I’ve long searched for a Photoshop action that was flexible, easy to use, and produced a watermark on my images that would protect them from unauthorized use, yet not be too obtrusive to the casual viewer. There are MANY watermark actions and tutorials on the web, yet no single solution met my criteria. I finally sat down and wrote my own Photoshop script, and I’m making this available to members of our Spirit of Photography community for their own use. This is watermarking function is written as a script in order to incorporate features that are not available through the use of actions, such as “conditional logic” and the ability to extract and use data from the current document. I’ll describe how to install and use the script in the instructions below.
There are two versions of the script. You can have them both installed and determine which to use based on your requirements. The first CopyrightWatermark script simply embeds a watermark in your image based on the conditional logic described below. The second “Sharpen and Watermark” script adds a “sharpen for web” step at the beginning of the process and can be used in conjunction with Photoshop's Image Processor (described below) as part of an efficient workflow to batch process images to prepare them for display on the web.
Main features:
Conditional Logic:
The scripts are primarily designed to produce a watermark from the copyright information embedded in the IPTC data of the file. So, if you have IPTC copyright information already embedded in the file, just run the script and it will insert a customized watermark based on that data.
If the script searches for copyright information in the IPTC data and doesn’t find any (i.e., the field is blank) it will insert a © symbol watermark in the image.
Supports batch processing:
Once you have the script installed in the appropriate Scripts folder (see instructions below) you can record an action containing the script, and this action can then be used to batch process images. Simply start recording an action (name the action so that you recognize that it is implementing the copyright script), run the script and stop recording the action. You now have an action that can be run from Bridge to batch process images to prepare them for posting to a web gallery.
Easily User configurable:
The real power of the script/action becomes available when you use it in conjunction with the “Image Processor” available in Bridge. For those of you not familiar with the “Image Processor,” it is a hidden gem in the Bridge menu that allows you to batch process images and save them in several image formats and sizes of your choice.
To use the Image Processor:
In Bridge, select the folder or files that you want to process. Go to the Tools menu and select Photoshop => Image Processor. Select the save location, file type, quality and size of the images you want to save. If you are posting images on the web, you want to also select the “convert profile to sRGB” and “include ICC profile” check boxes. I’ve found that the optimum “resize to fit” setting to display images in most web galleries is 800 pixels for both width and height.
To integrate the Watermark Script with Image Processor:
Assuming you have already recorded an action containing the script, in the "Preferences" section of the Image Processor select “run action” and use the drop down menus to select the watermark action you previously recorded containing the script actions. Selecting the “Sharpen and Watermark” script will provide you with the capability to save complete web-ready images in a single batch process. (Sized, converted to sRGB profile, appropriately sharpened, and watermarked images will be stored in your selected save location when you click on the “Run” button.)
Note the “Copyright Info” box at the bottom of the image processor. Any information typed into this box will take precedence over both the embedded IPTC information in the file, or the alternative to embed a simple © symbol watermark. Use this box to set the watermark text that you want inserted for this batch of images, or leave it blank to allow the script to extract your copyright information from the image IPTC data.
Instructions for installing the script in the appropriate folder on your hard drive:
MACINTOSH
Applications/Adobe Photoshop CS3/Presets/Scripts
PC
Program Files/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop CS3/Presets/Scripts
(For Photoshop CS2 or CS, substitute “Adobe Photoshop CS2” or Adobe Photoshop CS” for “Adobe Photoshop CS3” in the path above.)
Instructions for running the script:
After installing the script in the folder listed above, restart Photoshop and open your image for processing. In the Photoshop “File” menu select “Scripts” and then either the CopyrightWatermark or Sharpen & Watermark script. The script will run automatically once selected. Note that the script will return an error of there is no document open.
The download can be found at this link:
http://community.spiritofphotography.com/index.php?action=tpmod;dl=item3 or through the newly activated "downloads" menu on the left navigation pane of the "home" page of the community site. (You will need to be signed in as a member in order to download the files.)
Please let me know if you have any questions or comments on the scripts.
Keith
Your friendly (and generous) Spirit of Photography community host.
