Everybody likes jigsaw puzzles. Ok, maybe not everybody but most of us. There are collectibles of sorts and kinds: for kids and adults, 4 pieces wooden brain teasers and monstrous 1500 pieces artworks, portrait and picture pieces image, Disney, travel, family photo collage puzzles, cardboard and magnetic jigsaws, and so on; the list is endless. So how do I turn a picture into a jigsaw art? Right – make your own jigsaws made from photos with one of the 10 apps below!
How to Make a Puzzle out of a Picture with Free App?
As usual I have surfed the Internet and you can read a detailed overview of the findings below. There 3 ways to make a custom picture look like a puzzle:
1. Free Puzzle Photo Editor Software
Use Windows or Mac photo editing software which contains the option to apply jigsaw pic effect over your snapshot, so it turns pictures into puzzles. Then print your photo result on your home color printer, cut it and break into many pieces.
2. Paid Personalized Photo Puzzle Making Online Services
If you want to get 1000 piece jigsaws made on professional cardboard or plastic base and present this personal jigsaw creation as a gift, then you’d better choose this option. With the help of such services, you can select a proper pciture size, get it printed and shipped to your address asap.
3. Free Online Picture Puzzle Maker App
As with downloadable software, free online photo to picture scramble makers turn your picture into jigsaw pieces which you can download as JPG or PNG image file and print it on your home color printer. Fortunately, you don’t have to install any software to create a custom art quickly.
How to Make a Picture Look like a Puzzle in PhotoScape (Windows/Mac)?
Our favorite way to edit a picture and put it into puzzle art offline on Windows or Mac is PhotoScape program. It’s a free graphics editor which can be your jigsaw backgrounds software. You could read PhotoScape basic editing features overview here.
To design your own jigsaw, do the following:
- Download and open Photoscape on Windows (use PhotoScape X for Mac);
Select your pic; - Change a background of the photo if it is too confusing;
- Click the Filters button and select the Textures menu;
- Find the Puzzle effect and apply it to the pic;
- Print the ready file on your home printer. Done!
The only disappointment about Photoscape artwork is that the items are relatively small and you’ll have to cut them by yourself which is not very easy.
How Can You Order Custom Puzzles Online?
There dozens of online printing services like Zazzle, Shutterfly, Collage.com, Walgreens, Walmart and many others. The services offer ready design templates where you can add your image. Or just print your family portrait as a bespoke jigsaw. The web services offer wide range of jigsaw sizes: 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, 1000, 1500 pieces and even more custom sizes for all ages: from kids to adults. The workflow of these online services is quite similar. Watch step by step video tutorial below explaining how to create a custom image product on Zazzle:
Here’s how to order a custom photo puzzle on Zazzle or Walgreens:
- Create an account, add your shipping address and credit card;
- Upload your pic in high resolution;
- Select the right size (the number of pieces);
- Select a material which you want to use (for example, a cardboard or a magnetic);
- Select a design of your creation;
- Pay for your picture jigsaw;
- Wait several days to get your masterpiece delivered to your home address.
Is it expensive to print a custom puzzle? The average prices start at $25 per 50 pieces cardboard mind-breaker. Not for everyone choice, as they offer to upload a file and you’ll have to pay for.
What Apps Turn Pictures into Puzzles Free?
Here I describe only some of the online puzzle maker applications that I liked most of all. The idea of all these apps is to create a puzzle from your image and let you download it as JPEG or PNG. Later on, you can print it on your home color printer. Here’s how to create jigsaw graphics with your snap for free:
- The first step is to upload your shoot to a jigsaw app free;
- Depending on the app, you crop your image or applying some filters;
- After it, download your output file in JPEG or PNG format;
- Print your pic on a paper on you home printer and cut it into pieces.
Please note that there are iPhone/Android photo puzzle apps that just let you play puzzle games online. It’s not our case! Here we will discover photo puzzle maker apps that let you print on paper your custom jigsaws!
1. Puzzel.org
Let’s start with Puzzel.org – a free photo puzzle maker app. It is not exactly what I meant when I was looking for puzzle effects but it is also very interesting.
The digital application helps you create an custom art twister that you can download and print or play online. You decide how many jigsaw pieces there will be, in my case there were 4×4 rows as you can see on the image above. That’s why this application is good for children puzzles. Click the Upload image icon and upload your picture; go the the Settings tab if you want to split the pic into more pieces than the default 16 pieces offerring. See the resulting image at the right window. Hit the Save icon to convert your pic to puzzle. Then right-click on the output result with you mouse, click Save image as … and download your upshot as PNG file. Then send it onto your home printer using standard Windows/Mac means.
As I said before, here you can play the game online as well. You can click the Play sing at the right and therefore make it interactive.
2. I’m a Puzzle app
I’m a Puzzle app – a another custom img to puzzle converter application that enables users to create jigsaws online and play the game, if you wish. Here we’ll talk about only twister creation process since we want to print custom photo puzzle design in a portrait or landscape mode.
The process is very easy – upload your snapshot, shape parameters, indicate the number of image pieces, rotate your file if necessary. The last, but the most complicated task is to download the image and print it. I’m a Puzzle app offers sharing option, but if you try to use it, your personalized work will be covered with huge watermark which will spoil all your work. So here’s the trick you should do. When you set the number of pieces, you’ll get a preview image. So right-click on it with your mouse and press the Save image as … and download the jigsaw graphics as .PNG file.
3. Picture to People 3D Jigsaw Photo Puzzle Generator
Picture to People is a simple personalized photo puzzle generator that you can use to make your photo look like a 3D model. It can make both traditional flat and 3D graphics what I liked the most. If you want, learn more about other Picture to People convert photo to anime.
The generator interface is plain and simple, yet gives the right result. It took about 20 seconds to create a 3D effect out my picture and here you have huge preview and the Download image button under it. Free, no watermark, no restrictions, no tricky ads. Just a simple and super efficient online generator. All you need to do on your own is to print your outcome on paper and cut it into pieces.
4. PhotoFunia
The last custom puzzle app on our list is PhotoFunia, a famous online collage maker. PhotoFunia fun image editor contains puzzle effect which you can apply to your family portrait picture and then make a print-out of it.
What I like about this online application is the ability to crop your snap and download pics in small, medium and large image size. Besides, instead of importing ready pic, you can make a new image with your web camera like with WebCam Toy. Unfortunately, there’s no way to change the number of pieces, that’s why PhotoFunia custom puzzles are good only for adults.
P.S. While I was looking for puzzle makers I also found a lot of mosaic creators that I will overview in one of my next posts.
How Good Are You At Making Custom Jigsaw Puzzles?
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