From vertical to square: Automatically add borders to a vertical image. How to do it?

[-Michael-]

Hello everybody.
Is it possible to add blurry edges to a vertical image so that it becomes square?

If so, can you tell me how to do it step by step?


Here is an example.

[LeviFiction]

Pretty easy with layers. Any number of ways it can be done.

1) open the image
2) Copy the image (Ctrl + C)
3) Resize the image (Image -> Resize) to make the width and height the same size, make sure to turn off "Lock Aspect Ratio" in the advanced options. If you're using PSP 2021 you'll want to change the mode from AI to Bi-cubic or something like that because we don't need AI resizing in this. And AI resizing is slow. It won't matter that it's sharp, we're going to be blurring the image anyway.
4) Blur the image - Adjust -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur ( use a setting of 3-5, whatever looks good to you)
5) Paste as new Layer (Ctrl + V) (this pastes a copy of your original image as a new layer on top of the now blurry and distorted version, creating borders)

The end result is your original image centered over the square blurry image.

[migf1]

EDIT: I think I totally misunderstood the question, so please scratch all what I said below and follow Levi's suggestion!

I'm not aware of an automatic way either. An alternative to Levi's suggestion would be to select the areas you wanna blur (on the same layer or a duplicated one) and then apply a blurring method.

If you know the dimensions of the middle part (that stays unblurred) you can type them in as a Fixed Size Selection Type, using the Options toolbar of the Selection tool, and then Invert the selection:

http://prntscr.com/uwj597

There is a lot of options in that toolbar which can semi-automate some tasks, but in the end you will probably need to fine-tune the selection anyway (and certainly Invert it, from the Selection menu). You can do that with Selections -> Edit Selection and the Pick tool:

https://youtu.be/uBYyPa6kjRA

All in all, I would probably make a random rectangular selection in the middle of the image, I would then reshape it using Edit Selection and the Pick tool, I would Selections->Invert it, and blur it (or 1st make a duplicate of the image, blur it, then select the area in the middle and Delete its contents).

[-Michael-]

Thanks for the directions. It would be great if they added functionality

[migf1]

Hi Michael, I edited my initial reply because I misunderstood your original question (I didn't realize the image needs to be resized horizontally). Levi's suggestion is fast and effective.