How to Add a Decorative Border to a Web Page

Use a side border background to create contrast on your web page. The side border is a color or pattern, while the rest of the page is white for easy readability. This tutorial uses Paint Shop Pro 5.0 and above.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Open Paint Shop Pro. Click on the File menu and select New.

2. Set the image dimensions at 100 pixels high, 100 pixels wide, with a white background color and 16.7 million colors for the image type.

3. Click on the Fill tool (which resembles a tilted bucket dripping paint) from the toolbar.

4. Click on the Foreground box (the top box below the palette) from the left side of the screen. Choose the foreground color and click OK.

5. Choose Solid Color from the fill style on the Control toolbar. Set the Match Mode for RGB, make the tolerance 20% and make the opacity 100%.

6. Click on the image to fill it with the color. If you are unsatisfied with the color, select Undo from the Edit menu and make changes.

7. Select copy from the Edit menu to copy the filled image.

8. Click on the File menu and select New. Set the new image's dimensions at 100 pixels high, 1000 pixels wide, with a white background and 16.7 million colors for the image type.

9. Click on the Edit menu and select Paste. Choose Paste as New Selection. The colored box will be pasted onto the image.

10. Use the cursor to move the image to the far left, aligning it with the top and edge of the blank image. Make sure no white space shows around the top, bottom or left side.

11. Choose Save As from the File menu and save the image.

Tips & Warnings

• Like all backgrounds, a bordered background is simply an image tiling down the page. If there is white space anywhere but on the right side of the image, it will appear as spaces on the page.
• You can make the colored border larger by increasing the size of the first image.