Photoshop CS3

[dj_doubler]

Hi all,

Just a quick newbie question... I am making some designs at the moment... is there a way I can put a box or "cut out line" around the images as its only text and I need to make a nice straight line to cut it out....

Anthony

[GoonerGary]

Layer/ layer style/ Stroke.

or Edit/ Stroke.

create a stroke of 1-2 pixels

[Paul Richards]

Go into view at the top line in photoshop, then press ruler, this will put ruler measurement on the side and at the top, then just left click your mouse marker on either ruler , this will bring a straight line out. You can see this on the screen but will not show on the image. This is ideal for lineing text in a straight formation.

[FlyingAl]

Hi Anthony,

Both great solutions, with possible downsides :) see below, so I'm just throwing in a third.

GoonerGary solution - works great as long as you have no transparency in the image as the stroke line will follow the outline of the opaque pixels only, the image should also be cropped to avoid stroking pixels that are 'outside' your image. Stroked pixels outside your image won't appear inside your image and will look like gaps in your outline.

Pauls solution - again, a great solution but as he mentions these guide lines will NOT show up on you image so can't be used as a guide to cut out your image after printing.

Another possible solution, otherwise known as my tuppenceworth :) - create a new layer above all the other layers in your image, Press 'M' to select the rectangular marquee tool. press ctrl 'A' to select the whole image (a frame of 'marching ants' should appear) . Right click anywhere INSIDE your image, left click on 'Stroke' select size as 1 pixel, select a dark colour and make sure 'inside' is selected. Click OK. Left click anywhere to remove the 'marching ants'. You should be left with a fine dark outline around your image that will appear on your print, you can also turn it off if you need to by making the layer invisible.

The above solution will add a crop line around the exact size of you image, I personally like to have a bit of a blank border around my transfers, you could add that by increasing your canvas size a bit before doing the above.

Cheers
Alan

[Lee]

could you not also select the line tool and just draw a line where you need it to be cut?

or by a guillotine which will give you a straight edge where you need it...

[daviddeer]

To make a rectangle to frame your image:
Create a new layer above your image;
Select the rectangular marquee tool
Draw a rectangle any size
Right click inside it and select stroke
Give your rectangle the correct colour and border width and click ok
Press cntrl+d to deselect the marquee
To resize the rectangle exactly choose edit - transform - distort
or just tick the show transform controls box at the top of the page

[kris_hm]

crop your image
go to edit/canvas size, enter new dimensions, pick colour
accept