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Add Border to Image

Add a solid colour border to a JPG, PNG or WebP photo with an exact pixel width, preview it live, and download at full resolution.

Choose a photo

The frame is drawn in this tab. Nothing is uploaded.

Preview and download

Choose an image to see the frame.

A live preview of the bordered image appears here.

A JPEG has no alpha channel, so transparent areas are flattened onto the border colour. PNG keeps transparency only inside the picture; the frame itself is always the colour you chose.

Your file is never sent to a server. It is read and processed by your own browser, and the results are not stored.

How to use it

  1. Choose a photo and set the border width in pixels.
  2. Pick the border colour and the output format.
  3. Check the live preview and the final dimensions, then download.

Limits worth knowing

  • The border is a solid colour from 0 to 400 pixels on each side. There is no pattern, gradient or rounded corner.
  • The output canvas grows by twice the border width. A very large border on a very large photo can hit the browser’s canvas ceiling; the tool reports the failure rather than producing a partial image.
  • JPEG output has no transparency, so any transparent part of the source is flattened onto the border colour.
  • The preview is downscaled for speed. The download is produced at the image’s full resolution.

What the frame does to the file

The tool decodes the source, creates a larger canvas, fills it with the chosen colour, and draws the image at the centre. The picture itself is not resampled: its pixels are copied at their original size, so a 40-pixel border adds exactly 80 pixels to each dimension.

That distinction matters for print. A border added by padding changes the canvas and is included in the exported file; a border added in CSS only exists on screen and disappears when the image is downloaded.

Choosing a width and colour

A border of roughly 2–5% of the shorter side reads as a frame without dominating the picture. For a print mat, a much wider border is normal, and the 400-pixel ceiling is high enough for most uses.

White is the common choice for a clean print look, black for a gallery look, and a sampled colour from the photo for a subtle match. The palette extractor on this site can suggest that colour.

Frequently asked questions

Does Add Border to Image upload my files to any server?

No. Add Border to Image runs in your browser, and the file is read there rather than sent to a server for processing. Our host still sees ordinary page-request metadata, which is described on the privacy page.

Is Add Border to Image free to use?

Yes, Add Border to Image is free, with no paid tier, no account, and no watermark added to your output. The limits are technical rather than commercial: file size, page count and supported formats are listed on this page.

What file formats and sizes are supported?

Add Border to Image supports .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .webp files up to 25MB directly in your browser.

Does the border crop the photo?

No. The canvas grows by twice the border width and the untouched image is drawn inside it, so no part of the picture is removed. A 1000×800 photo with a 40-pixel border becomes 1080×880.

Can I add a different border on each side?

Not in this tool. A single width is applied to all four sides so the frame stays even. An uneven border is a crop or a layout change rather than a frame, and it would need a different control set.

Should I choose PNG or JPEG?

Choose PNG when the photo has transparency or when you want a lossless result. Choose JPEG for a smaller file; transparent areas are flattened onto the border colour, because JPEG has no alpha channel.