Add a white border to a photo

Most white borders are added by eye, and that is fine until the border has to match something: a set of prints that must line up in a frame, a print shop asking for a 5 mm margin, a product photo that needs the same 40-pixel edge as the last twenty. This page opens the studio with the width as a number. Type 40 and the saved file carries exactly 40 pixels of white on every side — checked against the layout the file is drawn with, not estimated from the preview.

The unit switch converts rather than resets. A border set at 3% of the short edge becomes the same width in pixels when you switch to px, and the same width in millimetres when you switch to mm, so you can find a look by eye and then pin it down. Millimetres and inches are turned into pixels at the print resolution in the DPI field, 300 unless you change it, and the readout says what it did: “118 px = 10.0 mm at 300 DPI”.

1. 1Open the photograph. A 40 px white border is added around it straight away.
2. 2Choose the unit — %, px, mm or in — and type the width. For print sizes, set the DPI your printer or lab uses.
3. 3To give one side more room, turn off Same on every side and type each side, or use Heavier bottom.
4. 4Change the colour under Colour if white is not right, then save as PNG, JPG or WebP. The Save button shows the exact output size.

A width in pixels is a fixed number, so it stays 20 px whether the photograph is a 600-pixel screenshot or a 6000-pixel camera file. A width in percent scales with each picture instead. When a whole folder needs the same border, keep the look and use Frame more photos with this look: each picture gets the width in the unit you chose.

• A white border on a photograph with a white sky or a white background disappears at its edge. A thin grey or a colour from the picture separates the two better.
• Very wide borders on a small picture make a large, mostly empty file. Above the browser's canvas limit the Save tab offers the largest size this browser can draw instead of failing.

Does adding a border crop my photo?

No. This page opens with the border placed Outside, which adds the border around the picture and grows the file: a 1000 × 800 picture with a 20 px border on every side is saved at 1040 × 840, and every pixel of the photograph is still there. Switch to Inside only if the file must keep its original size, in which case the border is drawn over the outer edge of the picture.

How do I make the border thicker at the bottom?

Turn off Same on every side and type a bigger number for Bottom, or press Heavier bottom, which makes the bottom one and a half times the other sides — the convention for mounted prints. Top and bottom only, or left and right only, are one tap each as well.

What is 1 cm in pixels?

It depends on the print resolution. Choose mm or in and the DPI field appears, set to 300 unless you change it; the readout under the field prints the conversion. At 300 DPI, 10 mm is 118 pixels and a quarter inch is 75 pixels.

Can I use a colour other than white?

Yes. The border colour is a normal colour well under Colour: type any colour, pick one from the photograph with the dropper, or take a suggestion from Match photo. Black, cream and a colour taken from the picture are the usual alternatives.

• Instagram white borderThe whole photo on an exact Instagram 4:5, 1:1, 3:4 or Story canvas, nothing cropped.
• Polaroid frameAn instant-print style card in square, wide or mini proportions, with the deep bottom margin.
• Photo frame editorAll 32 frames drawn on your own photo, recoloured from the picture and saved at full size.
• The border studio32 border styles in 5 families, drawn onto your own picture.