Borders on masks

[fergy]

I like to put a border round the images within a slide, where the image does not fill the full screen.

Quite often within a presentation, I want to keep similar sizes of image, but to zoom or pan, within these images

I do this by using a mask which is the same aspect ratio as the as the other images - allowing me to zoom or pan while maintaining a fixed image size on the screen

But when doing this I don't seem to have the ability to put a border round the inside of the mask, to mantain a consistent look to the presentation.

My work round for this to date, has been to create a rectangle, filled same colour as border, sized to same aspect ratio, and then placed behind the mask, and zoomed until creates a "border"

Does anyone have a more elegant solution, since this adds yet another element to the O&A list which at times can get a bit busy ?

Ian

[davegee]

Create a PNG "matte" in Photoshop and put a "stroke" line around the cutout.

You could use this matte on ALL slides regardless of whether you apply any PZR.

Make first slide with matte on top and copy as many times as necessay then just add your image as an object under the matte.

OR,

Drag all of your slides into the slide panel and then add the matte to the first and copy and paste (the matte) to all slides (or as required) by stepping through the slides in O&A.

DG

[fergy]

Thank you for the advice

I had previously done something like this, however this requires you to predefine the aspect ratio of the window, although I did set up several mattes with differnet aspect ratios

My work round allows me to vary the aspect ratio as required, while working in the project, but would be even easier if it were possible to put a border on the inside of the mask.

Of course I am only talking about unfeathered masks, as there would be little point when using a feather

Again thanks for the input. Having been reminded, I'll probably start to use this method again, as it really only takes seconds to produce a matte to the appropriate ratio, especially if you set up an action in photoshop

Ian

[Lin Evans]

Hi Ian,

You don't have to predefine the aspect ratio of the window.

If you hold down the Shift key, you can drag the sides of any PNG rectangle to "fit" the existing image regardless of aspect ratio.

Best regards,

Lin

[davegee]

Correct Lin,

But what you are suggesting would also alter the thickness of any "stroke" line or border on the Window giving a different thickness at the sides compared to the bottom/top?

DG

[Lin Evans]

Hi David,

Yes, but probably not enough to really matter unless the aspect ratios were very different.

Best regards,

Lin

Correct Lin,

But what you are suggesting would also alter the thickness of any "stroke" line or border on the Window giving a different thickness at the sides compared to the bottom/top?

DG

[fergy]

Thanks Linn

I didn't know that you could do that - it's solved my problem

The hidden depths of PtoE

Ian

[davegee]

I have given it a little more thought and posted a Template for doing it completely within PTE here:

DG