How can I create a double outline around an image?

[dotlyc]

The FX outline tool is very frustrating. Once I have an image prepared, I want to outline the image in a thin black outline, then have a bit of white border (about .2") and then have another thin black outline on the outer edges. I've been able to accomplish getting the outline around the image itself and creating a .2" white border but getting a second black outline around the border has defeated me. This was a very simple process in Photoshop Elements using the stroke command, but I can't replicate the process in Affinty.

 

After creating the outline around the image, I've tried resizing the canvas to create the .2" white border. I've tried to flatten and lock this combo in the hope that Affinity will treat the image and the resized canvas as a single document and allow me to add another black outline to the outer edge but this never works. Affinty insists on treating them as two separate layers and keeps putting the second outline on top of the first one around the image, rather than around the resized canvas.

 

Can anyone tell me how to do this? I've read other threads that suggest creating three separate layers with different colors, but it would be very tedious for me to do this with the number of images that require it. Surely there's a simpler solution. Why won't the FX outine tool work on the resized canvas? Why won't the flatten command create a single layer/document that would allow the FX outline tool to be used as it can be on the image itself?

 

Any help would be very much appreciated.

 

 

[Callum]

Hi Dotlyc,

 

This post I made here should help you make a double outline :) Please let me know if you have any issues!

 

Thanks

C

[reminous]

Hi Dotlyc,

 

You could apply a regular stroke to any object or font, then apply and outline effect... If you need more than two outlines, I guess Callum method would suit you better until multiple effect is not here yet...

 

Reminous

[dotlyc]

Callum:

 

Thanks for this tip. It did the trick but I had to adapt it to solve my problem. I still had to resize the canvas to create an "outside" for the stroke to work on. And I had to do two duplicates to get the back-white-black double border. So it's slightly more complicated than doing it in PSE but it works. It would work even better if I could create an action to automate the process but I don't think AP has actions yet.

 

The border this process created has rounded corners. I can live with this but is there any way to make them square corners?