Adding Borders to Photos in Photoshop

Using Photoshop to alter images and photos can be useful for a fun hobby, professional photo editing, card making, image zooming, and dozens of other purposes. One common feature found in Photoshop is the ability to place colored borders around images, framing them in a color or design pattern of your choice. You can create effects such as a border like a picture frame or a border that makes it appear the image is being viewed through a window or tint.

Open up Photoshop on your computer. Select "File" followed by "Open." Browse through your computer files in the window that appears until you find the photo or image that you want to place a border around. Double click to open the photo or image.

Click on the "Select" heading in the Photoshop menu bar. Click on "All." If you want to place a border only around a certain section within the image choose "Selection Tool" from the tool menu on the left side of Photoshop and use your mouse and left click button while dragging the cursor across the area you want to select.

Choose the "Select" heading once more and click on "Modify" followed by "Border." Select the pixel size of your border and enter that number into the "width" text box. Note that the larger the number the wider your border will be around the picture or image. Click "OK" to confirm the border width.

Click on the small colored top box in the right side "color palette." Choose the color of your border from the palette that appears. You can click anywhere in the colored box to see different hues and use the sliding scale next to the colored box to change the overall hue and available colors. Click "OK" when you are satisfied with the color selection.

Select the "Edit" menu from the top menu bar and choose the "Fill" option. From the first drop down menu choose "Color" and from the second drop down menu choose "Normal."

Set the "Opacity" level to 100% if you want the image inside the border to remain completely visible. Select a lower percentage if you want an overlay of the border color over the image, like looking through a frosted window. You can experiment with the second drop down menu to create different lighting and pattern effects on the border and the way that the border color appears across the image itself.

Click on "OK" when you are satisfied with your settings. View the image in Photoshop to verify the border is properly set up. Click on "Edit" followed by "Fill" to change the look of the border at any time.