Title: Pic Collage
Platform: iPhone, iPod, iPad
Cost: Free

I was having trouble choosing an app to review this week. My iPhone 3 is not compatible with some of the things I was interested in trying.  I think it’s time for an upgrade.  To find some new apps to consider for the week, I looked at my Genius recommendations in the App Store.   Like iTunes, Genius recommends apps based on what you already have in your library.  You can find it under the “Featured” heading in the App store.  Pic Collage was recommended for me because I have Instagram.

Pic Collage lets you arrange and share groups of images.  The interface is simple, intuitive, and explained in this nice little graphic:

You can take new pictures with your device’s camera or pull images from your device’s photo library or Facebook.  When you tap to start a new collage, you get a random background color, which you can change at any point by tapping the background and choosing from a palette of 16 colors. Then start adding your images by tapping the screen and choosing where you want to pull pictures from.  Once you have a picture on the screen, you can rotate and resize it easily by just dragging it around with your fingers.  When you have your pictures arranged and resized as you like them, you can click on the arrow at the bottom right to share.  Pic Collage has sharing options for Twitter, Facebook, Email or to send your collage as a postcard using Sincerely.

Here’s a quick collage I made:

The black background is a nice contrast for bright colors.

The images come out small on the iPhone.  I think this app’s collages would look better on the larger canvas of the iPad.  I also found myself wondering about adding text.  While you could incorporate text by taking a picture of some text,  I wish there was an option to add text directly to a collage while you’re working on it.

 There are tons of reasons to share a group of images, any of which would work just fine with Pic Collage.  I could see using this to share pictures from a teen program, or having teens use it showcase favorite books for Teen Read Week.   You could use Pic Collage in a classroom setting to show steps in a process, or summarize a concept in pictures.

For more YALSA App of the Week posts visit the App of the Week Archive.