Collage your memories

While Facebook and Flickr are fabulous ways to share your memories online, there’s something very one dimensional about simply clicking through a slideshow of photos. Why not do more for your memories by showcasing them in an artistic collage with Posterino? This Mac app allows even the most novice artists to create collages from templates and then easily print them out as a keepsake. It’s easier than doing it by hand, and as long as you’ve got the hardware for it, it’s cheaper than paying a professional service to do it.

Posterino offers 35 different collage options, including templates for a random display, placing photos in an e-card or calendar, or a mega-collage of a photo for one day of every year. Once you choose your project, the app will ask you to choose your dimensions, from a standard 4x6 photo size to A1, which is 594mm by 841mm. It’s up to you to select the dimensions that fit your printing needs, and Posterino promptly reminds you of this fact before you print.

Create beautiful collages without using scissors and glue.

Once you’ve started a project, Posterino lets you drag and drop photos from your Pictures folder, Aperture, iPhoto, or Adobe Lightroom onto the canvas. From here you can adjust the dimensions of each individual square, the background of your project, the layout, paper size, and even use photo filters, including one that gives your photos a vintage feel. When you’re finished, save your collage as a TIFF or JPEG file, send it to iPhoto, or publish it to Flickr. Posterino also supports Lion’s Auto-Save and Versions features, so you needn’t worry about losing your projects in the middle of a computer meltdown.

Posterino is fairly easy to use, but depending on the size of your project, it can be difficult to see which photos are placed where, making the process feel tedious at times. Fortunately the app has the option to fill at random, and you can do so by event. The end result is beautiful, and we were impressed at the quality of the collage on a standard 8x10 printout.

Globetrotters and social butterflies will especially enjoy Posterino because it’s a dynamic way to share photos beyond the standard slideshow fare. It’s also more cost efficient to pay for the software than to have a photo service piece your photos together for you. However, unless you have the printing capabilities available to you, it may be difficult to justify the cost of the app. For a simple digital collage, there are some cheaper—even free—apps out there that do the job.
 
The bottom line. If you’ve got a powerful printer and love to piece together photo memories, Posterino is worth the splurge.