How to Add a Transparent Watermark to an Image

A lot of people like to add a watermark to their online images to remind people that their work is copyrighted. Watermarks will not stop image theft, and with a bit of work they can be edited out. They can certainly let people know you dont want your work copying and the additional work of having to remove the watermark may serve to discourage a would-be thief.

With images of art work, it is preferable that the watermark does not distract from showing the image in its best light.

Heres how to achieve an embossed style watermark on an image using adobe photoshop 7.0. To find out more about watermarking images take a look under GRAPHICS RELATED RESOURCES on my Free Web Design Resources page.

Image Watermarking Tutorial

Open photoshop then open your image file in photoshop: Go to File>Open, then select the image you want to work with.

If tools are not open (see below), open them from the main menu bar by going to Window>tools.


In the tools box, click on the T symbol to select the horizontal text type tool (see above).

Below the main menu bar you will now see boxes, each with drop down lists, for selecting the font type, size and weight etc. For this type of watermark, it is best to select a clear, simple sans serif type font.


Select the myriad font, bold weight, smooth style from the drop down lists. The font size will depend on the actual size of the image, but to start with maybe try selecting 14pt.

Choose a grey font colour by clicking in the font colour box, below the main menu bar, and selecting from the pop-up color picker:



On your image left click and drag the mouse so a box is formed for the text:


Type your text in the box. You can get a copyright symbol by holding down the alt key while typing 0 1 6 9 on the number key pad. You can highlight the text and change the font size in the box below the maim menu bar. You can also resize/re-position the text box by clicking & dragging on the small squares at the edges of the box.

Next, on the main menu bar select layer>layer style>blending options:


Copy the layer style settings shown below:


You can change the opacity and fill opacity settings to get the desired transparency for your watermark. I have chosen 50% but this may vary depending on the grey font colour.

Next save your image. Use File>save as from the main menu bar to save a copy of your watermarked image in jpg file format.



When prompted for a resolution, choose a low setting as shown below.


Now you have a flat (i.e. no layers) watermarked image.