LetterGlow – iPhone App Review – A Stylish and High Quality Text on Photo App

Text on photo apps have become one of the most popular sub genres of iPhone photo apps. I’ve used a number of them, starting with PicFrame early last year. The most recent text on photo app release is Letterglow (US $0.99) from The Lens Lab development team.

I was lucky enough to be part of the beta testing process of Letterglow so have seen the effort that the developers has put into fine tuning both the presentation and usability of the app. I’m going to go over some of the reasons why I think Letterglow is one of the best text on photo apps currently available on the AppStore.

From the start, Letterglow is focused on helping the user with clear and simple controls. For example, the photo library import allows you select between a square (Instagram) crop or import that original size image. This is a welcome addition which is increasingly absent in other apps.

Once you import a photo you are presented with dummy text and four options in the bottom menu: Text, Overlays, Image Adjustments and Templates.

A simple double tap on the text box loads the text edit screen. Here you can change the font, size, alignment and also add symbols (including the all-important copyright).

Back in the main screen the first Text option gives you a number of basic through to advanced controls over your text. My favorites being the Opacity tool and Letter Spacing (a rarity in these kind of apps). All controls work well with the plus/minus toggle allowing for accurate fine tuning.

The second Overlay option gives you a wide range of designs including phrases and shapes. Again, the implementation of the controls here is easier than competing apps like Over. All the overlays are shown on an easy to use horizontal scroll rather than having to jump between screens. As with the Text option, you can also adjust the color, opacity, angle and position of the Overlays.

The Image Adjustment options give you control over the brightness of the underlying image (helping to create separation with text), allow you to re-crop and most usefully enable you to switch out the background for a new image.

The final option is the Template import. Before you can import you need to save an existing Template. This is the first option in the very beautiful sharing screen (accessed by hitting Done in the pop-up white menu).

The sharing screen has all the customary social networks cleverly presented on one page. What is different, and exciting, is the ability to share to WordPress. Letterglow is one of the few photo apps that allows you to link directly to your WordPress blog, with photos uploaded to your Media Library. I’ve tested the feature and it works very well. I’ve already found myself using it for blog post banners.

Letterglow has quickly become my go to text on photo app. The easy to use interface combined with advanced sharing options makes it a no brainer.