14 DAY TRIAL // We all love to take photos that immortalize our precious moments, reminding us of important events in our life, or people dear to us, or just for fun and the list can go on. For some of us, photography is more than just a hobby; it's a way of life. Moreover, it's well known that the Internet provides us with numerous websites where anyone can post his/her photo collection so it can be viewed by whoever is interested. But what about copyright issues? What about the cases when you need to make sure your photos remain yours? The solution is simple: watermark them. Put a small custom text on them to ensure your digital collection will not be "borrowed" by others and presented as their own.
There are loads of software applications on the market nowadays that do just that and today's topic is Photo Batch Watermark developed by Poker Winning Video Inc. This application comes with a relatively small installation kit and by simply following the instructions you won't have any trouble installing it. As the developer provides us with a try before you buy version of the application, launching Photo Batch Watermark might be a little annoying for some users as they have to wait for a couple of seconds before using the software.
Photo Batch Watermark presents its users with a clean and highly intuitive interface, making it extremely easy to use even for those who have little to almost no experience in working with computers.
Let's go through all the steps necessary to watermark our image collection using this software utility.
From the beginning, it's worth saying that Photo Batch Watermark allows users to both watermark their photos one by one or in batches, meaning that this tool will do its job regardless if you choose to open a single image or apply the same pattern to an entire folder. This can be a very good feature to have, especially when working with large number of files or when organizing photo albums. Still, there is a difference between these two, namely that if you wish to stamp your images one by one you also have the possibility to preview the result on the top-left side of the application. The software supports almost all graphical file formats so you shouldn't worry too much about it not being suitable for your needs.
Moving along further, we find that Photo Batch Watermark provides you with two ways to stamp your collection, either apply a logo or text watermark, whichever you find more useful or harder to remove. The logo watermark means that you have the option of placing a small custom image on top of the original one, image which you can select from various common formats. Regardless if you choose to watermark your image with a logo or custom text, you will then need to find the best location for the stamp. Unfortunately, Photo Batch Watermark only provides you with 9 preset positions to place this logo.
A major enhancement for this application would be the possibility to manually move the logo until you find the most appropriate location. As for the text logo you want to apply to your photos, Photo Batch Watermark provides you with the possibility of changing the default font, style, color and script. You can also preview the result at any given moment until you decide upon the combination you like best. The Method feature enables you to apply effects to your photos, and should you not like what you have accomplished you can always reset to the default settings. Before moving one step further we also have to mention that for both logo and text watermarks you can manually select the opacity degree and watermark size, depending on how visible you want your stamp to be.
Assuming that you have decided on your custom watermark and selected the output directory, what's left for you to do is click on the Go button and Voila! Stamping is in progress and the bar on the bottom side of Photo Batch Watermark allows you to estimate the time when the job is done. A small confirmation pop-up window will appear and after clicking on the OK button you will be able to repeat the entire procedure on a fresh batch of images or go on with your work.
The Good
Photo Batch Watermark does exactly what its name suggests. It will watermark your photos in an efficient manner. You also have the possibility to customize the logo and not stick to a default one, ensuring that the results will look really professional.
The Bad
Taking into consideration the lack of advanced features that are available in other graphics oriented applications, the $59.95 you have to pay for a license is quite a lot. Many other utilities out there host additional useful features such as image cropping, key shortcuts for the basic actions and so on and cost a fraction of the price you have to pay for Photo Batch Watermark. During my testing I wasn't able to use a logo watermark as the application became unresponsive and I had to close it each time, a major downside considering the 3 uses trial. Finally, although the interface is highly intuitive, a Help file could come in handy for some users who might get stuck on their way to stamping the images.
The Truth
If you don't need to do photo stamping on a daily basis or at an advanced level, Photo Batch Watermark is worth a try. Still, my suggestion is to look elsewhere as it is highly probable that this tool will not meet your needs if you are looking for both an advanced watermarking tool and a cheaper solution. All in all, Photo Batch Watermark does what its name suggests and little else and even at that it is not really brilliant.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
