Photo stitching software produce panoramic pictures and VR photographs. The other method involves using panoramic cameras or panoramic mirror lenses (i.e. one-shot lenses).
General[edit]
Name | Developer(s) | Operating system(s) | License | Price | WWW | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Panoweaver Standard / Professional | Easypano Holdings Inc. | Windows XP/7/8; Mac OS X 10.4 or later | Proprietary | Standard: $99 / Professional: $299 | easypano.com | Branding free, trial version works will be watermarked. |
WidsMob Panorama | WidsMob Technology Ltd. | Mac OS X 10.8 or later | Proprietary | $19.99 | widsmob.com | Branding free, trial version works will be watermarked. |
i2Align Quickage Express / Pro | DualAlign LLC | Windows XP or Vista; Mac OS X 10.2 or higher | Proprietary | Express: $50 / Pro: $100 | i2Align.com | Express is limited to four images per panorama |
Pixtra OmniStitcher | Pixtra Corp. | Windows 95 or later | Proprietary | $49 | Pixtra.com | Designed for 360x180 degree omniramas. |
Pixtra PanoStitcher | Pixtra Corp. | Windows 95 or later | Proprietary | $30 | Pixtra.com | Includes virtual tool authoring package. |
QuickPHOTO | PROMICRA | Windows 7 or later | Proprietary | promicra.com | Stitching together fields of view from microscope. | |
Dermandar | Dermandar | Browser based (Adobe Flash player required), Apple iOS4 | Proprietary | Free | Dermandar.com | Panoramas are uploaded on the Dermandar server and they can be viewed with the provided Flash viewer. |
PhotoFit Harmony / Premium | Tekmate, Inc. | Windows 98 or later | Proprietary | Harmony: $52 / Premium: $277 | PhotoFit4Panorama.com | Premium has bigger output size limits (12 vs. 1200 Mpix) and more output projections. |
PanoramaPlus X4 | Serif (Europe) Ltd. | Windows XP or later | Proprietary | £20 | Serif.com | Video input. |
PanoramaBuilder 7.0 / PanoramaBuilder 7.0 Pro | 3cim, Inc. | Windows ?? | Proprietary | $199 / Pro: $499 + annual $199 | PanoBuilder.com | Price incl. hosting for virtual tours. |
Pixloo VT Builder | Pixloo | Windows and Mac | Proprietary | $9 Month | Pixloo | Unlimited hosting of virtual tours. |
360 Panorama Professional | 360 Degrees of Freedom | Windows only | Proprietary | $99 | 360dof.com | Includes virtual tool authoring package. |
VRstitcher Fisheye Pro | 360 Degrees of Freedom | Windows only | Proprietary | $499 | 360dof.com | Includes virtual tool authoring package. specifically designed for fisheye lenses. |
COOL 360 | Ulead / Corel Corp. | Windows, up to XP only | Proprietary | $40 | Corel.com | Support discontinued. |
The Panorama Factory v5 | Smoky City Design, LLC | Windows 98 or later; Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later | Proprietary | $80 | panoramafactory.com | |
PixMaker Lite / Home / Business | ? | Windows 95 or later | Proprietary | Lite: Free / Home: $20 / Business: $349 | Singnet.com | |
PTAssembler | Max Lyons | Windows only | Proprietary | $49 / $299 | Tawbaware.com | Based on Panorama Tools |
PTgui / PTgui Pro | New House Internet Services BV | Windows; Mac OS X | Proprietary | €79 (personal) / €180 (company); Pro: €149 (personal / €349 (company) (+taxes) | ptgui.com | Based on Panorama Tools. |
Autopano Pro / Giga / Server | Kolor | Windows 2000 or later; Mac OS X 10.5 or later with Intel processor; Linux 2.6 or later | Proprietary | Ceased trading September 2018 | www.kolor.com | Free trial version (watermarked) |
Autostitch | Matthew Brown & David Lowe | Windows; Mac OS X; Android 4.0.3 and up[1] | Proprietary | Time limited demo only | Autostitch home page | |
Calico Panorama | Kekus | Mac only | Proprietary | $39 | kekus.com | Based on Autostitch. |
Hugin | Pablo d'Angelo et al. | Windows, Mac, Linux, FreeBSD | GPL | Free | hugin.sf.net | Based on Panorama Tools. |
Stitcher 4 | 3DVista | Windows & Mac | Proprietary | €99 | [3] | |
D Joiner | D Vision Works, Ltd. | Windows 95 or later | Proprietary | £300 | d-vw.com | |
Panorama Maker 6 | Arcsoft, Inc. | Windows XP/Vista/7; Mac OS X | Proprietary | $79.99 | arcsoft.com | Video input, 3D output |
Photovista Panorama | iseemedia, inc. | Windows 98 SE or later; Mac OS 9.1 or later | Proprietary | $250 | iseephotovista.com | |
PanoramaStudio / Pro | Tobias Hüllmandel Software | Windows 2000 or later | Proprietary | €35/€70 | tshsoft.de | RAW file support. Multirow stitching only with Pro version. |
Stitcher Unlimited 2009 | Autodesk | Windows Vista SP2 or later; Mac OS X 10.4.10 or later | Proprietary | $400 | autodesk.com | Export to Flash, VRML, QTVR. |
ADG Panorama Tools / Pro | Albatross Design Group | Windows 95 or later | Proprietary | $40 / $99 | albatrossdesign.com | Pro version has ability to create hot spots for virtual tours. |
Panorama Composer 3 | FirmTools | Windows 95 or later | Proprietary | $30 | Panorama.FirmTools.com | Includes Flash, ActiveX and Java based viewers for web. |
Image Composite Editor | Microsoft | Windows Vista SP2 or later | Proprietary | Free for non-commercial use | research.microsoft.com | Video input (Windows 7+) |
Panorama Perfect | Michal Pohanka | Windows 2000 or later | Proprietary | $29 | volny.cz | |
Photoshop CS5 | Adobe Systems | Windows; Mac OS X | Proprietary | $699[2] | adobe.com | |
Photoshop CS6 | Adobe Systems | Windows; Mac OS X | Proprietary | $699[3] | adobe.com | Can do auto stitching |
AIPR Lite 1 | Mayachitra, Inc. | Windows*; Mac OS X 10.6+* | Proprietary | $29.95 | AIPR Lite | (*) both 32 and 64 bit versions available. |
Gigapan Stitch 1.0 | Gigapan Systems | Windows; Mac OS X 10.4 or later | Proprietary | $79 | Gigapan Stitch 1.0 | Assumes images form approximate grid. Works well on large numbers of images ( hundreds, thousands ) |
PanoramaMaker | STOIK Imaging | Windows; Mac OS X | Proprietary | €39 | STOIK.com | Requires all images to be the same size |
Montage Image Mosaic | Caltech/IPAC, JPL, CACR, ISI | Unix | 3-Clause BSD | Free | official Web site | Produces science-grade mosaics for astronomical research |
Panorama Stitcher | Alexander Boltnev, Olga Kacher | Mac OS X | Proprietary | $15 | Panorama Stitcher | Automatic stitching, exposure leveling. Interactive projection editor. |
PhotoStitcher | Maxim Gapchenko | Windows; Mac OS X | Proprietary | $19.99 | www.photostitcher.com | Stitch panoramic images in one click without any preferences |
SharpStitch | Libor Tinka | Windows | Proprietary | Full: $995.00; Source code: $4995.00 | www.imagingshop.com | Image alignment and stitching library for .NET |
StitchUp | Michel Mürner | Mac OS X | Proprietary | $6.99 | www.stitchup.ch | |
Pano2VR / Pano2VR pro | Garden Gnome Software | Windows; Mac OS X; Linux | Proprietary | regular: €99; pro: €299 (+taxes) | ggnome.com/pano2vr | Free trial version (watermarked) |
Lapentor | Starfruit JSC | Windows; Mac OS X; Linux | Proprietary | $15 | http://lapentor.com/ | Create beautiful & professional Virtual Tour |
Name | Developer(s) | Operating system(s) | License | Price | WWW | Notes |
HDR, tonemapping and exposure fusion[edit]
Name | HDR input (EXR, HDR, Logluv, etc.) | Merging to HDR from LDR images | HDR output (EXR, HDR, Logluv, etc.) | Tonemapping | Exposure fusion | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Panoweaver Standard / Professional[4] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
i2Align Quickage Express / Pro[5] | No | Yes* | Yes* | No | No | *) Pro version only. |
Pixtra PanoStitcher | No | No | No | No | No | |
Pixtra OmniStitcher | No | No | No | No | No | |
QuickPHOTO[6] | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
PhotoFit Harmony / Premium | No | No | No | No | No | |
PanoramaPlus X4 | No | No | No | No | No | |
PanoramaBuilder 7.0 / PanoramaBuilder 7.0 Pro | No | No | No | No | No | |
360 Panorama Professional | No | No | No | No | No | |
VRstitcher Fisheye Pro | No | No | No | No | No | |
COOL 360 | No | No | No | No | No | |
The Panorama Factory v5 | No | No | No | No | No | |
PixMaker Lite / Home / Business | No | No | No | No | No | |
PTAssembler | No | No | No | No | Yes | Exposure fusion with TuFuse or enfuse. Automatic detection of image stacks. |
PTgui / PTgui Pro | Yes* | Yes* | Yes* | Yes* | Yes* | Exposure fusion with enfuse or TuFuse. *) Pro version only. |
Autopano Pro / Giga / Server | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Ceased trading September 2018 |
Autostitch | No | No | No | No | No | |
Calico Panorama | No | No | No | No | No | |
Hugin | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Exposure fusion with enfuse, automatic detection of image stacks. |
3DVista Stitcher 3.0 | No | No | No | No | No | |
D Joiner | No | No | No | No | No | |
Panorama Maker 6 | No | No | No | No | No | |
Photovista Panorama | No | No | No | No | No | |
PanoramaStudio | No | No | No | No | No | |
Stitcher Unlimited 2009[7] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
ADG Panorama Tools / Pro | No | No | No | No | No | |
Panorama Composer 3 | No | No | No | No | No | |
Image Composite Editor | No | No | No | No | No | Supports 16-bit camera raw input via WIC plugins |
Panorama Perfect | No | No | No | No | No | |
Photoshop | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
AIPR Lite 1 | No | No | No | Yes* | No | (*) color mapping around the seams allows to preserve the original photometric properties of the images |
Gigapan Stitch 1.0 | No | No | No | No | No | |
PanoramaMaker | No | No | No | No | No | |
Panorama Stitcher | Yes | No | No | No | No | |
SharpStitch | Yes | No | No | No | No | |
Pano2VR / Pano2VR pro | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | |
Name | HDR input (EXR, HDR, Logluv, etc.) | Merging to HDR from LDR images | HDR output (EXR, HDR, Logluv, etc.) | Tonemapping | Exposure fusion | Notes |
Image corrections[edit]
Name | Panorama leveling | Vignetting correction | Lens distortion correcting | White balance correction | Exposure correction | Viewpoint adjustment | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Panoweaver Standard / Professional[8] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Dermandar | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | |
i2Align Quickage Express / Pro[9] | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | No | |
Pixtra PanoStitcher[10] | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Also chromatic aberration correction if correction parameters provided |
Pixtra OmniStitcher | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Also chromatic aberration correction if correction parameters provided |
QuickPHOTO | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | |
PhotoFit Harmony / Premium[11] | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | No | |
PanoramaPlus X4[12] | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | No | |
PanoramaBuilder 7.0 / PanoramaBuilder 7.0 Pro | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | No | |
360 Panorama Professional | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | No | |
VRstitcher Fisheye Pro[13] | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | No | |
COOL 360 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | No | |
PanaVue ImageAssembler Std. / Pro. / Ent.[14] | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | No | |
The Panorama Factory v5[15] | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | No | |
PixMaker Lite / Home / Business | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | No | |
PTAssembler[16] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
PTgui / PTgui Pro | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[17] | |
Autopano Pro / Giga / Server | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes*[18] | (*) Giga only. |
Autostitch | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |
Calico Panorama | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | No | |
Hugin | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[19] | |
3DVista Stitcher 3.0 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | No | |
D Joiner[20] | No | No | No | No | No | No | |
Panorama Maker 6 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | No | |
Photovista Panorama[21] | No | No | No | No | No | No | |
PanoramaStudio / Pro [22] | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | No | |
Stitcher Unlimited 2009 | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | No | |
ADG Panorama Tools / Pro | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | No | |
Panorama Composer 3[23] | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | No | |
Image Composite Editor | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | |
Panorama Perfect[24] | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | No | |
Photoshop | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
AIPR Lite 1 | No | Yes* | Yes | No | No | No | (*) color mapping about the seams greatly mitigates the effects of vignetting |
Gigapan Stitch 1.0 | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | |
PanoramaMaker | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | No | |
Panorama Stitcher | Yes | Yes | Yes* | No | Yes | Yes | (*) Only for rectilinear lenses |
SharpStitch | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Pano2VR / Pano2VR pro[25] | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | |
Name | Panorama leveling | Vignetting correction | Lens distortion correcting | White balance correction | Exposure correction | Viewpoint adjustment | Notes |
Panoweaver is coding free panorama and photo stitching software, which can stitch all types of image into 360 panoramic image and little planet panorama, also able to publish panoramic photo into Flash & HTML5 tour to view with PC and smart phones. #02 – Hugin – Panorama Photo Stitcher. Hugin is an open source panorama photo stitching software developed by Pablo d’Angelo and it lets you transform multiple overlying images into a single panoramic image and enables you to show off your panoramic photography skills without using any wide-angle camera or lens.
Export options[edit]
Name | Raster images (JPEG, TIFF, etc.) | Flash viewer | Java viewer | QTVR | HTML 5* | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Panoweaver Standard / Professional | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Includes free Flash and HTML5 viewer. |
Dermandar | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Includes free Flash and HTML5 viewer. |
i2Align Quickage Express / Pro | Yes | No | No | No | No | |
Pixtra PanoStitcher | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Includes ActiveX viewer & export. |
Pixtra OmniStitcher | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Includes ActiveX viewer & export. |
QuickPHOTO | Yes | No | No | No | No | |
PhotoFit Harmony / Premium | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | |
PanoramaPlus X4 | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Flickr export. |
PanoramaBuilder 7.0 / PanoramaBuilder 7.0 Pro | Yes | Yes* | No | No | No | (*) Planar viewer. |
360 Panorama Professional | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | |
VRstitcher Fisheye Pro | Yes | No | Yes | ? | No | |
COOL 360[26] | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Embedding of panoramas into executables (.exe) and MicrosoftOffice files. ActiveX viewer. |
PanaVue ImageAssembler Std. / Pro. / Ent. | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
The Panorama Factory v5 | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | |
PixMaker Lite / Home / Business | Yes | ? | ? | ? | No | |
PTAssembler | Yes | No | No | No | No | |
PTgui / PTgui Pro | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes[27] | |
Autopano Pro / Giga / Server | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | |
Autostitch | Yes | No | No | No | No | |
Calico | Yes | No | ? | ? | ? | |
Hugin | Yes | No | No | No | No | |
3DVista Stitcher 3.0 | Yes | No | No | No | No | |
D Joiner | Yes | ? | Yes | No | No | |
Panorama Maker 6 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
Photovista Panorama | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | IVR export. |
PanoramaStudio / pro[28] | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | |
Stitcher Unlimited 2009 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | VRML export. |
ADG Panorama Tools / Pro | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | |
Panorama Composer 3 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Includes ActiveX viewer & export. |
Image Composite Editor | Yes | No | No | No | No | Publish to Photosynth website, Silverlight based viewer. |
Panorama Perfect | Yes | No | No | No | No | |
Photoshop | Yes | No | No | No | No | |
AIPR Lite 1 | Yes | No | No | No | No | |
Gigapan Stitch 1.0 | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | 3D viewer in stitcher / Publishing to gigapan.org 2D flash viewer / Embeddable flash viewer |
PanoramaMaker | Yes | No | No | No | No | |
PanoEdit | Yes | No | No | No | No | |
SharpStitch | Yes | No | No | No | No | |
Pano2VR / Pano2VR pro | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
Name | Raster images (JPEG, TIFF, etc.) | Flash viewer | Java viewer | QTVR | HTML 5* | Notes |
(*) Export to HTML 5 usually means WebGL based viewer application.
Compatible equipment[edit]
Name | Rectilinear lenses (i.e. normal camera lenses) | Fish eye lenses | Partial or full (spherical) panoramas or images from panoramic cameras | Different focal lengths in single panorama | Different lens types in single panorama | Perspective correction lenses | Other/Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Panoweaver Standard / Professional[29] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
i2Align Quickage Express / Pro | Yes | No | No | ? | ? | No | |
Pixtra PanoStitcher[30] | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | |
Pixtra OmniStitcher[31] | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | |
QuickPHOTO | No | No | No | No | No | No | PROMICAM[32] microscope camera needed |
PhotoFit Harmony / Premium | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |
PanoramaPlus X4 | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |
PanoramaBuilder 7.0 / PanoramaBuilder 7.0 Pro | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |
360 Panorama Professional | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |
VRstitcher Fisheye Pro | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | |
COOL 360 | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |
PanaVue ImageAssembler Std. / Pro. / Ent. | Yes | Yes* | No | No | No | ? | *) Circular fish eyes not supported,[33] diagonal fish eyes up to 180 degree field of view. |
The Panorama Factory v5 | Yes | No | No | No | No | ||
PixMaker Lite / Home / Business | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |
PTAssembler[34] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
PTgui / PTgui Pro | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Autopano Pro / Giga / Server | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Also supports motorized panoramic heads, in Giga & Pro versions. |
Autostitch | Yes | ? | No | No | Yes | ? | |
Calico Panorama | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |
Hugin | Yes | Yes* | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | * As of v2010.2 onwards, all known fish eye projections are supported (equisolid, orthographic, stereographic) |
3DVista Stitcher 3.0 | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | 'One shot' i.e. panoramic mirror lenses also supported. |
D Joiner | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |
Panorama Maker 6 | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |
Photovista Panorama | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |
PanoramaStudio / Pro | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |
Stitcher Unlimited 2009 | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | No | |
ADG Panorama Tools / Pro[35] | Yes | No | Yes* | No | No | No | *) Cylindrical only |
Panorama Composer 3 | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |
Image Composite Editor | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |
Panorama Perfect | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |
Photoshop | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |
AIPR Lite 1 | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes* | (*) homographic model compensates for these type of lenses |
Gigapan Stitch 1.0 | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | |
PanoramaMaker | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | |
PanoEdit | Yes | No | No | No | No | ? | |
SharpStitch | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |
Name | Rectilinear lenses (i.e. normal camera lenses) | Fish eye lenses | Partial or full (spherical) panoramas or images from panoramic cameras | Different focal lengths in single panorama | Different lens types in single panorama | Perspective correction lenses | Other/Notes |
References[edit]
- ^'Autostitch for Android'. cloudburstresearch.com/. Retrieved 25 March 2014.
- ^What is Photoshop?
- ^What is Photoshop?
- ^Panoweaver features page
- ^i2Align online help
- ^HDR module for QuickPHOTO microscope software
- ^Stitcher Unlimited 2009 FAQArchived 2009-02-06 at the Wayback Machine
- ^Panoweaver user's manual
- ^'How Quickage works' page
- ^PanoStitcher tutorial
- ^PhotoFit features
- ^PanoramaPlus X4 quickstart guide
- ^Product detaisl page
- ^ImageAssembler help files
- ^The Panorama Factory feature page
- ^PTAssembler home page
- ^PTgui viewpoint correction tutorial
- ^Autopano 2.5 announcement
- ^Hugin tutorial — Stitching murals using mosaic mode
- ^D Joiner tips section
- ^Photovista user's manual
- ^PanoramaStudio feature overview page
- ^Panorama Composer's lens settings
- ^[1]
- ^Pano2VR product page
- ^COOL 360 feature comparison chart & COOL 360 features PDF
- ^PTgui 9.0b
- ^[2]
- ^Panoweaver's edition comparison page
- ^PanoStitcher feature page
- ^OmniStitcher feature page
- ^PROMICAM microscope cameras
- ^PanaVue product comparison table
- ^PTassembler help page
- ^ADG Panorama Tools change log
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Comparison_of_photo_stitching_software&oldid=905268509'
When it comes to capturing stunning landscapes, frames are never sufficiently big, even when you have a wide angle lens with you! Well, suppose you have a wide angle lens with you; even then, you might have to crop an image if you want to have a focused panorama shot. Nevertheless, if you’ve a tripod and a camera with manual options, you have a better solution out there — Panorama shots through photo stitching! Photo stitching is a process used for creation of panoramic shot by combining several images, given that all these images have overlapping segments. The best thing about this method is that you can have a high-resolution panoramic shot using your 18-55 mm or other lenses.
Don’t worry if you aren’t familiar with the term Photo Stitching — that is incredibly easier! In this post, we have a list of top 8 photo stitching software, which you can use for creating panoramic images that have enhanced clarity and resolution. If you want to use the software, you should be a bit more careful while you capture. For instance, it’s rather necessary that all the images should have common exposure and that tripod level should be kept same during the capturing process. If these are set, we will just move onto the list.
Best Photo Stitching Software
1. Hugin
An open source initiative, Hugin lets you enhance your panoramic photography by combining overlapping images, as we said earlier. Hugin is available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X and it is being used by a large number of photographers when they need high-resolution panoramic shots. It’s a fact that Hugin prioritizes customizability & advanced functions, and thus it’s more or less for professionals. For instance, you can find control points and edit the parameters used so that you get the best output.
Other notable features of Hugin include its feature to correct shots that are wavy due to inconsistency of level, support for various projection types, advanced corrections, support for HDR Stitching etc. User Interface of Hugin is not that tough, but you can get accustomed to it if you’re ready to take some effort. So, go for Hugin when you need a feature-rich and professional panorama software.
- Price: Free
2. Image Composite Editor
Image Composite Editor is the common name for Microsoft Research Image Composite Editor and it’s a project from Computational Photography Group of Microsoft Research wing. Apart from combination of overlapped shots and the export to popular formats like JPEG and TIFF, Image Composite Editor offers support for Silverlight DeepZoom & HD View that are multi-resolution tiled formats. Also, there is an option to upload the multi-resolution output image to Photosynth site of Microsoft. Image Composite Editor is available only for Windows and it has support for Windows XP,7,8 and Windows 8.1.
Notable features of ICE are support for different kinds of camera motion, Gigapixel image support, the feature for exposure blending and the feature to automatically complete missing image parts like sky, clouds etc. An extreme newbie and professional would find Image Composite Editor to be useful and that is what keeps it apart.
- Price: Free
3. Kolor Autopano
Kolor Autopano is a premium photo stitching software that is available for Windows (Windows 7, 8; 64 bits only, ready for Windows 10), Linux Ubuntu 14.04 and Mac OS X 10.5 & later! In spite of the features it offers, Kolor Autopano comes with an extremely intuitive User Interface, which lets almost any user to complete the panorama stitching process in two steps. There are two variants of Kolor Autopano you can get — Kolor Autopano Pro and Kolor Autopano Giga. The latter variant offers additional features like masking tool & pre-stitching plugins. However, general features of Kolor Autopano include support for up to 400 input file formats, 7 export file formats and the ability to create both 360 Degree and 180 Degree Panorama shots by putting the least efforts.
If you want to really know the power of Kolor Autopano, you can check out the Gallery page, where you have a set of panoramic shots that are stitched using the tool.
- Price: 99 Euros for Autopano Pro and 199 Euros for Autopano Giga
4. Autostitch
Autostitch is a bit different from other photo stitching software we have mentioned here. Unlike those, you can use Autostitch to stitch photographs in the most effective way without any kind of input from your side. For instance, the first photo stitching software mentioned in the list wants you to choose matching points and then starts merging. On the other hand, Autostitch can find matching sections of inputted images and proceed with the image stitching process.
There is a demo version of the tool available, with lesser options, but you will have to go for the Pro version if you need features like Cylindrical and Planar projections. To find matches between images, Autostitch uses the SIFT Algorithm. In short, when you need an image stitching software that is simple enough, you can move on with Autostitch. It is available for both OS X and Windows.
- Price: Free Demo & Commercial Variants available
5. PTGui
PTGui is a blazingly fast solution you can depend upon when you need a photo stitching software with an impressive User Interface as well. Available for Mac OS X and Windows, PTGui suits well for professionals as well as amateurs. There are some features you’d miss if you stick onto the normal version of PTGui but the general scenario of features is impressive, indeed. For instance, the features section includes automated stitching images, support for gigapixel panoramas, wide export file format support, interactive adjustment of panorama perspective etc. Also, the upgrade to the PTGui Pro version will give you Viewpoint correction, HDR Panorama stitching support, Exposure Fusion, global adjustment of exposure etc.
In addition, PTGui has support for various types of projections too. If we are to consider all these, PTGui makes sense as a professional photo stitching software.
- Free: Personal License available for 79 Euros
6. PanoramaPlus X4
PanoramaPlus X4 is yet another commercial software that lets you create stunning panoramic shots without requiring you to dedicate that much effort into it. The whole process is more or less automated that you won’t have to think about matching points or other technical stuff when you’ve launched this tool. On the other hand, you can choose all the images you want in the complete panoramic shots and move on, quite simply. Notable features of PanoramaPlus X4 include the ability to get panorama shots from videos, tools for optimizing the panorama shots by means of many kinds of editing, integrated sharing features for uploading directly to Facebook & Flickr, etc.
Best Panorama Software
Also, PanoramaPlus X4 is offering support for almost every popular image format too. Considering the amount you have to pay, what you get is Christmas!
- Price: £20.42
7. ArcSoft Panorama Maker
360 Panorama Photo Stitching Software
ArcSoft Panorama Maker is a multipurpose photo stitching software that is available for both Windows and Mac OS X. An optimal panoramic image is three steps away when you’re using ArcSoft Panorama Maker to deal with the stitching process. In both creation and editing sections, ArcSoft Panorama Maker has impressive features to offer you. For instance, when it comes to the stitching aspect, you have five different stitching modes; you have to select a desired format and choose the photographs to fill the space — you’re done.
On the other hand, when you want to edit a panorama shot, there are a lot of options. For instance, there is Align Points and Photo Blend to help you have tweaks on overlapped areas while fine-tuning features of ArcSoft Panorama Maker helps you get the best output in terms of panoramic images. Considering these all, ArcSoft Panorama Maker makes sense — simple as that.
- Price: $79.99; Free trial available
8. Panoweaver 9
Panoweaver 9 is yet another panorama stitching software that gives you the final output in just three steps! You will be able to use it for stitching various kinds of images like Fisheye photos, normal photos and RAW & HDR Photos, with same level of effectiveness. Coming to the output, you can get Cubic, Cylindrical, Spherical or a single fisheye projection mode. Of course, you can have enhanced features if you’re ready to upgrade to the Pro variant of Panoweaver 9. There are both Standard and Professional versions of Panoweaver 9 and there is difference in terms of availability of features too. For instance, you can get support of batch stitching and batch publishing only in the Pro version.
If we are to consider all these, Panoweaver 9 is indeed a notable solution, we bet. Panoweaver 9 is available for Mac and Windows, by the way.
- Price: $99.95 for Standard and $299.95 for Professional
SEE ALSO: 10 Best Free Photo Editing Software
Have you used any of the photo stitching tool mentioned in our list of best photo stitching software? Do let us know in comments section.