A plain border does a lot for a picture. A thin white edge makes a photo look printed, a wide one gives it a gallery feel, and a dark frame makes colours glow. A border also keeps a picture from blending into a white page or a busy feed.
Here you can add a border to an image in a few clicks: pick the width, pick the colour, and press Add border. Use it to add a frame to a photo before you print it, or a narrow photo border before you post it. You can set each side on its own, take the colour from the picture itself, or add space to fit a shape such as a square. It runs in your browser, nothing is uploaded, and it is free with no watermark.
How to add a border to a photo or image
To add a border to a photo, a screenshot or any other picture, follow these steps.
- Press Select images, or drop one or more pictures onto the page.
- Under Add, keep A border.
- Drag Width to set how thick the border is. The value shows as a percent and in pixels, such as 4 % · 120 px.
- Pick a Colour: White, Ink, Black, Grey, Red, Yellow or Transparent, or any colour from the + swatch.
- Keep Save as on Original, or pick JPG, PNG or WebP, then press Add border.
- Save the framed picture. Its name ends in _border.
The border is added around the outside, so none of your picture is covered and the result is bigger than the original. A 4000 × 3000 photo with a 4 % border gets 120 pixels on every side and comes out 4240 × 3240.
The stage shows the framed picture as it will be saved, with the border in its colour, or a checkerboard where it is transparent, so you can judge the look before you press Add border.
Width and colour: choosing the right photo border
Width runs from 0 to 25 % of the picture's shorter side, in steps of half a percent. Measuring the image border from the shorter side keeps it looking the same on a tall picture and a wide one, and on a small picture and a large one. If you need a set number of pixels, move the slider until the pixel value beside the label reads close to it.
| Look | Width and Colour | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| A thin white border | 1 to 2 %, White | Photos shared online, so they stand apart from the page |
| A gallery mat | 6 to 10 %, White or Grey | Prints, portfolios and artwork |
| A dark frame | 2 to 5 %, Black or Ink | Night shots and bold colours |
| A brand edge | 1 to 3 %, your colour from the + swatch | Product photos and social posts in a set |
A 1 to 2 % White border is the classic white border photo look, and it suits most pictures shared online.
For a colour that matches the picture, press Pick from picture beside the swatches and click a spot on the picture. The border takes that colour, which often looks calmer than a stock one.
Transparent adds empty space rather than a colour. It is saved as PNG or WebP, since JPG has no transparency, so while Transparent is picked, JPG under Save as is switched off and says No transparency.
A different border on each side
Switch on Different on each side and the single Width gives way to four boxes: Top, Right, Bottom and Left. Each is a percent of the shorter side, from 0 to 50, and the line under them shows what that means in pixels for your picture.
- A print-style frame: Top, Right and Left at 4, and Bottom at 15, leaves a deeper strip at the bottom, as instant photos have, with room to write.
- A caption bar: Bottom only, in White or Ink, gives you a clean space to add words with Add text to image.
- A side margin: Left and Right only turns a picture wider without cutting it.
If every side is set to 0, there is no border to add, and the panel says: The border is 0. Make it wider.
Add white space to fit a square or other shape
Under Add, Space to a shape does a different job. Instead of an even border, it adds just enough space to make the picture a set shape: 1:1, 4:5, 9:16, 16:9 or 3:2. Nothing is cut off, so it is the way to fit a wide photo into a square or a tall frame without cropping.
- Picture position places the picture in the new shape, from a 3 × 3 grid: Top left, Centre, Bottom right and so on.
- Extra margin, from 0 to 20 %, adds more space all round, so the picture does not touch the edges.
- The Colour fills the added space, exactly as for a border.
The saved file ends in _padded. If the picture already has the shape you picked and Extra margin is 0, there is nothing to add, and the panel asks you to add a margin or pick another shape. For the most common case, make image square opens with 1:1 already set.
This is also how to add padding to an image: the picture stays whole and the new space takes the Colour. For a white border on a square post without cropping, pick White and 1:1, and add a few percent of Extra margin so the white shows on every side. Then Resize image for Instagram makes it 1080 × 1080, and since the picture is already square, the resize cuts nothing off.
Frame many pictures, and what is kept
You can add a border to an image or to a whole set at once: select up to 100 pictures to frame them all in one run. Because the width is a percent of each picture's own shorter side, every border looks the same in proportion, even when the pictures are different sizes. The button counts them (Add border to 20 pictures), and Save all as ZIP saves the results together.
Save as Original keeps a JPG as a JPG and a PNG as a PNG; an iPhone HEIC photo becomes a JPG. JPG and WebP are saved at high quality, and PNG keeps every pixel. The saved picture is drawn fresh, with no location, camera or date details, and a sideways phone photo comes out the right way up.
- It runs in your browser: the picture is never uploaded, and our server does no picture work.
- It is free, with no account and no watermark. Image tools are not counted in the daily limit, which applies to document conversions only.
- It works in current Chrome, Edge and Firefox. For softer edges instead of a frame, try Round image corners. A frame also suits a black and white photo, and you can invert photo colours for a bold negative.
Add your border now
To add a border to an image, choose A border, set the Width, pick a Colour or take one from the picture, and press Add border. Set each side on its own for a print-style frame, or use Space to a shape to fit a square without cropping.
It is free and private, and nothing leaves your device. If a photo came out too dark, run it through Brighten image before you frame it. Framing a photo of people to share? Hide any face that should not be seen with pixelate image first. Then select your pictures above to frame them.
