Once upon a time, you had to know some Photoshop tricks to create your own diptychs and triptychs. From the booming presence of these collages on Instagram and other networks, you can gather this is no longer the case.

Own an iOS device and want to create some beautiful collages in minutes? The apps below are the best and quickest tools for the job.

For The Serious: Diptic ($0.99, In-App Purchases)

Being one of the best collage creators around, we've already mentioned Diptic in a previous article about awesome iPad photo editors. Despite the fact that it's been around for a while, it remains one of the first go-to apps when you want to combine several photos into one beautiful collage.

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Diptic is a versatile and flexible app, giving you full control of almost every aspect of your collage. The $0.99 app comes with dozens of layouts to choose from, ranging from the simplest diptych to fancy, shaped collage templates.

Each of these layouts is also fully configurable, meaning, you can change the size and style of the borders, the inner ratio of the layout, and even the color and texture of both borders and background.

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When it comes to the photos themselves, you can edit these too with the available adjustment settings and filters. These are pretty basic compared to full-fledged photo editing apps, but they're more than enough for your Diptic needs.

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If you're looking for an even simpler and quicker way to create diptychs and triptychs, Diptic has recently launched a new app called Diptic PDQ (Pretty Dang Quick). This one costs $0.99 as well, and offers a simpler, more basic interface than the original Diptic. PDQ is great for when you want to create quick collages to share on Instagram, for example, but it doesn't offer the same power as Diptic.

Both versions offer in-app purchases on top of the original price, but as tempting as those are, you can create beautiful collages without them. You can also check out Diptic Video ($1.99) for some pretty unique video collages.

For The Lazy: Eventiles [No Longer Available]

Want an app that will automatically detect your best photos and create collages for you? Eventiles is it, and it goes as far as allowing you some control over your final result, but not too much. With Eventiles, you can create numerous collages at once, and then go over them for some final touches.

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Above you can see the basic interface used by Eventiles. Once you grant it access to your photos, the app will go ahead and create several of these collages for you, giving each a title according to the time of day they were taken. You can then go in and edit the following things:

  • The photos that appear in the collage
  • The title and the descriptive text below it
  • The filters used for the images (all images must use them same filter, and all you can do is rotate through them)
  • The order of the photos using random shuffle

You can't control the actual layout of the collage, which changes according to the number of photos you choose to include, and you can't move images around in their respective spaces. Eventiles does the hard work for you, and for this, you trade your ability to fine-tune the final product.

Eventiles also tries to be something similar to a social network. Once you sign in, you can share your collage on social networks, but also publish it on Eventiles and get comments from other users. On paper, you can also add other friends who use Eventiles and view their feeds through the app, but you might be hard pressed to find them.

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Most likely, though, Eventiles will become your go-to app for super quick collages which you can create instantly and share on Instagram or other photo-sharing sites.

Most For Your Money: Moldiv (Free, In-App Purchases)

I first found Moldiv when investigating all kinds of apps for collage making, and it's still one of the most impressive collage-makers out there. While the free version doesn't let you use all the available options, it does let you use quite a lot. In fact, chances are you won't even want to venture beyond the basic pack, at least at first.

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Even with the free version, Moldiv still gives you excellent control over your collages, from the multiple available layouts and the fine-tuning of each one, to multiple photo effects, stickers, and text. Each of these offers numerous options, even before you hit the ones you have to pay for.

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Moldiv is the best option for those who hate paying for apps and still want to get the most out of their freebies. Yes, you'll have to deal with prompts to get the paid version, and yes, you'll have to deal with options you can't use, but it's all worth it for the variety of things you can do with the free version. And who knows, you might like it so much you'll actually want to pay for it.

For The Big Spender: FrameMagic 7 (Free, In-App Purchases)

Why is FrameMagic 7 meant for the big spender? Because it can do pretty much anything, if you're willing to pay for it. But let's start at the beginning: the free version.

FrameMagic 7 lite — which is completely free — is a rich yet confusing experience of collage creation. The app is super flexible, giving you control over every little aspect of your layout, but premium features are constantly sprinkled in there without reason or rhyme.

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For example, the screenshot above shows all the available layout FrameMagic offers, but beware! You can't actually use the grey ones, only the blue and yellow. If you want to use the grey ones, you'll have to get one of the many in-app purchases the app offers — in this case, the premium layout package.

Don't get discouraged, though. Even without buying a thing, FrameMagic can help you create beautiful and customized collages. Just do your best to ignore the somewhat confusing interface, and you're in business.

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From the shape, size and ratio of the layout, the drop shadows, the backgrounds, all the way to the photos themselves, FrameMagic gives you a completely free hand to create whatever you want. With just a bit of effort, FrameMagic has the potential to create the most beautiful collages of them all. It's like a candy waiting to be eaten, and while you may not be able to enjoy all of it, the parts you can are incredibly delicious.

Drop us a line in the comments below and tell us about your favorite way to create collages. Any good apps we missed?

Image credit: Christine und David Schmitt