How to add a Border to a Photo in Canva?

Canva is a widely used graphic design tool across the world due to its user friendly interface and extensive list of cool features. One such feature is to add border to a photo or a picture to make it more attractive.

In this tutorial, we have explained in simple steps on how one can add a border around a photo in Canva. Let’s get started with the tutorial.

Step 1: Open an existing design or new design page in Canva. For this tutorial, we are using a new design page.

how to add a border to a picture in canva

Step 2: Add a picture/photo to the design you want to add a border. Now click on the “Edit image” option at the top toolbar.

how to add a border to a picture on canva

Step 3: From the edit image options available, you need to scroll down a bit to see a sub-section called “Shadows”. Now select the “Glow” effect under the ‘Shadows’ option.

how to add a border to an image in canva

Step 4: You will be able to see a thin border around the image as soon as you apply the ‘Glow’ effect. Now you need to select the “Controls” option on top of the “Glow” effect.

how to add border to image in canva

Step 5: In the controls, you have multiple options, as shown in the below screenshot. Let’s understand each one of these options.
Size: It is the thickness size of the shadow/border that is applied around the photo.
Transparency: You can set the opacity percentage to the shadow/border applied to the photo.
Blur: This control softens & extends the border.
Colour: Choose the colour of your choice for the border/shadow.

how to add a border around a picture in canva

Once you adjust all the controls, click the “Apply” option at the bottom of the screen to save the changes.

Step 6: Wish to add a thick border around the photo? Then increase the transparency to 100% & keep the blur percentage to 0%. And adjust the border’s thickness before saving the changes to see a thick border around the picture, as shown in the below screenshot.

how to add a border around an image in canva

You might think that we could have just added a hallow square element as border for the image. However, the above method we just discussed is beneficial to add a border around a photo/picture, especially when the photo is not square and more like a cut-out like the one shown in the below screenshot.

how to add borders to images in canva

This completed adding a border to a photo/picture in Canva using the ‘Shadows’ feature. Hope you find it useful. Checkout our other blog posts on Canva features to learn more about Canva.

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