no picture gets left out of the collage.
How can I reduce duplication of pictures in the collage?
FigrCollage (v2.5.9 and newer) ensures that each picture appears at least once in the collage. Some images can appear twice or more number of times. You can reduce this duplication by decreasing the number of cells in your collage using the control as shown in the image below.
How to use a customized size for your collage?
FigrCollage comes with many default mosaic sizes that you can choose from for your mosaic. But, if you can’t find the required size among the list of defaults sizes, you can use a customized size by selecting “Set Custom Size” from the Size drop-down, as shown in the screenshot below:
How to print the created photo collage?
To print the created photo collage, First, export it as a JPG image. Second, print the JPG image using a local printer or at an online/in-store printing service of your choice - such as at Walgreens, Costco, Staples, Snapfish, Walmart, FedEx etc.
Have more questions? Please email us to figrcollage@silkenmermaid.com
