Creating a collage without Picasa

[Eithneangela]

I'm trying to create a collage of various photos as an Xmas present. Normally I use Picasa, which looks brilliant on the laptop. However, I want the collage to be printed on a canvas. The supplier tells me that Picasa is no good as it reduces the pictures to minimal size, which won't allow them to produce a good finish. Does anybody know of a software product which will produce a collage, yet not reduce each pic to a size where reproduction will result in lots of snow?

 

[SarahMc]

Ive used andreamosasic to make photo mosaics and had them printed up to a1 size. They look great, particularly if the original images are high quality digital.

 

[Tired Paul]

I've always used Picasa for collages of the kids and stuff and have no problem getting printed up to 30" x 20". First and foremost is make sure the pics are of good quality to begin with. All of my colleges to date have consisted of 6 pictures in each collage ( 2 of each kid ). They look great when finished and hung on the wall.

 

[Eithneangela]

I've been told by the canvas print supplier that Picasa produced collages are not really printable - because Picasa shrinks the original 1meg pic down to a fraction of it's original size.

 

[Tired Paul]

As I've already mentioned I have never had any problems. I do use a fairly decent camera which takes pic's at approx 12-14 megapixel. I then use the Picasa software for finishing touches (sharpen, highlight, crop etc), use the collage tool and when completed I save of jpeg of this on my computer (as well as Picasa).
It is the file on the computer that I use then for getting the collages printed. I have used in the past a firm from the UK (they have vouchers every so often on these discount sites) and I upload the photo and wait to see my work of art - usually about 7-10 days.
Also, check your settings on Picasa - I'm sure there is a way of allowing saved pictures to retain their original file size. I can check it out for you but it will be in a day or so (working nights at the moment).

 

[Eithneangela]

Wow! Thank you so much for the information. I'm trying to take advantage of the current daily voucher deals to create Xmas presents, and for the past 6 years or so I've done a grandkids collage for hubby, which he loves. If there is a way of using Picasa (because I too use all of the editing features, crop, redeye reduction, light, etc.) without each picture losing it's megapixels, that would be wonderful. I look forward to your next post.