How To Use Like A Frame

Like A Frame works a little differently to most “photo border” app for a good reason. It’s does much, much more than a simple photo border.

The Canvas is where everything is drawn to and can be sized to any aspect ratio with any background colour you like.

Layers (framed photos) are then placed onto this background. Up to four photos with their own frame design can be added to a single canvas.

Each Layer can have a Frame of any thickness and colour, as well as a Matte between the frame and the photo itself, also of any thickness and colour.

You can have Rounded Corners, a Frame Shadow and Internal Shadow, Matte Bevel and Crop the photo a specific aspect ratio that helps with the design.

An Example!

Before explaining all of the different settings in Like A Frame, let’s take a look at a real world example of a single-layer composition made with the app. In this example, the dark grey is the canvas and defines the aspect ratio of the final image. The black is the frame, the white is the matte and within the matte is the photo itself.

Make sense? Both the canvas and the photo have a ratio of 3:2, the typical ratio from your DSLR or mirrorless camera, but it doesn’t matter what you set these options too. Like A Frame makes it all work effortlessly and in any configuration you desire.

The Tools Menu & Editing

With the right options at your disposal, the sky is the limit. The Tools menu in Like A Frame has an array of options which control the look of your composition, from the canvas ratio to frame size and even photo cropping. Most options respond to touch and dragging gestures.

Presets
If you’ve created a composition you would like to use again, save it as a preset! This will apply the same settings to any photo you choose in the future. Save different presets for publishing to different platforms or for different purposes, such as your feed or an Instagram Story preset.

Canvas
This option sets the background canvas ratio, or the ratio of the whole composition. It also sets the background colour using the colour picker (red, green and blue circles button).

Photo Scale
Changes the scale of your photo within the canvas using this option, from 5% to 100%.

Photo Frame
Adjusts the thickness and colour of the photo frame that surrounds the photo and matte (if set).

Frame Ratio
Sets an optional aspect ratio for the photo frame independent of the photo itself.

Photo Matte
Adjusts the width and colour of the matte that sits between the photo and the photo border.

Matte Bevel
Adjusts the size of the 3D matte bevel edge around the photo (when used with a Photo Matte). The angle of light and colour is determined by the Internal Shadow setting.

Rounded Corners
Want to round off the corners of the photo, matte and border? Use this setting. If you set your Photo Crop to the ratio of 1:1 and set Rounded Corners to 100%, your photo will be framed as a circle.

Frame Shadow
Adjusts the size, colour and transparency of the shadow to cast behind the entire frame. Move the shadow around by tapping and dragging when in the Frame Shadow setting.

Internal Shadow (new option in version 3.0)
Adjusts the size, colour and transparency of the internal shadow to cast inside the frame over the photo and matte. Move the internal shadow around by tapping and dragging when in the Internal Shadow setting.

Photo Crop
Use this setting to crop your photo to a different aspect ratio. Tap and drag to move the crop position back and forth.

Rotate Left & Rotate Right
If your photo needs to be rotated clockwise or counter-clockwise by 90 degrees, these options allow you to do so.

Reset To Defaults
If you wish to reset your current settings to the default, tap this button.

Save As Defaults
To save your current settings as the default for all new Frameable compositions, tap this button.

Exporting & Settings

Once you’re finished creating your Like A Frame composition, tap the Next button in the top right of the editor. You’ll be presented with a few options on the export screen.

To save your composition to your iOS Photos library, tap Save.

Alternatively, if you wish to share your composition straight to another app or service, simply tap Share. You’ll be presented with the sharing options according to your own device’s platform.

Settings

Exporting and sharing will save your composition at different resolutions depending on your preferences. By default, these are both set to 2000 pixels on the long side.

To change these settings and others, tap the Settings buttons, located on the Home and Editor screens.