zumyn is a free tool that allows people to build a photo mosaic using their own photos.

zumyn is pronounced "zoom-in"

A photo mosaic is any collection of photos that are arranged in a way that when viewed from a distance, they resemble one overall picture. You can see examples on our gallery page.

zumyn mosaics are a great way of displaying an entire collection of photos in an interesting way. They make excellent personalised gifts for people, and can be used as a way of marking an occasion such as a wedding, graduation, anniversary or to celebrate a shared accomplishment. They are a novel alternative to end of year school photos, or group shots from large events.

Yes. We provide prints of your mosaics in a range of sizes and types. Printing options are listed in detail on our prices page. All prints are delivered direct to your door.

zumyn has a built in image uploader tool that allows you to send your photos directly to us. We cannot accept CDs of photos.

The amount of photos required for a mosaic varies depending on a number of factors such as the detail in the overall mosaic, and ultimately the eye of the beholder. In general though, we would expect to need at least 1000 photos - although with our duplication option, you can use 500 photos twice to get to 1000. If you don't have enough photos though, you can always import photos of facebook friends, or use photos from our library to supplement your collection.

Yes, our importer tool allows you to select as many of your photosets as you wish from your flickr account and automatically import all the photos within them.

Yes, our importer tool allows you to select which of your facebook friends you would like to import photos of. We then collect all the photos with that person tagged in them and automatically import them into your mosaic.

Currently, we only support importing from flickr and facebook. If you would like the ability to import from another services, please let us know and we will explore the possibility of setting up an import process for it.

We have put together a library of photos that are licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution Licence that allows for their use in mosaics. These have been arranged into themed collections such as cats, dogs etc. There is also the ability to keyword search across all Creative Commons pictures that are available on flickr, so that you can find relevant photos for any theme.

You are certainly free to build a mosaic using less photos and see for yourself if you are happy with the results. We have had some examples that have worked nicely with less, but sometimes the results aren't satisfactory. zumyn is free to use to build mosaics, so you have nothing to lose in trying. You can also give access to friends and family to enable them to contribute towards your mosaic, and the extra photos will also help you reach the best possible overall image.

Unlike most (if not all) other photographic mosaic providers, we believe that a top quality mosaic should not require duplication of photos in it (although we offer it as an option). We also believe that all contributed photos should be included, and so our mosaics are built in a way that wherever possible, every photo contributed gets placed somewhere in the mosaic (learn more about this). This is a very complicated process and as such, benefits from a large pool of photos, but we feel the results are well worth it.

zumyn has been designed to make the process as straightforward as possible for you. Simply select "Create" from the menu above and follow the instructions. You will be asked to provide the overall photo that you wish to use and select a couple of options. Then it is a case of you, and anyone else you wish, uploading photos to your mosaic. To reduce the time taken to upload photos, we use an uploading tool (available directly within your browser) to upload large numbers of photos at a time. Resized and compressed versions of your photos are sent, reducing the time it would take to upload by over 90% in most cases.

Yes, you can change the target image as often as you wish by clicking on the options & settings links from your mosaic.

No. zumyn uses an activex/java uploader component to allow you to send us your photos, but these components are all contained within your web browser and you don't need to install anything. You will have to authorise the use of this component in your browser, but it is perfectly safe.

We can handle numerous image formats including JPEG, BMP and TIFF files. Most digital cameras will save in the JPEG format (either with .jpg or .jpeg at the end of the file names) and so most users should be able to use the uploader without any difficulty.

Photo mosaics are a grid arrangement of photos and so they all need to be the same shape. Photos in zumyn mosaics use the most common digital photo ratio of 4:3 (i.e., there are 4 pixels in width for every 3 pixels of your image height). In the case that your photos are not in this ratio, the zumyn system will automatically crop them for you to the correct size - however, you will have the option to rotate and/or re-crop your photos after thay have been uploaded using the very simple image editing tools on the site.

You can if you wish, but the image uploading tool will handle all this for you automatically and so there is not really any need. All uploaded images should be at least 240 pixels across the shortest edge. Even the lowest resolution setting on a modern digital camera will far exceed this requirement.

No, in order to be able to view the zoomed in version on the website, we have to use a very heavily compressed and scaled down version, and as a result it can look blocky and blurred when zoomed in close. When you double-click on an individual tile, this represents the approximate quality level on the final printed product. You can also see close-up photos of the various products on the prices page.

Absolutely not. Each mosaic gets given a randomly assigned ID number that is required to view the mosaic. Unless you give that number or the URL for your mosaic to someone, then it is not possible to view your mosaic or the photos in it. We don't make your photos available to anyone else.

Yes, please contact us with the mosaic ID that you would like removed and we will permanently remove your photos from our servers.

We will never give any of our users email addresses to any third parties.

Once you are happy with your mosaic, you can purchase a print with a credit or debit card from our online shop. Prints start from £39.99 for a "standard" size high quality photographic print. Full details on the available options can be found on our prices page.

Unfortunately, the cost of providing the zumyn service is recovered through the sale of prints, and as such we do not make the high resolution versions of the mosaics available to print at home.

We do not currently offer the option to purchase the digital versions of the mosaic

If you are ordering 5 or more copies of a mosaic, please contact us to discuss your requirements.

Rolled paper or canvas products and gift vouchers can be shipped anywhere in the world, whilst stretched canvas options are limited to selected european countries. Please see our delivery details page for more information.

Yes, all rolled products can come with either standard or express delivery. In the UK, standard delivery is via Royal Mail Second Class Recorded and express delivery is via Royal Mail Special Delivery. Outside the UK, standard delivery is via Airmail, and express delivery is via courier. Full details and pricing are available on the delivery page. All stretched canvas products require express delivery via courier.

If you have a specific size requirement then please feel free to contact us with the details and we'll be happy to provide you with a custom quote. Please note that for single prints, we have a minimum price of £39.99 regardless of size.

Gift vouchers allow you to pay for someone else to build a mosaic using their own photos. Vouchers are ordered for a particular product type and come with either UK or worldwide delivery of the mosaic included in the price. All vouchers are valid for 12 months and can be used as part payment against a more expensive product. For more details, please visit the voucher page or contact us.

I'm afraid not. Currently we only offer non-UK vouchers for rolled products that can be sent via airmail.

All vouchers come with standard delivery for rolled prints, or express delivery for stretched canvas products. The voucher recipient can however choose to upgrade to express delivery when they use their voucher if they wish.

Voucher packs can be ordered with express delivery so that they reach you as soon as possible, however if you would like, we can also e-mail the voucher code to you so that it can be used straight away. Please contact us after ordering to request your voucher code if you would like it emailed to you.

Yes you can. Simply select the product that you want to purchase and enter your voucher code and you will only be asked to pay for the difference in price.

Vouchers cannot be redeemed in part or in full for cash. You are free to choose to use your voucher on a lower value product, but you will not receive any money back against it.

If you contact us with details of when the voucher was purchased and by whom, then we can recover the voucher code for you.

We are unable to accept photos via any physical medium such as CD or DVD.

No, this is a service we do not provide. You may find it available in high street photographic shops.

You can request that your password be emailed to you on the forgotten password page.

Every time a photo from our library is displayed in a mosaic, a link is included to the owner's page on flickr. Printed mosaics come complete with a list of URL's for the owners of photos that are used in that mosaic. If you are the owner of any of the photos used in our library and would rather it wasn't included, or would like to change where the attribution links point to, please contact us.