Photo Mosaic Maker

A photo mosaic lives or dies on two things: the master photo and the tile palette. The master should read clearly at thumbnail size — bold shapes, strong contrast, a single subject. Busy masters with fine detail dissolve into noise because each grid cell only carries one average color. Portraits, pets and logos work beautifully; a cluttered landscape usually doesn't.

Your tiles are the palette, and variety beats quantity. A set of sixty sunset photos gives the matcher sixty shades of orange and nothing to paint shadows with. Mix bright and dark images, warm and cool tones, colorful and neutral shots. The matcher compares average colors, so even an out-of-focus or "boring" photo can be the perfect tile for a flat region of sky — don't curate for beauty, curate for range.

Detail and resolution are a trade-off you control. More grid columns resolve finer features of the master, but each tile gets smaller and harder to recognize up close — 60 columns is the sweet spot for most prints. The optional blend overlays a whisper of the master photo over the tiles; at 15% it sharpens the likeness without hiding the tile detail that makes mosaics delightful to inspect. Render at 100 px tiles for a file that prints crisply at poster size, and remember: this tool charges nothing per download, so iterate freely until it looks right.