The Framer creates the appearance of a matted frame around your image.  It does this by rendering up to two mats, a frame and the wall behind it with highlights and shading to create a photo realistic view of your image in a frame.  This utility can also be used to create other effects such as a printed picture that "floats" in front of the screen.  Additionally, the frames are designed in such a way that they compress very well and thus allow you to add the framed effect and cover more screen area without paying a large penalty in file size.

A framing tutorial is available to help you learn more about using the Framer.

There are four components to the Framer utility: Two mats, the frame and the wall.  Each of these components and a catch-all category, "Other,"  have a tab and corresponding page in the top portion of the window.   Each of these components may be omitted by unchecking the Active box in the appropriate page.  If any settings are changed, the effects are immediately reflected in the picture displayed in the window, so it is quite easy to experiment with different settings.

Color

The color of each item may be set by clicking the Color button.  It will present a large list of named colors.  If none of these suit you, you may choose "Other" at the top of the list to define your own color with the color editor.  Note that the bottom 16 colors suggested in the color editor are colors automatically chosen to match your particular image.

Width and Height

The Width and Height are represented as a percentage of the width or height of the component that is being surrounded .  In other words, a width value of 10 for Matte 1 will add ~10 pixels of matting to each side of a 100 pixel wide image and ~20 pixels of matting to a 200 pixel wide image.  Using a percentage value allows the frame to scale properly with large and small images alike.  When the "Width = height" box is checked, both the width and height values will be set to the maximum of the width and height.  This allows you to create a matte or frame with equal width and height.

Bevel

The matte Bevel setting simulates the angled cut common in mats.  These are usually 45 degree cuts that expose a little bit of the inner material of the matte.  The setting here simulates the angle of the cut and the thickness of the matte.  Choosing "None" means no bevel is visible.

Texture

The mats, frame and wall that you render may have a texture mapped on to them to make them look more photorealistic. 

You may choose a texture from the list presented.  The standard textures include wood grain, marble, canvas, stone etc.  See the framing tutorial for information about how to use your own textures.

The relief slider tells how deeply the texture should be etched.  Slide to the right for more and to the left for less.

The Size parameter controls the size of the texture.  A smaller number means more repeats of the texture pattern and smaller texture patterns. 

It should be noted that frames with no texture tend to compress well and thus save to smaller files than frames with textures.  In applications where files size is critically important, textures should be used sparingly.

Frame Settings

The Frame Style may be one of Flat, Sharp, Smooth or Round depending on what type of frame you would like.

The Frame Shine can controlled via a slider.  From left to right the slider can help you to approximate Matte, Wood, Plastic or Metal. 

The Frame Depth value controls the distance from the front of the frame to the wall.  This affects the length of the shadow on the wall.

Other Settings

The Shadow Darkness value models the amount of ambient light in the room where your imaginary framed image is displayed.  If there is just a single light source, shadows are darker and more defined.  If the room has other light sources or has a lot of  reflection, the shadows will appear less dark.

By clicking on Glass Reflection, you can simulate a reflection in the glass of your frame.  The image you choose will be reversed left-to-right to simulate a reflection and then alpha blended over the whole image.  With this feature you can simulate your image on display in a famous museum (by reflecting the museum in the glass) or being viewed by a famous personality.

The Print Texture setting allows you to simulate various types of paper textures for your image print.  It should be noted that this will degrade the quality of your image somewhat, but it can be used to achieve an artistic effect.

Batch Settings

Use these settings to determine how the Resizer will interact with you as it carries out an action.

Don't Query - use the settings that have been entered for all images

Query Once - for each time this action is invoked (whether for one image or 100 images) allow the user to set the parameters

Query Per Image - for each image, display a dialog box to allow the user to adjust the settings for that particular image

Examples

These are just a few examples of the types of framed images that are possible using the Framer utility.  These images are small for quick downloading, but the mats and frames are all high quality even at large sizes.

A framing tutorial is available to help you learn more about using the Framer.