You can give your photos quick and creative captions with the Phonto app. This is a free app for both the iPhone and iPad. Here’s how to do it:

Tap the camera icon to open the desired photo. You can select from your Camera Roll, or you can shoot a new photo. Or, to create a quick, attractive piece of styled text, choose Plain Image. You can select one of four basic templates or pay to upgrade to the full version of Phonto for access to many more scrapbook-styled templates.
This is my Dominique hen, Kim Kardashchicken. Isn’t she cute? My mom always teases us about being “urban farmers,” so I thought I’d send her a picture of her “grandchicken” complete with caption. Once the image is open, tap anywhere to add text.
Enter your text, then tap “Done” when finished.
Now the creative part of the process starts! You can change the font, size, style, and tilt of your text with just a few clicks. Tap “Font” to open a list of dozens of pre-installed fonts. You can also install your own TrueType fonts via iTunes’ File Sharing. Tap “My Fonts” for detailed instructions on installing fonts with Phonto. I started with a distressed typewriter font, but I picked Futura Condensed Ultra Bold, a standard system font, for my final result.
Next, tap “Style” to change the color of your text. Choose from a palette of default colors, or pick an almost-right color and adjust the red, green, and blue sliders until you reach the perfect hue.
You can also add a colored stroke in widths from Thin to Extra Bold. I like experimenting with the opacity of both text and stroke to integrate the text into the photo.
To increase or decrease the text size, tap “Size.” Move the slider back and forth until the size is just right.
To save your masterpiece, tap the arrow icon at the bottom right. You’ll probably want to save to your Camera Roll, but you can also choose to email or tweet your picture, post it directly to Instagram, or open it in another photo editing app.

Try adding multiple lines of text for a casual journaling effect, or captioning multiple photos you’ve merged with PicFrame or another collage app for a nearly instant scrapbook layout.

Molly Newman

This former associate editor of Digital Scrapbooking magazine now writes about everything from scrapbooking to backpacking. Molly, along with her husband, Jim, teaches digital photography and crafting topics here at reneepearson.com

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Tags: ipad | iphone | mobile | Molly Newman | photography