Extensis PhotoFrame 2.5

Review By: Gary Coyne

Review Date: April 23, 2003

Provides: Ability to add frames to images in Photoshop, ImageReady, and Photoshop Elements 2

Developer: Extensis

Requirements: Mac OS version 7.5.5 through 9.2.2, Mac OS X, version 10.1.5 through 10.2.2

Retail Price: $199.95, (upgrade from v. 2 is $49.95 and from v. 1 is $79.95)

Availability: Out now

Extensis PhotoFrame not only does a great job of providing frames for your photos, but if you like to play on your computer, this program is addictively fun.

It's not terribly hard to create frames in Photoshop. Basically, you double-click your background layer and give it a new name. This will unlock the layer. Then create a new layer below your photo (Command-click the new layer icon), and fill this new layer with the color you want for your frame. Then add a layer mask to your original picture, select a brush, and paint with black. As you paint away, you will see the color of the background appear.

But PhotoFrame is easier, lots easier.

Once your photo is complete and you're done with any enhancements to fix and/or improve the image, you can select either from the bottom of the Filter menu or from the new "Extensis" menu that now appears in Photoshop or comparable program.

Then you are in a new interface:

At this point you can either add an Instant Frame which can be an Ellipse, Rectangle, Polygon, Star, Arrow, or Heart. Once the basic shape is in place, you can start altering the effect by softening the edge, adding shadows, inner glows, outer glows, bevels, and shadows. You can select the colors for your frame either with a color picker. Or, if there is a color in your photo you want to emphasize, you can select the color with an eyedropper and use it for the color of your frame. In addition, you can also add texture to your frame with the supplied 100 images. The image below took less than 5 minutes, mostly looking at various options.

If you don't like the Instant Frames, you can alternatively select amongst the 2014 pre-made frames. Finding your way around 2014 frame designs could be somewhat daunting, but Extensis has made it about as easy as they can. First off, they broke it down into five volumes and within the five volumes are 148 sub-folders. Within each sub-folder are anywhere from 5 to over 30 frame designs. The sub-folders are provided with names. The names are either descriptive like "orange Peel" or artistic like "atomic cloud." But still, to find the exact frame you are looking for, one can look through a supplied 111 page Acrobat PDF.

Alternatively, you can use a much more useful approach: the supplied Portfolio Browser. Using the Browser (the Browser to Portfolio is the same as Acrobat Reader is to Adobe Acrobat), one can easily scroll through the various folders and sub-folders to view the various frames. Once you find one you like, you can drag it to the Extensis PhotoFrame Window and it will be applied to your picture.

That is, if you are using OS 9. While PhotoFrame is completely OS X comparable, the supplied Portfolio Browser supplied is Classic only. If you own Portfolio 6, you can upgrade to the OS X version for free at the Extensis web site. [You can read my review of Portfolio 6 here.] If you are running OS X, do not own Portfolio and want to use the Portfolio Browser, you can download the OS X version here, and yes, you do have to jump through a series of hoops to get it. I must say that Extensis has gone to great lengths to keep this free update inconvenient, well hidden, and very secret. Strange.

However, I found an interesting bug with Portfolio 6.1: If you drag the Frame Files and the Textures and their pre-made Portfolio documents over to the folder that Photoframe's Installer created, you will get a message stating that "Portfolio cannot open the document because it can be found." That's not a typo, that's what it says. Turns out there is a bug in Portfolio: if a folder that contains a file you are trying to open contains a non-ascii character you will get that error message. And, it turns out that the folder that Extensis programs create for their plugins have the [TM] symbol as part of the folder's name. So, if you remove the [TM] from the folder's name, the file can be opened in Portfolio 6.1 just fine.

If you are in OS X, as a last alternative (and very convenient alternative), you can click the "Add Frame File" within PhotoFrame and this brings up the OS X "Open" dialog box that lets you maneuver back and forth letting you see what you want.

Below, you can see the development of a frame. In the upper left you can see the photo after I've selected the frame border. In the upper right I've applied an inner shadow. Bottom left I've selected a texture for the frame and in the bottom right I've added a bevel.

As I worked with PhotoFrame I was constantly impressed with the details. For example, many of the border options have Blending Mode sub-options. Here is where Extensis has done a one-better than Adobe: as you drag your mouse up and down the blending mode options, the change occurs without your having to release the mouse button. That is, by simply holding the mouse at any blending mode, it takes effect. Don't like the effect? Move on. It's not "mouse down," "drag," "release," "observe," "try again," etc.

In fact, all of the dropdown menus in PhotoFrame work this way--it's great.

And one of the best options of all is that once you've completed your frame development and are ready to save it, you have two options: you can "Apply" which places your completed frame on the same layer as your photo, or you can "Apply to New Layer" which places the entire frame composite onto a separate layer leaving your image untouched. My only complaint is that the default (see image above) is the former and it doesn't appear that you can change the default to the latter.

Once you have created your work of great art, you can save all your variations, give it a name, and apply it to any other picture. One feature that missing here is a batch mode, but you can create an Action in Photoshop.

Another nice feature is that you can have a slew (I never did figure out if there was a maximum) of frame designs sort of "there" in PhotoFrame to try out with your photos. You can test each one by turning on or off an eye--just like you do with layers in Photoshop. Separate Textures can be turned on or off by clicking on the square blocks. I do not know why Extensis does not use the eye metaphor here.

With the exception of the amusing Portfolio bug on not being able to open a Portfolio document within a folder of Extensis' own creation and a very hidden Portfolio Browser for OS X update at the Extensis web site (both of which have nothing to do with PhotoFrame), Extensis PhotoFrame is a great program. It's fast, easy, intuitive, and rewarding. The complaints I have are trivial in the grand scheme of things. If you want frames around your pictures, this is the program to do it with.

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