No easy border method???

[Grandizer]

I am looking for any easy way to add a border around rectangular pictures / photos.

I previously drew a black box under the pic and then aligned / centered it, then used the sizing arrows to make a small border around the object.

However this frequently created differing size borders. After many weeks / months I switched to a hollow box as the blank black boxes were just wasting ink...

Now we are remaking the badges, and I would not like to redo all of those by hand...

What I am looking for is the ability to just click on the picture / photo and add a black border of a determinate line / weight / size / thickness around the picture / photo.

Anyone know of a way to automate this on Xara Extreme 5?
Is there a filter from somewhere that can do this?

[dogbertbh]

Hi Grandizer.

You can use "Set Line Width" to put a border on it and right click a color to make it whatever color you want.

You can also use the Contour or Bevel tool to make a frame around it.

[bcire68]

With all do respect to Bobby's excelent (and very simple to implement) method, there is another way to do it.

The one (small) problem with using an outline is that the outline is split with half of the outline appearing inside the object (in your case the photo) and the other half appearing outside of the object. This may or may not be a problem for you depending on the size of the outline and if the important details of the photo go all the way to the edge of the photo.

The way around this (and to keep the photos and the border the same size), is to use a background around your picture just like you did before, but to reuse this creation over and over, and just refill the shape (that contains the photo) with your new photo. To do this just follow these steps.

1) Import your photo and resize to the size that you want.
2) Create your background in the size that you want
3) Send the background to the back
4) Select both the photo and the background and center them (Ctrl+Shift+L)
5) Save this muster as you will use it again.

Now when you want to create a new photo, open the muster that you have created (if it isn't already) and do the following.

1) Import your new photo
2) Delete it
3) Select the photo that is inside the border
4) Open the bitmap gallery
5) Select the bitmap that you just deleted and press the Fill button

And you are done

Again, this method is much more involved but may be the better option depending on the photos, and I mention it just for completeness.

I hope that helps.

Eric

[gwpriester]

Welcome to the Xtreme Conference

I am assuming you are using the latest version of Xtreme.

1. Copy the photo to the clipboard.
2. Select the photo with the Fill Tool (F5) and from the drop down list of File Types on the Infobar, change the fill to Flat.
3. Add a border that is twice the desired thickness (for example, for a 16 pixel border, set the Line Width to 32pix).
4. Paste your photo in place (Edit > Paste in Place).

The reason why you have to double the line width is Xtreme places have the line outside the shape and half inside the shape.

[Egg Bramhill]

Eric, the following steps are uncessary:

1) Import your new photo
2) Delete it
3) Select the photo that is inside the border
4) Open the bitmap gallery
5) Select the bitmap that you just deleted and press the Fill button

Just drag select a new photo onto the old one and it replaces it.

[Grandizer]

Thanks all for the suggestions, I am going to try them out in a few minutes...

The thing I did NOT make clear in my OP is that all pictures have the Identical height, but the widths are different.

So needless to say, frequently when centering the pic on a frame, the width is always in need of adjustment. Because of the variances, most of the time a border is bigger on one side or the other, even when it was resized evenly, you know, odd pixel size width of the pic causes a different size border around it.

I will try to see if the center alignment command will split the difference where the adjustment arrows don't.

[Grandizer]

The set line width works beautifully.
Thanks for that idea.
I am embarrassed that I didn't figure that out myself.

Next question, is there an easy way to always center the result in the CENTER of the badge horizontally, but always up from the center a fixed amount.
Basically...

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[dogbertbh]

I'm not sure I understand this one, Grandizer.

Can you attach a copy of your final result so we can try to figure an easily duplicated effort?

I'm thinking guidelines or guide objects right off, but want to be sure I get what you want.

[Grandizer]

Okay here it is...
The particulars are that the cute Kitty MUST have it's height where it is, and be centered left and right, everything else is already locked down.

Since the pics are dragged and dropped on the badge and then I apply the line width to them, I only have to care that the top of the kitty is ALWAYS at the same point.

Of course I have another caveat, there are 6 on a page, 3 columns, 2 rows that are centered on each other so if I have a way to drop 6 IDENTICAL height objects in the 6 locations, such that the vertical position in relation to the top border is ALWAYS the same, I can use the Alignment tool to do the centering left and right with no problem.

Of course I am aware that with more work on my part, I could just center, select the three on the same horizontal and input the correct height for each, but I wondered if there was an option to snap to a certain point that I fix. That way I could make a point in each pic that would be the absolute center of the pic, and just center the pic on that point each time, that way I wouldn't worry about anything else...

hahaha, typing this gave me an idea I will try...
If I set a point that is a transparent or white spot in the center of my desired location, can I then center on that with the kitty covering the spot???

hmmm, will try now...

[dogbertbh]

I was going to suggest using another object in the top-left corner to snap against.

Good luck