The Frame Tool in Photoshop

In this video you'll gain insight as to when to use the Frame tool in Photoshop for simplicity and ease of use and when to use to Clipping Masks and Layer Masks to keep layer content as flexible as possible.
Additional tips, tricks, and tutorials from Julieanne Kost can be found on her blog: jkost.com/blog
Facebook: / julieannekost
Twitter: / julieannekost
Instagram: / jkost
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[@shaunct2423]

Great tutorial on this new feature. Thank. you!

[@geoffbrown797]

Another excellent tutorial. Short, precise and packed with advice. I always find some new very helpful tips even when I know quite a bit of your subjects. Thank you

[@jimcarmellini8294]

Such useful tips...always! And clearly explained- thanks!

[@marniehaig-muir]

Wow, what an excellent tutorial about a tool I didn't know existed. Many, many thanks. From here on, the Frame Tool will be getting a heavy workout.

[@waynelytton7517]

Much more flexiability and useful than I thught when I saw that the frame tool was being updated in my latest photoshop upgrade

[@infographie]

Intéressant, merci pour le post, je vais tenter ça.

[@infographie]

Not a revolution, but it adds to the tools. We'll make use of it. Thanks for posting.

[@petermuller7397]

Being a novice user, I’m not sure why I would want to use this process. Perhaps a brief description of possible applications would be helpful.😊

[@sandyb-6595]

Same. I have no idea what is going on. Also it took me a minute to figure out this is PS Beta.

[@jkost]

The Frame tool was introduced in 2018. It was just updated with new features including the additional triangle shape and custom shapes, the fit image commands and the accessibility of features in the Contextual task bar in January 2025. Sorry that my screen displays Ps as a "beta" - it's because I'm an employee and we have a different method for choosing the build that we want to use.

[@jkost]

Got it, sorry about that - The frame tool is another tool that is used to mask an image within a shape. It can be useful for anything from creating mockups where multiple images need to be placed within a document, to creating collages and composites of overlapping images and more.

[@petermuller7397]

@ Thank you for the additional information.

[@sandyb-6595]

@@jkost Thank you! Also thank you for all the LR tutorials they were EXCELLENT, I pride myself on knowing LR front to back but I did learn a thing or two...or three.

[@terrygoodfellow1876]

Excellent tutorial. I must try this out because I am not a confident Photoshop user. It would be great to see editable frames as part of the book module in Lightroom. In the interim I suppose I could create in Photoshop and import back in to Lightroom.

[@rlast123]

Thanks! Two days ago I did a search for this tool and your name. 👍🏻

[@sh8736]

Another excellent video. I expect you could use this to make a 9 cube of images. I have used Adobe express for this, then it got messaged around with and was not so easy to use. Want to be able to grab a load of images and have them automatically get spaced on a page and be able to move them zoom in and importantly out. I know I indesign does a lot of this but if I want a quick montage I go to pic collage, doesn’t feel right should able to do quickly in photoshop or even light room. 😊

[@stevejarvis186]

Thank Julianne for another great vide, but what is the Frame Tool used for? I've never heard of this Tool until I saw your video. To be fair although I'm an Adobe Photography Plan Subscriber who recently had to pay up front for a year to continue getting this plan, I very rarely go from Lightroom to Photoshop, because I find it non-intuitive and just not very easy to use, just a very scary place!

[@waynelytton7517]

I have seen you in person at several Photoshop World's when I worked at National Geographic. Do you still have the title Photoshop Evangelist?

[@jkost]

Yes. : )

[@demacf6805]

Frames came in a few years ago, and I admit, I still don't see a use case for them.

[@EdMatthewsPhoto]

I use them to create the back page of a calendar, which has 12 frames, one for each image of the month. I use the frames inside a template so each year I can just drag this years images to the right place in the frames on this back page.

[@tubaraomartelo7838]

Seriously, Coreldraw has been doing this for years...

[@stefanklein1863]

Your tutorial is excellent, as always. But this feature is really superfluous. As you already demonstrated, everything can be done with other techniques already, even with more possibilities. That´s wasted engineering power, while on the other hand Photoshop would need an overhaul of so many decades old features, which are totally outdated.

[@jkost]

Hi Stefan, for some of our customers, especially those coming from a design background who are more accustomed to using page layout programs that all use the concept of placing images into Frames, the Frame tool can be faster to learn and use. : )

[@stefanklein1863]

@@jkost I get your point, Julieanne. But please don´t forget professional Photoshop users, which still have to use decades-old adjustment layers, only one mask per layer (without workarounds) , outdated sharpening algorithms etc. etc.. I could give you an endless list.

[@jaytolbert7538]

@@jkost Explains why I was thinking Quark, Pagemaker and InDesign!