How to make a contact sheet on iPhone

What are you actually trying to make?

A contact sheet is one page that shows a whole set of pictures small, so you can judge them side by side. Photographers made them by laying film strips on paper and exposing them, and the result is still the best way to edit a shoot. If you want the history first, read what is a contact sheet.

On a phone there are really two jobs hiding in the same search. One is a quick grid you can look at or send to a client. The other is the old habit of choosing keepers from a page and marking them. The method you pick depends on which job you have.

Way 1: screenshot a zoomed-out grid

This takes thirty seconds and needs no extra app. Open an album in your Photos app, pinch or scroll until the thumbnails are small, and take a screenshot. You now have a picture of a grid.

The weakness is obvious once you try it. You get no frame numbers, no consistent spacing and no labels, and the thumbnails are cropped square. It works for a quick message to a friend and not much beyond that.

1. Open the album and pick the photos you want to compare.
2. Scroll so the grid shows as many thumbnails as will fit.
3. Press the side button and volume up together to capture the screen.
4. Crop the screenshot to the grid and send it.

Way 2: use desktop software

Desktop photo software often has a print module with contact sheet templates, and some can output a sheet as a PDF. They give you control over rows, columns and captions, and they print well. The catch is the trip to a computer: you export or sync the pictures first, then build the page.

This is the right choice when you need a client proof or a printed sheet with file names. It is slow for a casual set from your own phone.

Way 3: shoot a roll that builds the sheet for you

Proofsheet turns the order around. You load a roll of 12, 24 or 36 frames, shoot without looking, and the app makes a proof sheet when the roll develops. The page has film strips, frame numbers, edge print and a QR code in the lower border. It is not on the App Store yet, so this is the one option that has to wait.

Because a roll is finite, the sheet is small enough to read at a glance. You are not sorting two thousand thumbnails. You are choosing from one roll.

1. Load a roll and pick a film look and a frame count.
2. Shoot through the small viewfinder and wind on after each frame.
3. Develop the roll in the darkroom by rocking the phone, or tap Develop.
4. Open the sheet, turn on Grease pencil and tap a frame to circle it. Tap again to cross it out.
5. Share the sheet as 9:16 for stories or 1:1 for posts.

What can you do with the sheet once you have it?

Read it in passes. Look at the whole page without stopping, then go back and compare near-identical frames. Circle one from each run and cross out the clear misses. In Proofsheet, Loupe drags a magnifier over the sheet and Zoom switches to bigger frames, four or three across.

The marks are part of the file. The circles and crosses you made stay on the sheet when you share it. The developed photos themselves are saved to your Photos library, so marking a frame does not delete anything. Old sheets live in the Binder, which has All, Crew and Week segments.

Which layout should I pick?

Proofsheet offers Lab, Strip and Grid. Lab is the default and looks most like a printed lab sheet. Pro gives access to the layouts beyond the default. All of them export in 9:16 or 1:1, and the Share studio shows a live preview of what leaves the app before you send it.

What are the limits?

A sheet is small by design. It shows composition, expression and exposure, and it cannot show fine detail. Open a print or the developed photo for that. The brand line stays on every export, with a quieter edge-only option in Pro.

If you want a sheet from pictures you took last year, Proofsheet is the wrong tool, because it builds sheets only from rolls shot in the app. Use the desktop route for old libraries.

Where can I learn more about the idea?

Wikipedia's entry on the contact print explains how the original film version works. For how the app's version fits the rest of the workflow, see the proof sheet page and the guide on how film is developed.