Make a photo grid that reads as a design, not a contact sheet
A grid is the easiest collage to make and the easiest to make boring. Four equal squares of four unrelated photos is a contact sheet: tidy, and nobody looks at it twice. A grid works when the tidiness is deliberate and something interrupts it, one photo bigger than the rest, one gutter wider, one cell that is a colour instead of a photo.
This guide is about grids specifically, in dump's browser editor, where a grid is a set of photo slots you drop into and a snapping overlay that keeps every edge honest. It covers which grid for how many photos, gutters, the one-photo break, and the crop inside each cell that does most of the work. The wider collage guide covers layouts that are not grids; this one stays on the lattice.
Layouts and photo slots: free with an account. Exports are never watermarked.
Which grid, for how many photos
- Two photos: a split, vertical or horizontal. The most underrated layout there is, and the only one where both photos stay big.
- Three photos: two on top and one below, or one on top and two below. The single cell is the hero; put the strongest photo there.
- Four photos: 2x2. Works when the four share a subject or a colour. Fails when they are four different days, unless one cell breaks the pattern.
- Six photos: 2x3 on a portrait canvas, or a 3 row strip for photos that are all horizontal.
- Nine: a 3x3 on a square canvas. Dense, and at feed size each cell is small, so it only works with simple photos: colours, textures, close-ups.
All of these are ready-made layouts in dump's new canvas picker: Split vertical and horizontal, 2 top + 1 bottom and its inverse, Grid 2x2, Strip of 3 rows, Grid 2x3. Each cell is a photo slot: drop a photo in and it fills the cell, and you pan and zoom it within the frame. For a 3x3 or a 4x4, start from a square canvas, switch on the matching grid overlay and place slots or photos along it; the overlay snaps.
Gutters: even, and slightly wider than you think
The gutter is the gap between cells, and unevenness there is the first thing a viewer's eye catches even if they could not name it. Two rules. First, every gutter is the same width, including the outer margin to the canvas edge, or the outer margin is zero everywhere and the grid bleeds. Second, wider than instinct: at feed size a thin gutter closes up and the photos merge. Set the overlay in dump's page settings to the lattice you are building, keep Rulers and guides on, and let the snap do the measuring. There is no distribute-evenly command, so build from the overlay rather than by eye.
The one cell that breaks the rhythm
A grid becomes a design at the moment one cell disobeys. Options, from quiet to loud: one cell is a flat colour with a word in it; one photo has rounded corners while the others are square; one cell is a cutout on a colour instead of a photo; two cells merge into one double-width hero. Do one of these, not two. The break is where the eye lands, and two breaks means it lands nowhere.
The crop inside each cell does most of the work
A grid of full photos is busy because every photo keeps its whole story. Cropping tighter inside each cell, so each one shows a single thing, is what makes nine photos read as one image. In dump the crop is the slot itself: drag the photo within its cell to pan, pinch or scroll to zoom, and Reset fit if you go too far. Aim for the same visual scale across cells, a face at roughly the same size in each, so the grid feels shot as a set even when it was not.
- 1Count the photos, then pick the grid from the list above
New dump, choose the layout tile. The cells are already slots at the right size.
- 2Drop the photos in and crop each cell tight
One thing per cell. Match the scale across cells.
- 3Set the gutters with the overlay
Page settings, grid overlay matching your lattice, rulers on. Even everywhere, or bleeding everywhere.
- 4Break one cell
A colour, a rounded corner, a cutout or a merged hero. Exactly one.
- 5Export at HD
JPG for the feed, PNG if a cell is transparent. A free account exports at native size; no plan adds a watermark.
Grids, rulers and guides: free with an account. Exports are never watermarked.
Frequently asked questions
Open dump in the browser, start a new dump and pick a grid layout (2x2, 2x3, a strip, or a split). Each cell is a photo slot: drop a photo in, pan and zoom it to crop, keep the gutters even with the snapping overlay, and export as JPG or PNG. The layouts, the overlay and the export are free and never watermarked.
A 2x2 on a square or portrait canvas, cropped tight so each cell shows one thing at a similar scale. Make one cell different, a colour block with a word or a rounded corner, so the grid reads as a design rather than a contact sheet.
The same everywhere, including the margin to the canvas edge, and wider than looks right at full zoom: thin gaps close up at feed size. If you want no gaps, remove them everywhere so the grid bleeds. In dump the page grid overlay snaps cells to an even lattice.
No. dump builds grids as one post containing several photos; it does not cut a single image into nine posts. A 3x3 grid in dump is a square canvas with nine photo slots, exported as one image.
Part of collages, grids and layouts. Start from the main guide: How to make a photo collage that looks designed instead of assembled