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This can't be that hard, any tips would be appreciated.
I have about three hundred photos. I want to put a white frame/border around each one. The pictures are different width and heights. I need the frame to be constant relative to the dimensions of the picture.
I tried doing a percent increase to the canvas with a white background but that gives different results depending on the dimensions.
Anyone have any ideas. I need to automate it with an action.
Thanks
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Make sure the documents have a background layer for they does not support transparency. Then record a simple action that add canvas relatively the same fixed percentage for current width and height If the images have a 1:1 aspect ration the canvas added to the top and bottom will be the same size as the canvas added to the left and right sides. You can specify the color of the canvas you want added.
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Do you want same stroke width around photo? And to vary width based on image dimensions? It is harder than you think using actions. There isn't option for such thing because aspect ratio is different from what I can understand. You can achieve same stroke width using percentage when recording action for 1:1 aspect ratio but that won't work if you run action on image with 5:3 aspect ratio and you can not use conditional actions to check whether image has 5:3 or 3:2 ratio.
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As JJMack wrote, using a relative canvas extension would do the job. If you use a fixed unit such as pixels or CM then you would not need to worry about different aspect ratio's distorting the frame as you are not basing the extension on %. The following example would add a 25 px border around each edge and the result would be consistent no matter the aspect ratio.
Are the input files layered or flattened, or a mix of both? Do all of the input files have a consistent PPI and physical size set in image size?
If you have layered files or a mixture of flattened and layered files, then a conditional action can route the processing as required.
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Where can I find this pop up box 'add uniform white frame'?
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What are you talking about? The screenshot shows the Actions Panel.
Have you tried Image > Canvas Size set to »Relative«?
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Sorry if I am sounding a bit stupid but I can't find the box. I use Indesign through Creative Cloud and I'm not sure where to find "Image" to bring up the box. I can see the screenshot and what to do but I just need to find how to access that. Can you let me know where to find "Image" please.
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This is the Photoshop Forum, with Indesign-related queries you may want to refer to the Indesign Forum.
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Also: Do you want to add a frame to an image on a page or to a whole page?
In teh first case I wonder if aoolying a Stroke set to »outside« to the container might not suffice in Indesign.
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Layers? Just a Background Layer?
• reset back- and foreground color (D)
• change Background Layer to a regular Layer
• apply Layer Style Stroke set to »Outside«
• Image > Reveal All
• Flatten Image
Edit: But maybe I misunderstood the original post.
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Wow.
Thank you for all the replies. I probably should have been more descriptive in my original post.
I have an assortment of photos that I scanned into the computer. They are all jpg's flattened with different aspect ratios. My goal is to create an action that will put a white border around each image with the same width on each side and then close the picture.
I want to use the Image Processor to batch process a whole folder. Its been almost twenty years since I've dealt with actions and automating a process.
I think I cracked the action part except I can't get the action to close the image without bringing up a "save as dialog". I'll keep trying.
Thanks again for the replies!
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Could you please post a screenshot with the pertinent Panels (Toolbar, Layers, Channels, Options Bar, …) visible?
jpg does not support Layers, so if the image contains any Layers apart from the Background Layer the jpg cannot be simply saved, but one could flatten the image.
But opening a jpg, editing and saving it is not a great idea because of the accumultaed compression damage.
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This is exactly the question I had and posted in July but there doesn't seem to be an easy way. I use Indesign without using layers. Like you I wanted to add a white frame around each photo. In the end I took each photo into Photoshop and easily added a white frame that way. But I was hoping to be able to do it in Indesign wth one action. If you managed it please can you explain to me how you did it! The suggestions I had was to draw a frame around each photo and centralise the photo but that was too time consuing as all photos a different size. I can't beleive there isn't an easy solution to this in Indesign.
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Once again: Not the Indesign Forum.
And have you tried applying a Stroke to the image containers in Indesign?
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So sorry, I see what you mean - I'm in the Photoshop forum. You may be able to help though as you seem knowledeable about Indesign. I know how to apply a wide stroke to the photo and make that white but I need a black line around that white frame as well and that's the bit I'm not sure how to do because you can only use 'stroke' once around an object so do you know how do you get another line around the white frame?
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"I can't beleive there isn't an easy solution to this in Indesign."
In InDesign, create a stroke with the color and width you want on one frame, then create an Object style and apply it to the other frames. If you need to make changes, change one frame and update the Object style.
Since you need a white stroke and a black stroke, try using a combination of both the Stroke and Border functions and create the Object style.
~Jane
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jane-e beat me to it... Here is a visual of one way:
One object, white stroke, black inner glow effect... And yes, an object style is better to apply to multiple elements, just as text styles facilitate updating multiple instances.
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Jane and Stephen thanks so much. I now understand how to go about this and how to use object style to make it work with a black line around it. Brilliant! I appreciate everyone's patience with me 😄
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Note that in Stephen's screen shot, the black Inner Glow Effect has been applied to the Object in this case. You can also apply effects to the stroke or fill or text in InDesign.
~ Jane
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You can also create a custom Stroke and set the Gap Color to white.