Watermarking software

Image Tools is a free, easy-to-use, batch image editor that will allow you to create a text watermark or import an existing image watermark.

In terms of creating a watermark logo, I personally use ArtText, but you could also use Gimp, Pixelmator, or a host of other programs to design something.

Watermark Plugin for Aperture

I use the Plugin for Aperture:

bluecrowbar impression/

For me works fine but I need to say that I never need to do more than one photo at the time

Why do you want to watermark you're photos? Smugmug let's you disable downloading and printing, so your photos are relatively safe from theft and that's why most people watermark them. What you create is yours and the law doesn't require you to mark it as such. I have "copyright drshearon all rights reserved" with the creation year in the EXIF data of all my photos and that's all I feel I need.

If I were to share a file with a client I would plant the word PROOF in large type across the lower center of it. Artsy little watermarks are easy to crop off.

Some people like it as advertising or a badge of ownership, but I just find them distracting.

Dale

I still haven't come to terms with watermarking. I don't know if I want to use it or not.

With that in mind I wrote my image serving software to apply watermarks dynamically depending on my desire at the time. It is only baked into the image on demand so I can change it on the fly.

But that requires writing your own server code.

Smugmug makes really nice watermarks for you actually. Just create a simple image file in a grey with the text or logo you want... upload it and then smugmug should let you set the transparency and location on the pictures. Also allows you to upload multiple files and use different ones for different pictures.

Those are screenshot programs and the only way to protect against that kind of theft is to place a large watermark in the center of the image like the stock photography sites do. You could also just make your gallery private and give access to trusted friends only. but that messes up the casual viewer experience.

I used screenshots to build the tutorials used for Photo of the Day and the quality is crappy because I can't get anything better than the dpi of my screen.

Here's a screenshot of one of my photos I "stole" from my Flickr site. You could stick it on a website but it has no sale value at 72dpi. The one following it is the safe version with anti-theft stuff applied.

Dale