How to Create Frames in PDF
By William Harrel
Adobe Acrobat’s portable document format lets you create documents that are easily deployed to different types of media, such as the Internet and print. After you’ve created your document and converted it to PDF, often you may want to add finishing touches, such as placing decorative frames around text boxes and images. You can make limited modifications to PDFs in Acrobat Pro. To add frames to elements in your PDF, use the Comment & Markup feature. This feature allows you create frames of various colors, styles and thickness throughout a PDF.
Creating Frames in Acrobat Pro
Step 1
Open the PDF in which you want to add frames in Acrobat Pro. Click “File” on the menu bar and choose “Open.” Navigate to the PDF, select it and then click the “Open” button.
Step 2
Go to the first page where you want to add a frame. Acrobat Pro’s Page Navigation toolbar is in the upper-left corner of the application window, under the menu bar. You can use the Up and Down arrows to scroll one page at a time, or type the page number you want to go to in the Page Number text field
Step 3
Make sure the Comment & Markup toolbar is displayed. Click “View” on the menu bar, choose “Toolbars” and then select “Comment & Markup” from the fly-out menu. The toolbar is displayed in the upper-right corner of the application window, below the menu bar.
Step 4
Click the “Rectangle Tool” (red square) on the Comment & Markup toolbar to select it.
Step 5
Draw a box around the object you want to frame. (You can re-size the frame once it’s drawn by selecting it and dragging one of the eight square re-size handles on the frame.)
Step 6
Click the new frame to select it. Right-click the frame to open the Rectangle Properties dialog box.
Step 7
Click the “Style” drop-down to choose a frame style. There are several options, including solid, dotted, dashed and half-circle lines.
Step 8
Click the Up or Down arrows next to the “Thickness” field to increase or decrease the line’s thickness. Thickness is measured in points, a standard print media measurement.
Step 9
Click the “Color” button to change the frame’s color. Choose a color from the swatch fly-out, or click “Other Color” to create a new color.
Step 10
Click “OK” to close Rectangle Properties.
References
Tips
- If you need to add the same frame to several objects in your document, click the “Make Properties Default” check box at the bottom of the Rectangle Properties dialog box.
Writer Bio
A writer for more than 20 years, William Harrel has authored 19 books, including two titles in the "For Dummies" series. He has also contributed articles to magazines such as "Computer Shopper," "PC World," "Home Office Computing," "Windows Magazine," "MacWorld," "Compute!" and many others.