Add Border to Image
Add a white, black, coloured or transparent border around a photo, to frame it or give it room on a page. The border goes outside the image, so nothing is cropped.
Runs in your browser. Your data is not uploaded.How our tools work
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How do I add a border to an image?
Choose an image, pick a thickness such as 20 px and a colour, then select “Add border”. The border is added outside the photo, so the image grows by twice the thickness and nothing is cropped. White, black, any colour or a transparent border all work.
- Select or drop a JPG, PNG or WebP image.
- Choose the border thickness (0, 5, 10, 20 or 40 px, or your own) and its colour. The preview updates as you change them.
- Select “Add border”, check the new size, then download the image.
Formula & Method
New size
Example: 1000 × 800 with a 20 px border = 1040 × 840
Key features
Border outside the image
Every pixel of the photo is kept; the border makes the image larger instead of covering its edges.
Any colour, or transparent
White, black, a custom colour from the picker or a HEX code, or a transparent border for PNG and WebP.
Exact pixels
The thickness is in pixels of the original image, from 0 to 1,000 px on each side.
Transparent areas kept
Only the border strip is painted, so transparent areas inside a PNG or WebP stay transparent.
Common uses
- Add a white frame to a photo for social media
- Give a product photo some breathing space
- Add padding around a logo or screenshot
Supported formats and limits
- Input
- JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, BMP and AVIF up to 40 MB, plus HEIC where the browser supports it
- Output
- Same as original (other formats are saved as PNG), or JPG, PNG or WebP
Border size and final dimensions
The thickness you choose is added to each side, so the width and the height both grow by twice that amount: a 1080 × 1080 post with a 40 px border becomes 1160 × 1160.
When a site needs an exact final size, resize first and add the border second. For a 1080 × 1080 result with a 40 px frame, resize the photo to 1000 × 1000 (1080 − 2 × 40) with the Image Resizer, then add the 40 px border here.
Choose the thickness as a share of the shorter side rather than a fixed number of pixels, because 40 px is a clear frame on a 1080 px post but a thin line on a camera photo. About 2–4% of the shorter side gives a thin frame, 20–45 px on a 1080 px post; 5–8% gives a wide mat, 150–240 px on a 4000 × 3000 photo.
Related tools
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I add a border to one side only, or make a photo square?
No. The border is the same thickness on all four sides, with square corners and no shadow. To make a photo square for a post, crop it to 1:1 with the Image Cropper first, then add the border.
Can the border be transparent?
Yes, when you save as PNG or WebP. JPG can’t store transparency, so the option isn’t available for JPG output.
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