Many of you asked for a simple tutorial on using Excel data as source for dynamic text watermarks. Here you go:

HTH

Phil

The post Video Tutorial: Watermark Photos with Data from Excel appeared first on PMlabs Blog.

I guess that’s familiar to you: You have finished a shooting, edited your pictures with Lightroom and before publishing the samples in the internet, you are going to resize and rename the photos and watermark them. You hopefully use bulkWaterMark therefore, because putting your photos into the app to add text to pictures in batch is a no-brainer without any effort. This is probably the most typical use case of bulkWaterMark.

Like a serial letter of watermarks in pictures

But bulkWaterMark can do a lot more for you than just inserting the same static text in every picture again and again. Of course, you probably have already seen our tutorials on the blog about inserting dynamic text in photos. Until now we have just given you hints for using image metadata in watermarks. Today I would like to show you how to get completely external data depending on the photo you are going to watermark into your protected pictures. But what do I mean with external data? I’m thinking of an Excel Workbook as data source, similar to the serial letter feature of Microsoft Word that takes names and addresses from an Excel spreadsheet.

You all know the serial letter feature of Word. Dynamic We are just doing the same in bulkWaterMark – instead of inserting the dynamic data into a letter, we are putting the data directly into a photo you are going to watermark.

Excel!? I want to add dynamic text into pictures!

But Excel is a spreadsheet program!? Why should I use a Microsoft Office app for putting data into watermarks?

It simple: By using bulkWaterMark Data Expressions, you can read from Excel Workbooks, search for a particular row and return any cell data of that found row that can be used as text for your watermark. Because most people like and understand Excel, we thought that it is a nice idea to use Excel as primary data source for so-called text data watermarks. As an alternative, you can also use CSV files if you want a more open source data format.

Examples of use

Many of our customers are already using this features. The most typical use case for is explained in our sample below, but I would like to give so some really creative examples of use, that we would not have thought of when developing the features.

Cardealers are using Data Expressions for creating photos for used car exchange websites. Pictures of offered cars are getting watermarked not only with the car dealer’s logo, but also with specific car data like its price or mileage.

Another customer has implemented a watermark template that generates a personal deck of Happy Family cards out of a bunch of images. This was achieved by using the image border layer of bulkWaterMark. The bottom of the border contains the occupation types that are fetched from an Excel spreadsheet.

Add text to pictures from Excel cells

Assume that we have thousands of pictures and a likewise long list of data that includes annotations for each photo. In our tutorial sample I have a list of filenames that contains the name of  the photographer and the copyright holder of each photo. This is how it looks like:

The first column contains the name of each file we want to watermark, called “Filename”. We need this column to identify which image belongs to each row of data. The next column are the data columns and contain the name of the photographer (“Photographer”) and the name of the copyright owner (“Copyright”).

Our database and structure is defined – time to launch bulkWaterMark and create a new watermark template in the Profile Editor. First we are adding a new text layer and switch to the Expression Editor:

Now it’s getting interesting: We have to choose our data source now, which is the previously introduced Excel worksheet. Therefore, click onto the gear icon next to the Data Expression Context to configure the data source.

After defining a file (you can either use an Excel or CSV file), bulkWaterMark loads a raw preview of the data and displays the available sheets (Excel only) and columns within the data file. Our sample Excel file consists of a single sheet called “ImageCopyrights” that includes the previously shown data the we want to stamp onto our pictures. Afterwards I’m confirming my data source settings and we are nearly finished with our tutorial.

The only thing missing is the Expression that defines how the text of the watermark is getting composed. Therefore we are typing the following Expression into the Editor:

Photo by {Data.GetColumnValue(Filename, {OriginalImage.FileName}, Photographer)}

As keen bulkWaterMark tutorial (and online help!) reader you likely know what this text above means. But for the sake of completeness I would like to explain what those brackets and cryptic names are for:

The text till “Photo by ” is not an Expression – this will be written into the watermark directly. The interesting part starts when the first bracket “{” sets in and the magic begins: The function “GetColumnValue” of the “Data” context gets called. This function requires to parameters:

The first parameter (green) expects the name of the column that contains the image filename. This column gets searched for the the filename and is column A called “Filename” in our Excel file.

The second parameter (blue) is the value, that we are searching within column “Filename”. We are putting another, nested Expression result as parameter: {OriginalImage.FileName} returns the filename of the current image we are going to watermark.

Parameter #3 (orange) defines the column we want to actually use in our text watermark. The data for the text watermark should be taken from column C “Photographer”.

This is how it looks like in bulkWaterMark:

And this is how a watermarked photo looks like:

In our new Expression Editor you can also set test parameters for testing dynamic expressions easily by switching to the tab “Test Parameter” and adding a few image files. You can now select any of the added test images by a single click and depending on the selection, bulkWaterMark sets the property {OriginalImage.FileName} to the chosen image filename.

Conclusion

The new Expression Editor and Data Expression feature improve the handling of dynamic text watermarks a lot. Data Expressions might look complicated on the first sight, but after a few tries you will quickly batch watermark thousands of photos with external and individual data in no time. I think the effort already pays off when you want to watermark a few dozens of images with dynamic data.

If you need help with integrating your Excel or CSV data in your watermark profile do not hesitate to contact our support or just post above this article. Our presented example is included in our samples library that comes with a fresh bulkWaterMark installation.

Update 2018-11-05: Check out this video for another simple Excel watermark tutorial:

Cheers,

Phil

The post Add Text to Pictures in Batch dynamically from Excel and CSV files appeared first on PMlabs Blog.

bulkWaterMark turns 1 today and we have just released a new version of bulkWaterMark with huge features! The first one I would like to introduce with this blog post is a powerful addition to the border images feature: Placeholders!

New: Frame Layer + Placeholders

Our August 2016 release introduced the Frame Layer to border photos fast with bulkWaterMark. The new Placeholders are an essential upgrade for the Frame Layer.

So what are Placeholders good for? Layers in bulkWaterMark can provide Placeholders that can be used to host Child Layers. Let’s say you want to add an image description and design a picture frame that looks like a Polaroid instant photo with handwritten text on it:

How to border images in Polaroid style

First you need to insert a new Frame Layer into your watermark template. I’m using the gradient brush tool to create a texture that makes the frame look like a sepia colored instant photo.

Now I’m increasing the thickness of the bottom border. I set it to 150 pixels to make it look like a typical instant photo. After resizing the bottom border, bulkWaterMark indicates that this part of Frame Layer can be used as a Placeholder for hosting another Layer:

The Placeholder is now ready to be filled with text. Click the “Add Text Layer” button and afterwards hit the light grey Placeholder area to insert the Text Layer into the Placeholder.

This new Text Layer is now dependent on its parent Layer in terms of position, size and visibility. If you disable the visibility of the Frame Layer, the Text Layer is also hidden. If a batch image resizes your Frame Layer, the description Text Layer gets resized and repositioned to. If you delete the Frame Layer, you delete the Text Layer. And so on…

I’m making a few adjustments to fit any text nicely into the Placeholder by setting the Font Size to Auto Size. Additionally, I’m aligning the content to the center of the Text Layer. Now you can use any input picture for watermarking and the Frame Layer positions the border around the image including the description Text Layer perfectly. Finally, I’m adding a soft drop shadow effect to the Frame Layer and rotating the whole watermark for a few degrees.

Choose image files for framing

After saving the Profile, I’m in the Batch View to select a bunch of image files that should get decorated with a border.

Because I’m using the drop shadow effect, bulkWaterMark will generate a semi-transparent output picture. I would recommend to set an output image format like PNG, GIF or WebP to keep the semi-transparency for output files. (A feature that solves this problem is on the way!)

After clicking the Drop button, you can lean back and bulkWaterMark borders the selected images.

The Placeholder feature is available from bulkWaterMark Pro and can be tried out in our 30 days trial version.

In the next tutorial I will demonstrate how to replace our static “DESCRIPTION” text with dynamic data from a Microsoft Excel Workbook.

Thank you for your attention!

Cheers,

Phil

The post Tutorial: Instant Photo Frame in Batch appeared first on PMlabs Blog.

Since our August 2016 Release, you can officially border images with bulkWaterMark – of course in batch. To use this new feature, you need to add a new Frame Layer to your watermark template. This type of layer draws a frame around your photos – additionally to your watermark.

Adding Frame Layer

To add a Frame Layer, just click the Add Frame Layer button. Immediately afterwards, bulkWaterMark adds the layer to the canvas. Unlike other layer types, you cannot move or resize a Frame Layer. And: You can only add a single Frame Layer per Profile.

Border Color

This is a bulkWaterMark standard task: You can set the color of Frame Layer via the Color Picker. Use gradients to make the border more vibrant.

Border Thickness

You can change the border’s thickness for each side individually by using the fields.

Effects and Layers

All layers in bulkWaterMark can be enhanced with Effects to let them appear more creative and diversified – likewise the Frame Layer.
By clicking the button Effects, the Effects popup gets opened and you can add effects like Bevel or Drop Shadow to your border.

Keep Ratio on Resizing

bulkWaterMark draws the border around the containing photo within the output image size you are defining. Depending on the frame size and the effect settings, it is possible that the original input image needs to be resized to fit into the frame to avoid deformation. Enable the feature Keep Size Ratio to ensure that the image gets resized proportionally and the frame thickness gets adjusted automatically.

Layer Transparency

All composition objects in bulkWaterMark have a transparency value that is adjustable for each layer or layer group individually. Just click the Transparency button to open the transparency settings.

Try out this amazing new feature to border images now: The Frame Layer is also available in Free edition of bulkWaterMark!

Cheers,

Phil

The post Tutorial: Border Images in Batch with bulkWaterMark appeared first on PMlabs Blog.

Long time, no see! In the last few weeks we were busy finishing the new features for our latest major bulkWaterMark release. Version 1.0.1543.131, available now, brings two new features for our batch photo watermark app:

Geo Expressions

bulkWaterMark has a brand new Expression Context to retrieve geographical data about the current photo. Trust me, you will love this feature to illustrate your holiday trip by displaying the place or address where you have taken the picture as watermark.

To use this feature your image needs to come with GPS coordinates saved in its Exif metadata. When you are taking a picture with your phone, nearly all modern smartphones are saving the coordinates of the current place within the image. Furthermore, you need access to the internet as bulkWaterMark will lookup the place that is specified by the coordinates in OpenStreetMap.

But how does this work? Learn how to watermark photos with geo data in bulkWaterMark by using Dynamic Expressions.

Let’s start from the scratch. When opening bulkWaterMark, we double click “New Watermark Profile” to create a new watermark and open the Profile Editor.

Now I’m going to add a new text watermark by clicking the Text Layer button:

It’s up to you now to bring some style into your watermark. I have played around with gradient colors, drop shadow and a soft bevel effect and came up with this:

Now it’s getting interesting: Select the Text Layer by simply clicking on it. A popup button will appear now like in the picture above. Click on bubble icon and it will open the Expressions Editor for the selected Text Layer.

Above you will see the Expression Editor for a text watermark without a dynamic expression. Highlighted you can see the text you have entered before when adding the Text Layer to your Watermark Profile. I went with the standard text “TextLayer1”.

To bring in a Dynamic Expression with GIS (Geographic Information System) data, I’m selecting all the text in the Text section of the dialog. Afterwards I’m browsing through the Expression Reference, more precisely I’m selecting the Geo Expression Context and double click the City Expression. Double clicking the Expression results in a replacing of the highlighted “TextLayer1” text:

This means, that the Text Layer has now a fully dynamic text, that relies on the Geo.City Expression. You can additionally add some static text by changing the text to “Current City: {Geo.City}”. If you are happy with your Expression, you can apply the changes to the Text Watermark by clicking the button with the green tick.

It’s time to try out the Expression. You can do this directly within the Profile Editor by dragging and dropping an image file with Exif GPS data onto the Watermark Settings Preview:

After saving the Profile, you can start to batch watermark your pictures as usual. Just make sure that you have turned on your internet connection, otherwise you will get an error message.

Geo Expressions are available for all users with Basic versions and above.

Random Watermarks

Sometimes you want to watermark photos randomly to make sure that no automated watermark remover or photo crop batch action can remove a watermark from photos easily. bulkWaterMark has a new feature called Random Watermarks to solve this issue.

To activate Random Watermarks you just need to switch to Random mode in the Watermark Settings (see the highlighted button above). Afterwards you can select all the corners where the watermark potentially could appear. bulkWaterMark chooses a random corner for each image then from the corners and positions you have defined previously.

Random Watermarks can be used by users with Pro or Business licenses.

Hope you like our new features!

We are happy about any feedback!

Cheers,

Phil

The post Watermark photos with the name of the place you have taken the picture appeared first on PMlabs Blog.