Ok, so we've been victims of somebody stealing our images and content. So, now we want to prevent any future occurances. So, I'm working on finding a program or a process that I can put watermarks on our images.

Does anybody have any suggestions? Is anybody currently using a watermark program?

Thanx

What image editor are you using now?

PaintShopPro is a decent alternative to Photoshop CS. It has decent functionality and is a whole lot cheaper.

There are some free image editors out there on the net too.

Do some google searches and see what works for you, but if you can afford it or write it off, Photoshop CS rules.

I've been using PhotoShop 6.0, and Macromedia Suite MX.

I have used watermark and it works great in PaintShopPro. I like this feature of the software. In the lastes version you can save the script and apply it in all the images in batch mode. What a time saver.....

Slightly off topic, but close enough to keep here, I think...

Does anyone have any thoughts on the pros and cons of using Watermarks?

I tend to think it cheapens the look of a site, and, many times, takes away from the effectiveness of the photo. While it may keep a competitor from using your photo, does it negatively impact your sales in other ways?

Just curious as to others thoughts. Thanks!

Perpetualkid,
I tend to agree about not liking the looks of a watermark, but if it's subtle in a very light gray, it should be just enough to keep others from using/stealing your photos.

Perpetualkid,

The only time I would say to use watermarks is when you have created the picture. Meaning you took the picture, or made the original. Anyone can get the same pictures that you have if you are selling a product, they just find it easier to take it from you instead of going to the manufacturer or scanning it from a catalog.

I know it is frustrating to have people steal you pictures but there isn't really anything useful that can be done. IMHO, personally, my time is better spent making my site look good, informative, and a place a customer would/does return to rather than trying to stop my competitors from stealing pictures they can get easy anyway. Now, if they were stealing your verbiage, sentences, and layout - that would be entirely different.

My 2 cents

Ben

I have used PhotoShop 6.0 and 7.0 for watermarking. It's a great tool and probably less expensive than the most current PhotoShop version.

If a watermark obscures the product, like if it isn't light enough, it really turns me off. If it is farily unobtrusive, or better yet, just in a corner of the picture or something, it doesn't bother me at all.

To give an example, I look for parts for my Scion xB a lot online. Fitment is a HUGE issue with aftermarket parts, so a lot of times I appreciate a nice, big, blown-up picture of the part I'm buying so I can tell whether or not it's going to fit like stock or I'm going to have to do some modification.

Watermarks kill stuff like that.

Maybe just add your domain name in a corner of the product picture.

I agree with Ben and Clint. I cant stand the look of watermarks. And unless you have spent hours and hours creating the photos ...why bother?

I think it really ruins the effectivness of the photo if in certain instances. When trying to show detail of a product, how is a huge watermark of WWW.BLAHBLAH.COM going to help you?

Justyn

You're right. I guess a watermark is not what I am looking for. I have seen other sites that have images that when you copy and paste them instead of an image all ou get is a logo, or a trademark, or company information. That is not a watermark? What is it?

And some of our photos are for our legal use only. Like the home page of our site has Ms Universe on it. And on other pages, for that fact. They are not supposed to be used by anybody but us.

You know, I've seen sites before where you can't do a right-click, save as... on their images.

Don't know how to do that, unfortunately, but it'd probably help you if you could find out how. I'll do some Googling and see if I come up with anything.


EDIT: Give this a shot- http://www.paintingsandprints2.co.uk/disableimages.html or this:
http://javascript.internet.com/page-detail...ight-click.html


apparently it isn't going to totally going to keep people from stealing your images, but it'll stop anyone who tries to use the right click method with a javascript browser.

I believe that the topic of not allowing right-click has already been discussed. As I remember, we (s) can't do it since we don't have access to the head and/or body tag or something like that. The code that is here in the forums works, but it seems we were told not to use it because it will mess with our SEO or something.

I guess what I am saying is this: Yes it will work, but no, we can't use it.

Even if you can disable right-click, what's the point? It's not like they can't save your page locally, or copy and paste the information. I'm not trying to be negative, but seriously, if the browser can read it, they can take it.

Plus, as a customer I find it annoying. What if I want to copy the picture into and email and send it to a friend for an opinion. I've done this many times, and I doubt I'm the only one.

This type of theft is a real problem, especially when you spend lots of money taking your own pictures and your corporate identity, like logo and tagline can be stolen just like that, without any penalty.

I really wish that there was some way to digitally sign pictures (invisible to the customer) with some sort of tracking mechanism, and that anytime they are loaded, no matter what site they are on, they would be tracked.

Wishful thinking for now, but hopefully in the future.

There is a service that does that. I just don't know who they are. I read about them here in the forums.

I agree that watermarks can really detract from the effectiveness of the images.

We had disabled the right click on our site because competitors were stealing our text. It became a big issue, and we received a lot of complaints from customers about it, so we re-enabled the right click. I didn't realize how many people would email information from the site to other people. For example, if someone wanted to purchase something, they would copy and paste the description into an email to send to their boss to get approval, or email the information to their accounting department for them to write the check.

Is this the post you are referring to?
http://forums.monstersmallbusiness.com/ind...indpost&p=35499

I believe the above post is what you were referring to, bookmark.
Thank you.

I'm going to have to do a little research on this because it looks ok.
http://www.digimarc.com/mypicturemarc/how-...rks/default.asp

There was a more-recent thread, but the content of the thread was pretty much the same.

I came across a competitor (for lack of a better term) using my WATERMARKED images with my websites name clearly displayed. How dumb do you have to be???

I sent them and their hosting company a nice email detailing the DMCA violations and it's consequences and they removed them pretty swiftly

Photoshop Elements 3 has a very easy way to watermark images, and the program is way cheaper than Photoshop CS.

I use a digital watermark that isn't visable to the eye but can be readin photoshop. It's called Digimarc.

http://www.digimarc.com

Ages a go I read about an invisible watermark but couldn't find where I saw it, well I found it again. Check out the image below and select it using the swipe method, i.e. select to the right of the picture, hold and drag mouse over. You see the text? Clever hey. This isn't going to stop people stealing your pictures but will make it very easy to prove they are yours when you catch them.



The tutorial to do this is here

http://www.tutorialoutpost.com/count/2013

If your familiar with the macro recording in photoshop it wont be difficult to convert a whole host of images very quickly.

Very cool, and when the rip off artist uses it they won't even know there's a watermark!
PS long time no hear. How's everything in the UK?

I'm afraid I don't see a watermark. As a normal image, I see _atomic.orange and the orange slices. When I select the image by click/dragging over it, the image is now selected, but still nothing other than the _atomic.orange name and orange slices appear. I've tried this on IE for the PC, and Safari and Firefox for the Mac. What is supposed to be showing when the image is selected?