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iDVD Tip #1
iDVD usually defaults to showing the Apple Logo as a “watermark” on all your iDVD projects. This is the small Apple Logo you see on the lower right of your screen when you playback your iDVD created disc. You can easily turn this off by going to iDVD menu -> Preferences and unchecking the box “Show Apple logo watermark” under the General tab.
But what if you want to have your own custom watermark?
Here’s how:
The iDVD application’s icon is actually package, a type of folder that stores the iDVD program’s code and other resources. To make a custom watermark requires modifying a file inside of the Resources folder in the iDVD package.
To open the iDVD package, Control + click on the iDVD application icon and choose “Show Package Contents” from the contextual menu that pops up.
The Finder will then displays a directory window showing a folder called “Contents” which is the contents of the iDVD package.
Double-click on the Contents folder, and then on the Resources folder. Within the Resources folder, locate the file named watermark.tif.
Make a copy of the watermark.tif file to another folder (you can just hold down the Option key while you drag the file) so you’ll have a backup of the old file.
Now use an image editor (Photoshop, etc) to create your new watermark graphic file. Make sure to watch the dimensions of your new watermark. Save your new watermark graphic as a TIFF file under the same name – watermark.tif copying the new graphic in the Resources folder.
Now launch iDVD. Your new “watermark” should now show up on top of the DVD menus whenever the “Show Apple logo watermark” box is checked.
Make sure to keep a backup of your new watermark in case it is ever over written by a reinstall or a future new version of iDVD gets installed on your system. This way you can easily just place your custom watermark file back into the iDVD package if you need to.
Tip: If you explore the Resources folder, you’ll find also find the iDVD’s themes. Each theme is also a package. Modifying these themes is possible using the technique. But take caustion not to trash or alter any resources you don’t understand. You could kill iDVD’s functionality and you would just have to reinstall iDVD.
Well I would love to do this Custom Watermark but I have found with iDVD 08 it doesnt quite do it. Am I doing something wrong? Is it just cuz of the newer version? I need some help.
I did the above, but nothing changed until I created a new Watermark.qtz file and replaced the one that was in the package contents of iDVD ’08. I downloaded Quartz Composer. It’s a bit confusing if you just open up the Quartz Composer program, so instead I’d find the Watermark.qtz in the idvd package contents first, right-click on it, and chose “open with” Quartz Composer.
On the Quartz Composer editor screen, I highlighted “watermark” in the center of the screen (green background) and then chose “show inspector” from the drop-down menu called “editor” at the top. Once the inspector was open, then I chose “settings” from the drop down menu at the top of the inspector window. I clicked on “import from file” and then chose my watermark.tif document that I had already created of my new watermark. The next time I opened up iDVD, my new watermark was there. I didn’t adhere to the 41 x 41 restrictions as far as size goes (not sure how to do that), so mine was a bit squished, but I’m sure I can figure it out from here on out. Good luck.
Stephanie