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Re-sizing examples with or without keyline borders

All digital images for club competitions should be sized to a maximum of 1600x1200 pixels (and optionally set to 300ppi). The exception is the Three On A Theme competition which allows 1920x1200 pixels as the limit.

The examples below show how an individual image can be re-sized in Photoshop or Lightroom. The dialog boxes may have slightly different options in different versions of Photoshop but the procedure is the same in all versions. Similar options exist in Photoshop Elements and other image editing software will also have equivalent options.

The image used in this example starts at 6000x4000 pixels and has no border. It is re-sized to a width of 1600 pixels with a 4 pixel white keyline border.

For more on resizing and resampling see the Adobe resizing support page for Photoshop Elements or the image size and resolution page for Photoshop.

Re-sizing without a keyline border

Before creating a crisp border of a specific width on a re-sized image, the image should be re-sized without a border. This is the starting point for the keyline border methods that follow.

  • Open the image in Photoshop. If the image has layers, use Layer > Flatten Image from the main menu to flatten the image before re-sizing.
  • Select Image > Image Size from the main menu.

  • Check the Resample box and select an interpolation method (e.g. Bicubic Sharper) from the drop-down box.
  • Ensure the lock symbol is in place to link the width and height - this maintains the original image aspect ratio when either the width or height is redefined. Clicking the lock symbol toggles it on and off.
  • Set the resolution to 300 pixels/inch. Do this before defining the new width or height.
  • Set the width to 1600 pixels or the height to 1200 pixels depending upon the aspect ratio of your image. The second dimension gets set automatically because the aspect ratio is constrained by the lock symbol. Make sure that the 1600x1200 limit is not exceeded for either dimension.

  • Click on OK to re-size the image.

    The result of pressing 'OK' on the Image Size screen.

    The final re-sized image, 1600x1067 pixels (scaled here to fit onto the web page).

Re-sizing with a keyline border

The two most common methods for creating a keyline in Photoshop are:

  • The "inner border" method - adding a stroke line around the re-sized image
  • The "outer border" method - extending the canvas size of the re-sized image

The main differences in the two methods are:

  • The size to which the image must be re-sized before creating the keyline.
  • The keyline of the "inner border" method overlays the line on the image (i.e. some pixels of the re-sized image are lost) whereas the "outer border" method retains all pixels of the re-sized image.

The "inner border" keyline method
(stroke line)

For this method the image is first re-sized to the exact required final width or height using the "without a keyline border" method. A stroke line of the required colour and width is then added to create a border around the inside of the image. This stroke line will lie on top of the image so some image pixels will no longer be visible. As is often the case with Photoshop there is more than one way to create a stroke line.

  • Use the "no keyline border" procedure above to re-size the image to the required width or height. For this example, the starting point in the screenshots below is a borderless 1600x1067 image.

  • In the layer list we must have an unlocked layer. If the layer is a Background with a lock symbol, as shown here, click on the lock to convert it to a layer.
Method 1 (simple options)
  • Select Edit > Stroke from the main menu.

  • Set a border Width and a Colour.
  • Ensure the Location is set to "inside".
  • For a solid keyline set the Blend Mode to Normal and the Opacity to 100%.

  • Click OK to create the keyline.

    The image with the border added.

    The final image, 1600x1067 pixels with 4 pixel white border (scaled here to fit onto the web page).
Method 2 (giving access to more advanced options and a preview of the border)
  • Double-click the icon of the image in the layer list to bring up the Layer Style window.
  • Click on Stroke in the left pane.
  • Set a border Size.
  • Ensure the Position is set to "inside".
  • For a solid keyline set the Blend Mode to Normal and the Opacity to 100%.
  • Set the Fill Type to Colour and choose a colour.
  • Click OK to create the keyline.

    The image with the border added.

    The final image, 1600x1067 pixels with 4 pixel white border (scaled here to fit onto the web page).
  • Note that with this method the stroke is available as an attribute of the layer and can easily be modified afterwards by accessing the layer style screen.

The "outer border" keyline method
(canvas extension)

For this method the image is initially re-sized slightly smaller than the required final size and is then extended to the required final size when the border is created. For our example image we want a final width of 1600 pixels and a 4 pixel border all the way around. So the initial re-sizing must produce an image that is 1592 pixels wide. When the 4 pixel border is added to each side we end up with a 1600 pixel image.

  • Use the "no keyline border" procedure above to re-size the image to the required width or height. For this example, the starting point in the screenshots below is the borderless 1592x1061 image.
  • Select Image > Canvas Size from the main menu.
  • Ensure that the anchor position is the central square so that the change is applied evenly around the image.
  • Check the Relative box.
  • Enter values of 8 pixels for width and height (to extend width and height by 4 pixels left/right and top/bottom).
  • Select a colour for the keyline border.
  • Click on OK to re-size the canvas.

    The result of 'OK' on the Canvas Size screen.

    The final image, 1600x1069 pixels with 4 pixel white border (scaled here to fit onto the web page).

Save option for jpeg files

Files should be saved as in JPEG format. The following applies to Photoshop but other software will have similar options. The quality setting in other software may be described differently e.g. 0-100 rather than 0-12.

  • Select File / Save As from the main menu.
  • Specify the format as JPEG, select a folder and give a filename.
  • Click on Save.
  • In the JPEG options box (shown below) set the compression level (12=best quality, biggest file).
  • Set the format to Baseline Optimized.
  • Click on OK.


Suggested options for saving Jpeg files for competitions

Re-sizing in Lightroom

The Lightroom Export screens allows resizing but does not have a simple means of adding a border to a borderless image. The standard Export module is therefore only good for borderless resizing.

The approach to re-size an image and to add a border on the re-sized image is to use the "Edit in Photoshop" option in Lightroom and then use one of the methods described above.

Alternatively, the LR Mogrify plugin for Lightroom adds a powerful set of options to allow export with a single inner or outer border, or a combination of multiple inner and outer borders, without the need to go into Photoshop - everything is controlled from the Lightroom Export screen with the the benefit that an export Preset can be saved. Once configured this means that only a few clicks are needed regardless of the image aspect ratio.

The plugin appears as a set of post-processing options in the Export screen. The example below mimics the "outside border" method above. The image is re-sized smaller than the final required size and an outer border is added to create the keyline and achieve the desired final image size.


Library > Export
Example of LR Mogrify outside border options