Pufferizer

Create large posters from inexpensive photo developing.

Wikipedia: "Tiled printing is a method that computer programs use to enable users to print images larger than a standard page, popularized by a program called The Rasterbator. A tiled printing program overlays a grid on the printed image in which each cell (or tile) is the size of a printed page and then prints each tile. A person can then arrange the tiles to reconstruct the full image."

Printing a 4" x 6" photo is about 10 cents at a photo developer. Creating a large 6 feet by 4 feet poster requires 144 photos for a total of $14.40. Pufferizer allows you to take an image and break it up into "cells" or "tiles" that you reassemble. You can now have large inexpensive photo quality posters without the hassle of cutting papers from your home printer that similar apps such as Tileprint, Block Posters, PosteRazor, pdfposter, poster(1) require. This photo development feature sets Pufferizer apart from the others.

Notes:

- This free version only allows you to set up to 6 photos per side.

- The app will currently shut down if the image you choose is too large. Allowing a large image slows processing, so a hope for a future update fixes this.

- When choosing a photo developer, make sure that the company develops your photos on one machine. Why? Brightness levels and other variations are likely. See the last screenshot image for an example.

- The final resolution of each photo should ideally be 300dpi or better, but that may not be possible if your collage is large.

Instructions:

Select an image from your Android device. Adjust the size and orientation of the photos(which are similar to the cells in a spreadsheet) and then select the number of photos that you would like to make up the width or height of the final collage. If you choose the size for the width, the height (in number of photos) is computed automatically. The stats below the options tell you the following:

-- The orientation and size of each of the photos that make up the collage, the resolution when printed, and the number of photos needed to make up that collage.

-- The collage information gives you the number of photos that are needed to make up the width and height of the collage. Since the size ratios of the photos do not necessarily match the size of the image, some parts of the image are removed. The numbers in the t,b,l,r format tells you how much of the top, bottom, left and right of the image was cut out to make the collage. Ideally, those numbers should be zeros, so adjust your settings that makes sense for you.

When you're done with the adjustments, press Done once. Wait for a confirmation that the process is finished. The images that make up the files are found in a folder with a format of CF_yyyymmddhhmmss in Device storage>Pictures directory. In the folder, the individual photos are named as CF_row_x_col_y.jpg. The x,y indicates which location that photo is to be placed in the collage, so make sure you choose a developer that prints the file name on the back of the photo. That makes assembling easier.

Finally, upload the files in the folder to your developer, and make sure you choose the same photo size that was selected in the app.

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Please support this app by providing constructive feedback or by keeping it installed. A large interest makes my job of improving it worthwhile.

Happy Pufferizing, and be sure to share your creations on our Facebook page linked below.