This shall be my first post that addresses something different than all my previous posts. I've decided to "free" myself on what I have to write in this site :-)It is about a simple trick to make a photo frame in GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). Most of you might be already familiar with Photoshop; GIMP basically does the same thing, more-or-less. See here if you want to know more! The picture at the left shows the result.
Follow the steps below to produce the frame! Note that the menu-sequence used here is according to GIMP 2.4.6 which may differ with that in the previous versions.
Step 1Open the images as layers ("leaves" for the background, "heart" for the frame master -- you can also produce the frame master directly within the GIMP, however my favourites are to look for some nice PNGs with transparent backgrounds on this site)
Step 2
On the layers window right-click the frame master layer then select "alpha to selection". Activate the background layer, press the quickmask button (as shown) and continue with blur e.g. [Filters]-->[Blur]-->[Gaussian Blur]Then deactivate quickmask and continue with:
[Select]-->[Invert] and [Edit]-->[Clear]
Step 3Add a transparent layer at the top ([Layer]-->[New Layer]); we call this the top layer. On the layers window right-click the frame master layer then select "alpha to selection". Activate the top layer, continue with [Edit]-->[Stroke Selection] then select "Stroke with a paint tool". Make it sure that you have configured the brush as indicated below.
For a better visual effect, add new transparent layer just below the top layer (we call this top shadow). Right-click the top layer then select "alpha to selection". Activate the top shadow, continue with [Select]-->[grow]. Choose a value to grow the selection, say 5 or 10 pixels; set your favourite (foreground) color and continue with [Edit]-->[Fill with FG Color].Merge the top layer, top shadow, and the background (leaves) layer. The frame shall be now ready for your photos :-)
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