14 DAY TRIAL // Putting together a photo collage can quickly become a tedious and meticulous task without the use of specialized software.
Primarily geared toward novices, CollageIt performs this task automatically and contains a user-friendly set of features and customization options, including support for publishing collages on Flickr and Facebook directly.
Installing CollageIt is as simple as it can get. The full version of the application for a single-user personal license can be purchased for $19.9 / €14.5 (discounted from $29.9 / €21.8). The demo applies a watermark on the output files and disables cropping along with the ability to create large-sized collages.
As far as appearance and structure are concerned, no major improvements have been made to the interface since our previous review. It is still neatly organized.
Photographs and containing folders can be easily selected for a collage using the drag-and-drop method while exploring directories on the hard disk, network locations, optical discs, removable devices, or mounted drives.
The supported image types are BMP, JPG, JPEG, GIF, PNG, TGA, TIF and TIFF. The list can be emptied of an item or cleared altogether.
There are fifteen collage templates to choose from, and they can be shuffled, while the layout for each one can be randomized. It is possible to include all photos in the project or specify the total number of items, adjust the margin and space between images, enable automatic rotation and tweak the rotation angle, as well as set the pictures to automatically sparse.
Selected photos in the preview area may be cropped, and their order switched using drag-and-drop. Settings can be restored to their default parameters.
In case of the latter option, the image's position can be selected between tile, center, stretch, or stretch and crop, and its opacity is adjustable. Results can be previewed, and collage layouts can be saved to file (TPL format) for modifications at a later time.
The Good
Considering the program's highly intuitive interface and options, the learning curve is practically non-existent. CollageIt supports four UI skins and delivers quality results. CPU and RAM consumption is generally low.
The Bad
It is not possible to apply a custom image as the background, nor create collage structures from scratch (and save them as templates). Additional background image patterns, collage structures or GUI skins are not available for download on the developer's website.
If no email client is associated with CollageIt, the program enters a loading phase and does not permit canceling it. To break the loop, it is necessary to exit the tool, which means that the layout will be lost if unsaved.
The Truth
NOTE: We have 20 single-user personal licenses to give away for CollageIt Pro. In order to win one of them, you are expected to come up with a smart post, positive or negative, about the application in the comments section below. The campaign ends on Monday, December 16 at 16:00 UTC. Winners will be notified by the end of the next week; needless to say that we need valid email addresses in order to contact you. Follow us on Twitter @SPgiveaways to find out the last chance for joining the campaign.
The campaign has ended. Congratulations to the winners!
