How to Use Picasa to Create a Photo Collage for Facebook Cover Photo

Picasa is a free software and photo storage service from Google for viewing and editing photographs. Picasa can also be used to create videos and photo collages. For this tutorial, we will be explaining how to create a photo collage of artworks for a Facebook Page or profile.

 

 

How to Create A Facebook Timeline Cover Photo Using Picasa

1. If you do not have Picasa 3 already, download it from this link: Download Picasa 3.9 (windows version – a mac version is also available)
   
   
2. Create a new folder, name it something that is easy to remember, and add all your artwork images to this folder.
   
   
3. Open up Picasa 3.
   
   
4. Find the folder in the left navigation, with the pictures you would like to include on your Facebook cover photo, and click on it once. All the images from the album should appear in your main window.
   
   
   
   
   
   

5. Create a Facebook Cover from a Photo Collage

   
   Hit the Collage icon, the second one as indicated in the screenshot.
   
   Under Page format, click the down arrow to the right of the box.
   
   Choose Add Custom Aspect Ratio right at the bottom. 
   
   Insert the size of the Facebook cover photo in the boxes: 851 pixels width and 315 pixels height. Name it Facebook cover and hit OK.
   
   The picture pile view automatically appears here, but there are various other views that I will mention later.
   
   These are some of the various options to make adjustments to your Facebook cover photo:
   
   Scramble collage - Located below the main image – will mix up the layout of the collage
   Shuffle Pictures – The order of the artworks will be randomized
   
   Picture border – Either have no border, white border, or instant camera border
   
   Background options – Pick a color with the color picker or choose one of the photos for your background.
   
   Moving artworks
   To move images, click and hold them and drag anywhere you want. Rotate, or zoom in or out on the picture by dragging the arrow icon indicated displayed at the right.
   
   Deleting artworks
   If there are too many images there, some may have to be deleted. Do this by highlighting the artwork, and hitting delete on your keyboard.
   
   Adding Artworks
   To add more images, go to the Clips menu. Hit Get more to retrieve more pictures from the library. Find your image(s) by highlighting them, and hitting the Back to Collage button at the bottom.
   
   Right-Click menu
   Right click on a single image to reveal a menu with some of the same options. Set as Background will make that particular picture fill the background. Bring to Top or Bottom will bring the image forward or backward in the collage pile.
   
   If you are unsatisfied with how the Picture pile looks, there are also various other views. Click the down arrow near Picture pile to reveal a menu with more views. The only useful ones here are Picture pile, Mosaic, Frame Mosaic and Grid.
   
   When completely satisfied with the look of your Facebook Timeline cover photo collage, hit Create Collage.
   
   
   

6. Adding Text to your Cover Photo

   The Edit Collage window appears, where you can apply various edits to the cover photo. The main one we are concerned with is text.
   
   This is a perfect opportunity to add the title of your Facebook page or your name. 
   
   Click the text icon to the left. First, type the title of your Facebook page. Adjust the font, size, rotation, style, alignment, text color, text border and transparency to your liking.
   
   When completed, click Apply.
   
   Then, go to File, Save-as and name the cover image. Select a folder and then save it to your computer.
   
   
   

7. Uploading your Cover Photo to Facebook

   Login to Facebook and either go to your profile or Facebook page. Hover your cursor over the bottom-right corner of your Timeline photo and click Change Cover when it appears. Find the file on your computer, upload, then hit Save Changes.
   
   Congratulations on your new cover photo!

Please visit my Facebook page to view the Facebook cover I have created.

If you decide to use this tutorial to make a cover photo of your own, please comment here, and leave your Facebook page link so we may see what you have created.

If you know of a better, more efficient way to create a cover photo, please do tell us about it!