How to mat a photo in PSE 8.0
 

Ok so I don't have fancy screen shots or anything, but this is the gist of it. I use PSE 8.0, so I am not sure if this will work in other venues or not.


How to Mat a photo:
• Open your document and a photo.
• Using the move tool drag the photo onto the document.
• Move the photo into place.
• Select the photo in the layers panel. Then push CTL+click the left mouse button at the same time on the thumbnail of the photo in the layers palette (small tiny picture). This will place a selection box of marching ants around your photo.
• Then click on the create a new layer icon in PSE ( a small square box with a turned up corner at the bottom of the layers panel). Click once to create a new layer above your photo layer.
• Making sure the new layer is selected go to Edit>stroke or outline selection. Choose a width (15 pixels to start) then choose a color by clicking the color chip. This opens the color picker. You can choose a color from the box or go to your layout to use the eyedropper to pick a color from your layout (just click on whatever color you wish on your layout). Click ok. This will close the color picker.
• Then choose the radio button that says inside. Click ok.
• Then use CTL + D to deselect the item and remove the marching ants. You can clip patterned paper to the mask if you wish as well once the mask is created.

Thank you for this tutorial! I am very new to doing this, and was wondering how to make a mat. Thank you!

Thanks for sharing!!

Just tried
 

Thanks for the tutorial. I have always wanted to know how to do this. Had to adapt it a little for PSE6 but it worked great! :thanks: