Comparison of selected photo mosaic applications
Photo mosaic also known as photo montage or photo collage or photographic mosaic
Standard photo mosaic applications are based on similar (don't read the same) process. Applications are different in implemented recognition/selection algorithms (most are unique) and built-in functions for control/enhance mosaic rendering process.
This comparison shows main features for selected mosaic software. I don't score applications only divide it to groups and add some comments (may be subjective). You can easy evaluate and decide what program is really usable for you. As author of Mosaic Creator, I understand minimal requirements for generating quality mosaics. All basic required functions are evaluated for each application. All listed software is directly oriented for rendering photo mosaics, except Mosaic Creator which has built in ability for creating Web thumbnails and video animations. If you find some bugs or you want to recommend some other application, send me e-mail.
| Best shareware photo mosaic products | ||||||||||||||
| cell | large mosaics | cell | control cell filling | non- | color enhance | cell borders | cell repetition control | unique | miss | price | comment | ||
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| transpa- | file, unlimited | user | user | user | user | user | user | print, mosaic and thumbnail wizard, pattern editor, pattern shapes, clickable thumbnails, alpha masking, color masking, rendering video mosaics, image watermarking, calculate tile mosaics, text mosaics, ASCII art as HTML and more then hundred options | - | Version | not only photo mosaic software, full featured thumbnailer | ||
| yes | in memory, unlimited | user | user | - | - | - | 1 or more | really quality mosaic output, change cell image in mosaic manually | options for rendering hard to understand | $49.95 | |||
| yes | in memory, max 1.000 cell images | user | - | -
| off/auto | user | user | scan, print, user interface, treasure box, signature box, CD image collection | limited number of cell images, no additional options relative to mosaics | $39.99, upgrade $24.99 | no trial available, not tested | ||
| Best feeware/postcardware products | ||||||||||||||
| cell | large mosaics | cell | control cell filling | non- | color enhance | cell borders | cell repetition control | unique | miss | price | comment | ||
| yes | in memory | only | user | - | yes | black line | - | Filling - flip horizontal/ vertical/ Exponential, movie image cells | not user friendly, missing cell size control, one output format, | Free | Very fast, but for version 3.13 very poor interface and no manual but intuitive and free | ||
| Other shareware products | ||||||||||||||
| cell | large mosaics | cell | control cell filling | non- | color enhance | cell borders | cell repetition control | unique | miss | price | comment | ||
| ?? | in memory max 8000x8000 pixels, up to 8.000 cell images in Pro version. | user | user | - | yes | ?? | user | Windows and Macintosh versions use movies as source for cell images Over 7.000 images | no trial available, limited result image image size and number of used cell images | $39 or Pro version $279 | Not available in USA, Japan and Australia due US Patent 6,137,498, entitled 'Digital composition of a mosaic image.'
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| yes | in memory | portrait or landscape | - | - | - | - | - | - | no additional options | $19 | |||
| yes | in memory | user | - | - | user | - | - | - | not user friendly | $35 or $99 or $149 | |||
| DISCONTINUED projects | ||||||||||||||
| cell | large mosaics | cell | control cell filling | non- | color enhance | cell borders | cell repetition control | unique | miss | price | comment | ||
| yes | in memory | as database, user in assembler | user | - | user | user | user | image panning, assembler for additional $20, image conversion utility $20 | - | $20 | DISCONTINUED 05/2006 "Closed as of 5/28/06" | ||
| yes | in memory | as database | user | - | source opacity | - | user | Channel Dominance, Queue then Image Method | not user friendly | postcard-ware | DISCONTINUED 05/2006 "We regret to inform you that we are no longer supporting or distributing Centarsia, due to the threat of legal action by Robert Silvers, the holder of a patent related to the technology that we used in Centarsia. We do not necessarily believe that the patent is applicable in this case but we have neither the time, interest, or money to pursue a legal "hashing out", so we are complying with the cease and desist request. " | ||
| yes | in memory, max 5.000 cell images | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | very crippled, support only for BMP | $15 | DISCONTINUED | ||
| file list | in memory | user | user | - | source opacity | - | - | grayscale option | no additional options, install OCXs to system | $12 | DISCONTINUED | ||
| file list | file, unlimited | user | - | - | auto | user | user | preview, user interface | no help, price | $70 | DISCONTINUED | ||
| - | in memory | user | - | - | - | - | - | print, scan | no rendering options | $49.95 | DISCONTINUED | ||
Legend
- cell image database - application create mosaics from prepared image database, this can speed-up rendering process of result image
- large mosaics - ability render large mosaic (>128MB), if is result image rendered in memory, there can be problems with high resolution images
- cell size - user can set cell size for mosaic
- control cell filling - user can control accuracy of cell filling, for example minimal distance of the same images
- nonrectangle cells - can render mosaic with other cell shapes as rectangle (hexagon, triangle, puzzle, ...)
- color enhance - modify color of cell images to opacity of source image
- cell borders - borders for cell images
- cell repetition control - control number of duplicates
