Build your own smart layout

iPhone

Start with the steps below. Editing tools appear beneath the canvas; tap the active tool to hide or show its controls.

iPad

Use the same task steps. The sidebar gives you access to Home, Templates, and Projects. In a wide editor window, controls can sit alongside the canvas; narrower windows use the compact panel. A missing control may be inside a collapsed section or the page’s options.

Open the builder

1. On Home, scroll to the end of Smart layouts and tap Build Your Own.
2. Or open Templates and tap Smart Layout. On iPad, Templates also has New Smart Layout in the toolbar.
3. To change a smart layout you saved, touch and hold it in Templates and choose Edit Smart Layout. Your changes keep its page shape.

Set the rules

1. Page chooses the page shape from your destinations, as on Home.
2. Under Photos, the photos shaped like the page get their own page. For the photos shaped across it, choose how they share a page: Stacked, 2; Stacked, 3; Side by Side, 2; Side by Side, 3; or Grid of 4. Square photos get their own page.
3. Turn on Only if taken within 10 minutes to share a page only between photos taken close together.

Choose the look and camera details

1. Under Look, choose a Background (Photo Blur, White, or Black) and a Border (None, Auto, White, or Black).
2. Turn on Use for New Photos to make this smart layout the default for Add Photos & Videos and Photos → Share → Decks.
3. Turn on Camera Details and choose which details show. For a saved smart layout, choose the details later in the editor’s Camera tool.

Preview and save

1. The pages at the top change as you choose. Preview With switches between Samples and My Photos. My Photos asks you to pick photos; Choose Others picks a different set. Your photos are used only for the preview.
2. Tap Save and name the smart layout. Decks suggests a name that describes the rules, such as Singles & Threes.
3. Your smart layout appears under Smart Layouts in Templates. Tap it and choose Use Template to lay out new photos, or mark it as a favorite to show it in Favorites on Home.

Mac

Open the builder

1. On Home, click Build Your Own at the end of Smart layouts. Or click Templates in the sidebar (⌘3), then New Smart Layout.
2. To change one you saved, Control-click it in Templates and choose Edit Smart Layout.

Set the rules and look

1. Page chooses the page shape from your destinations.
2. Under Photos, the photos shaped like the page get their own page. Choose how the others share a page: Stacked, 2; Stacked, 3; Side by Side, 2; Side by Side, 3; or Grid of 4. Square photos get their own page. Only if taken within 10 minutes limits sharing to photos taken close together.
3. Under Look, choose a Background and Border. Use for New Photos makes this smart layout your New Project Template.
4. Turn on Camera Details and choose which details show.

Preview and save

1. Preview With switches the pages at the top between Samples and My Photos. Choose Others picks a different set of your photos. The copies are for the preview only and are removed when the builder closes.
2. Click Save… and name the smart layout, or click Cancel to close without saving. It appears under Smart Layouts in Templates.