Free or very cheap watermarking software??

Zerodog

One of my friends needs a way to easily watermark photos with his Mac. Any free or cheap options to look at? :scratch

ziggy53

Something to try:

Review:
http://obscuredclarity.blogspot.com/2008/10/how-to-watermark-image-for-free.html

Product website (there is a "Free*" version at the site, as well as a purchase "Pro" version):
http://www.jetphotosoft.com/web/home/

From the review:

"JetPhoto Studio is a great little freeware application for Mac and PC for adding a watermark to your images. I spent a great deal of time trying to find a freeware program for my Mac that would add a watermark to a batch of images I wanted to publish on the web."

"I downloaded JetPhoto Studio and it rocks! The following is an illustrated guide to add a watermark to an image with JetPhoto Studio."

From the product website:

"Mac version
(for Mac OS X 10.3 / 10.4 / 10.5 / 10.6 / 10.7 / 10.8)"
(There is also a Windows version.)

"- Resize Settings (optional)
Choose 'Resize' tab, set the size of pictures that will be included in the published online Web album. As the default setting, JetPhoto Studio will resize each photo to three copies: a thumbnail-size image (128x128), a preview-size image (256x256) and a standard-size photo copy with custom bounds (default is 640x640). Normally, please just keep all settings as default if you use JetPhoto Server to publish your photo album to the web.

- Watermark Settings (optional)
Choose 'Watermark' tab, set the watermark stamped on the online photo copies. You can design the watermark mask image by Photoshop or other image editor software, and save it as a transparent PNG, TIFF or any other general image file (We highly suggest you save watermark mask as PNG file that has a 8-bit alpha channel, GIF is not suggested). Drag the file into the box located in top-left corner of 'Watermark' panel. Then you can also set the position of the watermark stamped on the photo, choose Top-Left, Bottom-Left, Top-Right, Bottom-Right or Center.

When stamping watermarks, JetPhoto Studio will automatically resize watermark image to fit your target photos. Actually, you can't decide the actual size of your watermark on the target photo when you design it. Normally, the size of the watermark image you prepared shall be much bigger than the size of the the watermark you want to see on the target photos.

Here is a typical setting to make a quality watermark image:
• Image Size: 512 x 512 pixels
• Image Format: PNG with alpha (transparent)
• Image Color Mode: 8-bit gray or RGB"

---

*(ziggy note: I should point out that the "free" version does not allow commercial use. If you use this software for a profit business, you are expected to purchase the "JetPhoto Studio Pro" version.)

mercphoto

If he is already using Aperture he can setup an export setting to add a watermark.

Zerodog

Does aperture come standard on Mac? If not, I doubt it.

mercphoto

Not standard, but only about $79 I think. Foolish to buy it if all he wants is to watermark. But if he isn't using Lightroom or Aperture already and is doing a lot of photography, he should really consider buying one of the two programs.

Zerodog

He does some snapping, maybe he should look into aperture. It would be a better way to organize his pics. This is more of a scanning of some historic photos and sharing on the web sort of thing. He just wants to show photos are his.

Zerodog

Thank you Ziggy! That software looks like it should get the job done for him.

divamum

Presumably he doesn't have Lightroom either? That's what I use...