5 Best Free Open Source Collage Maker Software for Windows

Here is a list of Best Free Open Source Collage Maker Software for Windows. These are the free collage makers which come with open source license that means you get source code of these freeware along with their setup files. You can freely study and modify source code of these collage makers without any restrictions.

In most of these software, you can create free style collage or you can use some predefined grid size and template to create a collage. A few of these are image editing software that require you to perform tricks to create a collage. In all these software, you can customize collage layout, collage size, background, border, and more properties. Furthermore, you can add text to your collages, randomize picture order, add decoration elements, change view perspective and rotation, etc. Plus, you can also make adjustment to added images and edit them using features like transparency, transformation (rotate, flip, invert, resize, crop), effects, filters, etc. All in all, you get all required tools to create collages with these open source software.

You can easily create collages in most of these software. Still, if you face any difficulty, you can checkout software description to know step by step collage creation process. Go through the list to know more about these software.

My Favorite Free Open Source Collage Maker Software for Windows:

Fotowall is my favorite collage maker as you can also add word cloud to your collages.

PhotoCollageForge is another good one as you get a lot of predefined layout styles to create collages in it.

You may also like some best free Online Collage Makers, Collage Maker Software, and Mood Board Maker Software for Windows.

Fotowall

Fotowall is a free, portable, open source collage maker software for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It is specially designed for users to create collages, wallpaper, postcards, posters, and covers. You can input images of multiple formats and then create a collage by arranging pictures on the canvas. It supports a wide number of image file formats as input, such as BMP, JPG, GIF, CUR, ICO, PNG, SVG, TIFF, WEBP, and more.

To enable you create a beautiful collage image, it provides a lot of handy tools. Let’s checkout some of its main features.

Key Features:

• Add Text: You can insert text to your collage in desired font type, font size, and style.
• Background: It lets you customize background of collage and set it to black, white, gradient, or none.
• View Perspective & Rotation: You can customize view perspective and rotation of a collage.
• Decorations: You can add top bar, bottom bar, and set collage title.
• Arrange: You can arrange pictures in a collage using Random Placement and Enable Force Field options.
• Picture Editing: It provides some basic editing tools to customize view perspective, transparency, looks, transformation (flip, invert, crop), effects, etc.

How to create a collage in Fotowall:

• Launch this software and click the Create button.
• Now, use the Add Picture to import all pictures that you want in your collage.
• Next, make right adjustment to canvas, collage, and pictures using available tools as mentioned above.
• After that, click its Print option from the main toolbar.
• Finally, select the export target (Picture, Wallpaper, PDF, SVG, etc.), customize output configurations (size, scale mode, etc.), and press the Finish button to create a collage.

Additional Features:

• It lets you add an image to collage with a Word Cloud generated from a local text file.
• You can also search and add images from Flickr.

Conclusion:

It is one of the best open source collage maker that lets you create collage with random pictures, word cloud, and more.

Fotor

Fotor is another free open source collage maker software for Windows. It is primarily a photo editor that lets you edit individual images as well as create collages with several images. When you launch this software, you get two modules including Edit and Collage; you need to click Collage to get started with making a collage. Let us first checkout main features of this open source collage maker.

Main Features:

• Template: It provides various collage grids and size to choose for your collage.
• Free Style: You can also create a free style collage to randomly place images and create a collage. It also provides some background designs to choose from. And if you want, you can select a desired collage background color too.
• Randomize: You can randomize the placement of images in the collage.
• Adjust: You can adjust various parameters of imported images including opacity, shadow, rotate, width, and color.

How to create a collage in Fotor:

• Launch this software and open its Collage module.
• Now, add images to it using the dedicated option.
• Next, customize the canvas with available options and drag images to the canvas.
• After that, adjust image parameters in the collage as per your requirement.
• Finally, save the collage locally in JPG, BMP, TIFF, or PNG image format or share the collage on Flickr, Twitter, or Facebook.

Conclusion:

It is another good open source collage maker that you can also use to edit and enhance images.

PhotoCollageForge

PhotoCollageForge is a dedicated open source collage maker for Windows and Mac. It is a portable, Java based collage maker that requires Java to be installed on your system to work. It provides all required tools to create a desired collage. You get to choose a desired layout for your collage, add images in multiple formats, make adjustment, and do more. Let’s see what are its key features to create and customize a collage.

Main Features:

• Layout: You can select a collage layout from some available ones such as portrait with background, landscape with center picture, pics with center text, background and scattered images, etc. Furthermore, you can customize size of collage, grid size, margin, edge color, etc.
• Large Pics and Small Pics: You can add folders to insert large and small pictures to your collage. It also provides some more functions to manage collage images, like random order, random scatter, random tilt, background, etc.
• Text: It offers a handy feature to insert text to a collage in customize font, style, text size, and text tilt.

How to create a collage in PhotoCollageForge:

• Launch this portable application and set up layout, large pics, small pics, and text options.
• When all customization and collage making process is done, go to the Save to File field, enter output collage name, and add file extension (.jpeg, .png, etc.) and hit the Save to File button to create a collage.

Conclusion:

It is a simple portable open source collage maker which anyone can use without much hassle.

GIMP

GIMP is a free open source photo editor that can also be used to create collages. Although it doesn’t provide any direct option to create collage, you can still make collages through this software. Let us check out how you can generate collage using this open source collage maker.

How to make a collage in GIMP:

• First, create a new project by entering collage dimensions and adjusting the background of collage. You can add an image to background, solid color, gradient, or a patterns.
• Next, open another image by using its Open Image as Layer feature and right click on the layer (from Layers panel) to Add Alpha Channel to the layer.
• Now, scale the image accordingly and place it anywhere on the background using Select & Move tools.
• Repeat the above steps for other images until you get a desired collage.
• At last when collage is done, you can save it in any of the supported formats such as PNG, JPG, GIF, SVG, EPS, TIFF, TGA, BMP, PCX, PPM, PIX, etc.

You can refer to this video tutorial to learn exact steps to create a collage in GIMP.

Additional Features:

• You get all standard and various advanced features to edit images individually or in collage. Some of its features include resize, rotate, flip, adjust color, blur, enhance, noise, edge detection, artistic, etc.
• It also provides various annotation features to add annotations over collage or image, such as insert text, pen, pencil, fill color, etc.
• You can also create GIF animations through this software.

Conclusion:

It is a great photo editing software which can be used for multiple purposes including collage creation.

Inkscape

Inkscape is an open source vector graphics editor for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Apart from editing vector images, you can also use it to create a collage with multiple images. You can simply set up document properties and then create some shapes in the collage. You can then import images to the project and create a collage in required size and grid. To view entire process, you can watch this video tutorial which will help you making a collage.

For novice users, I am listing down some simple steps in order to create a collage easily.

How to create a collage in Inkscape:

• First, create a new document and set up Document Properties from the File menu, e.g., size, background, border, etc.
• Now, go to the File menu and click Import option to add an image to it.
• Next, scale, align, move, and adjust image over the collage using respective tools.
• Repeat the above steps for other images to male a whole collage.
• After that, save the collage image in any of the supported formats like PNG, SVG, PDF, PS, etc.

Additional Features:

• You get a wide number of drawing tools in it including 2D shapes, 3D boxes, add text, freehand drawing, curves, straight lines, spray objects by sculpting, calligraphic, gradients, fill color, etc.
• It provide basic image editing features including resize, rotate, flip, filters, and more.

Conclusion:

It is a powerful vector graphics editor but to create a collage, you need to put in some extra efforts as it doesn’t provide any direct feature to do so.