So, you are a Web Edition user and you want to know how to hand code borders. This might be a good place for a video, but I am really not a fan of videos. There is no way to print out that video and have instructions to use as you go along. For an opening shot at creating a border by hand we are going to do it in writing and see where this takes us. I certainly will do a video, but let's see if this step by step walk through doesn't help some people first. We are going to recreate one of the sample borders that is included in the ExpressDigital installation so that everyone can play along at home. We will be doing the soccer memory mate. Though this border is a two image composite, all of the principals apply to any type of border that you want to create. What you are looking for in the border directory is the SoccerMemate_8×10.crd file. This is simply a plain text file that lists all of the details of this particular border. The .crd files can be opened or created in any text editor, though I recommend that you get one that is a step up from Notepad. I highly recommend Notepad++ as it is an open source, free program and has the two features that I love which are line numbering and tabs. On with the show. This is the finished border:
This is the header file of the soccer memory mate. Every border has to have a header file that explains certain details of the border:
DESCRIPTION: <Soccer – Memory Mate – (8×10) Vertical> <–Displayed.
CARDTYPE: Simple <–These next two lines describe the border type.
BEGIN_SUPERBORDER
BEGIN_HEADER
WIDTH: 2400 <–Width & Height are done here in pixels. The border
HEIGHT: 3000 <–is done at 300 DPI so the border is 2400×3000.
INITCOLOR: 64,64,64 DPI: 300 <–Used to factor dimensions throughout the border.
VERSION: 8.4.0.0 <–Not needed. Legacy marker for V8.2/4.
END_HEADER
These categories are all standard to the header section of every ExpressDigital border file. Width and height are subject to change, as can the DPI, but remember that you are printing this image when complete. Lowering or raising the resolution from 300 DPI can have undesired impact on your final print or may needlessly increase your upload time to the lab or to your printer.
When we begin to discuss the layers that make up this border file there is something that needs to be made clear. Think of this next list of items that create the composite as a shopping cart. As you go down the aisle of the grocery store the first item on your list is in the bottom of the cart.
That is the way that ExpressDigital borders are built. Photoshop layers are the exact opposite. So for an ExpressDigital image file the item on top of this list is actually the bottom of the completed image, not the other way around. If you ever see Border Workshop in action you will notice that in the layers section the images are on the bottom of the list, but they end up on the top of the stack once the cart is unloaded. With that in mind lets have a look at the layers that make up the image itself.
BEGIN_LAYER <–Every border has to have Begin and End layer tags.
BEGIN_IMAGE <–Tells Darkroom this is an image.
FILE: "soccer.jpg" <–Background image.
POS: 0,0 <–Top left corner.
WIDTH: 2400 <–Takes up entire width.
HEIGHT: 3000 <–Takes up entire height.
END_IMAGE <–Ends this image layer
BEGIN_IMAGE <–Tells Darkroom this is an image.
FILE: "*Photo1" <–Photo1 for player image.
POS: 1350,120 <–The part that confuses everyone.
WIDTH: 900 <–This one too. Read below for the details.
HEIGHT: 1150 <–Same for this. Read below.
FRAME: 10 <–10 pixel white border around the image.
SHADOW: 0,30 <–Simple drop shadow.
END_IMAGE <–End this image layer.
On to the confusing parts. Image position is done here in pixels so what the 1350,120 means is that this image is over 1350 pixels from the left edge and down 120 pixels from the top edge. Here is a screen shot with guides pulled so that you can see what I am talking about:
As you can see from this, the vertical guide to the left is sort of on 1350 pixels. Set your rulers to pixels and this is how you can easily lay out your border without having to make a bunch of selections. The part that you can't see in this screen grab is the fact that the horizontal guide is pulled down 120 pixels from the top. The width of 900 and height of 1150 tells the software the size to make the image once it has moved it to this position. This image is 3"x3.8" or 900×1150.
On to the next section of the .crd file. some text layers. These things are always fun. These are all of the layers that make up the text for this border file along with a screen grab of the text layers. I will tell you that text was always a crap shoot when hand coding borders. It required more fudging of numbers than anything else as will be demonstrated below. I am not going to go through each one of the text layers as you can follow along from this breakdown of the first text layer.
BEGIN_TEXT <–Tells Darkroom this is a text layer.
FONT: "Georgia" 150 <–Font and size in points.
TEXTCOLOR: 255,255,255 <–This makes text white.
SHADOWCOLOR: 0,0,0 <–Black drop shadow.
FLAGS: TOP | CENTER | BOLD <–Text position in box.
POS: 150,425 <–Over from left 150px and down 425 px.
WIDTH: 1150 <–Width of text box.
HEIGHT: 575 <–Height of text box. See the Problem?
TEXT: "%First Name%" <–Editable text designator. Without the "%" this text would not be editable.
END_TEXT <–Ends the text layer.
My screen shot is off on the width ruler. That ruler should be placed out at 1300 to allow for the fact that this box is offset from the left by 150px. That is not the problem that I made mention of though. See the height there of 575px? That text box is not 575px high. It is placed at 575px. That isn't the simple solution though. Look at the layer for the next text node which is the last name:
BEGIN_TEXT FONT: "Georgia" 150
TEXTCOLOR: 255,255,255
SHADOWCOLOR: 0,0,0
FLAGS: TOP | CENTER | BOLD
POS: 150,565
WIDTH: 1150
HEIGHT: 435
TEXT: "%Last Name%"
END_TEXT
Looking fairly normal no? Over 150, down 565. 1150 px wide by 435px tall?
Using the theory about height from above that line should be at 700px, but instead the border lists it out as 435px. That's because the 575px and the 435px here are the actual size of the box, not their placement on the rulers. These text boxes are abnormally large. This is how the first two text layers should look:
BEGIN_TEXT
FONT: "Georgia" 150
TEXTCOLOR: 255,255,255
SHADOWCOLOR: 0,0,0
FLAGS: TOP | CENTER | BOLD POS: 150,425
WIDTH: 1150
HEIGHT: 155
TEXT: "%First Name%"
END_TEXT
BEGIN_TEXT
FONT: "Georgia" 150
TEXTCOLOR: 255,255,255
SHADOWCOLOR: 0,0,0
FLAGS: TOP | CENTER | BOLD
POS: 150,565
WIDTH: 1150
HEIGHT: 155
TEXT: "%Last Name%"
END_TEXT
Notice how I have changed the height of the two boxes to 155 px each. The height is determined by having the boxed placed 425px from the top of the image and then the bottom placed 155px down from there or down 565px for the last name with a size of 155px. This is why people tend to get lost when looking at the sample border .crd files. When these text layers are viewed in Border Workshop they really are as big as the .crd file makes them seem. I suppose the designer was making an allowance for some awfully long names. Make sense now? Follow along with the rest of the text layers using Photoshop as your guide. We are going to finish up now with the last layer which is the team image layer.
BEGIN_IMAGE <–Tells Darkroom this is an image layer.
FILE: <*Photo2> <–Photo2 makes this a unique image.
POS: 150,1350 <–Over 150 from the left, down 1350.
WIDTH: 2100 <–Image width.
HEIGHT: 1500 <–Image height.
FRAME: 10 <–10px white frame around image.
SHADOW: 0,30 <–Black drop shadow.
END_IMAGE <–Ends image layer.
END_LAYER <–This closes the Begin_Layer tag from above.
END_SUPERBORDER <–This closes the Begin_Superborder tag above.
The end layer and end superboder tags (like all of the begin/end tags) are very important here. Without them your border file will cause an error in the Darkroom software and will be unusable. It really isn't as hard as it may seem. You can open any existing border .crd file in Notepad++ and reuse for another graphic by simply changing the name and pointing the .crd file to a different graphic. You can post questions here, to bbcolor at gmail.com or post a message in the group where you saw this link. To assist you further in your reading we will break down a trader card border and a magazine cover border each over the course of the next week or so.
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Filed under: Border Instructions, ExpressDigital, Marketing, Photocenter, Photoreflect.com
