How to make a collage from five photos
- Open the five photos. Drop them on the collage together. They fill the slots in the order they were opened.
- Choose the layout. One large, four beside when one photo is the point; Two over three when all five are equal; Five, unevenly when the photos are mixed shapes.
- Put the best photo in the lead. Drag it onto slot 1, or press Best fit for each photo and the solver moves each photo to the slot that keeps most of it.
- Save. Press Save, or Ctrl and S. The size and format are on the button before you press it.
Why five is easier than it looks
Five does not divide into an even grid, which is the reason it looks harder than four or six. It is actually kinder: an odd count gives one photo a lead slot without the others shrinking to thumbnails. In One large, four beside, the lead takes 62% of the width on a square and the other four stack beside it at a quarter of the height each — still more than 260 pixels tall on a 1080 square, enough for a face.
Two over three is the even answer: two wide photos above, three narrower ones below. Put landscapes in the top row and portraits in the bottom, and almost nothing is cropped. Five, unevenly mixes slot sizes on purpose, for a set where no two photos are the same shape.
The same five on a story
A story is nearly twice as tall as it is wide, so each five-photo layout is redrawn for it. The lead layout puts the big photo on top and a two-by-two grid underneath; Two over three becomes two, one and two in bands. None of this is automatic stretching — each story map was chosen by hand so no slot comes out thinner than a fifth of the frame's width.
If you are not sure, fill the layout first and then try the three shapes in the Layout step. Your photos and how each is framed stay where they are.
Questions people ask about this one
I have five photos but one is much better — which layout?
One large, four beside. Put the best photo in slot 1; it gets roughly two thirds of the picture.
Can I use six layouts with five photos?
Yes, the Layout step shows every layout, but a six-slot layout with five photos leaves one empty slot, and Save warns you once before it saves an empty rectangle.
How do I swap two photos?
Drag one slot onto another. On a keyboard, select a slot, press S, move to the other slot and press Enter.
Does it keep my photos private?
Yes. Everything happens in this browser tab; the photos are never sent anywhere.