Diptic updates its iOS collage creation app

I took a look at Diptic a while ago and liked what I saw. The US$0.99 universal app allows you to select photos from your camera roll and create compelling collages that can be sent at various resolutions to family and friends.

The new version 6, just released, has a great many new and enhanced features, including more than a 100 new layouts, textures on borders and the ability to add captions to photos. It offers much more control over frames and the arrangement of images.

One welcome addition is improvement to the photo picker, and for the first time you can now select multiple images at once, rather than going back and forth to your camera roll. The app now supports the Retina display and is optimized for the iPhone 5.

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Finished collages can be shared via email, Instagram, Flickr, Twitter (with iOS6 only) and other social media destinations. The company has also partnered with a third party so you can send physical postcards directly from your iPhone or iPad.

I gave the app a try and really appreciated the new layouts and increased control. The old version gave you a numerical readout of frame thickness which is missing in this new version, and I don't see the ability to save a layout that you might want to use again. Those are the main negatives, which I hope will be remedied in a future version. Update: One of the Diptic folks tells me that it isn't clear how to save a layout in the app and it will be fixed. It can be done using the export function, where is is saved in the 'recent' tab.

Besides those minor complaints, Diptic is a very solid update to an already useful app. The ability to create eye-catching collages without needed a laptop or desktop computer is very handy, and many will find it useful at capturing and sharing their holiday festivities.

Diptic requires iOS5. I have some sample screens in the gallery above.