About the Add Border/Frame tool
Add a clean, even border in any color — white gallery frames for Instagram, black mattes for portfolios, or brand colors for product images.
Borders are drawn onto the image in your browser. The file is never uploaded, so a photo you are framing for a client or a family album stays entirely on your machine.
How to use it
- Add your image.
- Adjust the settings and watch the live preview.
- Download the result.
About the borders and frames effect
This applies a colored or white margin around the image.
Worth knowing
A border does more than decorate. A white margin separates a photograph from a colored page background, and a thin dark border stops a light image bleeding into a white one.
Choosing a border that works
Border width is best expressed as a proportion rather than a fixed pixel count. Between 2% and 5% of the image width looks balanced at any size, which means a 1600 px wide photo wants roughly 32–80 px of border. A fixed 20 px border looks generous on a thumbnail and invisible on a full-size photograph.
Color matters as much as width. A white border is the safe default because it reads as a print mat and works against almost any page background. A black border suits dark or high-contrast images but disappears against a dark page. If you are placing the image on a colored background, a border in that same color will make the photo appear to float, which is sometimes exactly the effect you want.
For a gallery of several images, use one border specification across all of them. Mixed border widths are the fastest way to make an otherwise tidy grid look accidental.
Common mistakes
- Adding a border that changes the final dimensions past a required size.
- Choosing a border color that clashes with the platform's own background.
- Adding a thick border to an image that will then be cropped square.
Questions people ask
Does the border change the image dimensions?
Yes. It is added outside the original, so the file grows by twice the border width in each direction.
What border width works well?
Between 2% and 5% of the image width usually looks balanced.
Can I add a border and round the corners?
Yes — add the border first, then round, and export as PNG.