4 Best Ways to Put a Border Around a Picture in Google Slides

A presentation with just text is boring and adding pictures can make it appealing. However, the use of simple images can become monotonous. To make your slides look different, you can edit and customize images in Google Slides. One of the ways to personalize images is to add a border to them. This article will help you achieve that.

Google Slides comes with a border tool of its own. But the options are limited. In this article, we’ve covered the native border tool and other methods to add a border around images in Google Slides. You can have both simple and decorative backgrounds.

Let’s check the different methods.

To note: The steps are shown for a computer, but the same methods can be used on Android and iOS as well.

Method 1: Using the Border Tool

It’s one of the easiest ways to showcase an image in Google Slides. Start by adding the required image to your slide. Then click on the image to select it. Once selected, three border tools will be enabled in the ribbon. These are: the color of the border, the weight and the dash. The latter is used to change the style of the border.

Click on one of the tools to add the border. Then customize the border by changing its style, size and color using the three options.

Method 2: use shapes

If you don’t like the borders in the above method, you can make your own custom borders using shapes. In this method, we will add an image on top of the shape or use a shape as the background for the image. The final image looks like an image with a custom border.

Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Add the image to the slide.

2nd step: Click the Insert option in the menu bar and select Shape. Choose the desired shape from the available options.

Step 3: With your mouse, draw the desired shape on the slide. You will notice that the shape appears above the image.

To bring the image to the foreground, right click on the shape and go to Order> Send to Back.

Step 4: Drag the image to the top of the shape. You can rotate, resize or move the shapes as you need.

Advice: To simplify the process, you can add the shape first and then add an image on top of it.

Step 5: You can keep the default shape color or add a new color. Click on the shape to select it. Then click on the Fill Color icon in the ribbon. Choose your desired color.

Tip 1: Add a double border

To further customize the border, you can have two. When you add a shape, it has its border. You can either remove it completely, as shown in the next tip, or customize it to have multiple borders.

Click on the shape. Use the Border – color, thickness and dash tools that appear in the ribbon to customize it.

Tip 2: remove the shape border

To remove the black outline from the shape, click on the shape. Then click on the border color icon in the ribbon. Tap the Transparent option.

Tip 3: Replace the shape

If you don’t like the current shape (or border) used for the image, you can quickly replace it. Right click on the shape used as border. Select Edit Shape from the menu and choose the new shape. Likewise, you can try out different border shapes for your image without starting over.

Method 3: Using the Mask Tool

In this method, we will be using the Mask and Border tools. First, you will need to hide the shaped image and then customize its border. Here are the steps:

Step 1: Click the image for which you want to add an elegant border.

2nd step: Click the small arrow next to the Crop icon on the ribbon. Select the desired shape.

The image will automatically take the required shape.

Step 3: Once the image is selected, use the Border tools to add the required border.

Method 4: Add a decorative border

Finally, you can add decorative borders to your image. You will need to download them from the Internet. Go to Insert> Picture> Search the web.

Look for decorative borders. Choose the border you want to use. Now resize or move it to fit the image.

Google Slides tips and tricks

Google Slides is full of creative options to spice up your presentations. You have to discover them and use them. We’ve covered 11 Google Slides tips and tricks you might find useful.