Recently, a Digimarc customer asked about layers and the fact that we recommend flattening files prior to watermarking.  She had been taking a creative PhotoShop class where she learned about layering files. Her instructor was really pushing the class to use layers for all edits so that the original image remained unedited. I told her that I was a big fan of non-volatile editing which led her to ask how I dealt with having to flatten files all the time for watermarking.

I explained that I was really lazy and hated to have a saved copy which I then had to reopen for digital watermarking. So I do the following...

Once I’m done editing a file, in this case the visual watermark sample from a previous blog…

 

I select all the layers that make up the image and use the “New Group from Layers” feature to create a folder that contains all the layers that create my final image.

 

I then duplicate the group and select “Merge Group” to create a merged image layer of my final art.

Now I simply watermark my merged layer of final art, save it as a PhotoShop native file or a layered TIFF and then do a “Save for Web” to create a JPEG or GIF.

I’ll still need to check the watermark after using lossy compression like JPEG or GIF.  And I end up with a master file that I can quickly return to if additional editing is needed.