Decorative Borders

Decorative borders consist of images known as page ornaments that are placed at the corners and along the top, bottom, left and right margins of the page. All decorative border elements are optional but at least one must be present.
The border is placed at the page margins as defined by the AlbumEasy ALBUM_PAGES_MARGINS or ALBUM_PAGES_MARGINSE commands.

Decorative borders are defined by means of a Decorative Border Definition File. The ALBUM_PAGES_DECORATIVE_BORDER command is used to include a decorative border file for an album.
AlbumEasy includes seven sample border definition files. These are located in the borders folder which is to be found in the same location as the AlbumEasy application.< br/> These samples may be used as is, or as templates for users who would like to create their own custom decorative borders.
For usage examples please see the DecorativeBorders.txt example album which can be found in the examples folder.
When searching for a border definition file AlbumEasy will first look in the borders folder. If no file with the specified name is found it will then search in the same location as the album text file. If the file name includes a directory it must be relative to the location of the album text file.
e.g:
ALBUM_PAGES_DECORATIVE_BORDER ("FancyBorder.txt")
      searches for the FanyBorder.txt file in the borders folder, if it is not found there it will look for the file in the same location as the album text file.
ALBUM_PAGES_DECORATIVE_BORDER ("MyBorders/FancyBorder.txt")
      searches for the FancyBorder.txt file in a folder called MyBorders located in the same place as the album text file.

For those who would like to create their own decorative borders a useful source of royalty free page ornaments can be found on the internet by searching for images using search terms such as free page ornaments or free page swirls or free page decorations borders etc.

Currently only PNG images are supported. These should have a transparent background and should be located in the same folder as the Decorative Border Definition File.
Downloaded images that are not in a PNG format with a transparent background can be edited and converted by means of a graphics program e.g. The Gimp which is free and cross-platform.

If a corner image is included, only one image is required for all four corners. The image should be orientated as if it appears at the top left corner of the page. It will be automatically rotated and mirrored when the page is generated.
The same or different images may be used along the top and bottom margins, either way the images should be orientated as if they are placed along the top. the bottom image will be automatically flipped when the page is generated.
Similarly the same or different images may be used along the left and right margins. These should be orientated as if they are placed along the left margin. The right image will be flipped when the page is generated.

Hint: When configuring a new decorative border, it can be convenient to enable a regular single line coloured border to show where the page margins are e.g.
ALBUM_PAGES_BORDER3 (0.1 0.0 0.0 1.0)
COLOUR_ALBUM_BORDER (red)
ALBUM_PAGES_DECORATIVE_BORDER("MyNewBorder.txt")
Once the decorative border is satisfactory, the ALBUM_PAGES_BORDER3 and COLOUR_ALBUM_BORDER commands can be deleted.

The Decorative Border Definition File

A Decorative Border Definition File files has a similar syntax to an album definition text file but with its own set of commands.

Decorative Border Commands:

IMAGE_SCALE (scale-factor)
Images used in decorative borders are not necessarily the desired size when output on a page. This command is used to scale the images.
e.g
IMAGE_SCALE(0.12)
A visually satisfying scaling factor can only be determined by experiment, however as many images downloaded from the internet are digitised at 300 or 600dpi (dots per inch) and AlbumEasy pages are generated at a resolution of 72dpi it will likely be found that either IMAGE_SCALE(0.24) or IMAGE_SCALE(0.12) will provide a satisfactory result.
IMAGE_CORNER (image)
Specify the image to be used for the border corners.
e.g
IMAGE_CORNER ("CornerImage.png")
IMAGE_CORNER_PAD (horizontal vertical)
Used to shift the image horizontally and vertically away from the default location
e.g
IMAGE_CORNER_PAD (5.0 6.0)
Will shift the image 5mm horizontally and 6mm vertically.
IMAGE_EDGE_LEFT (image)
IMAGE_EDGE_RIGHT (image)
IMAGE_EDGE_TOP (image)
IMAGE_EDGE_BOTTOM (image)
Specify the images to be used at the left, right, top and bottom margins.
e.g
IMAGE_EDGE_BOTTOM ("horizontal.png")
All edge images are optional, but if a corner image is not specified, then at lease one edge image must be provided.
IMAGE_EDGE_PAD (horizontal vertical)
Used to shift the edge images from the horizontal and vertical margins
e.g
IMAGE_EDGE_PAD (3.0   0.0)
Will shift the vertical (top and bottom) images 3mm out from the top and bottom margins, while the vertical (left and right) images will not be shifted.
BORDER_LINES (outer inner1 inner2 spacing)
Up to three border frame lines can be placed.
e.g
BORDER_LINES (0.3 0.3 0.0 2.0)
Will draw two lines each 0.3mm thick spaced 2mm apart
BORDER_LINES (0.5 0.0 0.0 0.0)
Will draw a single 0.5mm thick line
BORDER_PAD (horizontal vertical)
Shift the vertical border lines horizontally and the horizontal border lines vertically away from the margin centre by the specified distance.
e.g
BORDER_PAD (2.0 0.0)
Will shift the vertical border lines horizontally 2mm outwards. The horizontal lines will remain in the default position. BORDER_PAD (-1.0 -1.0)
Will shift the vertical border lines horizontally 1mm inwards and the horizontal lines will shift vertically inwards by 1mm as well.
BORDER_END_OFFSETS (horizontal vertical)
So that the border frame lines are not drawn over the corner images, it is often necessary that the start and end positions of these lines are paced away from the margin corners. This command specifies the distance
e.g
BORDER_END_OFFSETS (0.0 15.0)
Will start the horizontal frame lines in the corner, whereas the vertical frame line start and end positions will be 15mm from the corners.
BORDER_END_OFFSETS (18.5 18.5)
Both the horizontal and vertical frame lines start and end positions will be 18.5mm from the corners.