How to put two photos side by side without cropping either one

Photos placed side by side line up when they share a height, and stacked photos line up when they share a width. The combine tool scales each photo by the same factor on both sides, so the edges meet without any photo being cropped or enlarged. Choose the layout, set the gap and the background, and download one image. A PDF is the better choice when the photos are separate items to read one by one.

Why the edges need matching

Two photos with different heights cannot sit in a row with their tops and bottoms aligned unless one of them changes size. Side by side, the tool scales every photo to the smallest height in the row. Stacked, it scales every photo to the smallest width. Each photo keeps its own proportions, so nothing is distorted; only the scale changes.

Take a 4000 × 3000 photo beside a 3000 × 2000 photo. The shared height is 2000 pixels. The first photo is reduced to about 2667 × 2000, because 4000 × 2000 ÷ 3000 is 2666.7, and the second stays at 3000 × 2000. The larger photo loses a third of its height and width, and the row is about 5,667 pixels wide before any gap. Scaling a photo up would add no detail, so the tool only reduces photos, and the smallest one keeps its own size.

Gaps and backgrounds

The gap is a percentage of the layout's larger side, chosen from None, Thin and Wide. Thin is 1 per cent and Wide is 3 per cent, so the gap grows with the image rather than staying a fixed number of pixels.

The Background choices are White, Black and Transparent. White and Black give a JPG. Transparent gives a PNG, which keeps the gaps see-through, so the image can sit on a coloured page. A JPG cannot hold transparency, so pick Transparent when the background must stay empty.

Grids and equal cells

Grid places the photos in two, three or four columns, chosen from the Columns menu, and adds rows as needed. Each photo is fitted into one equal cell. The cell is the largest box in which every photo fits without enlargement, so a photo with a different shape is centred in its cell and background shows around it. With more than 16 photos, the tool skips that search and uses the smallest width and height among them, which can give smaller cells than the best possible.

For a grid of equal squares, first make each photo square with the square tool. It fits the whole photo into a 1:1 frame with a blurred, white, black or custom border, so every cell is the same shape and no photo is cut. The square photo guide covers that step.

Keeping the file a sensible size

The combined image is capped at 4,096 pixels on its longest side, and it is scaled down further if the device cannot hold an image that large. The output is a JPG at quality 0.92, or a PNG when the background is transparent. Software that re-encodes an image before showing it adds another compression pass, and large images with fine detail lose more in that pass. A message usually shows a picture far smaller than 4,096 pixels, so a smaller copy spends fewer bytes on detail nobody sees. Make it smaller with the resize tool, or use the compress tool when a limit applies.

When a PDF is better

A combined image shows the photos together. A PDF keeps them as separate pages, so use one when the photos are separate items, such as a set of receipts or a sequence of pages, or when a form asks for a PDF. Images to PDF puts one photo on each page, in the order shown. The page size is A4, US Letter or Fit to each image, and the margin is None, Small or Large. File size offers Best quality or Smaller file. Smaller file reduces the longest side to 2,500 pixels, saves JPEG at 80 per cent quality and flattens transparency onto white. Best quality reduces only photos larger than 5,000 pixels on the longest side. The photos to one PDF guide covers the scanning side in more detail.

Edge cases

• Order. The first photo goes on the left or at the top. The arrows beside each photo move it earlier or later, and they change to up and down when the layout is Stacked.
• One small photo. Every photo is reduced to match the smallest one in the row or column, so a small photo sets the size for the whole layout. Replace it with a larger original, or leave it out.
• Preview and download. The preview uses smaller copies, and the download is built again at full size. The size shown under the preview is the size of the download.
• Mixed shapes. In a grid, photos of different shapes leave background around some of them. Choose a background colour that suits the photos, and use the gap to separate the cells.