Does anybody know of a graphics program in Linux that would allow me to import a standard jpeg image, and add a customized frame around the picture that I created myself?

I use the GIMP for most things but it only has a few basic border filters included. I've looked at Inkscape, OpenOffice Draw, showFoto (and hence the Kipi plugins) and Gwenview, but none has such a function that I can see. There needs to be either a function for adding (importing) your own frame style, or a templates directory that I can access to dump my own in. One other requirement: the frames I've designed have transparent regions so I need to export the final image - with transparency included - for pasting back into a GIMP image.

This started off as one of those seemingly simple requirements and has now turned into an impossible quest. Currently, I have a frame design split into eight regions (4 corners and 4 sides) saved as separate files. I have to laboriously paste each of the eight files around my photo images of varying sizes, and scale the side parts to the exact number of pixels. Doing this for an image with several photos and frames is a very tedious and long-winded process. There must be a better way!

My preferred tool for this operation is Inkscape, where I produce the border in vector format and export it in png format. I can determine the exact pixel size while exporting.

But I understand you want to use a bitmap border, resize it and put it onto your picture, right?

You can't avoid any calculations, only you know the size of the picture and how much you want the border stretched etc.

Have a look at ImageMagick. http://www.imagemagick.org/script/index.php

With the combine command (http://www.chemie.fu-berlin.de/chemn...w/combine.html) you can take your bitmap border and combine it with a 45 degrees square picture so you are cutting the ends of your border correctly.

My workflow would be like this, all using convert and combine:
- determine the size of the frame I need
- create the largest edge of the frame by combining a number of pieces of my base frame image
- cut the edges in 45 degrees
- duplicate and mirror the longer edge
- duplicate and rotate one edge
- cut the shorter side with 45 degrees
- duplicate and mirror the shorter edge
- combine those for images into one image

The nice thing about this is that it is relatively easy to script. Once you sort out how to determine dimensions and cutting points it works for every image. Aligning is no problem of course.

Bash is not good with non-integer calculations, use dc for that.

jlinkels

Thanks for the detailed response. It still seems a lot more hairy than what I'm after, however. I'm really searching for a simple GUI function along the lines of 'Add Frame -> {My_frame}' and voila, it appears just like that around any image I throw at it, without me even having to know the dimensions. This is assuming, of course, I have saved the frame or its parts in whatever format necessary beforehand.

The latest version of another program I use, PhotoPrint, has some TIFF borders with transparency built into it and the ability to add new directories, though it seems to simply scale them up in their entirety, whereas I only want to scale the lengths of the sides. In effect, my frames may have variable overall sizes but the width of the frame itself must be fixed. I am adding these individually framed photos to a composite image in which they must each have a regular appearance.

I searched for the showFoto frame templates but they seem to be wrapped up in some binary system library. Your suggestion of using a scalable vector image in Inkscape might work equally well as my current solution but I'd rather find a way of creating a frame one time only and then merely adding it to any image I choose.

You are right that it is more hairy that you wish. But believe me, that GUI function takes exactly the steps I described with ImageMagick. But you don't see it because it is hidden.

I am afraid I don't know about a GUI program in Linux which can do this for you, maybe it even doesn't exist (yet).

jlinkels

Sorry that I keep pushing you to a non-GUI solution. Look at this:
http://www.fmwconcepts.com/imagemagi...rame/index.php

The option is mentioned to create your own images for frames. Didn't test it though.

jlinkels