Free Script to Add an Antique Edge to Photos

Keith Gilbert

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I recently stumbled across an interesting script that changes the border of a rectangle to simulate an old-fashioned photographic cutter. The trouble is, the script was on a difficult-to-access Russian web site, and had a Russian interface. I reached out to the author of the script, Boris Kascheew, and he kindly gave me permission to translate the script into English, add a couple of small modifications, and post it here.

You can download the antique photo edge script here.

To learn how to install a script, see this blog post, or watch this free Lynda.com video.

To use the script, just select one or more photos, and double-click on the script in your Scripts panel. There are no settings to adjust. If you aren’t happy with the results, the script is undoable. Note that the script only works on rectangular frames (with or without corner effects), not ellipses, triangles, or polygons.

The original photo (left), and the photo after running the script (right)

To adjust the size of the edge pattern relative to the size of the photo, you can enlarge the photo, run the script, and then reduce the photo to the original size. This will result in an edge with a more detailed pattern.

You might also want to experiment with making a rectangle slightly larger than your photo, filling it with white, sending it behind the photo, and running the script with the white rectangle selected, which gives you this effect:

Certainly, this isn’t the kind of thing you need every day, but I thought it was kind of cool. Perhaps you can use it on that family photo album project you’ve been putting off!