Collage Products

Collages are versatile and can benefit any genre of photography sales. Different specialities require different approaches, so customisation was a priority. You may design templates with borders, rounded corners, font choices, background images and colours, making it easy to keep the collage specific to your clients brand, or simply seasonal gift ideas to generate additional sales.

With the added "fixed image", you may include a logo, icon, or emblem on the collage as well as the collection name and date, making it perfect for school portraits, club and team photos sports events and graduations. You can offer clients bespoke, high-end products, unique to your business but without any outlay in pre-printed materials.

Collages should be a profit margin boost for your business, so we have also updated all price plans to now be able to duplicate products. Now, you can sell a 16x12 single image for one price and a 16x12 collage at a higher price. You will pay normal cost-of-goods so enjoy higher profit margins.

Collage products are single print or product items containing one or more photos, in specific sizes and positions where your customer can select the photo and crop it in the way they want it to display. These products can optionally include text.

Click to view some examples. You can download any of the examples to view the actual image that is created during the collage workflow, giving more of an opportunity to view the fine details like borders and rounded corners etc.

Click here to Try it out as a customer

Once you have created the collage product you can select which products your clients can purchase the collage product printed on. This can range from huge canvas prints to family greetings cards. We have created some example layouts available from the Collage Recipe Book that you are free to use, copy or alter as you wish.

Create a print product specifically for your Collage products

Things to think about before you make the collage template.

The aspect ratio, shape you want. Let's say landscape 3x2, perfect for 6x4, 9x6 and 12x8 prints and products.
Find out the number of pixels on each side the lab requires to print the largest of these products, in this case, the 12x8 needs a minimum of 1200 pixels x 800 pixels, so I am going to double that to ensure a good resolution to 2400 pixels x 1600 pixels.
When you upload the images into the collection that will use this collage template, they will need to be at least the minimum pixel size of the template size, so in this example that is 2400 pixels.
The optional Fixed Named Image must be a png file, on a transparent background. This could be the logo of the club, school, college or graphic such as a word, or seasonal image like snowflakes. The png image must be uploaded into the collection folder that will be using the collage template. It will be downsized to fit the print.
If you want a jpg image as the background image on the prints, this must be exactly the same pixel size as the template, so in this example 2400 pixels x 1600 pixels.
What width is the border around the image slots?

You can Create a new collage product in any Price Plan but, if using a partner lab, you should make sure the price plan contains at least one product in the same aspect ratio as the collage you are making. Start by going to My Sales > Item Library and click the "Create Sale Item" button. Select Photo Sales and click Collage from the photo sales options.
Create your Sale item and Save

Now the item is in your Item Library you can add it to your price plan. Click to edit your price plan. Go to Sale Items > My Items and add the new product created to the price plan.

Tip - If you want to make the sale item only available for a collage, click the advanced link, and make it "Available ONLY for a collage".

Add the Collage tab to your price plan

To add the collages into your price plan first go to the Add Supplier tab:

We suggest that you import one of the pre-made collages prior to creating a new collage product

Import and export collage product recipes
Collage Recipe Book

Welcome to the Collages tab

Now that you have a collage the Collage tab will show on your price plan. Here you can import additional collages and create new collages.

Note - Collage products are price plan specific. If you need to have more than one price plan and need the collage available in any additional price plan you should follow the steps above, then export the collage product, and import it into the additional price plan. (See Import and export collage product recipes)

Create a new collage product

You can now create your own unique collages. Use the Collage tab to access all collages, and add new ones. Click Create a new Collage Product.

Enter the details of the new collage product:

Name - enter a unique name for this new collage product.
Final Collage Size [ ] wide x [ ] high - Enter the final pixel size of the completed collage image. This must match the aspect ratio at which it will be printed; for example, as 12"x8" has a 3x2 aspect ratio and 7200x4800 pixels would be an appropriate size. The pixel size cannot be changed later. Must be between 1000 and 18000 pixels.
Initialise: Start with "1" Image slot - Enter how many image slots to start with (1 to 9) — they will be initially spaced evenly across the image
Click Create New.

You will now see the products available in your price plan. Tick the checkboxes of the products you want to make available for the customer to be able to select to purchase with the collage product.

Remember they must be the same aspect ratio as the collage product you are creating, but you do not need to include all products that match that aspect ratio. Then Save All.

Click the Image pen icon to edit the pixel position of the items on the canvas. You may also add "Additional Image selections" (ie change it from a three image collage to a four image collage) "Fixed Image" (ie, the school coat of arms, of club logo) and "Text" inputs (ie the school name and year, or the Event name) Each image or text input sits on a layer. You can change the order of the stack of layers so text can sit on top of the image etc. You may also select a base colour or upload a background image (note if using a background image it must be the exact same pixel size as the collage product).

Remember that you can always make changes to all the settings other than the original canvas size by editing the layers

Import and Export Settings

Your collage product is created within a price plan and is price plan specific. However you can click to Export the code for a collage, then Import the code to a different price plan. This can be a huge timesaver:

Please note - if your imported product contains a background image or a Fixed Image, the images will need to be uploaded into the new price plan too.

Click to view some examples

To use additional fonts, upload the TTF (TrueType) font file to Custom Fonts.

Related:
Get started using a collage from the Collage Recipe Book
Import and export collage product recipes
Need help with a collage layout? Commission a bespoke collage product

Using photoshop to calculate collage dimensions

We are making a 5 image collage on landscape orientation A4. First, make an exact to size photoshop (or similar image editing software) document. Use guides to add your margins (we used 100 pixels all around and 100 pixels between images. Then add a layer for each image aperture and draw the image space. You should now have 6 layers one with each photo aperture and one for the background full-size canvas. The sizes and aspect ratios of the apertures, the spaces between etc are completely down to your preference.

Using the layer properties dialogue box you should now be able to see the exact pixel dimensions of each element of each layer. Both its coordinates on the document and its aperture size:

Once you have your PS document the way you want it simply copy each layer as an image into your collage sale item. In the screenshot above we show image 2 (top right). In the image below we show the same image area being made in the collage sales item:

Repeat with the remaining photos and save.