Many graphics tools offer some sort of mosaic effect, but it’s often very basic, “let’s pixelate the image a bit and hope for the best”.

Pattaizer is more imaginative, and can transform your pictures using a host of mosaic-related and more abstract effects.

Some of these appear to be based on fairly standard mosaic effects, for example replacing blocks of pixels with hexagons or lego bricks. But a “Deform control” adds a random variation to every individual component of the image, ensuring you get far more interesting results.

Some combine the mosaic idea with other effects. “Circular” and “Twisting spiral” divide up the image into more-or-less concentric circles, then pixelate along divisions of that circle rather than a separate rectangular grid.

The “Broken glass” effect is more conventional, although still worth having. It divides the image into multiple blocks and shifts and rotates them a little, for a “who dropped the mosaic?” look.

Give your images a more abstract look

“Spirograph” is another interesting example, taking elements of the source picture and wrapping it around what appears to be a sphere.

A couple of “Goo” options allow deforming your image in various ways, and algorithms like Pantograph enable creating entirely abstract art in a click or two.

Most of this is very easy to use (select an algorithm, click “Update mosaic”). There are plenty of controls and settings to fine-tune the results, though, and your finished images may be exported as JPG, PNG or BMP.

Pattaizer doesn’t always produce great art immediately. You’ll need to explore its many algorithms, maybe refresh each one several times to see the random variations, and play around with their settings to understand just what they can do.

As with other programs by this developer, the licence is also a little vague. It’s freeware for personal use, but after an unspecified period of time an unspecified number of features will disappear? Uh, okay. Thanks.

The package doesn’t seem to have any immediate restrictions, though – no watermarks, no artificial resolution limits – so on balance it’s worth a closer look.

Pattaizer requires Windows 7 and later.