App Review – Word Swag
I recently had the opportunity to try out Word Swag, the latest app from Oringe. And I have to say, I was quite impressed with the app.
Word Swag claims to “Automagically turn your words into beautiful photo text designs”, and “Create amazing text layouts that would normally take minutes – or even hours – in seconds!” They dedicate this to their Typomatic™ type engine.
Well I’m not sure what fuels the Typomatic type engine, but I’m definitely a fan of it. From only testing the app for a few days, I haven’t been able to find much about it that I don’t like. I’ve tested out my fair share of apps for adding text to images, but Word Swag is by and large one of my favorites.
Here’s how it works:
First, the user is greeted with a neat set of instructions on several ways to use the app, which I thought was a nice touch.
Next, the user can shoot an image through the in-app camera, use one of the stock images provided within the app (there are 90 images or 29 solid colors to choose from), or the user can also select an image from their camera roll.
Once an image is selected, they are taken to a screen where they are shown how to edit and manipulate text, through a short animation. One of the things about Word Swag that I found that set it apart from other apps like it is that it comes with hundreds of captions already separated into several eclectic genres, or the user can also enter custom text if they wish.
Next is the fun part; once the user has finished selecting or typing their text, they can then select the type style they would like to use. There are 25 different styles, with in essence, an endless variety of options to choose from (if the user presses the random, or “dice” icon, the particular style they have selected will rearrange and show a completely different arrangement of the words in the same type style). It’s also important to note that of the 25 type styles, 4 of them are only available for use as individual in-app purchases.
Another interesting feature of Word Swag is that the app supports using the pinch and zoom gesture to resize the text on the image. I found this particularly useful, as most text on images apps do not have a feature like this.
In addition to the various type style options, there are also a wide variety of color options as well. Users can select to have their text remain a solid color, or a combination of colors from a gradient. There are also several great color combination gradients that can be used.
Once the user is finished, they can save the image, which automatically saves their finished work to the camera roll, and ten they can share the image through the popular social media networks.
Overall, I was very pleased with Word Swag, and I only thought it had room for improvement in a couple of areas: the first being that I thought the app could possibly benefit from maybe an option to add a tinted overlay to the image, maybe in a similar vein to the way Over does. The graphic designer in me is hesitant to suggest the possibility of adding the ability to have a drop shadow or any sort of glow, because of the extreme potential for abuse (i.e. massive amount of tackiness) that can result if put into the wrong hands. So I’m thinking tinted alpha overlay is the way to go. But I only say that because while I was testing the app and working with images with a lot of detail or contrasty images, I found it hard to differentiate between the text and the image. I think a tinted overlay on the image would help alleviate that. The only other thing that I thought might add to the app would be the ability to use images in proportions other than just 1:1.
Other than that, I think the app is pretty stellar, especially for a first release, and I’m excited to see how this app develops in the future!
Here’s some test images I’ve created using the app:
* The Modern iPhoneographer was provided with a copy of Word Swag for review





































































