Hi folks, Today’stopic is Copyright Watermark!

I do remember, once blog buddy ~ Jennifer asked me about, How to stamp copyright watermark on top of the photographs?  It is very useful to protect your photographs, when you post your photos in less secured sites/servers!

Hope you like today’s Tut! 😉 Feel free to ask me more on variations of copyright watermarks!!!

Software used: Photoshop CS2 (Features used: Layers, Pattern & Layer blending options)

Step 1: Open A New Blank Document With A Transparent Background

Go to  File > New > to bring up the New Document dialog box.

(enter 6 inches for the width, 4 inches for the height, and 300 pixels/inch for the resolution.)

For Background Contents > Transparent (by clicking on the drop down menu)
Click OK!!

Step 2: Type Your Copyright Information

Grab your Type tool from the Tools palette or by pressing T on your keyboard.

Then press D on your keyboard to set black as your foreground color if it isn’t already, and enter your copyright information.

Select Font & its size from the above tool bar.(Try a bigger size this time!)

To access the copyright symbol “©”,
Press Option-G on a Mac, or hold down the Alt key on Windows and enter 0169 on the numeric keypad. I entered

“Copyright © 2009 WB Photography”
(An easier way to get the copyright sign ~ just copy the above sign and paste it where you want it)

Step 3: Rotate The Text With Free Transform

The copyright watermark tends to look better with the text rotated a bit, so once you’ve entered your text,
Press Ctrl+T (Win) / Command+T (Mac) to bring up the Free Transform handles around your text,

then place your mouse cursor just outside one of the corner handles and drag left or right with your mouse to rotate the text. Hold down the Shift key as you drag to rotate in nice, even increments!

Press Enter (Win) or Return (Mac) to apply the rotation when you’re done.

Step 4: Trim The Document Around The Text

Go to the Image menu > Trim.

(This brings up the Trim dialog box).We want to trim away all the extra space around the text, and since all the extra space is made up of transparent pixels, Select the first option > Transparent Pixels

Click OK, and Photoshop trims away all the extra space around the text

Step 5: Define The Text As A Pattern

Go up to the Edit > Define Pattern.

(We‘re going to create a pattern out of our copyright information. The Pattern Name dialog box appears)

Name your new pattern “copyright” and then click OK.

Step 6: Close The Copyright Document

We’ve done everything we need to do with our copyright document, so go ahead and close out of it at this point. No need to save anything!!
Open an image in photoshop, which you want to watermark with copyright!

Step 7: Add A New Layer In The Original Image Document

Back in our original image document, we currently have one layer, the Background layer, which contains our image. We don’t want to add our copyright information directly to the Background layer, so either click on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette or use the keyboard shortcut Shift+Ctrl+Alt+N (Win) / Shift+Command+Option+N
(Mac) to create a new layer above the Background layer, which Photoshop names “Layer 1”:

Step 8: Fill The New Layer With The Copyright Pattern

With our new layer selected in the Layers palette,

Go to the Edit menu > Fill, which brings up the Fill dialog box. For “Contents”, click on the down-pointing arrow and Select Pattern from the list!

Then, with Pattern selected, click on the little thumbnail image beside the words Custom Pattern and then choose your copyright pattern from the list that appears. It will be the last pattern at the bottom!!

Click OK!

(and your new layer is filled with a repeating pattern of your copyright information)

Step 9: Change The Blend Mode To “Overlay” and Lower The Opacity

The only problem now is that the text is too prominent. It’s blocking much of the image from view.

To fix that, with the new layer selected, go up to the layer blend mode options in the top left of the Layers palette,(click F7 for layer palette, if its missing)

Click on the down-pointing arrow beside the word “Normal” and select Overlay from the list.

Then move over to the Opacity option beside it and reduce the opacity as needed. I tried 60% and you can see the results below!!!!

You can try other words, instead of copyright! You can also try a single line of words in the centre of the photograph, with the layer blending options as above! or just play with it! 😉 Layer blending options are too coooool!!!!

You can even stamp a personal signature of yours on your photographs! Just like mine!! 😉 How?? Maybe next week!

Take care! 😀