SplitPicture
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Split an image into 3Three panels from one photo.

Make a triptych or a row of three, every piece the same size.

3 panels ready
Choose photo

or drop it here · paste with Ctrl+V Drop one picture. Say how many pieces it becomes — a 3 × 3 profile grid, a row of carousel slides, or an A2 poster laid out across A4 sheets.

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Three is a prime number, and that decides the layout

Four parts can be a square grid; three cannot. The only equal ways to divide a rectangle into three are three tall strips or three wide bands, and the board offers exactly those. On a landscape picture it opens on strips, because each strip is closer to a normal picture shape than a band would be; on a tall picture the bands win. Either way the choice is a chip under Split into equal parts, not a hidden setting.

The panels share the width as evenly as whole pixels allow. If the width divides by three, all three panels match. If it does not, the leading panels take one extra pixel each and the inspector shows the three widths. This is the difference between a triptych that hangs as one picture and one with a visible hairline where a column was lost.

A worked example

4000 × 1500 → 3 files · columns 1334 + 1333 + 1333 = 4000 px · rows 1500 = 1500 px

4000 does not divide by three, so the first panel is one pixel wider. The three widths add back to 4000.
FileCellFrom x, yPixels
panorama-r1c1.pngrow 1 · col 10, 01334 × 1500
panorama-r1c2.pngrow 1 · col 21334, 01333 × 1500
panorama-r1c3.pngrow 1 · col 32667, 01333 × 1500
4000 does not divide by three, so the first panel is one pixel wider. The three widths add back to 4000.

Where three panels are used

  • A triptych for a wall. Three prints hung with a gap. Set the same gutter here as on the wall so the gap is not taken out of the picture.
  • A panorama in thirds. A phone panorama is often four or five times wider than tall; three panels keep each piece viewable on its own.
  • One profile row. Three posts that read as one picture across a profile. That job has its own preset because the visible shape is 3:4, not whatever the strip happens to be.

Three panels never improve resolution: a 4000-pixel panorama makes three panels about 1333 pixels wide, and a destination that shows each at 1080 pixels will scale them.

How to do it here

  1. Open the picture. Drop it on the board, browse, or paste it.
  2. Pick the layout. 3 side by side for strips, 3 stacked for bands, or Three-tile profile row for a feed row.
  3. Check the boundaries. Look at the two cut lines on the picture and move the framing if something important sits on one.
  4. Cut. Press Cut into 3 files to write a ZIP with the panels and an index.

Questions that come up

My width does not divide by three. What happens to the leftover pixels?
They go one each to the first panels. A 1000-pixel width becomes 334, 333 and 333; a 1001-pixel width becomes 334, 334 and 333. The three files always add up to the original width, so a triptych hung edge to edge has no gap and no repeated column.
How do I get three horizontal bands instead of three vertical strips?
Press the “3 stacked” chip under Split into equal parts. Three is a prime number, so those are the only two equal layouts: three side by side or three stacked. The board says so instead of offering a grid that does not exist.
I want the three pieces to fill one row of my Instagram profile.
Press “Three-tile profile row”. The board moves to the Social rail with a 3 × 1 profile grid: three 3:4 visible tiles, each written as a 4:5 upload, numbered right to left because the right-hand tile has to be posted first.
Why does the middle panel cut my subject in half?
Because a subject in the centre of a picture sits exactly where a three-way split puts the middle panel — which is the good case — but anything standing on a third line is cut by a boundary. Look at the cut map before writing; if a face is on a line, move it with Guides or change the framing.
Can I leave a gap between the panels, like a framed triptych?
Yes. Choose Gutter under Gutter or overlap and set the width. Those pixels are left out of all three files, as if the cut had width, so the panels hung with the same gap line up with the picture.
Will the three files look identical in colour?
As PNG they are the source pixels exactly. As JPEG each panel is encoded separately with the same quality setting; the reassembly check after export measures the largest colour change so you can decide whether that is acceptable.

Related on this site

Illustration of a picture divided into tiles, for Split Image Into 3

Split Image Into 3