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How to make an Instagram carousel post with CollageCraft

Open the Carousel tab, tap New Blank Carousel, add a slide for each photo or message, pick the slide shape and tap Export. Save All to Photos drops every slide into Photos as its own image, in order — the fiddly part is picking them in that same order inside Instagram.

4 min read · Updated 2026-09-11

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What is an Instagram carousel?

One post, several images, swipe to see the rest. Good for tutorials, travel days, product details, before-and-after stories, "10 things" lists — anything where one idea fits on one slide.

Instagram will let you pick several photos for a post, but it won't design the slides for you; every one keeps whatever size and crop the photo already had. A carousel maker forces the same size, font and colours across the set and lets you drop in a title or quote slide between photos, so it reads as planned instead of thrown together at the last minute.

How to make an Instagram carousel, step by step

  1. Open the Carousel tab. Tap New Blank Carousel, or tap a card under Quick Start Templates to start from a ready-made slide sequence.
  2. Tap the plus button next to the slide strip to add a slide and choose its type in Slide Type: a photo, a text card, photo plus text, a quote, a title slide or a call to action. The counter shows how many of the 10 slides you have used.
  3. For a photo slide, tap Photo in the toolbar and pick the picture. For words, tap Text and type the headline and body; you can set size, colour and alignment per slide.
  4. Open the ratio menu in the toolbar and pick the shape: 1:1 Square, 4:5 Portrait, 9:16 Story, 16:9 Wide, 1.91:1 Facebook or 2:3 Pinterest. Every slide uses the same shape.
  5. Tap Style to set one background, text colour and font for the whole set. Show Slide Numbers and Show Swipe Hint add a 1/5 counter and a small swipe cue.
  6. Touch and hold a slide in the strip to Duplicate or Delete it. Slides stay in the order you add them, so plan the sequence first; to change what a slide shows, select it and pick a new photo or edit its text.
  7. Tap Export. The app renders every slide; tap Save All to Photos or Share All.

Which size should the slides be?

Pick the shape before you add text — re-typing a headline after switching ratios can make it overflow the slide. These are the pixel sizes the app actually saves for each option:

Carousel slide sizes in CollageCraft
ShapeSaved sizeWhere it fits
1:1 Square1,080 x 1,080 pxInstagram feed, YouTube
4:5 Portrait1,080 x 1,350 pxInstagram feed, TikTok photo posts
9:16 Story1,080 x 1,920 pxStories, Reels covers, TikTok
16:9 Wide1,920 x 1,080 pxYouTube, X
1.91:1 Facebook1,200 x 628 pxFacebook, LinkedIn
2:3 Pinterest1,000 x 1,500 pxPinterest

4:5 Portrait eats the most screen height on a feed carousel. 1:1 Square is a safer default, because it also keeps the profile grid tidy, and that's worth more than the extra height.

Posting the slides in the right order

This is the one step the app can't do for you. Slides save one after another, so they land together at the end of your Recents, in order. In Instagram, start a new post, tap multiple-selection, and tap them in that same order — the number on each thumbnail as you select is the swipe order people will see.

Carousels people actually finish

  • Put the promise on slide 1 — a title slide with a short headline, so people know why to swipe before they've swiped.
  • One idea per slide. Needs two paragraphs? Split it with Duplicate instead of cramming both in.
  • Set the look once with Style, then override a single slide only when it genuinely needs to stand out.
  • A call-to-action slide at the end works better than you'd expect: save this, follow for part two, or a question for the comments.

Where this trips people up

  • Changing the shape after you've already written the text: copy that fit a 9:16 slide crowds a 1:1 slide, so recheck every slide after switching.
  • Mixing shapes: Instagram shows a whole carousel at one shape and trims anything that doesn't match, which is exactly why the app locks every slide to the same ratio — fighting that isn't worth it.
  • Trying to add an 11th slide. 10 is the ceiling here, so a longer series needs a second carousel.

Want one wide photo to flow across the slides instead of several separate ones? That's Split, in the same toolbar — covered in the panorama guide.

Questions and answers

Is this Instagram carousel maker free?
Yes, making and exporting carousels is on the free plan with no watermark on any slide. You'll see ads on the free version; Pro drops them.
How many slides can I make?
10 per carousel, flat limit. Longer series mean a second carousel, ideally with the same Style settings so it still reads as one set.
Can I mix photos and text slides?
Yes — a title slide first, photos through the middle, a quote, a call to action at the end, any order you like since each slide carries its own type.
Does it post to Instagram for me?
No, and it never will — it saves slides to Photos or the share sheet, then you build the post in Instagram and tap them in order yourself.

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