How to add an outline effect to your picture with Canva?

Adding an outline to your photo is a great way to highlight a person or an object in a picture. This effect is frequently used in popular YouTube videos, as the video’s thumbnail. This Canva tutorial will teach you how to create any color outline around your photos in Canva, in just a few, simple steps!

For the purposes of this Canva tutorial, we will be recreating the image seen below, although the outline effect can be applied to any image background.

Steps to Create an Image with a Pink Outline Effect

1. Select Your Image

Canva offers a wide selection of images. Select an image in Canva. In this example, we’ll use one of my photos.

2. Change the Background Color

Next, we will change the background to a blue color. While you can use any color for the background, avoid the same color as your outline effect since it will make it impossible to see the outline effect on your photo.

3. Remove Background Image

If your photo has a background,the next step is to remove the background from the image. To do this, click on the image, click on effects, and click on the background remover tool on the left hand menu.(Here, I have selected a photo with no background)

Note: This method only works for Canva Pro users. If you have the free version of Canva, and want to make your image background transparent, you can use RemoveBG as a free alternative.

4. Click “Effects” from the menu and select “Glow”

By clicking the effects, you get a whole bunch of options to choose from. Scroll to the very bottom and choose “Glow” under the Shadows effect. Now you can see a glowing shadow around your picture.

5. Choose your outline color and size

By double clicking the “Glow” a menu opens for you where you can edit the size, transparency, blue and color of your outline effect for your picture. Here I choose pink as it is one of my branding colors. And change the size to my liking.

Final Product

Now, you have a fun image with on-brand color to use anywhere on your social media.

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