Creating Nice Looking Borders Around Photographs - The eay way

I have been looking around the web to see how to make nice looking black borders

for my photos. Many of the people suggested using Photoshop to create layers and

then increase the canvas size and fill it with the color of our choice. They

also recommended storing this "action" so that this can repeated for other

pictures with ease. However, I still looked around to see if there is an easy

way out.

 

This is what I found out and works out really nicely and I thought I would share

this with you all. I hope this is not repeated any where in this forum.

 

1. Download a free picture viewer called Irfanview. My version is 3.98

 

2. Run it and select File->Batch Conversion (or press the shortcut key B)

 

3. On the right side bottom of the dialog choose your "Output Format" option (I

have set mine to JPEG)

 

4. Check the "Use Advanced Options" check box and click the "Set Advanced

Options" button to open up the second dialog (here various options are listed

and feel free to play around with each setting)

 

5. The setting that is of interest to us now is listed under "MISCELLANEOUS" and

check the "Canvas Size" check box

 

6. Click "Settings" button next to "Canvas Size" option to set your desired

border pixel size along with the color (I have set all to 25 and have the black

color) and click on "OK"

 

7. You can also copyright message cheking "Add Overlay Text" checkbox and

configuring the settings by clicking the "Settings" button next to it

 

8. Save your settings.

 

9. Now open the folder containing all your photos and press B to start the batch

conversion

 

10. Select the photos you want the borders on and "Add All" and hit the start

button and you are done.

 

This procedure is easier done than said. This takes around 30 seconds for

configuration (of course, you can fine tune it your taste).

 

I have been using Irfanview for at least couple of years without even knowing

this feature! silly me!

 

Hope this is useful at least to some of you folks. Good Luck :-)<div></div>

I don't see where this is easier than running a Photoshop action.

 

Carsten

This is meant for people who cannot afford the expensive Photoshop and yet looking for a cheaper alternative to automate the whole process. You set it up one time and do a batch conversion of all your images. I had a folder containing nearly 100 images each around 4-5MB average and it completed in around 5 minutes time.

Prabu,

 

the whole idea of Photoshop actions is to set them up once and then do batch conversions...

 

Carsten

Yes I agree. This is for those who don't have the Photoshop :-)

Hi,

 

Many thanks for this - I am in the position you describe of not being able to justify the expense of photoshop. I likewise have used Irfanview for many years without noticing those options, despite using batch processing for conversion, resizing and renaming.

 

Very helpful.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

when i do an inline image on a web page, i just add BORDER=n (where n=5 or larger) to the IMG tag and it comes out great. am i missing something?

Photo impact image/adjust/expand canvas/save record and batch it's the best program around and it's about $100.

Welcome Mark. I am sure you will love this feature.

 

Paul: In the web, yes you can do this and achieve this effect. But the borders are rendered by the browser's engine and it does not affect the photo in any way.

 

However, if you want your photos to have these borders permanently, then you need this. This will be helpful to post your images in the Photosharing websites, where you have no control on the HTML code :-) Hope this helps!!

Irfanview is free :-)

I run a free plugin called Ditto

 

http://members.shaw.ca/hillrg/ditto/

 

Thanks to Rory Hill for this great tool..

Prabu, I use PS2, but thanks for passing this on, Roger<br><br>

Louis, And a thank you, too, Roger

Heck, it may not be completely free, but you can even do fancier frames with Photoshop Elements 2! Wait a minute...it IS freely bundled with some scanners and perhaps even cameras.

 

But if you don't have it, and want to do fancier frames, you can find Elements 2 online for less than $20.

 

Dave

I just use CSS [cascading style sheets] for web use; on other people's sites you should be able to embed styles inline..a great advantage if you crop or modify the image; and easy to repurpose for all images.