Creating A Frosted Glass Border In GIMP

To add a truly personal touch to your image you may want to create a frame around the image, and by using GIMP or any other raster editor you can easily create a customisable border of your very own. Here I will show you how to create a frosted glass effect around the edge of your picture using GIMP.

Step 1. Duplicate Layer

Open your image in GIMP and click the Duplicate Layer button (highlighted in the screenshot) to create a copy of the opened Background Layer. Then double-click the new layer's name to rename it; I've changed mine to Frosting, this layer is going to contain the frosted effect so keep that in mind when you name it.

Step 2. Draw The Inside Of The Frame

Select the Rectangular Select tool (press R in GIMP, S in Paint Shop Pro and M in Photoshop) and use it to draw the central area that you want to be inside the frame. Now you have the centre selected open Select, Invert (Control and I in GIMP or Control, Shift and I in PSP and Photoshop) and you should have your border selected now.

Step 3. Apply Gaussian Blur

In the top layer open Filters, Blur, Gaussian Blur (Adjust, Blur, Gaussian Blur in PSP) and add a good amount of blur depending chiefly on the resolution of your image. You want to make sure that the frame is very blurry so that shapes are only vaguely discernable through it.

Step 4. Create A New Layer

Keeping your selection active, create a new layer on top of this one and rename it something like Tint as this is where we will add the colour that will frost the glass as we want.

Step 5. Fill The Border

Now use the Bucket Fill tool to fill the border area with the colour you would like to tint the glass. It's best to stay with pale shades but if you decide to go with colour; frosted glass tends to be rather white. I'm going with a very pale blue-white colour to be traditional.

Step 6. Change Layer Mode

Now change the layer mode for the Tint to something like Overlay or Soft Light and reduce the opacity so that the colour doesn't completely obscure the blurred background (the higher your opacity the more frosted the glass will appear).

Step 7. Soften The Frame's Edge

Finally, to soften the edge of the frame (if you want to that is) you can apply more Gaussian Blur to the Tint so as to soften the sharp edges. You don't require as much blur as last time, so play it safe and you can always add more if you're not happy with the result. Play around with the opacity of the tint until you are happy and there you have it, a frosted frame for your photographs.