Comments on: Photographic Frames and Mattes

By: Steve Werner

Steve Werner — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:29:35 +0000

Mordy’s Illustrator tutorial (previous posting) is VERY cool. I think Illustrator is really the place to create the fancy borders. I look to use Pattern Brushes. It’s been in Illustrator for a long time.

Plus, he uses pictures of David for the tutorial!

By: Mordy Golding

Mordy Golding — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:12:50 +0000

Hi David!

I decided to join in you in “wasting time doing stuff that I shouldn’t be doing when I have other stuff that I should be doing”… Here’s some information on creating frames and borders in Illustrator.

By: David Blatner

David Blatner — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 15:42:33 +0000

@Klaus: I know the INX files are useful, but honestly, its often better for people to do it themselves. You know, “teach a man to fish vs. giving them a fish” Recreating from scratch is one of the best ways to learn the techniques.

@Alan: I wish I had too much time on my hands. No, this post was called “creative procrastination” — I was supposed to be doing some actual paying work and did this instead. But you know how some people play computer games or take drugs or whatever? I’m more hardcore than that: I dose on InDesign.

By: Klaus Nordby

Klaus Nordby — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:01:18 +0000

Very nice and useful stuff David — and good golly, you even gave us an INX file! Just like I’ve been clamoring for for ages — but it still happens only one per blue moon. Here’s your revised New Year’s Resolution: “Always provide an INX file for readers to play with — instead of having them waste their lives trying to recreate from scratch the high-falutin’ stuff we’re talking about.”

By: Angelika

Angelika — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 02:52:01 +0000

The Bahai’ Temple! Nice!

By: Alan G

Alan G — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 02:29:49 +0000

David, you have way too much time on your hands. In your case, though, that's a good thing. I love how you do your thinking over here, while leaving the box way over there.

By: Michel

Michel — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 02:11:04 +0000

iStockphoto has some *amazing* guilloche style certificate borders. Definitely worth a look.

By: Fritz

Fritz — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 23:01:03 +0000

Mike- You can always use Illustrator to create beautiful frames. Since Illustrator supports multiple strokes, the sky is the limit for your creativity.

By: Mariella

Mariella — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:24:24 +0000

That inner shadow looks good!

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:10:21 +0000

A bit off-topic, but not too much…

The only thing I like about Quark is that it has the certificate frame which is great for direct marketing projects I work on.

Has anyone come up with a frame like that for InDesign?

I know I can get stock photos of certificate frames, but they don’t scale well and there’s no control over the weight.

So I’ve been searching for something that works from inside of InDesign itself.

As for David’s last example… that looks great!