I need collage making software for my computer

So I've lost a good amount of weight (I used to be 250 and now I'm at 215!), so I want to make a collage showing my progress over time with photos I've got saved.

I'd like something that can allow me to line up the photos in any number of rows and/or columns and add text over my the individual pictures (so I can type that I weighed XYZ lbs. at the time that photo in the collage was taken).

Additionally, I'd prefer if I could have something similar to Photoshop and its .PSD files (simply for example), whereby I can open previous collage files I've made and adjust them (so as to add on additional images as time goes on and my body image changes, etc). I realize this request/wish would involve saving collages as some sort of other file format (like a PSD in Photoshop, for example) that I'd ultimately need to export as a JPG, I'm sure.

FYI: I've tried Google's Picasa program and I'm really not a fan of it because its interface is pretty bad (IMO) and doesn't give me much in the way of collage controls.

P.S.: I really would much prefer a software-based tool on my PC because the web ones are a bit funky and seem to be more "fun oriented" (99% of them don't seem to do plain and simple layouts) and I don't think any of them offer the ability to go back and edit previous collages I've made.

Thank you all in advance!

Congrats on the weight loss. I'm down from 340+ to about 270 now but would love to get to that 250 you left behind!

I have Photoshop but if I were going to create what you describe I would probably just use PowerPoint. You can arrange things any way you like, use the "select all" function, and then save the result as an image in whatever format you like. It's not as fancy as Photoshop but it's dead simple to resize, rearrange, and crop photos and, of course, add text. Save the original PowerPoint file and you can go back and edit it any time you like.

Another vote for Powerpoint or it's open source clone available in LibreOffice and OpenOffice. You can insert a table and keep individual photos & captions aligned in their respective cells.

I've used PhotoShop and it would work.... but I agree with ^ when suggesting PowerPoint! It would be perfect for what you want to do. Good luck!

Contact sheet in Photoshop comes to mind. As for adding text, I think you may be limited to just including the filename below. So something like "235lb.psd" would be the best it can do. But it's all automatic, so seems like it would save you some time.

Access this thru File>Automate>Contact Sheet II (this could vary some, I'm using CS5)

thanks a LOT everyone, I genuinely appreciate the help! It looks like PowerPoint is really pretty useful for this. I never would've thought about it, either, because I always associated it with office environment work, too lol

880arm said:

Congrats on the weight loss. I'm down from 340+ to about 270 now but would love to get to that 250 you left behind!

I have Photoshop but if I were going to create what you describe I would probably just use PowerPoint. You can arrange things any way you like, use the "select all" function, and then save the result as an image in whatever format you like. It's not as fancy as Photoshop but it's dead simple to resize, rearrange, and crop photos and, of course, add text. Save the original PowerPoint file and you can go back and edit it any time you like.

Click to expand...

congratulations to you, too, man! that's incredible work!

PhotonWrangler said:

Another vote for Powerpoint or it's open source clone available in LibreOffice and OpenOffice. You can insert a table and keep individual photos & captions aligned in their respective cells.

Click to expand...

ahh very good tip (RE: table)

HotWire said:

I've used PhotoShop and it would work.... but I agree with ^ when suggesting PowerPoint! It would be perfect for what you want to do. Good luck!

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Thanks a lot man!

markr6 said:

Contact sheet in Photoshop comes to mind. As for adding text, I think you may be limited to just including the filename below. So something like "235lb.psd" would be the best it can do. But it's all automatic, so seems like it would save you some time.

Access this thru File>Automate>Contact Sheet II (this could vary some, I'm using CS5)

Click to expand...

Thanks for the Photoshop tip! I didn't realize PS had a contact sheet function. Thank you sir!