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Bair Art Edition's Tutorial on:
Epson Professional Printing Workflow
Adding Borders and Cut Lines
You can often do this in the Epson Printer Driver, but I prefer using Photoshop for it's ease and direct control (despite the larger file sizes it produces).
We are going to use this image, probably my favorite portrait that I've ever taken, as an example:
Making the Border
Right now it is, for argument's sake, 8 x 12" (it is a 2:3 ratio off of a 35mm digital camera - Fuji's S2 Pro).
I want to add a 1" border all around the image. Doing so will make the end print size 10 x 14" (two inches in each direction). I pull up the Canvas Size window in the Image menu, and get this:
As you can see, I typed in the new dimensions, and in Photoshop CS at the bottom it gives me a choice of what I want the new background color to be (unavailable in a layered file without a background) in earlier versions of Photoshop, it simply makes the expanded border the same color as your background color on your color palette. Always choose pure white, epson printers will then leave the border blank.
The image now looks like this:
Making Outlines
You can see that there is also a black outline around the image. I put that in already so you can see the border in your web browser, you'll need to put it on your images as well, or you won't know where to cut along the border you'll then have to measure and make cut marks manually after it is printed. (This is a big pain, make sure it isn't necessary!)
Do this by selecting the entire image (make sure you are on a layer that is editable in terms of drawing on it (i.e. not an adjustment layer), you can even make a new layer for the cut line if you don't want to draw it on the background. A quick selection method is command-A (ctrl-A on PC's), or going to the Select menu and clicking "Select All."
Now go to the Edit menu and click on "Stroke..." A menu like this comes up:
Although "Center" is selected, "Inside" is always the safest bet, otherwise the printer might not print one or two of the cut lines. Also, you'll notice that the color is pure black, but I've made it a light grey by choosing 35% opacity. This is good if you want the lines not to be noticable even if you accidentally leave a protion of them on one or more edges.
However, lower opacity makes the printer more likely to not print one or more sides of the 4 cut lines. It all depends on your end print size, the ppi and dpi settings, media settings, etc. Just test it out to see what works best! If you have to, change the thickness to 2 pixels (2 px) and then you are usually safe to lower the opacity down to even 25%.
You can also change the color you are stroking with by clicking on it, and in case you haven't figured this out, the Stroke command simply draws a line along the outlines of a selection, "Fill..." fills selections.
Making Uneven Borders
Some artists and photographers desire borders with one side larger than all the rest. This is simple to do. In this scenario we'll add one inch to the top and sides, and 1.5 inches to the bottom.
In the Canvas Size window, you see a box that looks like this:
It decides which directions receive the added canvas. To make a 1 inch border on the sides and top, but the anchor on the middle-bottom square, and add 2 inches to the width and one to the height:
 Now, so far we've been using Absolute settings, meaning that we've calculated the end size we want (in this case 10 x 13 [so far] from an 8 x 12" image). That meant we were adding 1 inch to the top, and one inch to each of the sides (total of two).
If that is confusing to you, select the box labeled "Relative" and you can now simply type in the number of inches you wish to add rather than having to calculate the end size you desire:
Once the borders are on the top and sides, pull up the Canvas Size window again, and place the anchor on the top box and add 1.5 inches (either absolutely or using the relative method).
 
Now add borders and you have a stylish, uneven border ready for a custom frame:
More File Preparation:
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