How to create square photos without using Photoshop

We’ve been talking a lot about square photos on the blog lately.

And while we’re at it, I thought that I might as well share how I print my square photos – without using Photoshop.

Previously, I always hesitated to use square photos because one 4×6 or two 3x4s were always so much more convenient and much less of a hassle to create than trying to wrestle with fitting a square size on a 4×6 sheet. But when I had to make my first 4×4 mini album two weeks ago, I decided to conquer the formidable square photos and give this size a shot.

Obviously, Photoshop is a great tool for printing your square photos. And while I’m somewhat familiar with Photoshop, I’m not fully comfortable with it yet so I still tend to gravitate towards something quick and easy when I need to print photos in a hurry.

So recently, I started using Picasa (a free software by Google) to create one 4×4 and two 2×2 photos that I can use in my mini album and it’s been a game-changer for me.

Here’s how I do it:

1. Upload your photos on your computer (not pictured).

2. Open Picasa and select photos to import.

NOTE: My computer automatically syncs new photos onto Picasa when I open the Picasa software. Since Picasa is not my primary photo organization system, I don’t mess around with the settings at all. I do my quick and simple edits in Picasa and export them out for printing or uploading. That’s it.

3. Select the photos that you want to create into a collage.

You can see that all my selected photos are held in the tray in the bottom left corner.

4. Individually crop your selected photos to the square size.

TIP: To crop, double click the photo you want to crop and select the crop tool. Use the drop down bar to select what size you want to crop to.

5. Apply the crop setting.

6. After cropping your photo, select CREATE > PICTURE COLLAGE in the task bar of Picasa.

7. Once your photos open up, select MOSAIC.

TIP: Before creating your collage, you can drag the photos around to choose which photo is the 4×4 size, and which ones are the 2×2 size. When you click on the photo you want to move, the selected photo will be highlighted with an orange box.

9. Select CREATE COLLAGE.

Violá! Your collage is created.

10. To finish, select your collage and export with the settings you prefer.

Since I usually print my collages, I save them in the original size to avoid losing any resolution.

There you have it – how I create square photos without using Photoshop.

I tried to be as comprehensive as possible, but if you have any questions about this process, let me know in the comments! If you have any other ways to create square photos, I would love to hear about them in the comments too.

P.S. If you want more options for photo sizes, Lauren also has a great Picasa tutorial here.