Creating a white border around the image?

[AffinityNewbie7]

Hi,

I was wondering how can I create a white border around my image (say, 20-pixel width). I tried the ''New Fill Layer'' option but could not make to work.

Example -

[Polygonius]

Select that layer you want to border and click "FX" in the bottom of layer panel.

Than select stroke or frame or however its translated and play with size and color....

 

[AffinityNewbie7]

Its called ''Outline'' in English version. Thank you, it worked.

However, it is trimming the edge of the image. Is there a way to have the border on the outside of the image (without adding a new layer)?

[MEB]

Hi AffinityNewbie7,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
Set the Outline FX Alignment dropdown to Outside.

[RobNJ]

Takes longer to describe, than to do, but.....

Under "Document", choose "Resize Canvas", and increase it, by the width of your choice

Add a pixel layer, drag it below the "background layer"

Use "Flood Fill Tool" ON THE PIXEL LAYER!! ( I need to keep reminding myself  ), in the color of your choice...I used black, in this.

 

[RobNJ]

13 minutes ago, MEB said:

Hi AffinityNewbie7,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
Set the Outline FX Alignment dropdown to Outside.

Sounds easier than my method, I'll give it a try! 

[MEB]

Hi RobNJ,
I assumed AffinityNewbie7 was trying to add a white outine around images in the middle of a document as in his screenshot. If the image you are trying to add an outline has the same size as the canvas, setting the Outline FX to Outside is not enough since the outline will not be visible. In that case you have to enlarge the canvas as you were suggesting.

[EDITED] The outline FX create rounded corners as carl123 pointed below. It's really not useful for this.

[carl123]

Using Outline FX set to Outside Alignment for picture frames/borders is pretty useless unless you want rounded borders

There are various other methods that work but are not as easy as using an FX (if it worked correctly)

[RobNJ]

10 minutes ago, MEB said:

Hi RobNJ,
I assumed AffinityNewbie7 was trying to add a white outine around images in the middle of a document as in his screenshot. If the image you are trying to add an outline has the same size as the canvas, setting the Outline FX to Outside is not enough since the outline will not be visible. In that case you have to enlarge the canvas as you were suggesting.

You're right.... Off to make coffee!!!

[R C-R]

The problem with the outline fx is it rounds the corners of the borders:

To get square corners that look like this:

one way is this:

1. Use the Freehand Selection Tool (in polygon mode if the image is at an angle) to select the photo image & use copy & paste to add it as a new pixel layer. 
2. Duplicate that layer, move it below the new photo layer, & use the Move Tool to increase its size to the desired border width
3. CMD click on its thumbnail to select it, & use the Paint Brush Tool set to white to make it completely white
4. If desired, group the two new layers to make it easy to move or resize them as a unit.

This is another thing that sounds more complicated than it really is.

17697.afphoto

Edit: just saw @carl123's reply

Edited January 11, 2019 by R C-R

[MEB]

Why not simply use the Pen Tool with snapping enabled do draw the stroke (no fill) around the image and adjust it as needed (width, colour, alignment etc)?

[R C-R]

10 minutes ago, MEB said:

Why not simply use the Pen Tool with snapping enabled do draw the stroke (no fill) around the image and adjust it as needed (width, colour, alignment etc)?

I assumed the starting point was a flat, single pixel layer document like in the first post, with the photo & the background pattern all part of one raster image. In that case there would be nothing in the photo for the Pen Tool to snap to.

[MEB]

The snapping isn't really necessary (it just helps to get the corner points quicker). The Pen Tool is precise enough to draw the stroke on a flat image and get the outline right.

[toltec]

6 hours ago, AffinityNewbie7 said:

I was wondering how can I create a white border around my image (say, 20-pixel width).

If it is an image layer, you can do that very easily with Stoke: 

Select the image and set the Stroke to 20 point (or whatever).

To get right-angle corners, set the Join to Mitre (as shown).

To get the stroke to be outside the image, set Align to Outside (as shown).

 

Another option to the above suggestions for a Pixel layer is to select the image by pressing Ctrl + left click on the image thumbnail.

Go Select > Outline and set the number of pixels to 20 and set the Outline Alignment to be Outside.

Then go Edit > Fill, which will fill the outline (only) with any colour you like.

[R C-R]

7 minutes ago, MEB said:

The snapping isn't really necessary (it just helps to get the corner points quicker). The Pen Tool is precise enough to draw the stroke on a flat image and get the outline right.

True, but the Freehand Selection Tool in polygon mode is just as precise, & since I wanted to duplicate the photo so I could work with it independently of the rest of the image, with or without an additional border layer, I used that. It is, as I said, just one way of avoiding the rounded corners of using an outline fx.

[HVDB Photography]

Following a hint of a few dedicated forum members, I add borders (inside / outside) via the Select > Outline function.
The video shows how it's done.

I did some macro recording following the procedure as shown in the video.
See attachment.
For the outside border it was necessary to extend the canvas with 200%, for the macro to function correctly with different image resolutions (especially high res) and for both landscape and portrait.
These macros also offer the user the choice to change the width and color.
Please note that the macros have been recorded and tested using a flattened document.
I tested them thoroughly (I'm on Windows 10).
Maybe try it out ...

Inside & Outside Borders.afmacros

[toltec]

3 hours ago, HVDB Photography said:

Following a hint of a few dedicated forum members, I add borders (inside / outside) via the Select > Outline function.
The video shows how it's done.

You might also want to experiment with one of your macros using Matte.

If you add something like 40 pixels to the canvas all round the image, you can just go Edit > Matte to fill the background. No need to use Outline or anything.

[HVDB Photography]

8 hours ago, toltec said:

You might also want to experiment with one of your macros using Matte.

Cool thanks

[R C-R]

12 hours ago, toltec said:

You might also want to experiment with one of your macros using Matte.

FWIW, I tried creating a simple macro that just added 40 px to the width & height of a document & then applied a matte to it. I had no problems creating both steps in the macro, & the matte step even let me opt to choose the matte color, but (apparently) the add 40 px step is recorded as adding 40 px to the current document's size, so it doesn't work properly on any document that isn't that same size. 

[HVDB Photography]

14 hours ago, toltec said:

You might also want to experiment with one of your macros using Matte.

Matte works fine for the outside border as shown in the video.

For an inside border, it doesn't work directly on the image layer,  you'll need to add a new pixel layer on top, apply the matte and merge the layers or flatten the document.

[jmwellborn]

22 hours ago, toltec said:

You might also want to experiment with one of your macros using Matte.

If you add something like 40 pixels to the canvas all round the image, you can just go Edit > Matte to fill the background. No need to use Outline or anything.

I quoted you here rather than duplicating your elegant "how to" above.   Same issue, however.  I am most definitely in the Needing Borders Department, so was glad to find this information.   First, I am on MAC Sierra, so the steps may be slightly different, but I have found a few additional steps that I needed to make in order to use the Pixel layer, Select>Outline procedure.

I highlighted the background layer containing the image, made a new pixel layer, and then clicking on the Image itself (not the thumbnail in the layers panel, which didn't work) went to Select>Outline.   Nothing.   I had to first go to Select>Select All and then Select>Outline in order to get the blinking lines.  The Outline Selection popup worked, except that Alignment Outside would not create an outside border of blinking lines.  (Screenshot missed those on left and top, but they are there.)  Instead, it stopped at the edge of the image.   Edit>Fill turned the whole image to a blank canvass.  I was able to use Alignment Inside, or Centered.    Edit>Fill worked perfectly.  But I also found that I then had to go to Select>Deselect in order to stop the blinking lights.  I have no clue how to use "Outside."   (First image below is "Inside") losing part of the image.   Help?

[toltec]

1 hour ago, jmwellborn said:

I quoted you here rather than duplicating your elegant "how to" above.   Same issue, however.  I am most definitely in the Needing Borders Department, so was glad to find this information.   First, I am on MAC Sierra, so the steps may be slightly different, but I have found a few additional steps that I needed to make in order to use the Pixel layer, Select>Outline procedure.

I highlighted the background layer containing the image, made a new pixel layer, and then clicking on the Image itself (not the thumbnail in the layers panel, which didn't work) went to Select>Outline.   Nothing.   I had to first go to Select>Select All and then Select>Outline in order to get the blinking lines.  The Outline Selection popup worked, except that Alignment Outside would not create an outside border of blinking lines.  (Screenshot missed those on left and top, but they are there.)  Instead, it stopped at the edge of the image.   Edit>Fill turned the whole image to a blank canvass.  I was able to use Alignment Inside, or Centered.    Edit>Fill worked perfectly.  But I also found that I then had to go to Select>Deselect in order to stop the blinking lights.  I have no clue how to use "Outside."   (First image below is "Inside") losing part of the image.   Help?

I'm not 100% sure what is going wrong for you.

First of all, you must Ctrl + click on the layer thumbnail, which I guess is Cmd + click on a Mac. 

Alignment Outside (or Alignment Centre) will only work if the layer is smaller than the canvas. Remember that the OP wanted to place a border around 'floating' images. It won't work if there is no space to fit it.

So, using the 'floating' layer for the deer (floating on a transparent canvas) press Cmd + click on the layer thumbnail to get a selection (as shown).

You can then use the Outline Selection (Outside) to make a  selection border all round  the deer image (say 50 pixels)

Click apply, then you can fill the outline with colour. Edit > Fill.

You will have to press Cmd + D to deselect afterwards.

As I said, Outline will only work for images where there is space on the canvas to apply the border.

Hope that explains it better ?

[firstdefence]

@jmwellborn You are missing the resize canvas step, you cannot add a border outside of the document bounds, what HVDB shows in his video is resizing the canvas with enough space to create a border, as long as the canvas is resized more than the border you want to add it can be clipped back as a final step.

So...

1. Make sure your background layer is a pixel layer not an image layer.
2. If it is an image layer, right-click and select rasterise.
3. Now you need to resize the canvas so select Document > Resize Canvas and if you want to make a 20px border just add 100px to give you enough space to play in, this will give you lots of transparent canvas but thats fine.
4. Now you can select the background layer and select all and then do outline: outside and the "marching ants" that indicate a selection will show outside of the image.

[toltec]

34 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

@jmwellborn You are missing the resize canvas step, you cannot add a border outside of the document bounds, what HVDB shows in his video is resizing the canvas with enough space to create a border, as long as the canvas is resized more than the border you want to add it can be clipped back as a final step.

So...

1. Make sure your background layer is a pixel layer not an image layer.
2. If it is an image layer, right-click and select rasterise.

Why can't they be Image layers 

 

[jmwellborn]

Thank you both toltec and firstdefence!    You are so kind to sort me out.    Stupid me.    I placed the image directly on the workspace, rather than creating a document and placing it there.   So no wonder Clicking  on the background layer didn’t do anything useful.    Tomorrow I am going to regroup with your very thorough instructions.     I am rewriting a book with many illustrations ranging from printed copies of ancient drawings from the 1300’s,  paintings from the 1400’s to 1700’s, and 20th Century photographs.    I want to create a uniform border size and color to tie all these disparate images into a cohesive pattern, so this very elegant solution is a Godsend.    Then all I will need to do is crop and export to jpeg.    Thank you again so much!!!