How To Create & Add a Transparent Watermark In PicMonkey

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I’ve had several people ask me how to make a watermark for their blog in a program that’s FREE and EASY to use. There’s nothing easier than PicMonkey and if you follow the 9 steps below you can create your own watermark in under 30 minutes. (Not because it takes the whole 30 minutes but you will take time determining a font that works for you and also a graphic if you choose to use one, the design elements are what always takes the longest, not the actual building of the watermark)

STEP: 1 Open PicMonkey and at the top of the page choose DESIGN, and CUSTOM. 

STEP: 2 A  section will open asking you to “ENTER A CUSTOM SIZE” use the size 250X250 (it’s the perfect size for a watermark and won’t need to be resized once you place it on a photo) don’t forget to hit the green box that says “MAKE IT”.

STEP: 3 In the BASIC EDITS, CANVAS COLOR,  section put a checkmark in the box “TRANSPARENT CANVAS” (this will create a watermark that has a transparent background) now hit APPLY. 

STEP: 4 Open the OVERLAY panel (they symbol for this is the butterfly to the far left). From here you can choose anything that PicMonkey offers or you can use the tab at the top that says YOUR OWN and choose something you have stored on your own computer (for this tutorial I am using the tree offered in PicMonkey).  Size the graphic image to suit your needs (do this by grabbing a corner and dragging it to the desired size). In the right hand side of the page a color tint section will pop up, this is where you choose your graphics color. You can enter a #code if you have a custom color you’d like to use. I recommend making it black for now (and I’ll show you why later).

STEP 5: Open the ADD TEXT panel (the symbol for this is an uppercase and lowercase “T”). You can choose one of PicMonkey’s fonts (labeled “OURS”) or you can choose a custom front of your own (labeled “YOURS”) Any font you have stored on your computer will show up in the “YOURS” section. In the TINT Panel you can also choose your font size and color or just drag the font box corners to resize.

STEP: 6 Type your “TEXT” I also recommend you make your text black.  Once you have everything the way you like it go up to the top of the page and hit SAVE (name it accordingly such as “Black Watermark” and save as a PNG). Now go back to the Watermark and click on the graphic and change it’s color to white, and do the same with the text. Go up to the top and hit SAVE again (give it a new name such as “White Watermark” and save as a PNG).  Remember where you saved your watermark, for me I keep them on my desktop for easy use.

STEP 7: Now I will show you how to get the watermark on a photo. Reopen a new tab for PicMonkey, click on EDIT at the top of the page, then COMPUTER, find a photo from your computer that you would like to watermark. 

STEP 8: Open the OVERLAY panel (the butterfly symbol), go up to the top and choose YOUR OWN, now find the black or white watermark you have stored on your computer. Once you click on the watermark it will automatically place it on your photo in the correct size. All you have to do now is move it to the location that works best for this particular photo.

STEP: 9 This is why I had you make a white and a black watermark: With those two options you can create a fade effect from the panel that pops up to the right of your watermark. Just drag the slide option to get the desired fade or color that works for you. The watermark in step 9 is my black watermark with a fade of 50% making it gray and not so noticeable on the photo. You want a watermark to be visible but not overwhelming to the photo. Same with the white watermark, if you add it to a dark photo you will want to adjust the fade so it’s not so harsh.

And that is how you make a watermark in PicMonkey in 9 simple steps. It’s so easy to do, just take your time and follow along. You’ll have a custom watermark in no time. If you have any question just leave a comment below and I’ll get right back with you.