Let’s start a fast project. 

As a Tile Mosaic project, we need tiles.
I choose BISAZZA as the tile provider in this project.
we can visit their website and view their tile products:
http://cd.bisazza.it/public/main.htm?lan=en

I think the ‘Opus romano’ tiles are good. look at it:

bisazza tiles

tile sample in my computer

load main image for our tile mosaic project

load tiles

set mosaic size

mosaic created, start the tile plan

tile plan generator

tile count table

Click for larger size

————–

Well, our Easy Mosaic work is finished.  go order the tiles and do some hand works.

you will built a mosaic like this:

tilemosaic

two more samples, all use Bisazza mosaic tiles _’Opus romano’

tile mosaic 2

tile mosaic 3

Someone designed another version of this mosaic, and that one can be found on Fortune magazine.
I am not allowed to post that one here, so dig it yourself and see what’s the difference.

stevejobsmosaic-microsoft-s deep division demo1

You see the power of Deep Division?

Yes, with deep division technology, we can assign smaller cells at important areas to make sure we have good quality of the whole mosaic. and assign larger cells at less important areas to make a cell with clear photo tiles.look at the eyes and nose area. the are much smaller than other places, and cheek area have larger cells, and many largest cells are used to built the background.
Dont be scared if an artist told you that he need 1 week to finish this job.With Easy Mosaic Pro Edition, you can use Few hours to finish such great design.

————————–

Now lets start, I presume you already read all beginner tutorials and can handle easy mosaic. cause I am not going to explains the old things here.

Step1, run Easy Mosaic Pro, create a new photomosaic project, select Advance mode. 

Step2, Load your main image and cell images.  and set a proper paper size.

Step3, set a proper cell size.
The size here we have will be the largest size of all cells,  Dont set this value too small, cause it will be divided into 4 parts by level1 division, and 16 parts by level2 division, level3 results a 64 parts.

set basic cell size

Hint1: look at the cell count calculator, a number around 300 would provide us good quality, and you can try find your favorite size and count.
Hint2: In most case we use 3 level divisions. largest cell should be no less than 80×80 pixels.

Step4, Now the most important point: setup the Deep Division Mask.
The Deep Division Mask Editor is very simple, It’s kind of a brush tool. Use the mouse botton to pick a division level and the brush will choose the corresponding color, then you can start paint the areas thaat you with to use smaller cells to built.

Goto ‘Advance Mapping’ Page, and click on ‘Division Editior’,
This will open the Deep Division Map Editor, and we can start edit the map.

mosaic deep division mapping

 Now, let’s look at the Editor Interface:

editor interface

 The division area is indicated by colors. the white area means no division. the cells in this area keeps the basic cell size, and green area means 1/2 division.
for example, if the basic cell is 100×100 pixels, the cells in green area will be divided into some 50×50 pixles cell. and the blue area will give us 25×25pixles cells.

You can check ‘Show mainimage’ checkbox, and the main image will be shown below your mask image as a reference.

mask editor - mainimage as reference

After you finish the mask editing, Click ‘Apply’ button to return the mosaic project control panel. 

Step5. other render options and Start the rendering.
well, we dont talk these things, just press ‘Create Photo Mosaic’ button please.

See:

earthmosaic-withdeepdivision

orginal cell image file

cell distortion-sample

The reason is, Easy Mosaic resize your cell image to fill the mosaic cell size. and use the resized cell to form the mosaic. If your orginal image is not same aspect ratio to the cell size, there will be a distortion to the cell.

stretched cell sample

To avoid this distortion, you have two choices.

A: change your cell size, make sure it has same aspect ratio to your image collections. for example, most digital photos have a aspect ratio as 4:3, so you can set you mosaic cell size to 48×32 pixels, or 80×60 pixels , etc.
However, you may have a large collection of photos, and they dont have same aspect ratio. maybe some are 4:3, and some are 16:9, some are 1:1 etc.  In this case, you may need to set a middle value to reduce the distortion.

B: Crop all cell images.  This operation will cut some part from edge of cell image, the result image would have same aspect ratio as the mosaic cell.
There is a easy way to do the crop automatically.  just check ‘Crop Cell Image’ from the ‘Options’ page.

crop cell option

how crop operation works

croped cell sample

 See, there are no distortion now, you can try it yourself.

Auto crop might cut some important area from your cell image, I suggest you to do the crop operation manually with image editor softwares.
We have released a fast speed image crop tool for this kind operation. you can find it from Easy Mosaic’s folder by click ‘Toolbox’ from menu.
I am going to write a new tutorial for this tool soon.

cell size and shape

The cell size is calculated by pixels. 
And it will be converted to inch and cm.  The convertion is based on the resolution you set at the ‘mosaic size’ page.

The convert formula:     Size in inch = Pixels / PPI.        Size in cm = Pixels / PPI * 2.54
Aspect Ratio will be calculated too.   Aspect ratio = Cell Width / Cell Height

Unlike some free photomosaic software, which only provice 12:9 or 4:3 rectangle cells,
Easy Mosaic provide some cell shape besides rectangle. 

rhombus cell sample photomosaic

hexcell mosaic sample

hexcell zoom in sample

A common question is, How to set the size to get a regular shape cell.
For example, the regular hexagon.

regular hexagon cell

If you want make a regular cell, please look at the pattern list, there will be a hint told you then regular shape’s aspect ratio.
Try adjust the cell size, make sure the cell’s aspect ratio equals to the aspect ratio showed in the list.
Then you will get a regular shape cell.

First of all, create a new project.

Then, Load your main image, and cell images.

main image

Now goto ‘Mosaic Size’ Page

size manage interface

In this page, You can choose the output size, and output resolution for current mosaic project.

You can choose a predefined paper size, or use your custom size.
To input a custom size, select ‘Custom Size’ from paper size list, and input the size value.
You can change between inch and cm.

Now select your image resolution. If you want display it on pc monitor only, please use 96PPI.
If you want bring it to a print shop and printing it out, you’d better select 100 to 200 PPI.
Read this doc for more detail info about resolution.

Now, Let’s choose the paper layout.
You can choose from two layouts.

paper layout

You should know, in most case, the main image dont have same aspect ration as your paper. so we have to zoom it / crop it / stretch it, to use max areas of the paper.

I strongly suggest you to use ’Best Fit’ , The main image will be zoomed by keeping it’s aspect ratio, the zooming will be stoped if one edge reached the paper’s border.
here is the sample:

Best Fit and different Layout

If you choose ‘Crop to fill page’, The main image will be croped from it’s orginal size, and it will be zoomed to fit the paper size. all area of the paper will be used. You will lost some part from the main image.

If you choose ‘Stretch to fill page’, The main image will keep all content, and zoomed to fit the paper, all area will be used, however, the aspect ratio might be changed.

crop and stretch sample

Another way is Crop the main image your self.  Pick the most important area and cut other parts down. You can use a image editor to do it, or use EasyMosaic image tool to do it.

In most case, 40×32 would be a good size for photomosaic poster, You can design one and use it as gift for your friends.