Class composites in 1 click.
Pick one of 42 ready-made templates (or draw your own) and publish it, once. Then, at each session, you add it, and one click on “Generate All” starts the class composites of the session’s groups: names pulled from your roster, framing centred on each student’s face. No more evenings placing portraits one by one.
- ✓ 42 ready-made templates
- ✓ Names pulled from your roster
- ✓ HD JPEG, ZIP, PDF and PSD
Classic 6 × 3
17 cells
Maple Ridge Public School
Ladybugs · Ms. Harper · 2026-2027
Principal
Aiden B.
Amelia C.
Benjamin D.
Chloe F.
Daniel G.
Ella H.
Ethan L.
Grace M.
Hannah P.
Isaac T.
Jack T.
Lily V.
Mia V.
Noah W.
Owen W.
Ruby Y.
Zoe Z.
- 1One click: “Generate All”
- 2Each group turns “Ready”
- 3Names come from your roster
Published October 16, 2026 · 7 min read
1The chore nobody likes
Twenty classes, twenty-five portraits per class, a name under each, and all of it to reopen as soon as a student changes classes.
MaplePhoto already knows your groups, your students and their photos. So the class composite no longer has to be a layout job: it is a render.
Placing, aligning
Hundreds of portraits to drop in, resize and align, class after class, in a layout program.
Retyping names
Every name copied by hand is a possible typo, and a printed typo is a reprint.
Starting over
A student absent on picture day, a retake, a change of class: the file has to be reopened and everything shifted.
242 ready-made templates
Nothing to draw to get started: three styles, seven sizes, two orientations.
Open “Ready-made templates” and choose: Confetti for daycare, Crayons for elementary school, Varsity for high school, from 4 × 6 to 30 × 36 in, in portrait and in landscape. Each template already carries a place for your logo, the group name and the school year, around its photo grid.
42 starting points. Then a single click on “Generate All” for the whole session.
Where to find it: Design → Composites → Ready-made templates
3The template becomes yours
“Use this template” copies it into your templates as a draft, opened in the editor.
Your studio’s logo (from your brand kit, else your store logo) is placed on it automatically when it can be; otherwise a logo placeholder stays, to replace in the editor. The group name fills in by itself on each composite, and the school year can be changed when you add the template to a session. The copy is yours: colours, text, grid, you edit it as you like, you publish it, and it serves all your schools.
Where to find it: Design → Composites
4Or start from a blank page
You draw your own template, once: copied or drawn, the same template then serves all your classes, in all your schools.
In “New Template”, you choose the size, the orientation and the resolution. In the template editor, you lay down the photo grid, up to 60 cells: the frame style (none, rounded, oval, circle or border), the names (“First Last”, “Last, First” or first name only), their position, font and colour, your logo, and up to five cells reserved for staff (the principal, for instance, the same on each composite). You save, you publish: the template is ready for your sessions.
Where to find it: Design → Composites
5The click
On a school or daycare session, you add the template, then “Generate All”: one class composite per group.
In the session’s “Composites” tab, “Add Template”: you type once the texts the template asks for (the school year for a ready-made template; the school’s name too, if your template has one). If the template reserves cells for staff, “Staff Photos”, on its card, places the principal there, the same for every group. Then “Generate All”: MaplePhoto starts the composite of each group in the session, up to 100 groups in a single click. The template’s class and teacher texts are filled in from each group; each student’s name comes from your roster at render time, sorted by last name, then first name. Nobody retypes anything.
The page updates by itself: each group goes from “Pending” to “Rendering”, then to “Ready”. A name corrected in the roster, a photo changed? One click on “Regenerate” for that group: the composite reads the roster again and reapplies your selection rule. Nothing regenerates without you.
Where to find it: Session → Composites
6The right photo for each student
The favourite, a given pose or a tag: you set the rule for the template, and correct one student at a time if you wish.
“Photo used for each student” sets the rule: the favourite photo, pose # 1, 2, 3…, or the photo carrying the tag of your choice; if a student has neither that pose nor that tag, their favourite takes over. Only portraits count: never a group photo, never a camera card. Before generating, “Review” opens the group student by student: change a photo, mark someone absent, exclude someone, drag a student higher or lower in the order, then “Generate with these choices”. Those choices hold for that generation: a later “Regenerate” or “Generate All” goes back to the rule. For a lasting choice, use the “Favorite photo” rule and mark the intended portrait, or the “By tag” rule and apply the chosen tag to that portrait only.
Where to find it: Session → Composites → Review
7Framing centred on the face
Each portrait is cropped to the shape of its cell, and the frame lands on the face, not at random.
Centred on the face
A child sitting a little to one side? The frame slides toward their face, as far as the photo allows, instead of cutting them at the edge of the cell.
The zoom never changes
We move the frame, we enlarge nothing: head sizes stay those of your photos. Consistent shooting gives a consistent composite.
Detection, not recognition
The face is located to place the frame, nothing else: nobody is identified, no photo is compared with another, and no face data is stored (only the cell’s crop is kept, so your exports match the render). No face found? The usual framing applies.
8Absent students, big classes, students in two groups
The cases that derail a layout are checkboxes here.
A student without a photo
By default, they take no cell. Prefer to show them? Untick “Exclude students without a photo”: their cell shows a silhouette, their initials or stays empty, as your template says.
The grid adjusts
With “Auto-fit the grid”, rows and columns are recomputed from each group’s actual headcount: 18 students or 27, the same template (offered for templates without staff cells). More students than cells? “Automatic multi-page” continues on a following page, same layout, up to 20 pages.
Two groups, two composites
A student enrolled in two groups appears in the composite of each.
Where to find it: Session → Composites
9Print-ready files
One high-definition JPEG per composite page, a ZIP of the template’s ready composites, a print PDF or a layered PSD.
Each composite downloads as a high-definition JPEG, at the template’s size and resolution. “Prepare ZIP” gathers the latest ready composite of each group into a single archive. “Export PDF” produces a print PDF of every page, for one composite or for all of them. “Export PSD” delivers a layered file per page (the background, each photo under its frame, plain text as editable text layers) for a last touch-up in your editing software.
The class composite is your deliverable: you print it yourself or pass the files to your lab. It is not sold to parents in the store and is not sent to the lab automatically.
Where to find it: Session → Composites
10Also: the group board
The group photos of a session, gathered on a single board.
The same tool composes another deliverable: instead of portraits, the board gathers each class’s group photo, under its name. You choose the groups to include; a group photo is never cropped to fill its cell; and a template made of a plain grid works in portrait as well as in landscape.
Where to find it: Session → Composites
11Before you choose a platform, ask these questions
Print the list and tick what your current platform already offers. Here are our answers.
| The question | MaplePhoto | Your current platform |
|---|---|---|
| Do names come from your roster, without retyping? | Yes: read from the session’s roster at render time, sorted by last name. | |
| Are a whole school’s composites generated in a single click? | Yes: once the template is added to the session, “Generate All” starts them, up to 100 groups. | |
| What happens to a student without a photo? | Your choice: left out of the composite (by default), or a cell with a silhouette, their initials or empty. | |
| After a correction, must the layout be redone? | No: one click on “Regenerate” for the group concerned, and the composite reads the roster and your selection rule again. | |
| Can you choose each student’s photo? | Yes: favourite, pose or tag for the whole template, then student by student in “Review”, for the generation at hand. | |
| Are portraits framed on the face? | Yes, automatically; the zoom never changes. | |
| Which files do you get? | High-definition JPEG, a ZIP of the template’s composites, a print PDF, a layered PSD. | |
| Are there ready-made templates? | Yes: 42 templates in three styles and seven sizes, copied into your templates and editable. | |
| How much does a composite cost? | Nothing extra: the generator is included in every MaplePhoto plan, with no fee per composite. | |
| Not offered yet | Selling the composite to parents in the store, automatic sending to the lab, a preview of the composite before generating it. | |
12Answers before you start
What is in the PSD file?
One layered file per page: the background, each photo under its frame, plain text as editable text layers. The names under the photos, and any text that is curved, rotated, distorted or grouped, or that carries effects or per-character styling, are shown as an image, with their text layer hidden beside it.
Do I have to draw my template myself?
No. “Ready-made templates” offers 42 templates (Confetti, Crayons and Varsity, from 4 × 6 to 30 × 36 in, in portrait and in landscape). You copy one, edit it if you wish, and publish it. You can also start from a blank page.
Is it really a single click?
To start the generation, yes: “Generate All” starts the composite of each group in the session, up to 100 groups. Before that there is a preparation: a template (a ready-made one or your own), published once and reused, then adding it to the session with the texts it asks for (the school year, the school’s name) and, if it has any, the staff photos. Afterwards, you download your files. A group whose students are all excluded for lacking a portrait is refused; untick that exclusion to show their cells. Without multi-page, the students kept must fit the grid, after its auto-fit when that is on. The other groups are started.
Can I sell the composite to parents in the store?
Not with this tool. The class composite is your deliverable: you download it, then print it or pass it to your lab. This tool produces downloadable files for your studio; it does not publish the composite in the parents’ store.
How many students per composite?
Up to 60 cells per page, staff included, and up to 20 pages with automatic multi-page.
What happens if I correct a name or change a photo?
Nothing until you ask: click “Regenerate” for the group and the composite reads the roster again and applies your selection rule (choices made by hand in “Review” have to be redone). Then redo your PDF or PSD exports.
Is it offered for every session?
For school and daycare sessions. The “Composites” tab does not appear on other session types.
Is face-centred framing facial recognition?
No. The face is located to place the frame, without identifying anyone: no comparison between photos, no face data stored. The processing runs on our servers in Canada.
Is there a preview before generating?
Not yet. “Review” shows the photo chosen for each student; the composite itself is generated, then regenerated in one click if a detail does not suit you.
Your next school, in one click.
Join the waitlist. When your account opens, prepare a template and import your roster: at your next session, the class composites generate while you do something else.