How to Make a Watermark .png file in Photoshop and Elements

There are so many ways to do this, but I am going to share two with you today.  Tomorrow I will show you how to place the file on your photo using Photoshop or Elements.

Option #1:

Open Photoshop or PSE.  Got to the File tab and select New.  A window will appear asking you the name and size you want your new image to be.  You want the pixel count to be about 80-100 pixels in height and 300 pixels in width.  You want the background contents to be transparent.  Name your image whatever you would like to, I used Watermark Logo. Hit OK.

When your box has appeared it will have a checkerboard pattern.  That means the background has no color.  Open a text box and type what you want your watermark to read.  Adjust the size and font style.  You can find a great selection of fonts over at dafont.com. 

When you have the look you want, DO NOT FLATTEN!  Select Save As.  For file type select .png.  You may get a warning that it will have to be saved as a copy.  Just click OK.  You are done.

Option #2:

If you want your watermark to match your logo, header, or button then you have to do the option above and use the same style from scratch, or you can take a long tedious process to convert it to a watermark.  When I say long, I am talking about 30-45 minutes if you are meticulous like me.  I will use my friend Rach from Life Ever Since as an example.  Here is her blog button.

I made a new image in photoshop just as in the option above.  But this time I cut words from her blog button and pasted them onto the image canvas.

Line the words up how you want them to be.  Go to your tool bar on the left side of your screen.  Right click on the eraser tool.  Select Background Eraser Tool.

When you do this a circle will appear.  When you erase with it, it will erase the background.  You will want to zoom in a lot to get close to your letters.  You can easily zoom in by pressing CTRL and + at the same time (zoom out CTRL and -).  If your eraser circle is too big or small you can adjust the size by pressing [ for smaller and ] for bigger. 

This is the tedious part.  You need to remove all of the white from the screen.  You will be left with the font and the checker board pattern.  As you can see from the image above, I used the paint bucket icon to color the font black.  Now you are finished.  DO NOT FLATTEN your image.  Click Save As.  For file name choose your watermark name and then add “black” to it.  For file type select .png.  A warning will come up telling you that it will be saved as a copy.  This is alright.  Hit OK.

You will want to now repaint your font with the paint bucket set to white.  Now Save As the same name, but replace “black” with “white”.  Save as a .png file.

         

You are done with your watermark!  Now come back tomorrow where I will show you my absolute favorite way to put your watermark on your photo. 

I hope this was helpful.  If you have any questions at all, please ask away.  You can comment or email me at momtriedit@gmail.com.