Re: [Gimp-user] Framing Pictures

[Jay Smith <jay JaySmith com>]

On 11/15/2013 06:06 PM, Reinhardt Christiansen wrote:
> I would like to add "frames" to some of the graphics I'm using on a
> website. The frame I want is really just a white border of 8 or 10
> pixels on each of the four sides; the pictures will all be rectangles.
>
> I tried doing a frame like this in Gimp 2.8 (in Windows 8) earlier today
> and couldn't think of a way to do this very easily. I thought about
> drawing a white line along the edge of each side of the rectangle but
> didn't know a good way to draw a straight line of the desired thickness
> exactly where I want it. I thought about using the eraser to turn the
> edges white but that seemed clumsy.
>
> I'm guessing there is a much simpler way so I hope someone can tell me
> what it is. :)

Hi Reinhardt,

I have a need for a similar type of thing, so I have a little experience 
with it.

HOWEVER, first of all, if the purpose of this is for using the pictures 
on a website, you should probably consider if you want to do this task 
with HTML and/or CSS and NOT modify the pictures (if _you_ control the 
HTML/CSS being used on the page).  The framing is really nothing to do 
with the pictures, it is a matter of who you want them presented on a 
particular web page.  What happens if you want to use the same picture 
in some other manner, in some other place, with some other type of frame 
or no frame at all.

However, if you still want to alter the image...

First of all, if it were me, I would COPY all the images to a new folder 
and do this work on the copies.  I would not muck up the original images 
with something like a "frame".

Secondly, if your images are in a "lossy" format such as JPEG/JPG, I 
would seriously consider in that "copying" process, actually saving-as 
(exporting) the original files to a non-lossy format (such as TIFF/TIF 
-- maybe somebody will recommend a less bulky format).  Then do all your 
frame-adding, editing in that COPY that is in the NON-lossy format. 
Then, after all editing is done, save-as (export) from the non-lossy 
format to the JPEG/JPG or GIF or PNG or whatever format you are using on 
the website.  If in the future you have to do any more editing on those 
images, edit the NON-lossy version and re-save-as (export) to the lossy 
format.  (PNG is non-lossy and could be used throughout, but it may not 
be a suitable format for your type of images).

Following those kinds of procedures will insure that you don't 
unintentionally degrade the quality and it will give you back-up 
original files that you may someday be very thankful that you have.

Given all that, what I would do -- and it may not be the best way -- is to:

1) Set the background color to white (or whatever).  In the tool box, 
there is a foreground/background selector.  There is a force-to 
white/black button, a flip white/black back-and-forth button, and 
clicking on the main area will put you into a dialog where you can 
select any color you want.

2) Expand the canvas to a larger size.  Image, Canvas Size...
In that dialog, you want to a) change the size by the total number of 
pixels needed; b) click the "Center" button to auto-center the image on 
the canvas; c) In the resize layers drop-down select ALL LAYERS (even if 
you don't have multiple layers this is probably a good idea based on the 
problems I have run into).  Doing this should give you a white fill on 
the new area surrounding the centered image.

Lastly, it sound like you are somewhat new to Gimp and thus I feel you 
pain.  I have been there.  The way you asked the question suggests that 
you may not yet have a good enough grounding of Gimp basics (such as 
images are areas within a canvas -- the image and the canvas are two 
different things).  You would probably greatly increase your enjoyment 
of Gimp and your productivity using Gimp if you Googled on Gimp overview 
or Gimp tutorial or something to just spend 10 minutes going through the 
Gimp ways of doing things.  I came to Gimp from Photoshop and I had to 
learn/re-learn lots of these concepts myself.

Best of luck.

Jay