Border around outside of image?

[Life]

I'd like to add a border (Rounded rectangular) around the outer portion of one of my stompboxes. I've been trying to find out how to do this in photoshop so I can go etch and finish the project but I can't figure out how to do it Any help would be appreciated.

[FiveseveN]

An easy way is to use Canvas Size. Tick "relative" to define the "border" thickness (in inches, mm, pixels or percent) and chose its color from "Background extension color" or whatever they call it in your version.

[iaresee]

Create a new layer
Select all
Edit -> Stroke...

That'll trace the selection with a line of whatever pixel density/colour you want.

If you want to get a fuzzy border try Select -> Modify -> Contract and then Select -> Modify -> Feather by a few pixels.

[Pushtone]

If what you want is a rectangle with rounded or radius corrners than it's a little more complicated.
It's easier in Illustrator and other vector drawing programs but it can be done in PS.

You will use the pen tool to draw the rectangle.
The white selection tool to move the parts around,
and the CONVERT POINT tool to do curves

Start here or google PS drawing tools.
http://www.elated.com/articles/photoshop-pen-tool/

To make a radius corner...
Each corner will have two points (vertex).
One point on the vertical and one on the horizontal.
Use the graph background to ensure each point is the same distance from the actual corner.
The further away from the corner the points are, the bigger the radius.
HINT: holding down the SHIFT key will make straight lines on the 0 and 90 degrees

You'll have something like this:

           X         X
        X               X



        X               X
           X         X


Switch to CONVERT POINT.
Again the SHIFT key will keep the angles at 0 and 90.
Hold it down as you pull the points with the CONVERT POINT tool.

HINT: get to know your PATHS palette. It's under the LAYERS.

If you can't figure this out I can send you a PS template file you can edit to fit.

Dave

[FiveseveN]

Oh silly me, I didn't notice you said rounded rectangle. Well, as with all things in Photoshop there are quite a couple of ways of doing it. As the folks before said, you could modify a selection (see this video) or use the vector mask tools (pen and shape tools) but I usually do it the "old-fashioned way": make a rectangle selection, convert it to a mask, apply gaussian blur, reduce levels to practically two values (pull both black point and white point together near the middle of the histogram). I guess you could also use Threshold instead of Levels but with the latter you can also control how smooth or precise your mask turns out. It's a little involved but you have more control over the outcome and also real time preview.

[Barcode80]

does no one know that there is a rounded rectangle tool so you don't have to do the rounding on your own?

here's how i do it:

create a rounded rectangle as large as the you want the outside perimeter of your border to be, filled in as black.

duplicate layer

fill the duplicate layer as white

edit-free transform

reduce size of the duplicated layer

center the white duplicated layer over the larger one

merge layers

use magic eraser on the inside of the border to make it transparent.

[mikemaddux]

I just use MS paint and line up the tips of the crosshairs on the borders of my image.

[FiveseveN]

Barcode: of course there is, that's the shape (vector masks or "paths") tool we were talking about. But if you want to use it, there's a quicker way than what you described: draw the said shape (doesn't matter what color), apply a stroke via Layer Styles, set fill opacity to zero. Now you can transform it, edit its vertices etc. and the stroke will follow; the editing will also be non-destructive (no loss of resolution). Alternatively, you can clip your artwork layer to this vector mask and apply the stroke to it instead. As I said, many many ways to get there.
Knowing Photoshop end to end is no easy task but the basic notions are working with layers, working with selections, working with masks, then painting, using paths, layer styles, adjustment layers etc.
I've been using it pretty much every day for the past seven years and I still have to learn new tools and new workflows with each release.

[GREEN FUZ]

Using the Rectangular Marquee tool I select the area I want to border then click on Select-Modify-Smooth. You can then input the amount of pixels you want to smooth by. Might take some trial and error. Then you just apply a stroke of the desired width.

[Paul Marossy]

I use a program called Printkey 2000 to add borders to images. It's a very easy program to use, very user friendly. I've been using it since 1999.

[Life]

Thanks very much for the help