3-Pixel Border Tutorial
First off, let's say we are making an avatar here. Take a blank 96x96 canvas, with a white background, and select the image you want to use. For the purposes of this tutorial, you can download the original image here. Drag it into your canvas, and crop it to fit exactly; we'll get something like this:
Figure 1
Next, add any overlay, image filters or other layer effects at this time. For our example here, we'll have this image to work with:
Figure 2
Flatten the image.
Now, you must take the background layer and make it back into a layer. The easiest way to do this is to click the Layers tab and double-click the Background entry, as shown below:
Figure 3
Figure 4
Now that you have a single layer, you can start your border. Go into the Layer menu and select Stroke from the Layer Style option. Before you start this part, it is best to decide the colors you'd like to use for your border. For our purposes here, let's say we want black as the inside color, pink for the middle color, and black as the outer color.
From the Stroke option, set a 3 pixel black inside stroke. Your options screen should look like this:
Figure 5
Click OK, then flatten the image again. Repeat the steps above to make the background into a layer, then go back into the Stroke screen. Set it as you had before, only this time set the width to 2 pixels, and change the color to pink. Your output should look something like this:
Figure 6
Now that we have a two-color border, flatten the image again and make the resulting background layer into a regular layer. Once again, open the Stroke screen and set the options to 1 pixel and black. That's it for the border! Your image should now look something like this:
Figure 7
You can now add text and other finishing touches as you desire. Export the image, and you're done!
Here's my final image:
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