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roushstage2
Aug 18th, 2008, 02:37 AM
In this tutorial, I will show you how to add a border to a picture using the free program Paint.NET.

Here is the picture I will be using.

http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/870/medium/Start2.jpg

Step One

Open up your picture (Ctrl + O).

http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/870/medium/Step_1.JPG

Step Two

In the lower left corner, you will see the color palette. Click on it to make it the active window.

http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/870/medium/Step_2.JPG

Step Three

Switch from the Primary to the Secondary by using the drop down box. Then, pick a color. The secondary color is the color your border will be.

http://archive.meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/870/Step_3.JPG

Step Four

Go to Image --> Canvas Size (Ctrl + Shift + R).

http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/870/medium/Step_4.JPG

Step Five

The Canvas Size dialog box will come up.

http://archive.meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/870/Step_5.JPG

In order to add a border without changing the pictures dimensions when complete, you will need to check the "By percentage" option. You can see in the middle of the dialog box the pictures current dimensions; in this case, 800x600. At the bottom, make sure the anchor is set to "Middle." You can change this by using the drop down box or clicking in the middle box.

Go ahead and reduce the dimensions by 1% (for a total of 99%). You will see the dimensions change in the middle.

Click OK.

Step Six

Here is the picture reduced by 1%. Now we are going to add the border and bring the picture back to the original dimensions.

http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/870/medium/Step_6.JPG

Step Seven

Go to Image --> Canvas Size (Ctrl + Shift + R). This time around, you are going to increase the dimensions by 1% (for a total of 101%). Make sure the anchor is in the middle.

http://archive.meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/870/Step_7.JPG

Click OK.

Step Eight

Viola! Here is the picture with a border that is approximately 8x6 pixels (1% of the original picture size), but notice that the picture is also back to the original size now!

http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/870/medium/Step_8.JPG

Step Nine

Go to File --> Save As... (Shift + Ctrl + S).

Remember: Make sure when you go to save the file, use the "Save As..." option to rename your picture. This will prevent you from saving over your original copy of the picture. If you do, there is no fixing it. Here's a tip: When I edit a picture, I like to copy the original and edit the copy so if something like that does happen, I did not ruin the original picture!

http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/870/medium/Finished2.jpg

Written by Tyler Clegg (roushtage2) for Meguiar's Online Forums. If you find any errors, please let me know so that I can get them fixed! Thanks!