Nail Shape Watermark Tutorial

I've received several questions through the various social outlets I participate in inquiring into how I get the curved shape for my watermark on my images like the one below. The technique is actually quite simple once you get the hang of the various tools needed for it. I use Adobe Photoshop CS5.1 to create the watermark for each image, so this tutorial will be based on the tools found in that version of Photoshop, used on a Mac-based platform. I'm unsure if the process is the same for older versions, other programs or different operating systems.

To get this shaped watermark, follow the Read More link.

The Tools  

You'll be using two Photoshop tools to create this curved watermark: the Pen Tool and the Type Tool. (The keyboard shortcuts for these tools are P and T, respectively.) The Pen Tool will create the curved line your text will follow, and this tool is much trickier to get the hang of than its colleague, the Text Tool. It provides a much smoother and better looking curve than any of the other Photoshop tools available though, so it's to your benefit to try to master its basic functions.

The Text Tool is a much more obvious tool but provides some great tweaks to anyone interested in making their text a little less standard. It works in tandem with the Pen Tool and automatically adjusts its curvature to meet the lines created by the Pen Tool. Other modifications I'm rather fond of using in the Text Tool include kerning, tracking and the various anti-aliasing methods.

The Text Tool will display all the fonts your computer currently has, and since you'll be saving your files as images, you don't need to worry about web-compatible fonts to use as watermarks. The choice as to which font you ultimately use is entirely up to you, but you should keep in mind how some fonts will look curved. Below, Dakota looks great when it's used in its normal, horizontal fashion, but when applied to a rather steep curve, the letters U and R distort and look a little messy.

Selecting the right font to use for your needs is just a matter of trial and error. You can always undo and change your font choice before you save it as an image, and the amount of fonts available to users nowadays are vast. dafont.com offers an enormous amount of selections, most free to users, so download a few, install them (Mac and PC instructions), and try out a few different options!

The Steps
These steps were all created by me, based on my experience in Photoshop, and may or may not be the best or most direct steps, but I assure you, they work!

Before you begin, you'll need to open the image you want to work on directly in Photoshop. For the purposes of this example, we'll be adding my watermark (blognailedit.blogspot.com) to the image I've already resized to my liking below. I chose to use my blog's URL as the watermark since there are several other nail blogs called "Nailed It" out there, and I wanted it to be more precise about where the images originate from. If your name is more original, you may want to just use the title of your blog, or even your name. It's up to you.

The first thing you need to do is create the line you would like your text to follow. In this case, I want my line to run around the cuticle area of my ring finger. To do this, follow the steps below.

1. Select your Pen Tool (P).

2. Set all your Pen Tool's presets to match these:

3. Click on the part of your image where you would like your curve, and subsequently your text, to begin. I want the "b" in "blognailedit" to start near the corner of my cuticle, as shown here. You have just placed an anchor, and will be creating more shortly.

4. Click again where you would like your curve to end and HOLD the click. Sometimes you need to split up the curve into several parts. Here, I'll need to end the curve twice since my cuticle at the base of my nail is much more curved than the side of my nail. You will need to experiment with where to end your curve until you get the hang of it. The result of your click will draw a straight line, as illustrated below. (Your line shouldn't be solid, I just made it black so you could see what's happening.)

5. To get the curve from this straight line, you should have not let go of your last click. You probably did to read my instructions, so just step backwards (the undo in Photoshop) so you only have the first anchor point laid (step 3). Got your click still held? Now drag your cursor down and away from your two anchor points. This starts to create a curve, and the direction in which you drag your cursor determines the shape of the curve. Again, play around with your anchors here until your curve matches your cuticle. Remember, I said I will create another anchor to get my line all the way down the side of my nail. For now, the curve I created I have only follows the line shown here. (The skinnier grey line above the black one is what you'll actually see during your editing.)

6.  You can let go of that click. Breathe. Now, on your keyboard, press and HOLD Option/Alt on your keyboard (I'm on a Mac). Hover over the anchor point shown until the cursor shown appears.

7.  Drag that anchor up towards the center anchor, until they're on top of one another. This is like resetting the curve to start where you wanted the first curve to end. If you don't do this, your next click will come from the anchor way off the course of the curve.

8.  Now repeat steps 3-6 above to lay your last anchor. I chose to lay my anchor near the tip of my nail on the right side of the picture. My curve now looks like this (again, outlined so you can see it, but it won't be on your image.) See that nice curve

See that nice curve? Now let's get the text on there.

9.  Now it's time to grab your Text Tool (T). Set up the color of your text and which font you would like first. Then, hover your text tool over the beginning of your curve until a cursor like the one shown appears. Click there.

That funny squiggle in the Text Tool is telling you that it will follow the curve of the Pen Tool's line you created earlier.

10.  Your cursor should be flashing, so go ahead and enter the text you'd like to appear. In this case, I entered "blognailedit.blogspot.com". See how closely it follows the line of my cuticle? Love it!

11. Now select your Move Tool from the toolbar. Don't use a shortcut because your Photoshop will think that you want to type the letter "v" at the end of the text you just finished. Simply click on the Move Tool icon, shown on the left.

You're almost there!

12.  Select your Pen Tool again (P) and then press Esc on your keyboard. This will remove the line and allow you to ensure you like the way your text looks.

Make sure when you save the image, you select a different format besides .psd. PSD is a Photoshop format that won't translate onto the web. I usually go with .png.

Mine turned out pretty well, but it does take some getting used to. I know this hasn't been the easiest tutorial, but I hope it has helped some of you! Here's my final result.