CoffeeShop Tutorial- Making Your Own Watermark!

I know I have posted a watermark tutorial before, but I wanted to add some new information. I have so many people write me asking how to make their own simple watermarking brushes so hopefully this little tutorial will help!

The first thing you need to decide on when making your watermark is what font(s) you wish to use for your text. I have always suggested Dafont, but my new favorite place to get amazing fonts (and doodles!) is Kevin & Amanda. You can find all of her free fonts and doodles (fonts for peas) via the top menubar, and be ready to be amazed! Did I mention these are free and you can even use them commercially, as long as you link her button on your website?

My favorite fonts are her scrapbooking ones. For example, I have used Bosshole for a watermark. Take some time checking out all of the fonts posted on her site, she has some amazing ones that you don't see everywhere. Oh, I love them!

So why don't we make a watermarking brush and watermark .png image (can be used as a logo or also as a watermark) using Kevin & Amanda's Bosshole font and some cool doodles on her site?
If you aren't rolling in dough and can't afford a simple logo design by an expert, why not make your own logo/watermark. :-)

For this tutorial I am using Bosshole and Pea Stacy's Doodles (have you ever noticed that if you look at doodles too long you convince yourself you spelled it incorrectly?). However, you can use any font or doodle/image you wish. I often make my own doodle on a piece of paper, photograph it, and then upload it to Photoshop or Photoshop Elements and add a threshold adjustment layer to turn it into a simple B&W image.


Make a new document, approx. 2000px by 200px (this size is completely up to your design, but if you make it too big you can't make it into a brush).

I used Bosshole for the text and I used the Pea Stacy's Doodle (small p) for the cute little coffee cup. Then I went and double clicked on the Background, pressed enter when the box popped up, and made the Background into Layer 0. I did this so I could lower the opacity of the white background so it would be slightly translucent when I used the watermark as an image file.
As you can see I set the Layer 0 layer to 50% opacity so you will be able to see my image through the watermark white area. This white background is totally optional, you can bring it down to 0% opacity for a clear background. And you won't see a white background when you use your brush. You will only see the text.
At this time you also want to save this file so you can use it as a watermark and even use it in a watermarking action. Merge Visible and save this as a .png file (this will keep the background transparent).

Now Select, All and go to Edit, Define Brush Preset.

Name your new watermark brush.

Select B for brush and go click and open your brush pane on the top of the menubar. Find your brush (it should be the last one on the list), and select your size, brush color, and brush opacity.

You can use any color and any brush opacity. Here are a few examples of different settings. If you want to use your new watermark .png image file as a watermark, then read on!

Open your watermark .png you saved and drag it on top of your image. Then Ctrl-T to free transform it to fit (Ctrl-0, zero to see the drag bars).

Flatten and save! You can make a second version of this watermark with white text and a black or colored background.
Hope this helps you make your own watermark/logo!