Make a memorial photo collage
Quiet layouts at the sizes a service actually needs, ready to print.
Drop photos here, or paste from your clipboard
Examples
- A memorial collage with one photograph above two, and a name beneath
- A memorial collage laid out for a 16 by 20 board
- A single photograph with a name and dates
- A memorial collage on A4 for an order of service
- A memorial collage of thirty photographs in rows
- A square memorial collage for sharing with family
The details
| Templates | 3 memorial layouts — 1 to 30 photos |
|---|---|
| Board sizes | 16 × 20 and 18 × 24 inches — the usual foam-board sizes for a service |
| Frame sizes | 8 × 10, 11 × 14, A4 |
| Print resolution | 300 DPI — 16 × 20 is 4800 × 6000 px |
| Name and dates preset | included — set in Cormorant, centred beneath |
| Minimum photo size for a board | 1500 px on the long edge — for a photo shown at 5 inches |
How it works
- Add the photographs, however few or many.
- Choose a board or frame size and add the name and dates.
- Export as a PDF at the exact size for a print shop.
A memorial collage is usually needed quickly, printed large, and looked at closely by people standing in front of it. Those three things point in the same direction: work at the physical size of the board from the start, keep the arrangement quiet, and check that every photograph will hold up when it is printed at five or six inches across.
The sizes that matter are the foam-board ones. A 16 × 20 inch board at 300 DPI is 4800 × 6000 pixels and a 18 × 24 is 5400 × 7200 — both larger than a browser can hold on a single canvas, which is why the export here is rendered in horizontal bands. It means a poster-sized memorial collage can be made in a browser tab on a laptop, which is generally the machine available at short notice.
Older photographs are almost always part of it, and they are almost always scans or phone snapshots of prints. These are lower resolution and a different shape from anything recent, and both matter at board size. The layout gives each photograph a cell close to its own proportions rather than cropping it to match, and the resolution meter marks any photograph that will print soft at the size you have chosen, so you can either show it smaller or find a better copy.
For the arrangement itself, one photograph given clear prominence with the others arranged around it is the shape most services use, and it is the one the templates here default to. A name and dates preset sits beneath, set in a quiet serif at a size that reads from a few feet away. The elegant style's wide margins are deliberate: a board with room around the edges looks considered, and it also leaves space for the mounting.
Everything is done on your own device. Nothing is uploaded, no account is needed, and the file carries no metadata. If you are working from a family member's phone on a borrowed connection, that is one less thing to think about.
Questions
What size should a memorial collage board be?
16 × 20 or 18 × 24 inches are the usual foam-board sizes for a service. Both are offered at 300 DPI, which is 4800 × 6000 and 5400 × 7200 pixels.
Can I use old scanned photographs?
Yes. They will be a different shape and lower resolution than recent photos, and the layout accounts for the shape. The resolution meter tells you which ones will print soft at your chosen size.
Can I add a name and dates?
Yes, with a preset set in a quiet serif and centred beneath the photographs. It can be moved and resized.
Can my browser really export something that large?
Yes. The export is rendered in horizontal bands rather than on a single canvas, which is what makes poster sizes possible in a browser at all.
Are the photographs uploaded anywhere?
No. They are opened by this browser tab and never sent anywhere, and the exported file carries no metadata.