The Stretch option causes the image to fit the window. By default, Maintain Aspect Ratio is on. This means that the picture will not be distorted but resized to the height or width you select. For it to take effect (visually), you do have to resize the window. If you turn off Maintain Aspect Ratio, the image will be distorted to fit whatever window size you choose. The Stretch tool button (arrows pointing in) will appear depressed to show that Stretch is active. The status bar will also say "Stretched to" the window dimensions.

To create collages, you may want to first create a new window, set the color to your preference, and maximize it. The simplest way to capture the collage is to click the camera button on the toolbar; this will take a screenshot of your primary monitor. Create a new window and paste it in with the menu, toolbar, pressing Ctrl-V. If you prefer, you can hide the tool window by clicking the toolbar icon or pressing F12, then use the Print Screen key on your keyboard; this will take a screenshot of the entire desktop. If you hide the tool window, you must press F12 or close the last image window to get it back.



If stretch is off, clicking Fit Image (the tool button has arrows pointing out) resizes the window to show the whole image.

Right clicking a window will give you a menu of options for the window/image. The Color option allows you to select the background color (behind the image).

You can control whether the tool window stays on top of everything or not on the Window menu or the toolbar (the tool button will appear depressed). You can also hide the tool window when you are ready to copy the screen.

While JPEG Collager is not intended for general image manipulation, an image can be sized (with Stretch on), a screenshot of that image can be taken (with the toolbar or Ctrl-C) and then pasted onto a new window. Windows can also make a screenshot of any program's window by pressing Alt-Print Screen, which you can then paste onto a new JPEG Collager window.

If you prefer to use keyboard shortcuts, they are shown on the menus and in the hints for the toolbar buttons. Images can be closed by pressing Esc or Ctrl-F4. Pressing the Alt key or F10 will bring up the main menu of the tool window.