September 12, 2015

How to Create A Mosaic Photo Collage in GIMP

Today's tutorial will take you through the process of creating a mosaic photo collage step-by-step using GIMP, the free picture editing software.

We will use guides to help us positioning images precisely, the Rectangle select tool, File>Export command to create pattern and the Bucket Fill tool to fill the layer with the mosaic pattern.

Let's get started!
Create A Mosaic Photo Collage With GIMP
Final result.




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Step 1: Prepare Images For Creating Mosaic Pattern
Please prepare or download images to be used for mosaic photo collage pattern, at least 20 different images.

For this GIMP Collage tutorial, I'll use images that I downloaded from Pixabay.

Step 2: Create New Image
Choose File>New to open the Create a new image dialog. Here you can set the Width and Height of the new image. Enter a value for the initial width with 1500 px and height with 1500 px, then click OK.
Create a new image.

Step 3: Create Guides
To create a mosaic, we need to place a lot of small images in our new image precisely. GIMP gives us Guides, a flexible type of positioning aid. Guides are horizontal or vertical lines we can temporarily display on an image while we are working on it. If you don't see the guidelines, use View> Show Guides.

Snapping is a useful feature in GIMP that allows us to align images with guides. Choose View>Snap to Guides to enable snapping that will help you to align any images you want.

Create 9 horizontal guides. Use Image> Guide> New Guides (by percent) command. In the dialog box, select Horizontal direction, enter 10 Position and click OK. Repeat this step for position 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90.
Create horizontal guides.

And now create 9 vertical guides. Use Image> Guide> New Guides (by percent) command. In the dialog box, select Vertical direction, enter 10 Position and click OK. Repeat this step for position 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90.
Create vertical guides.

Step 4: Insert Image
Use File> Open As Layers command in the top menu to open the image you'd like to insert. Click on the image, then click OK.

You can now edit the image using the Move Tool and Scale Tool. as follows:
  • Use Tools>Transform Tools>Scale command to resize the image. Click anywhere inside the image. In the Scale dialog box, click the chain to keep the image does not distort. Set the new values for the image's width and height. Press Scale button when you are done.
  • Use Tools>Transform Tools>Move command to move the image. Click and hold anywhere inside the image and drag.
Use the Move Tool and Scale Tool.

Position the image.
Position the image.

Use Tools>Selection Tools>Rectangle Select command.
Rectangle Select Tool.

To create a selection, drag your mouse over part of the image, go to Edit> Copy command, go to Edit>Paste command and then use Layer>To New Layer. Now you can delete the original image's layer.
Create a selection, drag your mouse over part of the image. You can delete the original photo layer.

Step 5:. Insert All Images
Repeat step 4 to open and manipulate each picture you'd like to insert. The document now filled with the mosaic pattern. The result will be as shown below:
The document now filled with the mosaic pattern.

Step 6: Define Mosaic Pattern
Use File>Save to save your mosaic pattern, name it, and then click the Save button. Next, use File> Export to export it into a pattern. On the drop-down menu select GIMP Pattern (.pat). Fill in the Name field Mosaics 10 x 10. Click the Export button. Now you can save and close your document Pattern.xcf.
Export into a Pattern.

Then go to Edit> Preferences and click Folders> Patterns. You can see in there, the folder location for the pattern. Then copy the file mosaic pattern.pat export results earlier to that folder. Close GIMP, then reopen GIMP. This way, GIMP can read the pattern file we created earlier.
Copy the pattern file to the folder.

Step 7: Open Your Main Image
Use Tools>Paint Tools>Bucket Fill (Shift B)
Bucket Fill Tool Icon.

Then, in the toolbox select the mosaic pattern we created earlier and select the radio button 'Fill whole selection'.
Paint Bucket Tool Properties.

Use File> Open to open your main image (the big picture), then create a new layer by clicking the Create a new layer at the bottom of the panel or use Layer>New Layer. I recommend that you use a large resolution photo to get the best result.
Open the main image and then create a new layer.

Step 8: Fill Layer With Mosaic Pattern
Click your mouse on the document to fill the document with the mosaic pattern.
Click on the document to Fill Layer with a mosaic pattern.

Step 9: Desaturate Layer, change the Blend Mode and Opacity
Use Colors> Desaturate to desaturate layer. Change its mode to Overlay and set the opacity if needed.
Desaturate, Set mode to overlay and adjust its opacity.

Step 10: Save Your Document
Use File>Save command in the top menu and name your document. Click OK when you are done.

Once you have finished, you will probably also want to export the image in a more widely used format, such as JPEG, PNG, TIFF, etc, using File>Export As.

Here is the result:
Mosaic Photo Collage tutorial using GIMP.

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