Hello all,
I’m trying to add text across a set of drawings to use as a watermark, but I need the text to be semi-transparent. There’s an opacity slider in the Colour tray, but it doesn’t seem to have any effect on text. Am I overlooking something?
Thanks as always.
AFAIK, and for as long as I can remember - this does not work with text.
I do something like this, but I have an app on my Mac that will watermark PDF:
Thanks, Mike.
Those watermarks look just the job.
I’ll need to find something similar that works on a PC. A brief search suggests that Affinity Publisher should be able to do it, which would be great, as I’ve never actually used any Affinity software since buying the suite a few years back 
Sadly this is only available on Mac (although they have other software that works on Windows)
well, it’s now free 
what you could do is prepare your watermarks in affinity, export them as a png or a pdf, and add them as a top layer in your layout file, on a dedicated layer.
that way, no need to post process your file, just turn on the proper layer and export with the rest.
Hi Kevin. Is the watermark basically a standard sort of thing that you would use in more than one project? If so, you could make a PNG image with transparency to insert onto a layer in LayOut. If I were doing that I would start with the text in a blank LO document using the same paper size as your project. I’d export the PNG, adjust its opacity in an image editor and then insert it on its own layer in LO (top of the layer list). If I wanted it for every project I would add it as part of my template so I don’t have to do it again. And the layer caan be turned off while working on the project. With it inserted into LO as a image it could also be replaced using Relink if needed.
Sounds good, Dave.
I’ve never felt the need to add a watermark before, but I have a client at the moment where I think it’s warranted. If I prepare an A3 sheet with the required watermark, would you recommend using Affinity Publisher? I’ve never used it before, but I’m sure a few YouTube tutorials will get me up to speed.
I’ve never used it but it might be a good option. The method I’m suggesting uses what I know to work but it never hurts to learn something new.
I never thought of this… but you can setup a PNG with transparency and use a pattern fill… this is just a quick test… then have a rectangle on a layer in your template, stroke off, fill off, pattern fill to be whatever image you setup.
I’m confused - can I have a step by step workflow 
@bmike, I didn’t use the pattern fill idea but I like that idea, too. You could have a whole collection of watermark text things as fill patterns.
@kevin58 I made a text box with the watermark text, made multiple copies of it and rotated them slightly. The paper size is the same as the size of the project I happened to have open and used for the example.
In the project I had open I created a new layer at the top of the list and inserted the PNG on that layer. Since the aspect ratio of the image and the project paper are the same it’s an easy fit. I opened the image in the image editor (PaintDotNet) and adjusted the opacityto get this:
Either way, if you want the watermark to show on multiple pages make the layer shared.
Create the text you want in an image editor - I am using Photoshop - make sure you have a transparent background, and set the transparency of the text (might take a test or two).
In LayOut use the Pattern Pallet and import a new pattern:
Draw a rectangle over the whole image… use the pattern fill on it (no fill, no stroke)
Adjust rotation and scale:
Assign to a layer at the top of the stack, make it ‘on every page’ if you want it to go through the entire document.
Got it!
So I can create any transparent text I require in photoshop elements and save it to a PNG which I can import straight into Layout.
Because it’s slightly different to Mike’s pattern fill method, here’s a video showing the process I described.
I use PaintDotNet for the image editor because it opens faster than PhotoShop and it has plenty of capability for what I need and it’s free. I could have edited the image prior to inserting it into LO but it’s hard to tell exactly what opacity setting is needed until it’s in LO anyway.
That’s a nice solution Dave - as the watermark shows on every page 
That’s done by making the layer shared. The button to the far right of the layer name. You can do the same with Mike’s method too.
The nice thing about pattern fill method is that you can just stretch the rectangle for different document sizes… no need to move + copy extra ones.
Not that it is all that cumbersome…
The other benefit is that you can use the pattern fill with any shape you can draw in LO and you might have a need for the watermark to only cover part of the page.
I’ve been experimenting with this idea today and I think it’s Genius 
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