[Dabhand16]

Simple Presentation

I’ve been asked how I construct the border I use most when I post images. It is not unique. I know others use it too and in all honesty I can’t remember how I stumbled over it, so If I’m plagiarizing your pet method, my apologies!
It can be used for any size of picture, but as most of us have A4 printers, I’ll use A4 in this example. I know this works in CS2 and CS3, so I expect the Elements software that supports layers will also work. PSP will also have these facilities, but it is a long time since I’ve used it, and there are details that are different.

This procedure will appear complex at first glance, but I can now do this so fast, I don’t bother with the action I started to make. No more than two minutes will give you this border after just a little practice. Also, you do not have to do all of the steps. you can leave out the second and/or third stages, or go from stage one straight to stage three.

First you need to complete your editing and have your image open. Minimize it and go the file menu > new and select an A4 document. In the dialogue box, check it is set on 300dpi and click Ok. This will open a blank document in your editor. Rotate it if necessary, and in PS, go to image > mode and make sure RGB is selected. At this point you can alter the colour of this new document, but I tend to use white, especially if I want to use a drop shadow effect later. Use the middle button in the top RH corner of the image frames (I think this is called ‘restore down’) to partially minimize both images so you have them both open together, and click on the one with the image to select it.

Now go to the move tool, (or press ’V’) this is usually at the top of the tools palette, and looks like an arrowhead with a cross next to it. Click and hold the right mouse button in the image and also press and hold down the shift key. Drag the cursor into the blank new document and release the mouse button before the shift key. This ensures that the dragged image is placed centrally in the new document. I used to ensure that the size of the image was 2cm less than the A4 size of the new document to ensure a good fit. However, on some occasions, I have not done this, and the results appear to be the same. If you have any problems in size differentials when merging the two files, it might be worth doing this size check.

You can now close the original image, not forgetting to save it first! You now have two layers. One is the white background; the other is the image with a transparent border. With the top layer selected, choose add a layer style from the layers palette fx button and select ‘drop shadow’ (or layer menu > layer style > drop shadow). This opens the layer style dialogue box with the drop shadow tools visible. Slide the distance slider until you get a pleasing drop shadow, and then set the angle to around 132 degrees (or what you want). Move the size slider to get the shadow effect you want, and then tweak it with the spread slider. Check and uncheck the global light box and choose what you want. (I usually have this box checked). Finally move the opacity slider to complete the shadow. I tend to use about 50-60%. The default blend mode is multiply, and not many of the others make any difference, so I stick with the default. At the bottom of the dialogue box there are controls for contour and noise. These will affect the shadow too; play around with them to see if you want to include these effects. You can save the set up you have now by pressing the new style button, and filling in the boxes, but I don’t do this as I like to customize the border for every image individually. Press OK in the layer styles box to apply the settings. In the layer palette you will see that the top layer now has an effects sub-layer showing.

You can leave this as it is and save it either with all of the layers intact, or flatten the image then save it.

OR – you can go on to add this to give the image a 3D quality:

With the top layer still selected, choose add a layer style from the layers palette fx button and select ‘bevel and emboss’ (or layer menu > layer style > bevel and emboss). Here we are back in the layer style box, this time with the bevel and emboss tools showing. At the top ‘Structure’ section, select inner bevel from the drop-down menu. Leave the next box as ‘smooth’. Set the depth at about 100%, and set the ‘up’ button. Slide the size slider up to between 40 and 50 or until you see what you want. Leave the soften slider alone. Now in the lower ‘Shading’ section you should find the angle and global light settings the same as you have already set in the drop shadow style. You can play with the gloss contour and blend modes, but I think the defaults work best, and will match the drop shadow settings. (If you change the drop shadow settings from the default, you might want to match them here). Now we are on the last lap. The two remaining mode boxes relate to the bevel on the top and LHS, (highlight), and the bevel on the bottom and RHS, (shadow). I leave the blending modes at the defaults, and also the colour of the bevels. The highlight slider changes the top and LH bevels, and the shadow changes the bottom and RH bevels. Play with these until you have the result you want. The new style button will allow you to save this set up, and OK will apply it.

Now all you have to do is to save it either with all of the layers intact, or flatten the image then save it.

Unless…….you want to add a title, copyright and/or signature. I have a copyright note saved in ‘my docs’ that I can just copy and paste, but you might have a PS brush saved that will do the job, and can be placed anywhere. I’ll describe the ‘long’ way, that is, in reality, not very long.

OK, we still have the image with the two layers open. If you do not already have it selected, go to the view menu and select rulers. This will help you line things up. You will now see the rulers running across the top and down the LHS of the screen. I will now describe what I do. You can do something different or use the opposite sides, or the top of the page or anything you want. You can even do the same as me!

Grab the magnifying glass and draw out a selection in the bottom RH corner to take in part of the image and the bottom RH corner of the frame. Click on the type tool (or press T). In the tool dialogue bar running across the top of the screen you can set the font, font size, the alignment and colour. When you have set these parameters, line up the cursor on the bottom RH corner of the image (not the border) look at the ruler on the LHS and you will see where you are by the dotted line moving up and down. I centralize the cursor in the bottom of the border, and line it up on the RHS of the image using the dotted line in the top ruler. Click when you are in the position you want. If you get it wrong, as soon as you click there are two more buttons visible in the tool dialogue bar, a tick and a diagonal bar in a circle. Click on the circle and bar and you can start over. When you have clicked in the right place there will be a dot on the border. Now in the tools dialogue bar click in the align text to the right button. Type what you want to go here, a title or your name etc. When you have done this press the tick in the tools dialogue bar to ‘set’ the text. You can now repeat the exercise on the other side or anywhere else. Just remember to pick the appropriate text alignment button to ensure the text runs the right way.

I hope you find this useful.

[milkod2001]

Thanx Graham, that's exactly what I was looking for, much appreciated
Milan

[b.van_der_dylan]

Thanks Graham, going to give this one a go