Guide

How to Make a Photo Collage or Instagram Grid

These two get confused for each other constantly, probably because they both involve "arranging photos," but they solve opposite problems. A collage takes several separate photos and combines them into one finished image. A grid splitter takes a single photo and cuts it apart into pieces meant to be posted separately, so that when they sit next to each other on a profile, they reassemble into the original picture.

Building a collage

  1. Open the Image Collage Maker and upload two to six photos.
  2. Drag and resize each tile on the stage until the layout looks right — the preview shows exactly how each photo will be cropped, so what you see while arranging is what you'll get in the final export.
  3. Click build, then download the finished collage.

Splitting one photo into a grid

  1. Open the Instagram Grid Splitter and upload a single photo.
  2. Choose a 3-across layout for a short row, or the full 3x3 for a nine-post takeover.
  3. Split, then download the numbered tiles individually, or all at once as a .zip.
  4. Post them in the exact order they're numbered — left to right, top row first — so the grid lines up correctly on your profile.

Picking a source photo for the grid version

Since the splitter crops to a centered square before slicing, a photo with important detail near the far left or right edge will lose some of it. Photos with a strong, simple central subject — a face, a single object, a bold pattern — tend to survive the square crop and the subsequent slicing much better than a busy wide shot.

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