CollageIt Free 2.0.0

Overview

Haven’t you ever seen a friend’s family collage and thought how nice it would be if you could create your own family’s collage? Well then, CollagaIt Free for iOS is going to help you create a photo collage in only 3 steps that require absolutely no advanced technical knowledge. Simply add your photos, make any changes in the background and layout of the collage, and finally export the collage as an image file in one of the several supported formats.

Installation

The installation process is performed like in any typical iOS app installation. You can grab the app from the App store and install it normally for free. The only special requirement here is that your device must have iOS 5.0 or later installed for the app to work (to check your iOS version go to Settings -> General -> About, the iOS version is listed under Version).

Interface

Version 2.0 of the app, apart from many additional features and bug fixes also introduces a brand new user interface. When you open the app you will be prompted to either create a new collage or choose from your gallery of already created collages. If you choose to create a new one, you will then be asked to import an album from your iPad/iPhone or load one from your Facebook. Afterwards you can select which photos from the album you want to add to your collage and the app will ask you to pick one from the available layouts for your collage. Then you can start editing your photos and when you’re done you can save the collage in your device or share it online.

Pros

Very easy to use application. It only takes a few taps in order to create a collage. You can see a preview with the selected images when you change layouts, and you can further edit the photos by rotating them, resizing them, cropping them, adding text and photo effects, adjusting the borders, etc. This means that you don’t need a separate app for basic photo editing as CollageIt has that aspect covered.

Moreover, there are two options when choosing layout; one allows you to change the layout's style between Mosaic, Grid and Center, and the other lets you change the collage's size (available sizes are 1:1, 3:2, 2:3, 4:3, 3:4, 16:9 and 9:16).

When you have finished editing your collage you can save it in your library or share it with family and friends in Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr and other services. The user has the ability to upload the collage in multiple services simultaneously.

Cons

Although there have been several improvements in this new version of the program, there are a few noticeable cons. Firstly, there is no free grid adjustment in the template.

Next, when importing pictures from albums you'll have to go through all of the album's images from the beginning until you reach the one you want; there is no way to quickly scroll to the end of the album, making it tiring and time-consuming to locate a picture inside an album with hundreds of other pictures. Making the most recent photos the default browsing position when browsing an album would help a lot.

In addition, once the template has been selected, you cannot replace just one single photo in the collage. You must go back to the previous selection and re-select all the images again.

Alternatives

PhotoTangler Collage Maker is an app for Windows OS, iOS and Android devices that lets users create amazing collages. It comes both as free and paid, with the paid app having more features of course. Between PhotoTangler Collage Maker and CollageIt, the latter one has more features but both of them can make really good looking photo collages.

Picture Collage Maker for iOS from the same developer, is another alternative.

Conclusion

Whether you’re an amateur or a pro, CollageIt will give you the power to create beautiful collages of your family/friends and share them online. The app has many features that let you manipulate the collages in many ways and has zero bugs. A very good choice for the ones who spend a lot of time creating photo albums.