What it does
Add outlines around your content, from a clean keyline to chunky pixel shapes.
Under the hood, an outline is a question of distance. The effect finds the silhouette, then asks every pixel outside it how far away it sits; a stroke is simply the set of pixels within a chosen distance of the shape, filled with a color. That is why outlining needs transparency to work with: the silhouette is read from the image’s alpha edge, which is what a cutout, a logo, or rendered text naturally provides, and it is why sticker makers remove the background before the border appears.
One stroke is a keyline; the interesting looks come from stacking. A single wide band reads as a shaped background, a blob of color behind text or a subject with the content sitting crisp on top. A thin dark band around that wide one becomes the classic sticker edge. Stacked further, nested bands in alternating colors produce poster and manga energy, and offsetting a band sideways turns it into a cast shadow with the same silhouette. Each stroke wraps the real rendered shape of the one inside it, not the original silhouette, so the bands nest like contour lines rather than drifting apart.
The stroke itself has a personality. A smooth outline follows every curve of the silhouette faithfully, while a pixelated one snaps the band to a chunky block grid, turning any shape into something game-like and constructed, and the two chain: a smooth band around a pixelated one rounds its steps, a pixelated band around anything re-quantizes it at its own block size. Because the trace is recomputed every frame, an outline follows a moving subject through video, which is where the sticker look stops being a still-image trick.
Signature looks
Die-cut sticker
A wide white band hugging the subject with a thin keyline at its edge, the unmistakable read of a sticker waiting to be peeled.
Poster stack
Nested bands of flat alternating color radiating from the silhouette, gig-poster and manga-cover energy around anything.
Pixel badge
The outline snapped to a coarse block grid, curves turned to steps, a shape rebuilt as a chunky game asset.
Try it on your own footage
This effect runs live in the Modulate editor, with layers, effect chains, masks, and keyframes. Free, no signup, nothing to install.
Common questions
How do you add an outline to an image?
Start from an image with a transparent background, a PNG cutout, a logo, or text, since the outline is drawn from the edge where pixels meet transparency. An outline effect then grows a band of color outward from that edge at whatever width you choose. If your image still has its background, remove it first; a picture with no transparency has only its rectangular canvas to outline.
What is the difference between an outline and a border?
A border frames the whole canvas, a rectangle regardless of what the image shows. An outline follows the subject’s actual silhouette, tracing around every curve and gap where the pixels end. Borders decorate the file; outlines belong to the shape, which is why stickers, badges, and outlined text all use them.
How do sticker makers get the white border?
It is a stroke on the alpha silhouette: the subject is cut from its background, then a wide white band is grown outward from the cutout’s edge, usually with a thin keyline around it. The look comes from die-cut printing, where the blade needs a margin of safety around the artwork, and the margin became the aesthetic.
Can you outline text?
Yes, and it is one of the strongest uses. Rendered text carries its own transparency, so an outline traces the letterforms exactly. A thin stroke keeps text legible over busy footage, and a single wide stroke reads as a shaped highlight, a color block behind the lettering that follows every ascender and descender while the text stays sharp on top.
Does an outline work on video?
Yes. The silhouette is re-traced every frame, so the outline follows a moving subject, growing and flexing with it, which turns the sticker look into a live one. In Modulate the Stroke effect does this in the editor, with multiple stacked strokes, smooth and pixelated styles, and per-stroke offsets, and it stacks with glow and threshold effects.
Related effects
Glow effect
Makes bright areas bloom with soft halos, like lights glowing through a hazy lens.
Pixelate effect
Rebuilds the image as a grid of solid blocks, with a choice of how each block picks its color, grid rotation, and brick-style row stagger.
Threshold effect
Reduces the image to two colors with a hard cutoff between light and dark, with optional outlined edges.