Surrounding an image with a matte (updated)

[GonzoBernelli]

Simple concept, right? Put a 4" white matte around an 18"x36" print. No siree.

ImageMagick requires software diarrhea...

NIK/Google destroy image resolution by doing it backwards, from the outside inwards and not from the outside outwards.

FM has not yet heard of CS6.

Adobe CS6:
a) never "un-gray's" canvas size extension color even when image is single layer called "Background" anick displays a lock symbol;
b) A new layer color can never be white;
c) Following some Adobe wizard's (in online help) convoluted w--z doesn't work;
d) Why do I give them $200 every 2 years? Oh yeah, crazy do it 6 different ways;
e) Hey Adobe - every heard of the KISS rule?

All I want is a 4" white matte around an 18"x36" print. msaking s 26"x44" finsihed product.

Are there any real solutions out there, excluding the above? What a frustrating evening...

 

[JPS]

THE solution: FastStone ! 100% FREEWARE at http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDownload.htm !

Double-click on an image
Move your mouse on the far left of the screen
Chose Effects -> Border Effects
Validate ONLY "Frame 1" and change "Width" according to your needs

.....et voila ! Time spent: 10 seconds !

....furthermore, you can work on any image format, including *.NEF and *.TIF !

:biggrin:
J-P.

 

[Growltiger]

J-P is quite right, use FastStone for a free and simple solution.

But since you mention Photoshop, it really is very very easy to use it for this. The easiest way of all is to use Image/Canvas size. Maximum of 30 seconds from start to finish.

"A new layer color can never be white"! It can be any colour you like, white included. You need to read some tutorials on layers.

And to unlock a background layer simply double click the padlock symbol and click OK on the window that appears.

 

[GonzoBernelli]

FastStone is free for a reason - it is crapstone!

1) It renames every TIFF file in the directory from ".tif" to ".FastStoneTIFF" WITHOUT ASKING! OK, I understand them doing it for the photo I am working on, but not bloody everything.

2) Default units is inches, but behaves like pixels, so 4 "inch" border is barely discernable. A 1440 "pixel" border (360 ppi * 4) original TIFF written by CS6 wont work either because it gets rounded down to 1000.

3) Can only select inches or centimeters, why not pixels?

4) On the (only) time something was saved to disk, it appeared as 72 dpi when re-imported to CS6 and not the original 360 ppi.

Sorry JPS, FastStore just does not work. Period.



Growl,
Double clicking the locked icon on the background layer, intelligently pops up a dialog claiming "Cannot edit layer because it is locked." It is necessary to press the lock symbol on the line beginning "Lock:".

From the Layer menu, New Layer defaults to color "None" and the popup list does not include White although Red, Orange, Yellow,Green, Blue, Voilet and Gray are offered.

Canvas size does allow extension in all directions by 4 inches, but as stated, the extension color never "un-grays", whether the background layer is locked or unlocked.

Which tutorials on layers? Which books on layers? Something using English words or menu selections, rather than SHIFT-ALT-CTRL-letter goo. I'm not a Photoshop power user, just a simple guy with simple needs who can read English.

Thanks for trying to assist. Do you think my CS6 install has been trashed somehow? Or am I slown going insane?

 

[ccroy]

I use Irfanview for this purpose. It is a freeware. The pictures can be saved in JPEG after iserting the desired border with dimentions you want. The color of the border can also be selected. It is very simple and can be tried. Infact everything with Irfanview is simple.

 

[Growltiger]

Growl,
Double clicking the locked icon on the background layer, intelligently pops up a dialog claiming "Cannot edit layer because it is locked." It is necessary to press the lock symbol on the line beginning "Lock:".

From the Layer menu, New Layer defaults to color "None" and the popup list does not include White although Red, Orange, Yellow,Green, Blue, Voilet and Gray are offered.

Canvas size does allow extension in all directions by 4 inches, but as stated, the extension color never "un-grays", whether the background layer is locked or unlocked.

Which tutorials on layers? Which books on layers? Something using English words or menu selections, rather than SHIFT-ALT-CTRL-letter goo. I'm not a Photoshop power user, just a simple guy with simple needs who can read English.

Thanks for trying to assist. Do you think my CS6 install has been trashed somehow? Or am I slown going insane?

I can't tackle your FastStone problems except to say that whenever I use it is works properly and does what I want! Anyway, let's get back to Photoshop.

"Double clicking the locked icon on the background layer, intelligently pops up a dialog claiming "Cannot edit layer because it is locked." It is necessary to press the lock symbol on the line beginning "Lock:"."

Are you double clicking the little padlock on the right end of the background layer in the layer panel? Works for me!

Let's give you another solution. Click on the background layer in the layer panel. Now type Control+J. You now have a new layer which is identical to the background layer, but it is not locked. Work on that layer. It is good practice to always do this, so if you mess up you can still get good pixels back from your background layer if you need them.

"From the Layer menu, New Layer defaults to color "None" and the popup list does not include White although Red, Orange, Yellow,Green, Blue, Voilet and Gray are offered."

This is correct behaviour, you are misunderstanding what the colour means and what it does. It is the colour that the left end of the layer menu line shows for that layer. It is NOT a colour that is put into the layer. The colour is not in the image at all. The reason it only offers interesting colours is because you want the layer to stand out from the ordinary ones when you look at the Layers panel.

"Canvas size does allow extension in all directions by 4 inches, but as stated, the extension color never "un-grays", whether the background layer is locked or unlocked."

When you do Image/Canvas size, look at the bottom of that window and it has a pulldown, "Canvas extension color". Set it to White. Are you saying it doesn't offer you white, black, foreground or in fact any colour at all? If so, what is ticked when you do Image/Mode?

I'm sure all your issues can easily be explained.

 

[Growltiger]

To add a bit more to that, as it sounds like you want to create a new layer with a specific colour in it, such as white.

If you make a new layer and want to fill it with a colour, do as follows.
1. Set the background colour to the fill colour you want.
2. Make sure you have the correct layer selected.
3. Type Ctrl+Delete (or Ctrl+Backspace).

Same works if you have a layer mask and want to fill it.

 

[Growltiger]

Returning to FastStone. It is hard to believe from your description that we are talking about the same program. FastStone Viewer version 4.6

Here is a way to add a border in white, in pixels using it.
Run program.
Click on image.
Edit/Canvas size, or Ctrl+K
Tick against Expand mode.
Type in number of extra pixels in each box around the picture.
Click on Background box and choose the colour you want, such as white.
Click OK.
File/Save As

You can have much more fun using Effects/Border effects.
The measurements are in pixels.

No mysterious renaming of TIF files.
No changing of dpi. (And remember that dpi is completely unimportant anyway.)

 

[JPS]

+1 ! I absolutely agree with Richard !

Nick, I don't understand your problem with FastStone !

Just to check, I clicked on a *NEF image and followed the steps I've indicated in my previous post... Of course the mesurements are in PIXELS, but who cares, as long as one knows it ? I choose to have a border of 500 (pixels) in RED, and saved the result as "xxxxx_framed", and that's it ! I got my saved image surrounded by a 500 pixels red border, named xxxxx_framed.tif !

To make sure, I did the same with original TIF and JPG images and had no problem !


J-P.

 

[GonzoBernelli]

JPS,
My biggest issue is the fact the FastStone software changes some characteristic (changing .tif written by Photoshop to FastStonetiff) WITHOUT PERMISSION OR COMMENT of all the TIFF files in the directory in which my image resides. What assurances do I have it did not run amok among all the images I have?

My statement stands - crapstone!

 

[GonzoBernelli]

Growl,

Are you double clicking the little padlock on the right end of the background layer in the layer panel? Works for me!

Yes, I just relaunched CS6 and reloaded the PSD containing the file. The popup described earlier reappears as before... Is this a configurable feature?

So I can make a background copy layer of all white, but it is identically sized as the image I want to add the 4" white border to. I can add 4 inches to it, but never get a choice of color (remains "none"). Previously I used the term "un-gray's" meaning the extension layer color option widget/dodad at the bottom of the convas size popup dialog in nevery made "active" (turning from gray to black) I can leave the "relative" radio button unchecked and explicitly set the desired size 26x44 inches, but the extension color is "none" (the gray and white checkerboard). Again the extension color remain inactive.

 

[JPS]

JPS,
My biggest issue is the fact the FastStone software changes some characteristic (changing .tif written by Photoshop to FastStonetiff) WITHOUT PERMISSION OR COMMENT of all the TIFF files in the directory in which my image resides. What assurances do I have it did not run amok among all the images I have?

My statement stands - crapstone!

.... I never had this problem ! .....and I regularly use Faststone since it was first launched !

:wink:
J-P.

 

[GonzoBernelli]

What a bizarre fix I found to yield what I wanted...

1) Launch CS6
2) Load my 18x36" original
3) CTRL-J to make new layer
4) Image==>Canvas Size, setting desired image size 26x44"
5) Set forground color to white
6) Found paint bucket tool, setting Foreground, Mode=Behind
7) Clicked on transparent border surrounding my image

Voila - not obvious or intuative at all!!!

 

[GonzoBernelli]

More information

A 16x20" psd @ 360 ppi 16 bit color - behaves as YOU describe, so it is an image size issue as the first (frustrating) attempts started from an 18x36" image @ 360 ppi 16 bit color.

A bug report should ensue...:biggrin:

 

[Growltiger]

JPS,
My biggest issue is the fact the FastStone software changes some characteristic (changing .tif written by Photoshop to FastStonetiff) WITHOUT PERMISSION OR COMMENT of all the TIFF files in the directory in which my image resides. What assurances do I have it did not run amok among all the images I have?

My statement stands - crapstone!

You seem to be the only person who sees this behaviour. Here I can simply edit a TIF and save it.

Perhaps it relates to your TIFs being 16 bit. In which case making its own version while leaving your originals alone seems sensible.

 

[Growltiger]

Growl,


Yes, I just relaunched CS6 and reloaded the PSD containing the file. The popup described earlier reappears as before... Is this a configurable feature?

So I can make a background copy layer of all white, but it is identically sized as the image I want to add the 4" white border to. I can add 4 inches to it, but never get a choice of color (remains "none"). Previously I used the term "un-gray's" meaning the extension layer color option widget/dodad at the bottom of the convas size popup dialog in nevery made "active" (turning from gray to black) I can leave the "relative" radio button unchecked and explicitly set the desired size 26x44 inches, but the extension color is "none" (the gray and white checkerboard). Again the extension color remain inactive.

I cannot explain your problems. They may relate to your particular psd file, its mode, channels and so on.
What is the size IN PIXELS (which is all that really matters) of your image?

I have not been able to replicate any case where the extension colour cannot be set using the pulldown.

Of course you can simply make a new layer, fill it with the extension colour you want, and drag it underneath. Although I see you have found another way.
At least you now know about Ctrl+J, which is very useful.

 

[GonzoBernelli]

See my post #14 in this thread regarding image sizes that work as you say versus the original that doesn't. in both cases, starting images were single layer with no other CS gewgaws (m0stly because I no idea how to create them.

 

[bpdougd]

See my post #14 in this thread regarding image sizes that work as you say versus the original that doesn't. in both cases, starting images were single layer with no other CS gewgaws (m0stly because I no idea how to create them.

And therein lies the central issue. EVERYTHING in Photoshop is done on a layer, whether you see it or whether it is obvious or not. Photoshop tries to protect the original image you open and locks it by default. The operating assumption with pretty much everything that is done in Photoshop is that is should be done one either a copy (duplicate) of the original layer or a new layer (the difference largely being whether or not the layer contains any pixels). If you are going to use Photoshop you should really get familiar with the fundamentals of using layers. This is a great place to start: http://www.amazon.com/Layers-Complete-Photoshops-Powerful-Feature/dp/0321749588/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1366645012&sr=1-1&keywords=layers

Until I grasped the basics of layers and how fundamental they are to using Photoshop my frustration level was high and my success level was low.

 

[TonyW]

This is/or should be relatively easy to do. It is certainly not a 'bug' in CS6 think of it as a feature :smile:

Reading the descriptions the solution I think is to make sure you start with your image on a Background layer - the fact it is locked should not make a difference. Quick example:

Resized image to your aspect ratio of 2:1 for and 360dpi

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

Now if you do not have your image as a Background layer you cannot select white in the Canvas resize dialogue

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

If you first Flatten image so it shows in layers as Background you can select the colour you require

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

Or if you prefer you can add a blank layer above the background image then resize canvas to reach your goal

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

 

[Growltiger]

Very well explained Tony.

(Now can you explain why he sometimes can't unlock the background layer?)