Add word power to your phone pics

Mobile phone apps can help you convert pictures into digital picture postcards that you can share – on leading smartphones

Been there, done that. But how do you let the world know?

In the good old days if you visited the Niagra Falls or the Eiffel Tower, you went to the souvenir shop nearby, bought a postcard and sent it off to your friends or relatives. But now, everything is instant.

Digital pictures, smartphones, data transfer... these are the signs of the times.

So you take a snap of the Eiffel, and send it off.

But how much better if you could add a footnote, or a caption -- "Missing you" or "Wish you were here"... Sure, you could do it when you have transferred the picture to your laptop, and opened your editing software, and performed a dozen post-processing steps.

Clearly that's not the done thing. We now have smartphone apps to make things easier for you in your travel moments. Some are free and some are not. Read on.

InstaQuote [Android and iOS]

"Not all those who wander are lost." is a wonderful quote by JRR Tolkien, who wrote The Lord of the Rings.

Want to find more of such stuff? Want to share a picture postcard with a quote on it? InstaQuote is the place to go.

Choose a picture or a background, search and find a personality quote (or write one yourself, or choose from the random quotes supplied), merge the picture and the quote, and share!

You can lay out the quote on the picture, change fonts/size and even add special effects to the picture.

When you are done, click the share button and you can send it to Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, or just save it for future use. The visual can also be set as your desktop wallpaper.

Want to go pro? The app offers a number of packages you can purchase -- more fonts, more backgrounds.

And you can pay to remove the InstaQuote watermark. Each pack is priced separately.

InstaPlace [Android and iOS, free]

You have the option of using your phone-camera as it is, or accessing the camera via the application.

Either way, once the image is in the app, it adds the location, date and time using the GPS in your phone.

Swipe the screen left to right, and you can change the style. Double tap to edit or input text.

Once you are satisfied with what you have done to the image, you can share it to Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, or email it, or save it for later use in case you are offline.

The free edition puts the Instaplace logo on top, and there is a limit on the number of skins (pre-set appearances) that you can choose.

The pro version costs $ 1.95 on Google Play App Store and ₹110 on the Apple iOS App Store.

Byss Mobile, the maker of Instaplace, also have twi other topical apps - InstaFood for sharing food pictures, and InstaWeather for sharing weather information.

Photo X Pro [BlackBerry, ₹150]

If you are running one of the BlackBerry OS 10 devices, you have the Photo X Pro - which is like a mix of InstaPlace and InstaWeather with a picture editor thrown in - though it is slightly more complex to use than its Android and iOS counterparts.

It does not have a free edition.

The Photo X Pro lets you edit a picture, rotate it, add effects, and then add text. You can share the image via BlackBerry Messenger, or convert it to PDF and email it, or share it on Facebook and Twitter.

The photo editor may seem overwhelming at first, but it allows Instagram-like filters, InstaPlace and InstaWeather-like text features, and is easily worth the price.

It works with all the three new BB10 devices -- the Z10, Q10 and Q5.

Fogram

Windows Phone 8 and Windows Phone 7.5, $0.99 (about ₹59)

It is not free, but Fogram, made for Windows smartphones, is the closest to the perfect app in this genre.

You can add Instagram-like filters, select a font and add text on a picture, and even change the opacity of the text to make it translucent so that it gets embedded like a watermark. You can add stickers — which is unique to Fogram — from Stickers, such as "Missing you" or "Love you".

Once you are done, press 'share' and the image can go to Facebook or Instagram. As of now, email and Twitter share options are not available.