[Steve]

Please remember that Photoshop is a very complex tool and there are many ways to do the same things within it. Below is a very quick guide that I have written to help you create a simple but effective border around your image, these are the ways that I do it but there are other methods too.

Once you have your image completed.

Step 1 Select > all (Ctrl+A)



You should now have “marching ants” around your image.


Step 2 Edit > Stroke



A box will open where you have options to select colour, width, location and opacity. I usually select my colour and the width but leave location set to centre.



One thing to remember here is that whatever width of border you choose it will encroach on your image rather than being on the outside of it. This is not usually a problem for thin borders but it is worth bearing in mind To finish off


Step 3 Select > Deselect. (Ctrl+D)



The above method will give you a quick and simple method of putting a clean border around your image. If you want to get a little more stylish and adventurous you can repeat the above a second time but with a smaller size and a different colour, this will give you more than one colour of border but is still not that impressive. To improve on that you need to do just a little more work…

[Steve]

Image > Canvas Size.



Again another box will open up to show you the size of your current image.



Alter both these figures to larger numbers of your choice and it will make the size of your canvas bigger by that amount but will leave the picture as it was. Depending on your Photoshop settings are you will either be left with a hatched (transparent) gap around your picture, which you can now fill in using the paint bucket and your choice of colour or it will have already been filled with the currently selected background colour from your pallet.



That’s all there is to it. Now get creative and use a combination of both these methods to make the borders or your choice.





Hope that helps