How to Add Watermark

to Multiple Pictures
You upload a picture online to share your latest adventure with
friends, and a few days later you stumble on it on another website
signed by a different person. Sad, but it is highly possible these days -
images are often used and shared without any permission; all you
need to do to take a picture off the Web is right-click and save.

The quickest and simplest way to protect your images is to place a

watermark on them, it is not professional photographers privilege
anymore. Historically, a watermark was a faint design made on some
paper during manufacture, visible when held against the light and
used typically to identify the maker. Today digital watermarks are text
or an image put on top of a photograph or video to identify the
ownership.

There are various ways to do it. In this article we shall describe 2

methods you could use to place watermarks on a batch of images, i.e.
for batch image processing. These are cross-platform solutions, both
Windows and Mac users could make use of them.
Easy way to watermark multiple
images
If you process a large number of images, run a blog or a page on a
social networking website, you gotta try PhotoBulk. This minimalistic
application includes all functionality required for batch image
processing. Adding a watermark to hundreds or thousands of images
will consume minimal effort.

Once you download and install PhotoBulk on your computer, do as

follows:
1. Select pictures to be edited and place them in PhotoBulk window
using drag-and-drop. The number of the files will be displayed in
the window.
2. At the bottom of PhotoBulk window to the left you will find
Watermark button. Click it. You can choose between text, image,
script or datestamp watermark and customize it further. Each of
them will have their own settings.
 PhotoBulk

3. Clicking Preview button enables you to see the changes you

make right away. Press small lock icon on the top of Preview
window to resize your watermark proportionally on all your
images.
4. Once you are set and done, press START button. A window will
be displayed where you can choose a destination folder for the
images to be saved and their format. Press Save button.
In watermark settings you can choose a position, set a required angle
and transparency. Also you can set the exact size of the watermark
and scalability in relation to the image size. Processing a large
number of pictures might take a while. Your original pictures remain
untouched.
PhotoBulk also enables you to execute other batch operations
resize, optimize, rename and convert them into other format.

Batch watermark using Photoshop

Another way to add watermarks to a batch of images is to use Adobe
Photoshop. Compared to special applications, batch image processing
here might require more time & effort. On the other hand depending
on how well you know Photoshop tools you can use various methods
to do it. Below we will describe one of them.
Adding a Watermark to a Single Picture

Open a picture youd like to watermark and the watermark file. If you
do not have a separate watermark file, youll need to create one. A
text watermark needs to be converted into an image.

Click the watermark and press Ctrl+A to select the entire image, then
Ctrl+C to copy it to your clipboard. Now go to the picture to be
watermarked and press Ctrl+V to paste the watermark image into it.
You might have to adjust the watermark size and position. Before
saving changes, make sure to make a copy of the original file.

Adding a Watermark to a Batch of Pictures

Here is how you can apply a watermark to multiple pictures in one go.
1. Open an image to watermark. It should be open before we start
making any changes, otherwise the app will keep opening this
image and watermarking it over and over again.
2. In Photoshop go to Windows > Actions
3. Create a new folder by clicking a little folder icon at the bottom of
the Actions Palette
4. Then press Create New Action button it is right next to the New
Folder icon we just used.
5. Name a new action and assign a function key to it, if required

6. Record button should be pressed by default, but if it is not, press

it now to start recording your action. Youll find it to the left of
New Folder icon.
7. Now that our action is being recorded go to File >> Place
 8. Once the dialog box is displayed, go to your previously created
watermark file.
9. Click Place button
10. By default the watermark will be placed in the dead center,
change the position if required and press Enter.
11. Go to File >> Save As. Choose a destination folder for your
watermarked images to be saved, press Save. Do not change
the file name, otherwise when you play the batch, the app will
give all of them the same name and they will be replaced by
each other.
12. Close the image we just watermarked.
13. Do not save image when prompted.
14. Press Stop Recording on the Actions Palette.
15. Our Action is now recorded.
16. To process an entire batch of images we go to File >>
Automate >> Batch
17. Select the folder with images
18. Select the folder where you would like to save your
watermarked images
19. Press OK and Photoshop will start watermarking all the
Images in the selected folder.
This method has certain drawbacks:

First, you cant just drag-and-drop images to the apps window. Youll
have to put them in a folder first.
Second, your watermark will not be resized proportionally to your
image size

Third, the process is quite resource-consuming so most probably you

will not be able to use your computer while the processing is going on.

On the other hand, Photoshop gives you almost unlimited options to

edit photographs thus leaving you plenty of room to experiment and
find convenient ways to solve your tasks.