[Monika13]

How do I add borders to pictures in a layout? I use PSE9

Thanks
Monika

[teecee]

An easy way is to add a stroke outline - go to Edit>Stroke(Outline)Selection... When the stroke box opens, In the Stroke section at the top of the box, choose the width you want the outline to be (try 25 pixels to start), then click on the color box and choose the color you want the outline to be. In the Location section, click Inside. (Leave the Blending section at the bottom of the box set at Mode: Normal, Opacity: 100% and Preserve Transparency unchecked). Then click OK at the top of the box. HTH

Another method (which I prefer) is to make the stroke outline on its own layer. This will allow you to make changes to the stroke later, such as changing color or adding a style if you wish. To put a stroke on its own layer:
1. First make a direct selection on the photo layer (hold down the CTRL key and click on the thumbnail of the image in the layers palette) This puts marching ants around the photo.
2. Create a new blank layer above the photo layer and be sure this layer is active.
3. Go to Edit>Stroke Outline Selection... and create the stroke as above.
4. Press CTRL+D (or escape) to deselect the marching ants.

Now you'll be able to add a style, change color etc. Just remember if you want to move or re-size the photo, be sure to link the layers together. You could also merge the layers (CTRL+E), but then you won't be able to make changes to color or styles later.

This post has been edited by teecee: 16 November 2012 - 10:04 PM

[DixieLee]

Thanks so much for telling me this about the stroke being on the separate layer because I didn't know this!!!

[teecee]

DixieLee, on 16 November 2012 - 11:35 PM, said:

Thanks so much for telling me this about the stroke being on the separate layer because I didn't know this!!!

It comes in very handy for making changes/adding styles to the stroke.

[sloginny]

Wow! I almost always use the edit-stroke thingie on my pictures -- sometimes more than one, so the strokes have different colors and widths, but have gotten frustrated when I wanted to change it later (lots of control-Zs). This is great. I'll use it from now on. Thank you!

[AggieB]

Theresa's right - if you put your strokes on a separate layer, it is so much easier. I do the double outline thing sometimes too, if you add a bevel and a drop shadow, it make a great frame. The drop shadow has to be done on a separate layer.

[Monika13]

Thank you so much. I didn't realize how easy it was to add borders I figured out how to add borders to the picture layer, pretty easy. Still working on adding border on its own layer. I'm getting a message that "Could not stroke the layer because there is nothing to stroke". Is it because it's an empty layer?

[Monika13]

I think I figured it out... when I clicked on cntrl + the thumbnail in the layers I got the selection but these were not marching ants. It looked like frozen marching ants. So I clicked on the marquee tool and then "draw" around the picture, selecting it. It did the trick.

[teecee]

Monika13, on 17 November 2012 - 03:03 PM, said:

I think I figured it out... when I clicked on cntrl + the thumbnail in the layers I got the selection but these were not marching ants. It looked like frozen marching ants. So I clicked on the marquee tool and then "draw" around the picture, selecting it. It did the trick.

Hmmmm, I'm not sure why you were getting frozen marching ants. You may want to check and be sure the Preserve Transparency box at the bottom of the stroke box is unchecked.
In PSE 9, if you follow steps 1-4 in my post above, it should work for you. HTH