Embossing Photos 101

[rebabeach2]

I am sure a lot of you have noticed by now that I've removed my pictures off my page. I have been dealing with some rather unsavory individuals who have been stealing pictures from other moms here. This activity has unfortunately made me a tad paranoid about this happening to myself. I have decided that until I can emboss my photos, I will not be posting them for anyone to see.

The technique of embossing is one I am just becoming familiar with, but it essentially allows you to overlay your photos with a see-through text with any basic photo editing program. If you do not have photoshop or any photo editing software, you can download paint.net for FREE here: http://www.getpaint.net/

Here are some great and simple directions that one of my CM friends twinnmom222 sent me to learn how to emboss with paint.net. I hope this helps you all!

Quick Tutorial for Embossing

Open Paint.net (duh.)

From the Menu click File, click open, navigate to find the photo you want to edit. Click the photo, click open. (If the pic is too big to edit, zoom out to a lower %. Menu bar, Image, Zoom Out.)

In the Layer box (lower right corner) click the icon to add a layer (papers with a +).

Make sure in the Layer Box that your new layer is highlighted.  Click theText tool in the Tools box to the upper left.  The Text tool is an "A", left side of the box, 3rd from bottom.

Click on the photo were you want to add your text.  If you are embossing pick Arial Black.  Big boxy fonts work better with embossing.  Make sure the point size is big enough.  Type the desired text. 

Go to the Menu Bar, click Effects, click Stylize, click Emboss. ( A box comes up & you are supposed to be able to adjust the angle, but it doesn't work.  A glitch?)  Click OK.

In the Layers Box, highlight your background layer, move to top using the arrow button.  Keep your background layer (now first on the list) highlighted. 

On the Menu bar, click Layers, click Layer Properties.  Under mode click Overlay.  Hit okay.

On the Menu bar, click Save/Save As, name your new pic, change the file type to a .jpeg or .gif so you can upload it to CM later.  A quality box pops up.  I set my quality setting to 100%. Click OK.

When the next box pops up, choose to flatten your image. 

Here's my finished picture:

Stay safe everyone!!! ;o)

[BeateE]

Jun. 1, 2008 at 12:48 AM I voted popular. Thanks for the info!

[errailsback]

Jun. 1, 2008 at 12:13 PM

Cool, I'll have to try this...

[mammajen030407]

Jun. 2, 2008 at 12:45 PM Thank you so much for putting these directions up. I will be using them.

[Jillian559]

Jun. 4, 2008 at 9:19 PM

I had no idea that this was such a prevelant issue.  Thanks! Sometimes paranoia is good! =)

[ratchet3714]

Jul. 16, 2008 at 9:29 AM I will be doing this too. I have also heard of stories of those crazy people stealing pictures to make as their own "family". I wonder if Cafemom can choose to disable the right click? Even so there is a way to capture the screen which that wouldn't help. Embossing is definitely the safest way!