Made for your moments
Make a polaroid-style collage
White frames with the heavy bottom edge, tilted just enough to look placed by hand.
Drop photos here, or paste from your clipboard
Examples
The details
| Frame | white, 24 units — 1 unit is 1/1000 of the canvas short side |
|---|---|
| Bottom edge | 46 units extra — the proportion an instant print actually has |
| Tilt | up to 2° — deterministic from the project, so it does not change on every edit |
| Shadow | 10 units down, 24 blur |
| Caption font | Caveat — handwriting, for the bottom edge |
| Photos that suit it | 4 to 9 — frames take space, so cells shrink faster |
How it works
- Add your photos.
- Pick a polaroid layout — the frames and tilt are already set.
- Write on the bottom edges if you want, then download.
The polaroid look is three things in a particular proportion: a white border, a bottom edge roughly three times the others, and a slight rotation. Getting the bottom edge wrong is what makes most imitations look off — it is not a thick border all round, it is an asymmetric one, because that is where the chemistry was. The style here uses 24 units on three sides and 70 on the bottom, which matches the real proportion closely enough that it reads instantly.
The tilt is deterministic rather than random. Every cell gets an angle derived from the project's own seed, so the arrangement looks hand-placed but does not jump around each time you change something else — which is the usual failing of a random tilt, and which makes a collage impossible to fine-tune.
Frames cost space, and that changes how many photographs a layout can carry. Each frame takes about 5% of its cell's width, so nine framed photographs on a 4:5 canvas leave cells noticeably smaller than nine unframed ones. Four to nine is the range where the look works; above that the frames dominate and the photographs become stamps.
The bottom edge exists to be written on. The caption preset uses Caveat, a handwriting face, at a size that fits the edge without crowding it — one short line, a date or a name, which is what an instant print would have. Longer captions belong over the collage rather than on a frame.
One thing the real format does that imitations usually skip is the colour. Instant film has a narrow range and a warm cast, and photographs from a phone look conspicuously modern inside a polaroid frame unless something is done about it. The fade and mono warm filters get close, and Apply to all pushes either across every photograph at once so the set matches.
The style is a set of about forty values, and changing it never moves photographs between cells: you can try polaroid, scrapbook and classic on the same arrangement and compare them directly. Everything happens on your device, and the export carries no metadata.
Questions
What makes a polaroid frame look right?
The asymmetry. The bottom edge is about three times the others, not a thick border all round. That proportion is what the eye recognises.
Can I write on the bottom edge?
Yes, with the caption preset, which uses a handwriting face sized to fit the edge. One short line works; longer text belongs over the collage.
Does the tilt change every time I edit?
No. It is derived from the project, so it stays put while you work and comes back the same when you reopen the file.
How many photos suit a polaroid collage?
Four to nine. Frames take space, so above that the borders dominate and the photographs become too small.
Can I switch to another style afterwards?
Yes, and it will not move your photos between cells. A style is a set of values — spacing, frames, type — applied over the arrangement you already have.