Before/after comparisons, step-by-step instructions, product angle sets, chat screenshot threads, panorama stitches — sooner or later everyone needs to combine several images into one. Dedicated collage apps bury this simple job under ads and sign-ups; design tools are overkill for a straight strip.
Here's how to merge images cleanly in your browser — horizontal, vertical or grid — with control over gaps and backgrounds, and nothing uploaded.
Step by step
1. Open the Merge tool
Go to Merge Images and drop your images. Order matters: they're combined in the file list order, and you can remove or re-add to fix sequencing.
2. Choose a direction
- Horizontal — images flow left to right, heights equalized to the tallest. Best for before/after pairs and panoramas.
- Vertical — stacked top to bottom, widths equalized. Best for screenshots, chat threads, step-by-step tutorials.
- Grid — N columns with rows filled in order. Best for contact sheets, product angle sets, collage-style comparisons.
3. Set gap and background
A 8–16px gap with a white (or transparent) background is the clean professional default. Zero gap merges images flush — useful for panorama-style stitches, awkward for comparisons. Transparent background keeps the result composable in other designs.
4. Merge and download
Process, preview, download as PNG (graphics, screenshots — keeps text crisp) or JPG (photo merges — smaller file).
Layout recipes that look professional
- Before/after: horizontal, same-size source images, 10px white gap. The alignment does the storytelling — no labels needed.
- Tutorial strip: vertical, screenshots at identical browser zoom, 12px gap, numbered captions baked in beforehand.
- Product set: 3×2 grid, images pre-cropped square (the Crop to 1:1 tool), 16px gap on white — an instant catalog card.
- Comparison image: pre-crop each photo to the same aspect ratio first, or the grid will resize them unevenly and look ragged.
Merge vs overlay vs split
- Merge places images next to each other on a shared canvas — what this guide covers.
- Overlay stacks images on top of each other with position, scale, rotation and opacity — for watermarks, logos on photos, layered compositions. Use the Image Overlay editor for that; it gives you drag-and-scale control.
- The reverse job — cutting one image into tiles — is Split Image: grid, strips or pixel-precise slices (handy for Instagram carousels and sprite sheets).
FAQ
Is there a limit on how many images I can merge?
Your device memory is the limit — dozens to hundreds of images work fine on a normal computer. Grid mode packs any count into rows automatically.
Do my images get uploaded?
No. The merged canvas is composed and encoded in your browser. Offline? Still works.
Why are my merged screenshots blurry?
You probably merged screenshots of different device pixel ratios, or the tool scaled smaller images up to match. Keep sources at native resolution and merge without upscaling.
Can I keep transparent backgrounds in the merged output?
Yes — choose PNG output and transparent background. JPG fills the background with white because the format has no alpha channel.
Combine your first set in the Merge Images tool — a two-photo before/after strip takes under a minute.