I've seen a few threads where people are asking how to put a frame around thier pictures. If you follow this short run through to the letter, you will end up with an action where you just press one key at the end of your editing, and PS will add a frame with your siggy already on it.

1. When you have finished all your editing, adjustments and sharpening and sizing- save the image.(don't close it though)

2.Windows>Actions.     This will open the actions window.

3. click the "create new action" button on the bottom of the window. (Hover the pointer over the icons and you will get told what they do.)

4. Rename the action- something like "110%border with name", Choose a shortcut key. Any of the F keys. Click "Record" Anything you do now will be recorded in the action. Be careful not to press wrong keys! 

5. Select>All

6. Edit>stroke. this will give the frame a thin inner line. White is normally best. Set the width to between 6-10 px. Location=inside, blending mode=normal, opacity=100. Click "OK" (apparently there may be a bug in CS used with a Mac, if so - sorry, you'll have to use this as a rough guide and figure it for yourself!)

7. select>deselect

8. Image>Canvas size.  This sets the size of the frame.Make sure the "relative" button is unchecked. I use 110%. you can go bigger if you want. set the width and height to 110% or bigger.Check canvas extension colour is black. Click "OK"

That is your basic frame with no signature. If thats all you want then go to 10

To add a signature- carry on as follows; This can get weird if you are using different sized images as the positioning can go awry. try it for yourself first., or save it as a seperate action.

9. Select the "text" tool from the toolbox. Choose your font and colour and type your name. Position and resize the text on the frame and "Flatten" the image.

10. Re open the "Actions" palette and click the "Stop" button. Its the square one on the bottom bar. If you hover your pointer over the icons, you will get an indication of what they do.

11. Now "Close" the image file. Dont save at this stage.

12. Re-open the file and press the shortcut key you assigned in step 4. In the flash of an eye your image should now have a border with siggy around it. if it all works OK, then for future pictures, do all your editing as before and the last thing  is press your F key.

Can someone give this a go and report back that its all working OK, (or not.) and I'll ask Lurky to sticky this.

Cheers

Webby 

Thanks to Jonathon for checking it over.

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webbEvents

Ian,

Looks cool, just a couple of things....

Step 6: some versions of Photoshop won't let you stroke after a select all. This is a bug and never used to work in my copy of CS on a Mac - works fine in CS3 now. You probably want to make sure you select "insider" on the radio buttons to (a) get sharp corners and (b) use all the pixels you specify - default of "center" will use half of them.

8. To use 110% you'll want to make sure that you uncheck "relative". Otherwise you want 10%

9. This is where it can get nasty. The font size is related to the DPI of the picture. If you change the DPI from (say) 300 to 72 and use the same font size then the text will be a LOT bigger. This is one of the few times DPI matters. It's worth converting the picture to a standard dpi before step 5.

9. (again - told you it was nasty) The move tool within an action is a bit flaky. It will work perfectly for ages then suddenly throw a hissy fit and put stuff in the wrong place. Using the align tool is even worse because that just doesn't work in actions. Standardising the DPI appears to help but you may find you end up with 2 actions - one for portrait and one for landscape. Of course if the text is in the wrong place then just hit Cmd-Z to undo the flatten and reposition. Then Cmd-Shift-E to merge visible.

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Kidography. It's like photography. But more fun.

Cheers Jonathon,

I've edited the original, how does that look now?

webby

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webbEvents

I guess it should work.

I don't think it was just a bug with the Mac/CS version - up to a certain point in the code base select all and stroke simply wouldn't work (stroke was greyed out).

Wouldn't it be a lot simpler to provide a downloadable action?

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Kidography. It's like photography. But more fun.

OK, for those who want it easy......................I've created the basic action, just got to upload it onto the web and I'll be back with instructions on where to find it.

OK: download the file from here

Copy it into the following location (for CS)

C:program files/adobe/photoshopCS/presets/photoshopactions

Fire up PS and it should be listed in the Actions palette as Ians Actions, click down to black border and click the "run" button

 

webby

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webbEvents

Fantastic, cheers for the top tip

Jon

nice one Ian.

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The Best Photographer In The World 10th - 11th March 2007

Ian!
Thank you so much. I've been one of those new to the digital editing that had been asking about the framing with signature.

Great people on this site!

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Hey nice job

Couple of comments (not sure if these are Mac specific or not - they are certainly true for a Mac).

1. When I downloaded the file (cmd-click, save to desktop - just clicking doesn't do it) it was called IansActions.atn.txt. I've had this problem with d/l actions before - just rename it removing the .txt extension.

2. That's a good place to put actions but you don't have to put them there. I have a folder in my backup hierarchy called Actions and just stick it there - still works. And it's easier if you upgrade PS or have something else that supports actions installed.

3. You may need to load the action into PS (I think even on a PC and even if you put it in the magic place). There's a complicated way to do this with the actions palette - but just double clicking the action works fine

4. If you want to adjust the width or colour of the border then open a picture and double click each step in the action up to and including the stroke one (you'll have to hit OK for the snapshot step). In the stroke dialogue just enter the values you want. Next time you run the action it will remember these values.

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Kidography. It's like photography. But more fun.

hmmmm,

the file doesnt have the .txt extension where its hosted, just tried the download as well and its OK on my  PC.

Also on PC, if you copy the action to that folder, it loads up next time you load PS. Maybe different if you use a different folder.

Good point on the step through..........them that don't know, you can run the action step by step. this gives you the opportunity to change settings as you like.

Thanks again for testing Jonathon

cheers

Webby

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webbEvents

cheers Ian , Just tried it and works fine, thanks for making my life a lot easier

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how do i put my name on it with that action or do i do it seperate?

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Hi Danny,

As Jonathon points out it can all go a bit weird in an action. Its OK as long as you are always doing it at a set size, ie A4. Follow through the tutorial at the top of the thread and try it for yourself. You could save it as a seperate action or write the whole thing with the border. Ifr you get stuck, give me a shout and we'll sort it.

Webby

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webbEvents

Ian

Cheers for this, I've created borders now in Elements and they look great, check out my photo from the Tour de France in my gallery;

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Thanks for that Ian

 

 

Mark

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