Using Image Magick to create watermarks.
23 Jan 2021I wanted to add some small text to images, and got on this kick of using ImageMagick create small watermarks on a directory of images. Here’s the steps to do so, adapted from these docs.
First, we need to create a watermark image, and will need to select a font. What are all of the ImageMagick fonts? Good question. Calling
convert -list font > fonts.txt
in the command line will give you output of the fonts for ImageMagick. I chose NewCenturySchlbk-Italic and I want the text to be A. Tabb. Ok.
Once the font is selected, we’re going to generate the font with some black, white, and transparent fill sections, as below and Figure 1.
convert -size 320x100 xc:transparent -font NewCenturySchlbk-Italic -pointsize 72 \
-fill black -annotate +24+64 'A. Tabb' \
-fill white -annotate +26+66 'A. Tabb' \
-fill transparent -annotate +25+65 'A. Tabb' \
trans_stamp.png
Figure 1. trans_stamp.png.
This image is a little funky and not quite right, we are next going to create a mask. From the docs,
A “composite” mask image is a grey-scale image, pure black for parts that will be transparent, and pure white for any parts that you want completely visible (opaque). Any grey shades will be draw as semi-transparent, merging into the background colors underneath.
Note: we use .jpg as the output because there are no transparency/ alpha channels in .jpg, and all of the transparency information gets flattened by using that format. Did I try it another way? Why yes ….
convert -size 320x100 xc:black -font NewCenturySchlbk-Italic -pointsize 72 \
-fill white -annotate +24+64 'A. Tabb' \
-fill white -annotate +26+66 'A. Tabb' \
-fill black -annotate +25+65 'A. Tabb' \
mask_mask.jpg
Figure 2. mask_mask.jpg.
Then, to merge these two images together so we only need one to create a watermark,
composite -compose CopyOpacity mask_mask.jpg trans_stamp.png \
trans_stamp3.png
Figure 3. trans_stamp3.png.
Ok, the transparent watermark is set up. Now, to use it on a real image, this time, placing a small watermark in the lower right corner.
composite trans_stamp3.png image0.JPG -gravity southeast -geometry +10+10 output0.JPG
Figure 3. output0.JPG.
Supposing you want to apply watermarks to a whole directory at a time, I use mogrify and “image Over” instead of the composite function. The “0,0 320,100” are the scaling of the trans_stamp3.png image (I haven’t found the docs on this yet, to be updated later). Since our image has a 3.2:1 aspect ratio, if you want it larger (or smaller), adjust accordingly.
mogrify -gravity southeast -geometry +10+10 -draw "image Over 0,0 320,100 'trans_stamp3.png'" dir/*.JPG
Will give you exactly as the composite command did, applied to a directory of images. Whereas, changing the gravity option and scaling of trans_stamp3.png by 3 as below,
mogrify -gravity center -geometry +0+0 -draw "image Over 0,0 960,300 'trans_stamp3.png'" dir/*.JPG
Figure 3. Example using a watermark in the center of the image.
I have another mogrify example in a TIL post.
There’s another post on this topic, A custom program to watermark images using Image Magick.