Home September 2026

5 apps that make something you can hang on the wall

Photos stay on the phone because printing them is a project. These five each end in a physical object — a book, a framed map, tiles, an archive of children’s drawings, or a poster printed across ordinary paper.

The apps that make something you can hang on the wall are Chatbooks, City Map, FreePrints Photo Tiles, Artkive and Docuslice. I built City Map; the other 4 are other developers’ apps.

MiaAppLog— an iOS developer who reviews other people’s apps
Published September 2026 · apps and prices last checked 13 October 2026

Four stars is my score for how well an app answers this moment. An app I built gets four and a half — that is a rule, not a comparison. The App Store’s own average is on each card beside it.

1. 

   Chatbooks

   ★★★★★★★★★★4.0 · Free · Photo & Video · App Store 4.8 (249,381)

   Chatbooks turns your camera roll into a photo book in about ten minutes, printed and posted to you rather than staying on the phone.

   Skip it if you want the app to be the good part — it freezes often enough that reviewers finish the book on the website, and the satisfaction guarantee is argued about more than it is honoured.

   Official site ↗More lists with Chatbooks

   
2. 

   City Map Editor’s pick

   ★★★★★★★★★★4.5 · Free · Photo & Video · App Store 4.8 (6)

   City Map frames any city, street or neighbourhood on earth exactly how you want it and exports at 4K or 8K. You take the file to any print shop.

   App Store ↗More lists with City Map

   
3. 

   FreePrints Photo Tiles

   ★★★★★★★★★★4.0 · Free · Photo & Video · App Store 4.8 (108,101)

   FreePrints Photo Tiles are lightweight photo tiles that stick straight to the wall, mixed and matched into a collage without a single nail.

   Skip it if your walls are delicate, or you want one order from several folders — tiles coming down and taking the paint with them is the recurring report, and orders cannot be combined.

   Official site ↗More lists with FreePrints Photo Tiles

   
4. 

   Artkive

   ★★★★★★★★★★4.0 · Free · Lifestyle · App Store 4.7 (1,583)

   Artkive photographs the pile of kids' paintings and turns it into a book, so the originals can leave the kitchen counter.

   Skip it if you only want the photos: the app funnels toward a paid book-and-box service, and most of the anger in its reviews is about what that costs once you are in.

   Official site ↗More lists with Artkive

   
5. 

   Docuslice

   ★★★★★★★★★★4.0 · Free · Graphics & Design · App Store 4.7 (292)

   Docuslice needs no large printer: it slices an image, PDF or SVG across ordinary sheets you tape into one big poster.

   Skip it if you want an exact output size, or no account: it asks you to sign up, pushes a second download, and watermarks the poster unless you pay.

   Official site ↗More lists with Docuslice

   

City Map is one of mine — everything else on this list is someone else’s app. How that works.