Making a watermark on your paintings

It's Tippy Tuesday! A collection of tips I've gained through experience or learned from other artists.

Given last week's discussion about copyright, this post shows how I make a watermark on my digital images using Adobe® Photoshop®.

1. Open the painting file in Photoshop. I scan my photos as TIFFs to retain the most information. A lot of people use JPEGs by default, but I recommend a format that doesn't use a lossy compression scheme, such as TIFF or your camera's native raw format.

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2. Select the Text tool . Click and drag a text area. When you do this, a new layer will automatically be created. Type in your message. (Tip: the © sign is made by typing Option-g.)

3. Still using the Text tool cursor, drag over the text and choose font, size, and color. I'm making the text larger and bright than usual, so you can see it.

Then use the Move tool to position the text where you want it.

4. If you wish, you can make the text layer transparent so the image still shows through.

5. Make sure to "Save As..." or "Save For Web...." and retain the original layered file. You want to be able to access the un-watermarked version. (Tip: if you started by opening a JPEG, you will need to save it as a Photoshop or TIFF version before this step. JPEGs cannot contain layers, such as the type layer.)