{"id":1438,"date":"2015-12-17T21:51:26","date_gmt":"2015-12-17T21:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.accphotos.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/17\/how-to-using-mac-automator-to-watermark-images\/"},"modified":"2017-07-23T23:35:51","modified_gmt":"2017-07-24T03:35:51","slug":"how-to-using-mac-automator-to-watermark-images","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blog.accphotos.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/17\/how-to-using-mac-automator-to-watermark-images\/","title":{"rendered":"How to: Using Mac Automator to watermark images using a folder action"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the challenges I face as a photographer is having my photography lifted by fans, parents, bloggers and others. Other photographers will understand my frustration: You invest tens of thousands of dollars in equipment, invest hours of time and energy in producing images, only to have them stolen. An unfortunate side effect of this is the need to watermark images.<\/p>\n<p>Watermarking photos typically requires an application to implement but Mac users can use built-in <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Automator_(software)\">Automator<\/a> tool to make watermarking photos as easy as dropping files into a folder.<\/p>\n<p>Below I present instructions on how to use Automator on Mac OS X 10.11 to resize and watermark photos.<\/p>\n<p><!-- more --><\/p>\n<h2><b>Here is what you need<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Mac OS X 10.11\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153El Capitan\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (the instruction I write below are for 10.11, but likely could be modeled for future or earlier versions)<\/li>\n<li>The <i>Image Processor<\/i> action [<a href=\"http:\/\/mac.softpedia.com\/get\/Automator-Actions---Workflows\/Image-Processor.shtml\">find it here<\/a>] which as\u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.fredmiranda.com\/forum\/topic\/846863\">created<\/a> by photographer\u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/britton-photography.com\">Ryan Britton<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>A PNG-24 overlay file to use as your watermark<\/li>\n<li>You <b>don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need<\/b> a separate application like Photoshop.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>What the Automator action you create will do<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>When you copy or\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153drag and drop\u00e2\u20ac\u009d photos to a special folder (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153watched folder\u00e2\u20ac\u009d), Automator will automatically watermark and resize the photos, and save them to a separate folder.<\/li>\n<li>It will not overwrite your original files.<\/li>\n<li>You can either only watermark, only resize photos, or both.<\/li>\n<li>You can define the output color space.<\/li>\n<li>Using Automator will usually be faster than opening up a separate application to watermark photos.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>How you\u00c2\u00a0might\u00c2\u00a0use it<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>By dragging and dropping files into the watched folder.<\/li>\n<li>By saving files from Photoshop to the watched folder to allow Automator to process them.<\/li>\n<li>By copying files from applications like Photo Mechanic to the folder to process them. (I personally don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like using PM to watermark files because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve found the image overlaid will be at different widths, depending on if you use watermark a portrait or landscape photo. With this action the watermark is a consistent size.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Instructions<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>Create a folder on your computer to serve as the watched folder. I have called it\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Watermark Automator\u00e2\u20ac\u009d on my desktop, but you can call it whatever you want and save it wherever you want.<\/p>\n<p>In the watched folder create a subfolder where the images saved by Automator will be saved. I call it\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153!output\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. I create a folder leading with\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d so that when the folder sorts alphabetically, the output folder is always at the beginning.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"tmblr-full\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/68.media.tumblr.com\/12a3c15b8215a75b88f00d75b7470a81\/tumblr_inline_nziqj8cUSF1r4otob_540.png?w=762\" alt=\"image\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>Open Automator.<\/p>\n<p>Click\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153File\u00e2\u20ac\u009d,\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153New\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Folder Action\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"tmblr-full\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/68.media.tumblr.com\/a551ce2ff00e6d9b2205305ad85a0adc\/tumblr_inline_nziqnmYKwD1r4otob_540.png?w=762\" alt=\"image\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>Drag the Image Processor file you downloaded from the requirements section above to the Automator icon in your task bar. Automator will ask if you want to install Image Processor. Say\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Install\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"tmblr-full\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/68.media.tumblr.com\/145e4bb3ec2b54393d431c47a4f8fc85\/tumblr_inline_nziqyz1wOz1r4otob_540.png?w=762\" alt=\"image\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>You will now see\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Image Processor\u00e2\u20ac\u009d appear under the Photos section of actions in Automator. Drag this process to your work flow on the right. You may need to activate the action in Automator since it is a downloaded Internet file.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"tmblr-full\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/68.media.tumblr.com\/e6036a3089df2eb6ade9bc5b6d789da3\/tumblr_inline_nzir63Jto51r4otob_540.png?w=762\" alt=\"image\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>As shown above, use the dropdown menu above the action to select what your watched folder is. (If you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make your selection, the action will not work because Automator will not know which folder it is supposed to\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153watch\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to trigger the action.)<\/p>\n<p>In the Image Processor action, select the output directory for where you want the images saved to. I made this\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153!output\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, a subfolder of my watched folder, but you can save it anywhere you want; it does not need to be subfolder of your watched folder.<\/p>\n<p>I keep\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Output format\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Save as original\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Preserve metadata\u00e2\u20ac\u009d turned on,\u00c2\u00a0and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Output ColorSpace\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0as sRGB. Select what is best for you. For scale, I use \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fit within dimensions\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with 2000 pixels as both the length and width, ensuring that the longest edge of the image is always 2000 pixels.<\/p>\n<p>I then select my watermark image by selecting\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Other\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Watermark\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0dropdown menu and selecting where\u00c2\u00a0on my computer\u00c2\u00a0the PNG watermark file is. (FWIW, my watermark image is 800 pixels wide by 190 tall. Since the action cannot adjust transparency of the watermark, I created my PNG file to be 70% transparent in Photoshop. Also of note, the watermark is not scaled up or down by the action; it will be overlaid at 100%. Thus, if your watermark is 2000 pixels wide, and the width of your photo is 2000 pixels, the watermark will occupy the entire width of the photo. I personally find that a 800 pixel-wide watermark for either a landscape or portrait photo at 2000 pixels wide works well. \u00c2\u00a0The creation of the PNG file is beyond the scope of this article.)<\/p>\n<p>I select the bottom left as the anchor with 20,20 as offset. Put your watermark where you prefer.<\/p>\n<p>(I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve not yet used the\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Copyright\u00e2\u20ac\u009d option as I was not clear on how to use it.)<\/p>\n<p>Click\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153File\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Save\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and save the file as\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Image Processor Watermark\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or whatever name you prefer. Automator will automatically save the action to:\u00c2\u00a0\/Users\/[username]\/Library\/Workflows\/Applications\/Folder Actions. \u00c2\u00a0Leave it there. If you ever need to tweak the action (changing the overlay file, the scaling, etc.) just go to that folder and open up the action, make changes, and save.)<\/p>\n<p>Here is what my full workflow looks like after completion.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"tmblr-full\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/68.media.tumblr.com\/e766755cca4895b1d75c0fbe19e263fc\/tumblr_inline_nzit5oK4O91r4otob_540.png?w=762\" alt=\"image\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>Drop an image file into the watched folder to test it out. If you\u00c2\u00a0find that nothing happens try fixing this by right clicking on your watched folder, select \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Folder Actions Setup\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and then select\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Enable Folder actions\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and make sure your new action is selected to activate it. Also make sure you have properly told Automator which folder to watch, and the action which folder to save to.<\/p>\n<p>Here is what an image looks like after watermark using Image Processor.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"tmblr-full\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/68.media.tumblr.com\/55eb2096d020dfea525f4a16c98f8535\/tumblr_inline_nzit6xXpmX1r4otob_540.jpg?w=762\" alt=\"image\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>I hope you found this tutorial helpful!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the challenges I face as a photographer is having my photography lifted by fans, parents, bloggers and others. Other photographers will understand my frustration: You invest tens of thousands of dollars in equipment, invest hours of time and energy in producing images, only to have them stolen. An &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[101,100],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.accphotos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1438"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.accphotos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.accphotos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.accphotos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.accphotos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1438"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.accphotos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3161,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.accphotos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1438\/revisions\/3161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.accphotos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.accphotos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.accphotos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}