How do I add a 0.5 inch border ready for print?

[kerri]

I have watched a youtube tutorial and understand how to do this but when I enter the resize canvas settings the border doesn't look that big despite entering the correct pixels. 

Canvas size is currently 6000 x 6000 pixels 

I would like to add a 0.5 inch border

Black background was just to check the size

[carl123]

What DPI is your document set to?

At 300DPI your final canvas size should be 6300 x 6300px, yours appears to be 6100 x 6100px

[GarryP]

Welcome to the forums @kerri

Your question would have been better asked in the appropriate “Questions” section of the forums rather than the “Tutorials” section as the “Tutorials” section is for people posting tutorials for other people to follow. A moderator will probably move this thread for you.

[kerri]

On 1/12/2022 at 6:12 AM, carl123 said:

What DPI is your document set to?

At 300DPI your final canvas size should be 6300 x 6300px, yours appears to be 6100 x 6100px

it is always set to 300dpi. I'm not sure what's going wrong

[carl123]

On 1/11/2022 at 10:43 PM, kerri said:

I have watched a youtube tutorial and understand how to do this but when I enter the resize canvas settings the border doesn't look that big despite entering the correct pixels. 

Canvas size is currently 6000 x 6000 pixels 

When you enter the resize canvas settings what new sizes are you entering for the original 6000 x 6000 pixel image 

[kerri]

42 minutes ago, carl123 said:

When you enter the resize canvas settings what new sizes are you entering for the original 6000 x 6000 pixel image 

I tried to add 1inch to see if it would work so from the youtube tutorial you add 96 pixels so 6096 x 6096

 

 

 

[carl123]

Just now, kerri said:

so from the youtube tutorial you add 96 pixels so 6096 x 6096

Can you upload the link to that YouTube video

[kerri]

6 minutes ago, carl123 said:

Can you upload the link to that YouTube video

 

[carl123]

OK, I think he is working on a 96DPI image

Yours is 300DPI

So, you don't add 96px, you add 300px to width and height

Try that

 

 

[kerri]

thanks for getting back to me, but what determines the size of the border? say if I want 0.5 or 1 inch how do I add this? What's the easiest way to do this

[John Rostron]

You could try entering w+1inches in the width box and h+1inches in the height box. Note the 1inches for two borders.

John

[Old Bruce]

Try "+ 0.5in" after the 6000

[carl123]

6 minutes ago, kerri said:

thanks for getting back to me, but what determines the size of the border? say if I want 0.5 or 1 inch how do I add this? What's the easiest way to do this

The above suggestions are the way to go

But you could also temporarily change the document's units to inches and just do the maths in inches to calculate the new canvas size

 

Remember if you want a 0.5" border on top and bottom you have to add an inch to the canvas size

Likewise, if you want a 1" border on top and bottom you have to add 2 inches to the canvas size

(Same for the width resizing)

[Alfred]

47 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Try "+ 0.5in" after the 6000

As @John Rostron has pointed out, it needs to be 1 in for two borders. To change the width of 6000 px to the appropriate amount, you can specify the new value as:

w + 1 in

or

6000 + 1 in

or

+= 1 in

Affinity Photo Help: Expressions for field input

[kerri]

29 minutes ago, carl123 said:

The above suggestions are the way to go

But you could also temporarily change the document's units to inches and just do the maths in inches to calculate the new canvas size

 

Remember if you want a 0.5" border on top and bottom you have to add an inch to the canvas size

Likewise, if you want a 1" border on top and bottom you have to add 2 inches to the canvas size

(Same for the width resizing)

This makes sense, when i have applied this method visually the border always looks bigger or smaller than I expected. I just experimented and added 1inch to the dimensions to achieve the 0.5 inch border all around, however I'm looking at this now thinking that looks a lot bigger than 0.5 inch? Please see screenshots attached, so I added 1 inch to make 12 x 16 inch canvas

thanks again

[carl123]

4 minutes ago, kerri said:

Please see screenshots attached, so I added 1 inch to make 12 x 16 inch canvas

If the original image was 11" x 14" to get a 0.5" border you should resize canvas to 12" x 15" NOT 12" x 16"

 

Also, to see the true size of your document/canvas use View > Zoom > Actual Size where using a physical ruler or tape measure on the screen will show you the size of the border