How to Watermark a Photo with Photoshop - Text Watermarks

If you want to protect your photographs that you post online, it's a good idea to add a watermark. While some people will still be able to get around a watermark through cropping or other methods, for the most part a watermark will keep your images safe. And if someone does decide to take your photo, your watermark can be considered a form of advertisement.

In Adobe Photoshop you can add a simple text watermark or even your logo. We'll start by learning how to create a text watermark.

Text Watermarks

1. Open your photograph in Photoshop.

2. Create a new layer. Layer > New > Layer or Shift+Ctrl+N

3. You can name your layer watermark, or leave it as layer one if you don't plan on doing any other editing. I always recommend labeling layers appropriately when working with multiple layers. The settings below are what it should look like:

4. Using the text tool, click on the image, a flashing cursor for the text bar should show up. Write what you want your watermark to say.


5. The text may be to big or to small at this point. You can quickly see what your watermark will look like by selecting the layer, then selecting the font tool and scrolling through the fonts/sizes at the top of the screen. Be sure not to have the text itself selected or this will not work.

Three steps to quickly sampling fonts.

6.  While you want to protect your image, you do not want the watermark to become the focal point. They look best on the lower portion of the photograph and in neutral colors (white, black). You can reduce the opacity for the layer for a more translucent look.

Tip: You can find the copyright symbol in your character map. In Windows, click the start button and type "character map" then click the program, scroll through, and find the copyright symbol.