Image Stitching: How to Combine Screenshots into One Long Image
Stitching several screenshots into one long image is easy until the seams, the ordering, or the canvas limit gets in the way. Those three details decide whether the export succeeds.
When stitching is the right tool
Phone scrolling screenshots often arrive as several files, especially for chat histories, long web pages, and product details. To send them in one go or keep them as a single record, vertical stitching puts them back together. Step-by-step tutorials and timelines also read better as a vertical sequence than as a folder of separate images.
Horizontal stitching is better for comparison: a room before and after, two products side by side, or the same paragraph in two languages. Marketplace detail pages often stack multiple product angles into one tall image. Whenever the content is meant to be read continuously or compared directly, a stitched image is more convenient than separate files.
How to avoid misalignment and failed exports
Settle the order first. Most tools use the order in which you selected or dropped the files, not the file names, so rename them to 01, 02, and so on before choosing. In vertical mode, images with different widths are usually scaled proportionally to a common width, with the remaining space filled by the background colour. A background close to the image edges makes the seams less obvious.
The canvas height is where long stitches fail. More images and a larger output width both increase total pixels, and beyond the browser's canvas limit the export either fails or leaves the bottom blank. Reducing the output width, stitching fewer images at a time, or splitting the result into two or three sections usually solves it.
- Rename files 01, 02, 03 before selecting
- Unify width and choose a background close to the edges
- Split very long results instead of forcing one canvas
Alternatives, and when not to stitch
If each image needs its own caption, border, arrow, or spacing, a stitcher is the wrong tool; it usually offers only global gap and background settings. Use a design or document tool for that layout. When every page needs to stay separate, a PDF is also a better container than one extremely tall JPG.
Stitching resamples images that do not share a width and may fill transparent areas with the background colour, so keep originals if quality matters. On a website, one giant image is worse than several images for loading and accessibility. Long images suit social sharing and archiving, not formal page layout.
FAQ
How do I change the order of stitched images?
Most tools follow the selection or drop order and do not support drag-to-reorder afterwards. If the order is wrong, reload the page and select the files again in the sequence you want. Renaming them to 01, 02, 03 first makes multi-select ordering much more predictable.
Will images of different widths be stretched?
Normally they are scaled proportionally to a shared width, with the leftover space filled by the background colour, rather than stretched. Vertical stitching often uses the first image's width as the base, and horizontal stitching uses the first image's height. An explicit output width gives you more control.
Why is the bottom of my long image blank or missing?
The total pixel count has probably exceeded the browser's canvas limit. Lower the output width, use fewer images per stitch, or split the result into sections and combine them afterwards. Closing memory-heavy tabs also helps, particularly on mobile browsers.
Related tool：Stitch Images