Image Padding / Border
Add a coloured padding / border around an image.
Overview
The Image Padding / Border tool adds a coloured border around an uploaded picture, expanding its canvas without resampling the underlying pixels. Set the padding amount (top, right, bottom and left independently), pick a colour, and the tool produces a re-encoded copy with the new background extending around the original artwork.
It is the right move when fitting a portrait into a square aspect ratio for a social-media feed, framing a screenshot with breathing room before posting it, or generating uniform thumbnails that don't crop the content. Designers also use it to add an Instagram-style white border to photos online before uploading.
How it works
The tool allocates a new canvas equal to the original dimensions plus the four padding values. It fills that canvas with the chosen background colour — solid by default, with an option to honour alpha for transparent padding. The original image is then blitted into the canvas at offset (left, top) with its pixels copied byte-for-byte.
Because the original pixels are not resampled, there is no quality loss. The encoder writes the result in the same format as the input by default, or in a different format if you also use the converter step. If the chosen background colour is fully transparent and the output format is JPEG (which has no alpha), the encoder flattens against white.
Examples
Before: 800x600 photo, padding 100/100/100/100, white
After: 1000x800 image with a 100 px white border on all sides
Before: 1080x1920 portrait, padding 0/420/0/420, black
After: 1920x1920 square portrait with black side bars (letterboxed)
Before: 512x512 logo, padding 64/64/64/64, transparent
After: 640x640 PNG with a transparent margin — useful for icon grids
FAQ
Will the image quality degrade?
No. The original pixels are copied unchanged; only the canvas grows. A single re-encode happens at output time but at full quality settings.
Can I make each side a different size?
Yes — top, right, bottom and left are independent. This is how you produce asymmetric framing or letterbox an image to a target aspect ratio.
Does transparent padding work in JPEG?
No — JPEG has no alpha channel. Transparent padding is flattened against white. Use PNG or WebP for true transparency.
How do I match a specific aspect ratio?
Compute the difference between the source dimensions and the target dimensions and split it evenly between the relevant sides. Most users add equal padding to top and bottom (or left and right) to centre the original.
Will EXIF data survive?
Yes — metadata is preserved through the re-encode, with the dimension-related tags updated to the new size.