5 Great Apps For Creating Your Instagram

A picture is worth a thousand words — until you add text, that is.
Instagram overlays add another layer to your already-fabulous pictures. They allow for endless possibilities, and today’s versatile and intuitive overlay apps can have you sharing masterpieces in 15 seconds flat.

See also: 5 Top Great Android Apps to Find your Lost Android Device

The apps we’ve gathered here focus on letting you insert well-designed text and pictures onto your pics. If you’re more interested in creating fanciful borders, shapes and collages, check out our related article.
Don’t forget to allow the apps access to your phone’s pictures via the privacy settings.

1. Over

Over is an Instagram heavyweight and all-around favorite whose claim to fame is adding beautiful text to photos. With more than 225 fonts, various stock backgrounds and a ton of customization options, it’s bigger and badder than its little (read: free) brother Overgram.
Instagram handle: @over
Price: $1.99 for iOS

2. Percolator

Think circles -- lots of circles. Percolator is a true image transformer. It analyzes the colors within a captured picture and, just like your favorite cup o’ joe, "brews" a mosaic-style replication. It uses a nifty circle-packing algorithm -- ideally, the circles do not overlap but are tangential to each other.
The "blend dials" released with Percolator 2.0 allow you to control just how your "perc" combines with the original photo.
Instagram handle: @percolator

3. A Beautiful Mess

Elsie and Emma, creators of the award-winning lifestyle blog A Beautiful Mess, decided to expand their reach into the wide world of apps. Within 12 hours of launch, the chic photo-editing app was #1 in the iTunes App Store.
The app, which skews strongly on the girly side, is a clear representation of the whimsical blog. In addition to pretty backgrounds, the app features the bloggers’ own hand-drawn doodles -- such as arrows, bubbles and borders -- as overlays.
Good news: A sure-to-be delightful revamp is in the works, as well as Android and Windows versions.
Instagram hashtag: #abeautifulmess
Price: $0.99 on iOS

 

4. Mextures

The brainchild of commercial photographer Merek Davis, Mextures imparts a gauzy, "Am I dreaming?" tone -- gradients, light leaks and the like -- to your picture. The app’s more than 80 formulas lend itself especially well to landscapes, whether you go subtle or heavy.
Some of Mextures’ unique features include infinite layering, a "non-destructive workflow" that allows you to make changes without undoing anything, and the option to save a custom edit as a formula for your convenience.
Davis also offers free, downloadable Mextures packs -- high-resolution, square textures that greatly expand your design options.
Instagram handle: @mexturesapp
Price: $1.99 on iOS

 

5. Photo Wonder

The most beauty-centric app in this list, Baidu’s Photo Wonder contains an impressive array of tools -- it even adds custom eyeliner -- to make its 100 million users look their best. The app is likely too childish for some, but it’s a risk-free investment with lots of effects. Go ahead, let your imagination run free.
Price: Free for iOS and Android
 

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