Atlantas, is a free Windows 8 collage maker app. It is a simple app, but provides a very powerful platform for creating collages of maximum of 21 photos. The total number of photos that you can add in a frame itself is pretty big. Plus the app itself has pretty good collection of default frame templates, using which you can create beautiful collages of your photo memories. And if in case you want to edit these templates that is their orientations, sizes etc., then app lets you do that as well. Above all, this app also allows you to save the custom designed templates for later use. The app is supported with good photo editing tools like resizing, zooming, repositioning, rotating etc. and allows you to customize all the frames together in a group. And finally when done, you can save the collage either to SkyDrive or locally, or even share it using Windows 8 Share Charm.
Create collages of photos from SkyDrive or system’s hard drive using this Windows 8 collage maker app:
Working on this Windows 8 collage maker app is easy and the app is designed in such a way that the tools and other options together provides you the easiest and quickest way to generate the collages that you want. The app has a very clean interface; which lets you focus only on collage making with any disturbances. When you launch the app for the first time. It’ll give you set of fully customizable set of 36 default collage templates.
Simply click on any of these templates, and you’ll get directed to a screen where you can select the photos for the frames. A very good thing about this Windows 8 collage maker app is, you can choose as many photos as you want; regardless of the number of default frames that were originally present in the template. Even if the number of photos you selected is more than the total default frames in the template, still all the photos gets added in the template. Now, that shows the flexibility of this app. Also the app is very well-integrated with SkyDrive, so if there are some photos in the SkyDrive and you want to use them in collage, then you can simply import those photos directly from SkyDrive.
Once the photos gets added, you can manually change the orientation, placement, size or zoom of each photo either separately or together as a group. There’s a Group button at the lower left corner of the screen, using which what ever orientation, size, or zoom you give gets applied to all the frames that are currently present in the canvas. Another way of grouping the frames is simply select the frames one by one, and click on one of the four different colored square boxes: Red, Green, Blue, and Brown. The frames having same colored square box get grouped in one group. And to apply any effect on frames of one group, simply deselect all frames and highlight the group’s color (by clicking on only that requisite colored square), from the same four squares present at lower left corner of screen. And then do the adjustments. Now this does speeds up the collage creation process.
The app comes with .very powerful photo editing .tools and these include: opacity, border thickness, border color, flip, color layer depth, background color, delete, replace, switch, scaling, zoom, and rotation. In order to apply any effect to all frames present in the canvas, don’t select any frame, and then use requisite button from the bottom ribbon to give desired effect, like changing all frame opacity, flipping all frames photos etc.
And to give any effect to a single frame separately, simply click on desired photo, and then use the same buttons present at bottom ribbon.
The app uses the layers concept with frames. That is,+ you can put a frame on top of another, and make a very cool looking collage. Also the Replace and Switch buttons aforementioned adds a lot to app’s functionality. Simply select the unwanted photo in the canvas, and click on replace to quickly replace only the frame’s photo with another photo, and Switch button is used to quickly switch only the photos between two different frames. Simply select the requisite frame and click on Switch button and then drag-drop the photo between two frames.
And finally when you have the desired collage, you can then save the collage directly to SkyDrive or on local hard drive. The app lets you save collage in .jpg, .bmp, and .png file formats. Or if you want, you can share collage with friends directly using Windows 8 Share Charm or the Share button in the screen.
Key features of this Windows 8 collage maker app:
- Freely available.
- Good Windows 8 collage maker app.
- Create custom collages of photos from SkyDrive or system’s memory, and save them as templates for later use.
- Supported with good photo editing tools.
- Apply effect to frames separately or to group of frames together.
- Integrated with Windows 8 Share Charms.
- Works in layers concept.
- Saves collages in JPG, BMP, and PNG file formats.
You can also check out the Aviary Photo Editor and PhotoWindow, while you’re are using this collage making app.
Final note:
Atlantas certainly is a good Windows 8 collage maker app. The inbuilt features are sufficient enough to make a really good-looking collage. Plus the app is very easy to use. All the integration works well and the app runs smoothly. All in all, a good free app.
