Allow us to fade out the edges on pictures on Publisher.

[LRange]

I would love to be able to fade out the edges of photos in Publisher. I
would also love to create a shape on top of a photo (like a transparent place
to add text) and have that shape fade naturally into the rest of the photo,
rather than having a hard line that defines the shape.

 

[James Hahn]

Use your graphics application to create a fade for the image from the centre
to the edges. In my application this involves creating a mask of the right
shape (eg, circular), inverting the mask, feathering the mask, and filling
the area outside the circle with white. The result is a circular image with
a border that fades ('feathered') to white. Other applications will create a
border fade using similar techniques.

Insert a shape (eg, circle) at the centre of the image location, but smaller
than the image. Set the border to No Line. Make sure it is at the front
(order), and transparent. Format the text box to flow around it. Then paste
your image at the required location and make sure it is at the back.

Make the text transparent. Your text will then flow around the shape, so
that it overlaps the faded section of the image.

 

[Mary Sauer]

You can kind of soften the edges with the gradient fills and transparency sliders.
Some images look okay, complex bitmaps with many colors don't do so well.

Experiment with the transparent option in the fill menu for your shape. (Publisher
2002-03).