photo matte

zoggop

It would be really handy for me and other photographers--especially those who want to make an online portfolio--to put a matte/frame around the image, which can change color and possibly size specifically for each image. Since the templates are so flexible, this could be done with one or two color columns and a framesize column in the database, which can be refrenced from within the image display template. The obvious potential problem with this feature is that it would be bloat for many users.
Hehe... To make it REALLY flexible, there could be the option to add any custom columns one feels like, which are refrenceable from within templates. Would that be overkill, or would it be more elegant than throwing in features like frame size and color?

trisweb

Custom fields... very useful for many things, I know, and possibly not bloat if done right. I'll consider it.

More likely you could make a theme that makes a new table keyed on the images table for storing such extra information.

But that's definately a theme issue, and probably won't be added to the core anytime soon.

gremlin

Or.. add a style rule in css that applies to all images of a certain class?

You can matte photos this way by
1) border value
2) padding and background color
3)container div and border colors or background colors as above. There are a million examples of light boxing / shadow boxing / drop shadows / matte examples using css on the designweb.

OoOx

It would really be great if from the admin interface one would have total control over the frame size around the image. It would perhaps be wise to have a default mode which most users would use and an “advanced-�? button to expand the options. The modes could for example include:

Simple:
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- Frame color: hex value (There could possibly be 3 small buttons on the side of this input with the most common frame colours white/grey/black for easy access.)
- Frame width: size in pixels

Advanced:
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- Top frame width
- Bottom frame width
- Left frame width
- Right frame width

(if both the frame and background behind the picture is the same color it would be nice to have an additional line around the frame itself)
- Line surrounding the frame: on/off
- Color of line surrounding the frame
- Width of line surrounding the frame

As noted above, this feature would most likely remain untouched by most users. BUT I think that it's important that people start noticing the difference that a nice frame does. A frame does no great miracles thou, “trash in - trash out�? as the saying goes, but a good picture can be taken to new heights with a frame.

I have to this day not read any good guides on the art of creating a frame around an image. I only know that as praxis the bottom width should be slightly bigger than the top width (of course this also depends on the picture in question…).

Taking this concept to a new level, if the bottom frame width is large enough it can accommodate a centered image title (possibly with different fonts to choose from). I have no idea how difficult this would be to implement, but it would indeed be nice imho.