Creating a double colour border using Affinity Photo

[zeira]

To create a single border using Affinity Photo is easy, but I want to create two borders.

What I want to do is to create an "internal" white all around border of about 1 to 2mm, then an "external" black all around border of about 3 to 4mm.

In Photoshop that's very easy, but I couldn't figure out how to do it in Affinity Photo.

Any suggestions?

 

[PixelPest]

I guess it´s possible as long you don´t wish for sharp corners with the Outline layer fx:

[zeira]

15 minutes ago, PixelPest said:

I guess it´s possible as long you don´t wish for sharp corners with the border layer fx:

I tried fx with the settings as indicated but I didn’t see any change in the photo, no border, no nothing regardless of what colour I chose.

By the way instead of “Rectangle” in the brackets I had “Pixel” in the brackets.

[Ron P.]

How about using the Rectangle Selection for the outside border?

• Create your Rectangle using the white stroke/border.
• Grab the Rectangle Selection tool, make a selection around the Rectangle, about 4mm outside the white stroke/border
• Go to the Select menu, go down to Outline, then set it to Inside, and adjust with the slider the number of pixels.
• Next to to Edit>Fill, fill with black or color of your liking.

[PixelPest]

Disable Show lines in points in Preferences/User Interface.

[CPC]

2 hours ago, PixelPest said:

I guess it´s possible as long you don´t wish for sharp corners with the border layer fx:

Sharp corners are available from the rectangle's stroke menu.

[zeira]

1 hour ago, CPC said:

Sharp corners are available from the rectangle's stroke menu.

Many thanks to all responders who tried to help me, but finally I found a way to do that.

There are several videos on youtube about how to create a single border.

After creating one, create another one with a different colour fill using the same procedure.

It is not as simple as in Photoshop, but it works.

In Photoshop I can create an action to do that, but it’s not that simple to create a macro in Affinity Photo to automate this procedure for a reason which is difficult to explain in a few written words. 

Based on my previous Photoshop experience of writing actions it was easy for me to create two macros in Affinity Photo for High Pass sharpening of photos.

Anyone interested how to do that please notify me, I am ready to help.

In many instances that sharpening procedure gives better results than unsharp mask (which I don’t quite like).

[PixelPest]

5 hours ago, CPC said:

Sharp corners are available from the rectangle's stroke menu.

I know that but it´s neither necessary to change the miter limit when "Align Stroke to Inside" is enabled - nor does it help with layer fx "Outline" from my experience. 

[Ron P.]

@zeira,

Why create another rectangle, when you can just use the Rectangle Selection Tool to create your second border?

 

[Dazzler]

I think there's maybe another way to do this. No rectangles and no manually drawing anything, so a fairly accurate way to create set sized frames around a picture.

1. Open your image and using the crop tool expand it to allow plenty of space for the borders/framing around your image. (pull the top left corner outwards followed by the bottom right corner outwards). Unlock the layer if it is locked.

2. Choose Select > Selection From Layer. This should put a selection around the outer edges of your image.
3. Choose Select > Outline. You will now get a dialogue showing a radius control and an alignment option. Choose 'Outside' in the alignment option and then use the radius control to choose the width of the inner frame that you want to create.
4. Choose Edit > Fill to fill the frame with a colour of your choice.

5 Repeat steps 2 to 4 for the outer frame (note that step 2 now selects around the edge of the inner frame that you've just created.

You could continue this to add further frames easily. Hope this helps.

[zeira]

1 hour ago, Dazzler said:

I think there's maybe another way to do this. No rectangles and no manually drawing anything, so a fairly accurate way to create set sized frames around a picture.

1. Open your image and using the crop tool expand it to allow plenty of space for the borders/framing around your image. (pull the top left corner outwards followed by the bottom right corner outwards). Unlock the layer if it is locked.

2. Choose Select > Selection From Layer. This should put a selection around the outer edges of your image.
3. Choose Select > Outline. You will now get a dialogue showing a radius control and an alignment option. Choose 'Outside' in the alignment option and then use the radius control to choose the width of the inner frame that you want to create.
4. Choose Edit > Fill to fill the frame with a colour of your choice.

5 Repeat steps 2 to 4 for the outer frame (note that step 2 now selects around the edge of the inner frame that you've just created.

You could continue this to add further frames easily. Hope this helps.

Unfortunately it didn’t work for me.

I have Version 1.7.3 of Affinity Photo and even in the Help section searching for “rectangle” what description I get is somewhat different from what I have. 

#2 Selection From Layer does not put a selection around the outer edges of the image.  Basically it does nothing visible to the image.

I need two borders, one internal white border about 1.5mm width all around, then a 4mm black border all around.

I’ve already found a way to do it without using the very confusing rectangle tool, and as I said it’s more complicated than doing it in Photoshop, and it’s not possible to create a macro for doing it automatically, but it works and I can live with it.

Here it is:

1.  Resize the canvas to create an empty border of 1.5mm all around the image.  I couldn’t figure out how to add that one to a macro.

2. Add a pixel layer and fill it with white.  The whole image will be white, but there is nothing to worry about.

3. Move this layer to the bottom of the layers stack.

4. Repeat the procedure to create a 4mm black outer border.

 

[carl123]

2 hours ago, zeira said:

 and it’s not possible to create a macro for doing it automatically,

I think it may be possible to create a macro to do this and which will work on any size images

Are the images for screen or print?

Or more importantly what is the DPI of the images you work on?

as the macro would need to take this into consideration

[Dazzler]

2 hours ago, zeira said:

#2 Selection From Layer does not put a selection around the outer edges of the image.  Basically it does nothing visible to the image.

I need two borders, one internal white border about 1.5mm width all around, then a 4mm black border all around.

I’ve already found a way to do it without using the very confusing rectangle tool, and as I said it’s more complicated than doing it in Photoshop, and it’s not possible to create a macro for doing it automatically, but it works and I can live with it.

Here it is:

1.  Resize the canvas to create an empty border of 1.5mm all around the image.  I couldn’t figure out how to add that one to a macro.

2. Add a pixel layer and fill it with white.  The whole image will be white, but there is nothing to worry about.

3. Move this layer to the bottom of the layers stack.

4. Repeat the procedure to create a 4mm black outer border.

 

That's similar to my method, apart from my method is probably a bit quicker as it doesn't involve carefully working out the pixel sizes of the resize document - you just basically make sure it's big enough to allow the extra surround that you want (which you can do easily and visually with the crop tool as I mentioned). Any excess that is left after can easily be removed using the Document > Clip Canvas once you've done everything else. 

I'm not sure why step 2 didn't work for you? I have the same version and it works for me. You will need to have the image layer selected for it to work with that. Alternatively, you can CTRL(CMD)+click on the thumbnail of the layer to make the same selection. Also, the Select > Outline only seems to give a radius measured in pixels, so the 1.5mm might be troublesome to work out. But it's there as an alternative if you can get it to work. 

[zeira]

1 hour ago, carl123 said:

I think it may be possible to create a macro to do this and which will work on any size images

Are the images for screen or print?

Or more importantly what is the DPI of the images you work on?

as the macro would need to take this into consideration

 

[R C-R]

9 hours ago, zeira said:

I have Version 1.7.3 of Affinity Photo and even in the Help section searching for “rectangle” what description I get is somewhat different from what I have. 

In what sense? The Rectangle Tool help topic explains how to use it & shows its Tools panel icon. If you don't see that icon on the Tools panel, look for a blue shape tool with a small triangle in the lower right corner. Click on the triangle or just click & hold until you get a popup & select the Rectangle Tool there. (The Tool panel can be customized if you want it always to have its own 'slot' in the panel.)