Metuchen High School: GIMP

3. Adding a Frame

4 points

This is an exercise intended to show you how adding a frame works. For this exercise, don't use the Ramses II photo that I work with below. Choose your own image for this exercise.

In this exercise I'll add a frame around an image.  The colors for the frame will come from the image.  As an example, I'll work with this image of a monument to Ramses II from ancient Egypt:

To add 2 frames:

- Enlarge the canvas to make room for a frame:

- Choose Image > Canvas Size and increase the canvas size to create space around the image.
- Click Center.  Choose Resize Layers > All Layers.  Click Resize.
- Open the Layers dialog (Windows > Dockable Dialogs > Layers)
- Right-click on the layer holding the photo.  Choose Alpha to Selection.
- Choose Select  > To Path
- Choose Select > None

- Choose a color for the first (inner) frame:

- In the Toolbox, click on the foreground color.  The foreground (black) and background (white) colors are visible in the lower-left hand corner of this image of the Toolbox: docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-tool-color-picker.html. 

- In the Change Foreground Color dialog, in the rightmost column, click on the Eyedropper tool.  The Eyedropper changes the foreground color to a color that you choose by clicking on the image.  With the Eyedropper tool, click on the photo until you have a color that you want to use for the frame.  Choose OK to close the dialog.

- Add color to the frame:

- Choose Edit > Stroke Path.  Set Stroke Line to a value larger than the width of the frame.
- Click on Stroke.  You may want to use CTRL-Z to undo this effect, adjust the Line Width and then click Stroke again until you get the desired effect.

At this point, this is the result:



To add a second (outer) frame with a different color from the image, repeat the steps listed above. Start with the "Choose Image > Canvas Size and increase the canvas size" step.

Here is the final result:




Exercise
Find an image that you'd like to work with.  Follow the steps outlined above to add two borders around the image, using colors from the photograph.
 

GIMP Links

Alpha to Selection: docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-layer-alpha-selection-replace.html

Select to Path: docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-selection-dialog.html
 

 

Videos

Putting a border around an image: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mVg7TjmOgE (has sound)