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Making a frame isn't that complicated, it's just the know how. Everyone needs to learn how to use an image editing program if they want to produce images for the web - some are expensive such as Adobe Photoshop, some are relatively inexpensive such as Jasc's Paint Shop Pro, and some are free such as Pixia and Irfanview. The more expensive programs offer more ways to manipulate an image but for basic image editing you don't need Photoshop though if you can get it or Paint Shop Pro I'd grab a copy. Many personal websites on the net that are simply gorgeous are done using Paint Shop Pro which is less than $100 (as of 8-28-03). Below and on the next few pages you will see a very basic way to add a frame to your image in order to add to it's appeal. Sometimes just the addition of a frame can enhance an image (or totally destroy it so be careful). One thing I can not stress enough is to make a copy of your original image and work on the copy - NEVER save over your original image! If you make a mistake you can't unsave and you may ruin many hours of work. Also, be sure to save fairly frequently in case the program (or computer) freezes up. You don't want to be almost finished with your masterpiece and then have the program freeze on you before you save the finished image - there goes many hours of work down the drain and a genuine feeling of anger, loss and helplessness comes flooding in. Take it from someone who knows - save save save! First you will need to open the image you wish to use in your image editor. For the first part of this tutorial we are using Photoshop. Resize the image if it's too large so that it's smaller than the size you want it to be when finished. My image started out at 1600x1600, I reduced it down to 250x250 because I want the finished image size to be 300x300 pixels. As you will notice, it's not the prettiest of fractals so I thought it would need a little sprucing up.  After choosing a color from the image by using the eyedropper tool I enlarged the canvas by 50 pixels high and 50 pixels wide making the image size 300x300 pixels.  |