Photo as tile pattern.
Square, rounded, circle, or diamond tiles, sized and spaced to taste. Pick the grout color to suit. Subway tile, pixel art, mosaic-art reference, sticker-sheet patterns. Nothing uploads. For real mosaic art, get tiles and grout.
Mixing the grout…
Mixing the grout…
Six places tiles beat pixels
- 01 for design
A subway-tile photo for a renovation moodboard
Considering a new tile pattern for a bathroom? Run a photo of the room — or even an inspiration photo from another bathroom — through square tile mode at small size with white grout. The mosaic shows what subway-tiled walls would look like at the actual scale of the space.
- 02 for posters
A pixel-art-feel band poster
Big tiles + black grout color = pixel-art aesthetic for a flyer or poster. Drop a portrait through with 30px tiles, black gaps, square shape. Looks like 8-bit chiptune-era graphic without a sprite editor.
- 03 for tile work
A reference image for actual mosaic art
Real mosaic artists use pixelated reference images to work out tile placement. Generate a mosaic preview at the tile count you'll use (count rows/columns of your physical tiles), print, work tile-by-tile from the printout. Saves a lot of squinting at a blurry source.
- 04 for ig
A scroll-stopping pattern post
IG carousel posts that look like 'a single image at first, then turns out to be a tile pattern' get saves. Pair the mosaic effect with a 1:1 crop and your account picks up a pattern-content niche.
- 05 for prints
Wall art that reads as photo from far, pixels up close
A 24×36 print of a mosaic'd photo reads as the original image from across a room and as colored tiles up close. Same trick fancy bathrooms use, applied to a printable. Frame it.
- 06 for stickers
A pattern-strip for sticker sheets
Run a photo through with 10px circle tiles + 4px gap. The result reads as a dot-pattern sticker sheet. Great for journal washi-strips or scrapbook accents — print, hand-cut into strips, glue.
Frequently asked
Does the photo upload anywhere? +
No. The tile sampling and rendering both run in your browser. Your photo never touches our servers — we don't run an image pipeline at all.
How is this different from Pixelate? +
Pixelate fills every pixel of each cell with a flat color edge-to-edge. Mosaic leaves gaps between cells, fillable with a 'grout' color. The gap is what reads as 'tile' instead of 'low-resolution'. Adjust gap to 0 and it's effectively pixelate.
Why does my photo look weird with circle tiles? +
Circle tiles leave triangular gaps between them — those gaps fill with the gap color, which dominates if you set a light grout. For circles, pair with a dark grout color so the photo reads through; for squares any grout color works.
How big should tiles be? +
10-20px reads as 'subway tile' or 'mosaic art'. 25-40px reads as 'pixel art' or 'chunky pattern'. Below 8px and you lose the tile feel; above 60px the photo becomes unrecognizable. Match the source resolution — a 4000px photo can take 30px tiles; a 800px photo wants 8-12px.
Why are gaps cut off at the edges? +
If the photo's dimensions don't divide evenly by the tile size, the right and bottom edges get partial tiles. The gap-color background fills those partial spots, but you may see asymmetric trim. Adjust tile size for cleaner edges if it bothers you.
Can I save the tile colors as a palette? +
Not directly here — but the result feeds well into the Color Palette tool. Run the mosaic JPG through the palette extractor at high palette count to get the dominant tile colors as hex codes.
now what?
A few moves after the tiles set
next →
Add Text to Photo
Caption the mosaic in display type.
Opennext →
Shape Crop
Crop the mosaic to a circle or arch.
Opennext →
Drop Shadow
Float the mosaic over paper for a tile-mockup feel.
Opennext →
Pinterest Pin Maker
Use the tiled image as the hero of a Pinterest pin.
Opennext →
Duotone Effect
Recolour the mosaic in two flat tones.
Opennext →
Polaroid Maker
Frame the mosaic in a paper Polaroid.
OpenOther free tools nearby
Background Remover
Cut the background out of any photo in one click.
OpenBackground Replace
Drop your subject onto paper, gradient, or your own backdrop photo.
OpenText Behind Subject
Drop a word behind your subject, magazine-cover style.
OpenPhoto Filters
Nine presets, one photo — vintage to cinematic.
OpenFilm Grain
Tri-X, Kodak Gold, Lomo — pick a roll, see the grain.
OpenHalftone Effect
Comic dots, risograph red, punk-zine textures.
OpenPencil Sketch
Photo to graphite drawing in two clicks.
OpenDuotone Effect
Map photo to two colors — Spotify, sunset, riso.
OpenTilt-Shift Effect
Make real cities look like tabletop dioramas.
OpenLight Leak
Sunset, lomo red, golden hour — bleed light into corners.
OpenRGB Glitch
VHS bands, anaglyph 3D, CRT scanlines, chromatic aberration.
OpenASCII Art
Convert any photo to typed characters.
OpenPhoto Negative
Pure invert, cyanotype, blueprint, X-ray, darkroom, sepia negative.
OpenAdjust
Brightness, contrast, saturation, hue, blur — seven sliders.
OpenPolaroid Maker
Any photo, wrapped in paper with a handwritten caption.
OpenPhoto Strip Maker
Four photos, B&W mode, handwritten caption.
OpenDiptych Maker
Two photos, side-by-side or stacked.
OpenPhoto Mat & Border
Paper mat for prints, journals, framed walls.
OpenShape Crop
Circle, heart, star, arch — pick a cookie cutter.
OpenVintage Postcard
Greetings caption, faux stamp, postmark, paper texture.
OpenDrop Shadow
Float a photo over paper for portfolios and mockups.
OpenPinterest Pin Maker
Drop a photo, type a title, pick a layout. 1000×1500 native.
OpenSocial Banner
X, LinkedIn, or YouTube cover with title overlay.
OpenAdd Text to Photo
Handwritten captions, magazine headers, or a quick scribble.
OpenWashi Tape Overlay
Stick paper-mood tape onto any photo.
OpenVintage Date Stamp
LED red, Kodak yellow, camcorder amber.
OpenPhoto Watermark
Corner sign-off or full diagonal tile.
OpenSticker Overlay
Hearts, stars, flowers, smileys, paper tags, HELLO labels.
OpenCrop & Resize
Square for IG, 9:16 for stories, 2:3 for Pinterest.
OpenFlip & Rotate
Mirror a selfie, un-tilt a scan, turn a sideways shot upright.
OpenHEIC to JPG / PNG
iPhone photos that open on everything.
OpenBlur & Pixelate
Hide faces, plates, addresses — drag a patch over the spot.
OpenEXIF Stripper
Remove GPS, camera info, timestamps before posting.
OpenImage Compressor
Smaller JPG, WebP, or PNG — same look, less file.
OpenColor Palette
Pull 5 hex codes out of any photo.
OpenQR Code Generator
Print-ready QR for menus, invites, journals, vCards.
OpenColor Replace
Eyedropper a color in your photo, swap it for another.
OpenBuy tiles, mix grout, lay them.
Real ceramic mosaics use 1cm tesserae set in lime-mortar grout. Roughly $80 in materials for a 30×30cm panel. Slow, satisfying, archival. The digital version is the rehearsal.