Combine two photos side by side

To merge two photos into one image, open the free collage maker, add both photos, choose the Side by side or Stacked layout, pick a shape, and click Make collage. You get one JPG, PNG or WebP with both pictures in it. It's free, needs no sign-up, and works on phones and computers. Your photos are never uploaded.

People merge images for all sorts of reasons: two screenshots for one WhatsApp message, a couple photo from two separate shots, two documents in one upload, a product from two angles. The steps are quick. The part worth a minute of thought is choosing the shape, because that decides how much of each photo you keep.

Как это сделать merge two photos, step by step

1. Open the free collage maker and click Choose photos. Select both photos (hold Ctrl or Cmd to pick two at once, or add the second with Add more photos).
2. Under Layout, choose Side by side (left and right) or Stacked (top and bottom).
3. Under Shape, choose Square, Portrait 4:5, Story 9:16 or Landscape 16:9. Use the table below to pick.
4. Set Spacing. 0px joins the photos edge to edge; the default 24px leaves a thin border.
5. Optional: set Rounded corners and a Background colour (the colour of the border).
6. Check the order under Photos, in order. Use ↑ and ↓ to swap which photo comes first.
7. Under Save as, pick JPG for photos, then click Make collage and Download collage.

Pick the shape that keeps the most of your photos

The collage maker never stretches a photo. Each one fills its half completely, and if the photo's shape doesn't match the half, the edges are trimmed evenly from both sides. So match the shape to your photos:

Your two photos are	Best layout and shape	How much of each photo you keep
Upright phone photos (3:4)	Side by side, Landscape 16:9	About 84% of the height
Wide photos (4:3)	Stacked, Portrait 4:5	About 83% of the height
Wide photos (4:3), for a Story	Stacked, Story 9:16	About 84% of the width
Square photos	Side by side, Landscape 16:9	About 89% of the width
Tall screenshots (9:16)	Side by side, Square	About 88% of the width
Very wide photos (16:9)	Stacked, Portrait 4:5	About 90% of the width

These figures assume the default spacing and are worked out from the collage sizes the tool uses. The wrong choice costs a lot: two upright phone photos side by side in a Square collage keep only about two-thirds of their width.

The preview updates as you change settings, so if a head or a caption is getting cut off, try another shape before you download.

Control exactly what gets trimmed

Because trimming is always from the centre outwards, a person standing at the edge of a photo can be cut. Fix it by cropping first:

1. Open the free image cropper.
2. Choose Free, then type a width and height under the picture that match the half you're filling. For Side by side in Landscape 16:9 with 0px spacing, each half is 1,920 × 2,160, a shape of 8:9, so crop to something like 1,600 × 1,800.
3. Frame the part you want and download. Do the same for the second photo.

Now the photos already match their spaces, and nothing more is trimmed. Our cropping guide explains the cropper's controls.

How big is the merged image?

The finished image is 2,160 pixels on its short side: 2,160 × 2,160 for Square, 2,160 × 2,700 for Portrait 4:5, and 3,840 pixels on the long side for Story and Landscape. That's sharp enough for printing or a full-screen view. The Download collage button shows the file size, which can run to a few megabytes as a JPG. To send it on a messaging app or upload it to a form with a limit, shrink it with the free image compressor; for strict limits, see compressing an image to 1 MB or to 500 KB.

Merging more than two

The same tool takes up to nine photos, with layouts like Three columns, 2 × 2 grid and 3 × 3 grid. For three or more, our general guide to making a photo collage covers the layouts. If you want two photos that compare the same subject, our before and after photo guide has tips on matching the shots.

Going the other way, cutting one wide photo into pieces, is a job for the free image splitter; see splitting an image into a grid.

Merging two documents instead?

For two scans or document photos, such as the front and back of a card, the same Stacked layout works well. Our guide to putting Aadhaar front and back on one page shows the settings for ID cards and how to turn the result into a PDF.

Merge your photos now

Open the free collage maker, add two photos, pick Side by side or Stacked and the shape that suits them, and download one combined image. It's free, and your photos stay on your device.