I don’t know image apps very well so I don’t know the proper terminology. I could tell you all about audio apps, but not this stuff. So please excuse my ignorance.
I used to do this in Photoshop very simply. Basically, what I’m doing is making audiobook covers for my audiobook server. That entails finding a book cover image - which are portrait format - and then plopping that cover image over a 1200x1200 dark gray, square layer. So there are two layers now. I used to go into a Layer submenu and then select Stroke to add a gold border to the book cover portrait image layer and it was done! I could then change the thickness of the stroke and the color by going back to that submenu. This was very, very easy to do in Photoshop and I can’t figure out how to do it in GIMP.
Can anyone help?
This is what the finished product looks like. Dark gray square with a book cover image that has a gold border around it.
If you would like to add gold border to the cover image layer, using rectangle select tool you can add little smaller rectangle selection than layer size, and with [select] > [invert], you can invert selection and using bucket fill tool you can fill inverted border selection with gold color.
Oh. It can’t just auto-select the image’s actual borders like Photoshop does? How does one add strokes to text then, I wonder? Do I have to trace each individual letter? I’m so confused. I really need to learn this stuff better.
Until Gimp 3 comes along with GEGL adjustment layers, Adding a border is not reversible. For an outside border, best way is add a new transparent layer, and add the border to that.
However, straight onto your title page it is Select → All then Edit → Stroke Selection.
Merged text might be a little more difficult when the text colour is close to the background colour. Isolate the text with a rectangular select, then colour select the text in intersect mode. Depending on the colours play with the colour select modes and threshold value.
If you add text as a Gimp text layer, much easier. Layer → Text to Path
Make a new transparent layer, Edit → Stroke Path.
example of that: https://i.imgur.com/6I00gVw.mp4
Selecting all and stroking the border is a very valid way of achieving what you want. However if you use the add border method then you will select how many pixels are added to X and Y which in the example below is 12. Set the border colour to the desired value and set the delta value to 1 unless you want a bevelled look. The beauty about the add border method is that it is retained as a separate layer so it can be deleted or changed in a non-destructive fashion.
In Gimp you can fill or stroke a selection or a path that you make. This is very handy when creating diagrams and figures. Photoshop would offer similar. After all both of these programs started life as a graphic artist tool which photographers decided they would also use to to edit their JPG images. In the image below I selected an ellipse and stroked it with red paint at 60px. you can see the selection of marching ants.
