Digital Projected Images - 3 pixel white border

[thebail]

For photo competition purposes, i need to put a 3 pixel white border around my images which I have been doing in Photoshop. How is this best achieved in Affinity?

 

I have already managed to achieve this in Affinity for some landscape images which can be sized to 3 pixels smaller than the desired target of 1400 wide by 1050 high, e.g. 1397 by 1047. Then the canvas can be resized to the desired 1400 by 1050 and a white filled pixel layer put behind which then nicely provides the thin white border.

 

I can't so far make this technique work for portrait format images. These also have to be 1400 by 1050 for projection and the non-image parts of the canvas have to be black to focus attention on the image. (I tried putting the white border round  one portrait image and then transferring the layers of this image into the layers panel of a new correct size canvas but this didn't work, maybe I did it wrong?)

 

Similar problems will occur with "letter box" format landscape images which although 1400 wide are less than 1050 high.

 

Essentially what I'm asking is how to do Borders in Affinity Photo? Any help would be very welcome.

 

Bail

 

 

[coranda]

Here's one way to do it but it's harder than it should be.  Perhaps someone can come up with a better way.  It would be easier if the Resize Canvas process allowed selection of the colour of the extended canvas area.

 

1. Get your image to the size you want it.

2. Resize the canvas adding 3 pixels on each side.

3. Create a new fill layer, drag it to the bottom of layer stack and set its colour to white.

4. Right click on the fill layer and select Rasterise.

5. Resize canvas to the final desired size (1400 x 1050).

6. Create a new fill layer, drag it to the bottom of the layer stack and set its colour to black.

 

Note that step 4 is important, otherwise the white fill layer will expand to the final size and hide the black layer.

 

This works if you have created a file with a transparent background.  I haven't tested if it works with a white background.

[coranda]

Yes, it does also work if the background is white rather than transparent.

[Bail]

Coranda,

 

Success! Brilliant advice. I can now enter competitions starting in just over a month without using Photoshop.

Your instructions are now printed out and ready for use on my desk.

Thanks again,

 

Bail