Create photo mosaics using free software

Go to the website www.andreaplanet.com/andreamosaic. Click on Download, then click on Alternative 1. Save the file (AndreaMosaicSetup.exe) to the Windows Desktop, then double-click the icon to install it,­ follow the prompts and accept the default settings. Click Finish to launch the program. There are three steps in the process of creating a mosaic using Andreamosaic -­ specifying the source images (the images to be used as tiles), setting the options, and choosing a photo for the mosaic.

A photographic mosaic can be made up of a handful or thousands of other photos ­ it’s up to you. To create a mosaic, a ‘tile archive’ is needed. This is a collection of images that will be used as source material for the pixels in the mosaic. For Andreamosaic, these images must be .jpg files. You can use the sample image collection (we explain how to download this in the next step) or your own photos -­ you’ll need around a hundred or so as a minimum. The photos should all be in the one folder, although this folder can contain subfolders.

To download a collection of sample images to use as tiles, to to www.andreaplanet.com/andreamosaic again and click on Download. In the Sample Image Collection section, click on Download Setup, then choose Save. Save the file AndreaMosaicSetupSample.exe to the Windows Desktop and when it has finished downloading, double-click on the icon to install it. Follow the prompts and accept the defaults. It is important to install the image collection into the same folder as the Andreamosaic program. (If you accepted the default location when installing the program, this should happen automatically).

The first step in producing a mosaic is to create a tile archive. In the main window of Andreamosaic, click on Select Tiles, then choose Add Folders in the Select Tiles dialogue box. Browse to locate the folder containing the images to be used as tiles in the mosaic. If the folder has subfolders containing photos, they will also be used in the mosaic. Select the folder and click OK. Alternatively drag and drop folders containing images into the Folder List. To use the Andreamosaic sample collection of images, navigate to the folder where it was installed. If you accepted the default settings when installing, this is C:\Program Files\AndreaMosaic\example.

Click on Save Archive. Depending on how many images have been selected and how large they are, it may take some time for Andreamosaic to create the Tile Archive. (If you feel it’s taking too long and wish to cancel the process, click OK. You will be asked if you want to stop the process -­ click Yes.) Finally, choose a location and filename, then click on Save. The file is given a .amc extension, which stands for Andreamosaic Image Collection. This file contains information about each image, including name, size and location. A message will appear confirming the number of images in the tile archive and that a mosaic can now be created. Click OK in the message dialogue box.

Click OK in the Select Tiles dialogue box. Creating an archive is only necessary the first time that Andreamosaic is used. Once a tile archive has been created, the same archive can be used to create many mosaics. Simply load the archive previously created using the Open Archive button. Browse to find the archive, select it, then click on Open. Alternatively, an archive can be amended -­ specific images can be deleted from an archive, or new ones added to it. To create a black-and-white mosaic, click the Black & White checkbox underneath the folder list. When asked ‘Are you sure…?’, select Yes. The original images will not be changed in any way.

To create a mosaic, click on the ‘+’ button next to Original Images. Navigate to the image to be used. Again, the image must be a .jpg. Click on the image, then click on Open. The image will be previewed on the right-hand side of the screen. To remove the image, click on the ‘-’ button next to Original Images. Clicking the X will clear the list.

Down the left-hand side of the screen, there are various options. In the Size Parameters section, click on the Mosaic Size dropdown arrow to choose the size of the mosaic (A3, A4 etc). This can also be also specified in centimetres, inches, feet, pixels, or megapixels. It is possible to set a custom size by replacing ‘nnnn’ with the required size. The Mosaic Resolution dropdown box allows you to choose the number of pixels per inch (ppi) that are required for the mosaic. If in doubt use 300ppi.

Use the Tile Size dropdown box to select either the number of tiles or the tile size. It is recommended that tile sizes should be no smaller than 1.5cm, or half an inch. When the number of tiles is chosen, the size of each tile is calculated automatically. The more tiles in the mosaic, the closer the mosaic will look to the original photograph. However, the more tiles there are, the smaller they will be (and therefore more difficult to make out in the mosaic). It’s a balance, so experiment. Changes are previewed on the image on the right-hand side of the screen.

In the Tile Duplication section, choose how many times a photo in the Tile Archive can be repeated in the mosaic. If there are fewer photos in the archive than in the mosaic, duplication must be allowed, otherwise there will be black, empty tiles in the mosaic. (For example, if the tile archive contains 250 images and the mosaic contains 1,000 tiles, duplication must be allowed at least four times). Use the Duplicate Spacing dropdown box to select the distance between duplicated tiles. The closer duplicate tiles are, the more repetitive the final mosaic will be (the tiles will lack variety), unless there is a huge number of images in the Tile Archive. A minimum of at least three tiles is suggested.

Choose how the image is split into tiles in the Pattern section. Standard is a straight line grid while Wall creates a brickwork-style mosaic. Again, the changes are previewed on the screen. In the Colour Change section, select how much or how little the tiles are modified. Modification adjusts the individual images in the Tile Archive so they match the mosaic image more closely. More modification produces better mosaics. The Original option will use each tile image without any modification. Allowing Tile Variants such as rotating, mirroring and flipping also produce better results. Use the checkboxes in the Tile Variant section to specify which variations are allowed ­ at least one variant must be selected.

When changing the options, make sure the status shows the message ‘All parameters are correct’, before clicking on Create Mosaic. Creating the mosaic may take a few minutes - the greater the number of tiles in the Tile Archive, or the greater the number of tiles in the mosaic, the longer it will take. Current progress is shown in the Status area in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen. To stop the mosaic at any point, click on ‘Stop the Mosaic’. When it is finished, a message will appear saying ‘Mosaic completed! Do you want to open the destination folder?’ Click on Yes.

The folder will then open. A mosaic will have been created with the name Mosaic.jpg in a subfolder with the same name and location as the original image. (If you haven’t already opened the folder, click on the blue text below the Original Image to open the mosaic.) The image can then be opened in any image-editing program.

Clicking the ‘More Options’ button at the bottom of the screen allows the user to amend more advanced parameters. For example, the file format of the final saved mosaic can be changed (options include .bmp and different-quality JPEGs), borders can be added around every tile (colour and width can be amended), and the way the images in the Tile Archive are modified can be specified. Finally, it’s worth noting that Andreamosaic includes a user manual as a PDF file -­ to open it either select Start, Programs, Andreamosaic, then Andreamosaic User Manual, or click on the ‘?’ button in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen in Andreamosaic.