Watermark is a way to protect your copyrights to photo content. This could be a company logo, the author's name, a link to a website, or any other unique word or image that indicates your authorship.
The mark is called a watermark due to the fact that according to the standard it must be made translucent. After all, the content itself is important in the image, and the sign should not attract the main attention. A proper watermark is a faint, translucent mark near the edge of the image.
When is it useful to use a watermark?
- To protect from copying your photo content that you post on the Internet, for example, in in social networks or personal website. Images with someone else's watermarks are reluctant to be copied by users. Even if someone, for example, reposted such an image to their public group, then a second case of the usefulness of such signs follows...
- PR. Users who, despite your watermark, copy it onto their websites or public pages, create free advertising for you. The logic is simple - a person who sees your image will also pay attention to the watermark. And then, if he is interested in your creativity, he will receive necessary information about how to find you, because anyone understands that this is the primary source of this content.
- Let's not forget about the banal brand promotion. People who copy your content distribute it to all mental and non-mental sources. And the constant flashing of a brand leaves a certain trace in the memory, which will later serve benefits, including commercial success.
- If the photo content is quite specific, as, for example, on this site, where I post educational screenshots so that discourage competitors from copying content, a watermark helps with this like nothing else. Actually, competitors are unlikely to want to build their own similar site with pictures that contain a direct link to my project. Even if they do, I won't be upset because, as stated in point 2, this is an advertisement and an additional source of targeted traffic.
How to make a watermark
First, decide what it will be: a logo, a link, a word or something else. For example, on my website I use a link stylized as the main site logo as a watermark. If the picture flickers somewhere, then the interested user knows how to find the original source.
The watermark needs to be small. It's better to stick to your own style. In my opinion, a sign of quality is stability, so you shouldn’t pull the sign in different places on each photo. It’s better to always let it be the same place. IMHO.
Make the sign translucent and dim the brightness of the colors. It should not be flashy or catch your eye. What's important in an image is the content itself, not your eye-watering watermark.
Using the tips above, let's first make a sketch.
Open any image and place your future watermark in it.
In this article, we will not learn how to make logos or beautiful inscriptions. This is a completely different story and everyone has their own...
It is assumed that you already have a blank from which you intend to make a watermark.
As a result, you should have two layers on your palette with the main image and the image/text you just added.
After that, set the desired size of the watermark so that it is not too small or large.
To do this, make sure that the image with the logo is selected (as in the screenshot above - the selected layer is marked in blue), select the Ctrl+T tool. A bounding box will appear around the unfinished watermark. Move it around the corners to reduce/enlarge the picture.
To change the picture proportionally, hold down the key Shift, when pulling the corners.
When finished with the size, press the Enter key or the checkmark button on the tool.
Now you need to move the watermark to an inconspicuous place. The classic option is the lower right corner.
Since we now have the task of getting rid of a lot of tedious work, using an action is ideal for this.
This action will work like this:
Open the photo in Photoshop and click play on the action with the watermark. We repeat these steps for each photo.
There is nothing complicated here, the main thing is that there are as few actions as possible and that they are all clear and understandable to the program.
Step 1
We will create the action on a previously opened photo. Therefore, select and open any one in Photoshop.
Step 2
I'm looking at an example on my pre-made logo. This file must be saved on your computer. Choose a folder where it will lie. This location can no longer be changed/renamed, including other folders preceding the final one. Simply put, by placing a picture, for example, along this path: “C:\Users\Username\Desktop\Pictures\logo.png”, none of the folders can no longer be renamed, moved, etc. Otherwise the action will stop working.
Step 3 Open the palette.
Open the palette with actions/operations: Window - Operations or keys Alt+F9.
This is what it should look like:
Step 3 Start recording.
Create new folder for your actions. Click on the third button from the right. A window will appear in which you can come up with a name for the folder.
Now let's create a new operation. Click on the second button from the right Creates a new operation. Give her a name.
After pressing the button Write down, you will see that the record button (red icon) has become active on the palette, like on a video camera. This means that the recording of our actions in the program has begun.
Step 4
First of all, we execute the command to open the image with the future watermark: File - Open or Ctrl+O . Next, find the picture on your computer.
The picture should open in a new independent tab ().
Step 5
The next task is to copy the logo and transfer it to the original photo.
To do this, press Ctrl+A. We have made a complete selection of the contents of the picture, “marching ants” should appear around the perimeter.
Let's make a copy Ctrl+C . So the picture was copied to the clipboard.
Go to the previous tab with the open photo and paste the copied logo there - Ctrl + V.
Step 6
Just drag the logo to the desired location it is forbidden. Photoshop may remember the coordinates, but when you open photos of other sizes, the watermark may end up almost in the middle of the photo. This is bullshit. You need to make sure that Photoshop always determines where the edges of the photo are and aligns the logo relative to their location.
To do this, select the layer with the photo itself in the layers palette and press Ctrl+A to select it all.
So we've just pressed the watermark into the very bottom right corner. But it's not pretty so close to the edges. You need to make small indentations from the edges.
To do this, with the selected tool Moving, holding down the Shift key, click once on the left and top arrows on the keyboard. The image will shift by 10 pixels in the specified directions. If there is a lot of this, click on the arrows without Shift, then the shift will be 1 pixel.
The final chord is to change the opacity of the logo in the layers palette. I set it to 60%.
Step 8
Close the logo tab that was created in step 4. She should be the second in a row.
To do this, you MUST first click on this tab so that it becomes active (the active tab is highlighted in a brighter color), then click on the cross. Otherwise, Photoshop will record the closing of our main photo tab in the action.
As a result, the action file should look like this:
Don't forget to click on the button Stop to finish recording the action.
Functionality check
Reopen any photo. On the operations palette, by clicking on the arrow next to the action name, you can hide/display a detailed list of actions. To avoid clutter, it is better to hide it.
To activate an action, select it in the palette and click the button Play.
Result
If you notice an error in the text, select it and press Ctrl + Enter. Thank you!
How to make a watermark in Photoshop, step-by-step instruction with pictures.
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First of all, let's figure out what a watermark means. Thinking logically, we can come to the conclusion that a watermark is a transparent or translucent image.
By image we can mean:
- Picture;
- Logo;
- Test inscription;
- Any character.
Based on these concepts, today we will create our own watermark.
How to make a watermark in Photoshop, methods
Watermark by embossing
Now I’ll show you what kind of watermark you can create using embossing. Follow all the steps described above until you open the Blending Options window.
Just instead of shadow, open the embossing tab.
I set the following values:
Basically, I left almost everything by default, I only replaced the style by selecting embossing and removed the global illumination. However, I remind you that you can try to set other values, perhaps the effect will be better. Next, I also reduced the transparency of the fill to zero and clicked OK.
This is the result I got on a white background:
And it will look like this in color:
As you can see, due to the lighting from above, the watermark has become more visible on dark background, the letters seem to be squeezed out of the image.
Saving the watermark
As you can imagine, creating a watermark is only half the battle. Now you need to properly save it for later use.
Instructions for saving:
- Click the layers tab at the top;
- Go down to the word - rasterize;
- Rasterize text and rasterize layer style;
- Save the document in PNG format;
- Next, you can save the logo as a brush. Open the tab - editing - define brush - save;
Now, you can make a fill pattern. You've probably seen more than once how repeating watermarks are located diagonally in a picture.
Making this effect is quite simple:
- Open the tab - image - canvas size;
- Specify the height of the canvas equal to the width. That is, your document should become a square;
- Go to the menu, at the top - edit - transform - rotate;
- Expand the logo at an angle of 45 degrees, that is, diagonally;
- Open again - Edit - Define Pattern - Save Logo as Pattern.
Applying a logo to a picture
Now we have three options for applying the logo to the picture.
How to make a watermark in Photoshop, summary
Now you know how to make a watermark in Photoshop and you can create it yourself. However, if something doesn’t work out for you, or difficulties arise, don’t hesitate to ask questions in the comments. I will answer everyone, and at the same time I will add to the article so that no one has any misunderstandings.
Good luck to you, all the best!
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I saw watermarks (watermarks) on some of our bloggers and wondered if I should make one for myself? Moreover, lately I have been writing quite voluminous articles with many illustrations, for example, about. It will be a shame when all this is automatically copied and pasted by bad people, even if they suffer. In order to consider all points of view, I read a dozen articles on this topic in English-language blogs. The opinions of the authors are divided: some see more advantages in this approach, while others think it is useless.
This is what a screenshot could look like home page blog, if I decided to put a watermark on the photo:
Let's consider the main nuances:
- (+ survey).
Disadvantages and nuances of watermarks
The use of watermarks is especially important for photographers, photobloggers and anyone who posts their photographic work online. This category of users most often uses such image protection, so they actively share their experience online. The main nuances and disadvantages of the method:
- Watermarks interfere with image perception
The composition and atmosphere of the photo are lost, plus the watermark almost always distracts attention to itself. In some cases it can give the picture a slightly cheap, amateurish look. Although here, of course, everything depends on the implementation of the protection. Here's a nice placement example.
- Time required to create
To implement the protection of your pictures you will have to spend certain time on creating watermarks in Photoshop. It all depends on the complexity of the implementation, the number of photos and your skills.
If you automate the process of adding a watermark to a photo through a program, it will save some time. But wouldn’t it be better to spend it on some other tasks: improving the quality of images, creating new illustrations, etc.? Moreover, why not add META data to the photo via Photoshop instead of a watermark?
- Weak protection
In fact, if you place the name of your site on the image or some small picture in the corner, then this is a rather weak protection option. You can easily get rid of it by simply cropping the photo in any graphic editor. Yes, the attacker will have to work a little, but in the end neither a minor wartermark nor a call barring context menu right click a mouse won't stop an experienced thief.
A certain paradox arises - for real protection Watermarks on the photo should be large enough. However, they will distract the user. In short, it is necessary to seek a certain compromise on this issue.
Also, many agree that watermark does not provide any protection. If you encounter illegal use of your photo for commercial purposes, you will have to prove the authorship of this photo in some more serious way.
- Sharing deterioration
I read on one of the blogs that after adding watermarks, the author’s photographs were less often used in third-party publications. And this was a serious problem, since previously it was published in large media outlets, which (attention!) already put back links to it (indicating it as a source). Unfortunately, you see this much less often in our country; even reputable publications are sometimes not ashamed to borrow the work of others.
Also, there is an opinion that users are less likely to share pictures with watermarks on social networks, for example, on Pinterest. Therefore, if you attract a lot of traffic in this way, you need to think about how best to proceed.
Pros of using watermarks on photos
Well, now let's look at the advantages.
- Partial theft protection
Regardless of how exactly you decide to put a watermark on a photo, an attacker will have to try to remove it. Even if it is plain text with a website address, it will not be possible to automate the process of copying content. Perhaps the thief will even pass by your site so as not to waste time processing the photo. Or he will be wary of the presence of protection - who knows, maybe you will defend the authorship of the materials and.
- Signature is a common thing
I remember that the artist’s paintings were always signed by the author. Essentially, this is a certain type of watermark.
For some types of images, watermark gives a more finished look.
- Branding
In general, in my opinion, branding is a much bigger advantage than copy protection. Your pictures may be spread across the Internet, and everywhere they will have a link to the source site or logo. This can attract new visitors to your project, clients, etc. Brand development online and in some areas is extremely important.
It’s not for nothing that photo services, stocks and other agencies put a watermark. You may have already seen the Getty Images version above. I must say, it looks very cool, an excellent example of implementing protection that does not spoil a professional photo.
- Increased sales/earnings
If you are creating photos for sale, then adding a watermark will eliminate the possibility of downloading a picture for free from your site. No one will be able to “just borrow” the work for print, advertising or other commercial use.
How to make a watermark on a photo
The most trivial option for adding a watermark to a photo is Photoshop. The essence of the method is that you create a file with a watermark, and then manually insert it into each required image.
The algorithm of actions is approximately this:
1. Upload it to Photoshop or create from scratch an image with your site’s logo/address.
2. For it you need to set the “opacity” parameter and remove the background. Save in PNG-24 format.
3. Open the photo for which you want to add protection, and “drag” the image created in the second step onto it.
As you can see, there is nothing complicated about this. You need to save the file with the watermark (step 2) so that later it can be quickly loaded into Photoshop and added to the required illustrations. Instead of a logo, a simple (but noticeable) use of the site name or its address (domain) is allowed. The main thing is to remember the third drawback and try to place the protective element as efficiently as possible.
By the way, you can significantly simplify the protection process for WordPress sites using the Easy Watermark plugin.
Detailed description of the module and how to work with it. In principle, there is nothing complicated, you just need to carefully understand it once. Main advantages:
- usage different types images for watermarks (jpg, gif, png);
- support for alpha transparency in gif and png formats, as well as the ability to set the “opacity” parameter for jpg and gif files;
- creating text watermarks using ttf fonts, for which you can set color, sizes, rotations and offsets;
- automatic installation of photo protection when uploading and the ability to create backup copy original picture for later removal of watermark.
The module settings are set in the corresponding section of the WordPress admin panel.
You are allowed to put two watermarks on a photo - an image and a text. After specifying all the settings, you can start watermarking all images on the site, having previously selected their types for processing (thumbnails, medium, large, original sizes).
Personally, I add watermarks for specific files. This can be done in the “Media Library” by selecting one or more desired objects. The whole process takes a few seconds.
Use of watermarks by bloggers
I remember there was once a post about, let’s see their experience of using watermarks:
- Shakin - some pictures contain the site address.
- Dimka's blog - no, and there are not enough graphics in the posts.
- Bablorub - does not use.
- Devaka - there is no watermark, although there are enough screenshots and images.
- Maulnet - does not use, there are few pictures in the posts and they are all strange :)
- Terehoff - no protection.
- 9SEO - few graphics, no watermarks.
- Seoprofy - there are no watermarks in the latest posts, but I definitely saw them before (moreover, I wanted to make one for myself after seeing them on the Seoprofy blog).
- SEO Aspirant - does not use it, although there are enough illustrations.
- Sosnovskij - no.
- Adne.info - the site address has been added to the pictures, although they are not copyrighted.
- Vovka - no, although there are enough graphics.
- Ktonanovenkogo - available as a site address.
- Wildo - no.
In total, only 4 out of 14 protect images, and even then not in every post and not particularly complex. It is most effectively implemented by Ktonanovenkogo, where although they use the site address, it is placed in “inconvenient” places for deletion. Seoprofy, I remember, had a watermark in the form of a logo, it looked quite good.
In this regard, I also decided to launch a small survey in order to clarify your opinion.
Attention, we are talking specifically about blogs (personal, thematic, photo). It's not a matter of protection professional photos in general and for sale.
Conclusions about watermark
In general, the issue of using watermarks on photos is very controversial. In principle, it depends on the placement site and the goals pursued. If we talk about online stores, then you definitely need to use watermarks. Especially when you've spent a lot of time and money creating quality images of your products. You can place the security element in different ways: someone adds its center so that they are guaranteed not to be stolen, someone carefully assembles it, but ends up on the “main elements” of the picture, so that even its “processing” would not allow getting a full-fledged photo.
For a restaurant website or a photographer’s blog, the first disadvantage described at the beginning of the article may arise (in terms of the perception of the illustrations). If it is important for you to convey the quality of the photo and the atmosphere, then a watermark may interfere. Some photographers suggest posting images of poor quality and small sizes so that they cannot be used for commercial purposes. It is also recommended to pay attention to adding META data to images using Photoshop.
As for bloggers, everything is subjective and depends on the wishes of the author. Do you want to develop your brand and protect yourself from copying content and graphics? — watermarks are quite a suitable tool. In this case, all the disadvantages become of little significance: showiness is not required, with the help of plugins no time is wasted on watermarks, visitors usually share the entire post, not the pictures. The only thing is that it is important to find the optimal placement option so that the protection works effectively and the information from the picture can be perceived without problems.
What do you think about watermarks on blogs? Vote and leave comments.
Go to the Underlay dialog box. How you open this dialog box depends on the version of Word you have. Word 2002 and 2003 use menu bars and toolbars, while Word 2007 and later use tabs.
- In Word 2002 and 2003, you can open the Watermark dialog box by choosing Background from the Format menu, and then choosing Watermark.
- In Word 2007 and later, click the Page Layout tab. Find the "Page Background" group and click the "Watermark" button. At the bottom of the underlay gallery, select Custom Underlay.
Select the type of background you want to create. The background can be a picture (graphics) or text.
- To make a text background, select the "Text" option. In the Text box, enter your background text (or choose one of the suggested options), then select a font, size, and color for the text in the Font, Size, and Color boxes. If you want to make an opaque watermark (background), uncheck the "Translucent" checkbox; if not, leave this checkbox and your watermark text will be semi-transparent. Choose a diagonal or horizontal layout depending on how you want the background text to be positioned.
- To create a graphic watermark, select the Drawing option. Click "Select Picture" to open a window where you can navigate to the required file with an image. Select the desired picture and click "Insert". Select one of the options in the "Scale" field to set the size of the picture; Select Automatic to display the drawing at the most appropriate size. If you want the drawing to be displayed clearly, uncheck the "Discolor" checkbox; if not, leave it, then your watermark design will appear faded.
Click OK to close the Underlay dialog box. Your document will now have a watermark.
Set the order in which the matte appears. If the background is text, use WordArt commands. If it's a drawing, use the graphics commands.
- In Word 2002 and 2003, WordArt commands and picture commands are found on the Format menu. In Word 2007, these options can be found on the Insert tab, WordArt in the Text group, and pictures in the Illustrations group.
Determine which pages the watermark (watermark) will appear on. Although it does not appear there, the watermark is treated as part of the header. Therefore, if you want the watermark to appear only on one or certain pages Word document, you should insert page breaks into the document and set headers and footers for each section. After clicking on the top of the page where you don't want to have a watermark, do the following:
- In Word 2002 and 2003, choose Break from the Insert menu. Select Next Page as the break type and click OK. Click on any page of the section you created and select "Header and Footer" from the "View" menu. Select Same as Previous Section from the Header and Footer toolbar to break the link between the headers in the new and previous sections. Click on the background and then press the Delete key.
- In Word 2007, select Break in the Page Setup group on the Page Layout tab, and then select Next Page from the Page Breaks drop-down menu. Click any page in the created section, click the header, and select Same as Previous Section in the Page Navigation section of the Design tab to remove the link. Click on the background and then press the Delete key.
- To create a watermark in older versions of Word, read
With increasing numbers mobile phones and cameras to suit every taste, it has become extremely easy to capture beautiful and important points life through photography. Thanks to the Internet and its range of apps and services, sharing photos with friends and others is just a few clicks away. But one of the things about the Internet is that once you share images or photos, someone can copy or sell them without your permission. Thus, it is important to notify others that the pictures or photos belong to you.
One way to do this is to add your original watermark to photographs and other images, including all necessary settings. There is a sufficient variety of programs designed for such a procedure, and Aoao Watermark for Photos is one of them, doing all the difficult work for you, thereby making the tasks easier.
Peculiarities
Text Watermark: Using Aoao Watermark for Photos, you can quickly add text watermarks to your photos or images. The good news is that you can easily customize the appearance and quality of the text with just a few clicks.
Image Watermark: Along with text watermarks, you can also use images. Using images as watermarks is especially useful when you want to use your company logo or other image as a watermark.
Watermark Library: Aoao Watermark for photos comes with a library that stores up to 150 photos, including free images watermark.
Batch Watermarking: Unlike other watermarking software, Aoao allows for batch processing of photos or images. The positive thing is that the added watermark automatically adjusts to the image size and other characteristics you need.
Installation and use
You can download Aoao Watermark for Photos from the official website. After downloading, install it like any other software. Don't worry, spyware are missing.
After installation, download the application. As you can see, the interface is clear and easy to use, except that there is no Russian language.
If you have a registration key, click on the icon Menu and select the option.
Now, enter the registration key and click “Register” to complete the registration process. Even if you don't have a registration key, you can use the free trial version of the program.
As previously said, using Aoao Watermark for Photos, you can add text and image watermarks. To add text watermarks, click on Add Files and select the file you want to watermark. If you have a lot of files, use batch mode to create watermarks by selecting the option Add Folder.
After adding the file, click Next Step.
After all the operations have been completed, click on Save and Create a New Layer and onwards Next.
On the output screen, you can select the output image format, quality and DPI settings. After the settings have been created, click Run.
Based on the results of this operation, a watermark will be added to your image. At the end, the output folder will automatically open. If you want, you can change the output folder by selecting Output Location before clicking "Run".
That's basically all you need to do to watermark your photos and images using Aoao Watermark software.
Conclusion
Aoao is simple software that gets the job done right. If you are a photographer or just a person who works with photographs and other images every day, then Aoao Watermark software is a necessary measure in order to protect your work.
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