Instagram & Diptic & Postal Pix Apps...How To

Recently some Twitter friends helped me figure out how to transfer Instragram photos from my iPhone to my computer....and then print them with my new printer. I'm in heaven. With tips this good, I had to share. I'm not sure how this will work for cell phones other than iPhones. So just go ahead and get ya an iPhone, okay? ;)

My new printer is an Epson Artisan 730 and it's awesome! It prints crystal clear quality photos and is easy to use. I definitely recommend it if you're looking for a good photo printer. I got mine right from the Epson online store because at the time there was a $50 rebate. I also saw them on Amazon.

If you'd like to send your photos to a printer instead of printing at home, the Postal Pix app is awesome for that. You order from your phone and the photos are delivered right to your door. They print 4 x 4 photos which is great for the Instagram size.

Instagram is phone app that is used to turn photos into squares with an added variety of scenes which alter your photo slightly.

I'll also be using an app called Diptic which helps you combine multiple photos to create 4 x 4 photo collages. It works hand in hand with Instagram...love that.

All of these steps for Instagram and Diptic that I'll be sharing are done right on my iPhone. I selected the following 3 photos of Charlie to work with. He got in *twouble* and I couldn't resist snapping a few photos of that sad little face. These three photos were in my iPhone photo library.

Photo 1:

Photo 2:
Photo 3:
First I wanted to create a Diptic collage of the 3 photos. I opened the Diptic app and selected the layout I wanted to use. I believe the app is free but I paid an additional fee to get more layout designs. From the screen shot below you can see that the original layout is grey. By tapping on each grey block you are prompted to select your photos. I choose to select mine from my existing photos. Continue for each grey block using your fingertip to move the photos around and resize.
This is my finished Diptic 4 x 4 collage. Like above, it has the white border around it as all theDiptic photos do. When you're done creating the Diptic collage, tap the export button and you can save it right back to your iPhone photo library.
Next I wanted to add an Instagram scene to alter the look of my collage. I opened the Instagram app and selected the saved Diptic photo above to work with.
As seen above from the screen shot, there are scene applications that you can apply that will alter the look/color of your chosen photo. Each scene has a different border too that goes along with it. You can see the little row of trees above...click on each one of those to see what your photo will look like. I chose Earlybird for my photo. It's a favorite of mine because it mutes the photo, makes it look a little vintage and it adds a white frame with rounded corners. Once you're done using the app, save your photo back to your phone library again.

Below is the finished photo collage of Charlie that has been altered using Diptic and Instagram. Oh, that sad little face.
Now that the photo is in my iPhone library, I can either order a print from Postal Pix.....or now I can print at home. How do I do that? Again I'm using the Epson Artisan 730 printer so the instructions may differ for your printer...or you may have a better method. This is just my way of doing it that I found was pretty easy. I'm also using an iMac computer with Iphoto photo storage.

To print Instragrams at home:

First, email the photo you want to print to your home computer(or plug in your phone to download the photos...or I believe iCloud transfers the photo for you). Open that email with the photo. I right click on the photo and open with (it says "other") and Iphoto will be an option. This saves the photo to my iPhoto library on my computer. From here you can make even more edits to your photo if you'd like...like increasing the brightness, etc. Find the photo and click "File/Print". From there I choose the photo paper I'm using from the "Presets" pull down menu. Then I choose my "Paper Size" which is 4 x 6 with or without border. Since this Instagram has a border, I choose no border this time. Next I select the "Print Size" and click on the "Custom" pull down menu and type in 4" x 4". Do a preview to make sure the 4 x 4 photo is within the 4 x 6 photo size. There will be white space on the right and left that you'll have to trim off. Print your photo. Trim to a 4 x 4 square. Easy peasy! With other printers, you might have an option to unclick buttons like "fit picture to fit page", etc. Good luck!

Stay tuned for a Project Life that uses an Instagram/Diptic collage in a fun way!!