Add a picture watermark

Let's add a picture watermark behind this text.

But this time instead of putting it on the slide master, we'll add it to the slide itself, and then, copy it to another slide.

Keep in mind that if you want the watermark on more than just a few slides, it makes more sense to use the Slide Master, because it saves you from manually copying the watermark.

Go to the INSERT tab, click Shapes, and select a rectangle. Then, draw it on the slide.

On the DRAWING TOOLS FORMAT tab, click Shape Outline and click No Outline.

Then, click Shape Fill and Picture. Browse for the picture you want and click Insert.

We are adding the picture to the fill property of the shape, instead of directly to the slide. This way, we have more options to work with, including Transparency.

By default, the picture stretches to fill the shape.

To get the right aspect ratio, go to the PICTURE TOOLS FORMAT tab, click Crop, and then, click Fit.

Drag the crop handles to crop out the empty space around the picture. Click Crop again to turn it off.

Now, we can press Shift and drag the corner handles to resize the picture without changing the aspect ratio.

And then, move the picture into place.

Next, we need to tweak the formatting to make the picture work as a watermark.

First, click Send Backward and Send to Back.

Then, click the Format Shape dialog box launcher, and the Fill & Line tab.

Add Transparency until the foreground elements are clearly visible. But, make sure it is not so transparent that the viewer won't know what the picture is.

Watermark pictures are tricky because you have to find an image that is easily recognizable, but doesn’t fight for dominance with the foreground elements.

You'll want to avoid images with lots of fine detail, and images like this, which will take too much effort for the viewer to figure out.

This picture of kids works because the viewer will know immediately what it is, and how it relates, but it contains a lot of detail.

So, we can use these options to reduce some details, so the image will blend in better with the background.

On the Picture tab, you can try Brightness and Contrast, and Color options, like Saturation and Recolor.

Also, try using Sharpness to remove detail.

The Effects tab has ARTISTIC EFFECTS. For this picture, let's add the Line Drawing effect and increase the Pencil Size.

Click away from the picture to get a better idea of how everything looks without the selection border.

If you find you can't select the picture again because it is behind other objects, go to the HOME tab, click Select and open the Selection Pane.

Now, you can select the picture by clicking it in the list.

So once you are happy with the watermark, you can Save as picture and insert in other slides, or you can simply Copy it to the Clipboard, move to another slide, and then, Paste it. Right-click the picture and Send to Back layer.

Now, let's say, we decide to change the look of our presentation by going to the DESIGN tab and applying a theme like Ion, for example.

As you can see, your choice of watermark picture depends greatly on the design you choose for your slides.

In this case, all we need to do is adjust the picture settings to help it blend in with the design.

But you may need to find a new picture.

Also, since we didn’t use the slide master, we'll need to copy the finished picture to the other slides manually.

So now, you know how to add text or picture watermarks.

Up next, we'll use what we learned to remove a watermark.