Feedback on watermarks

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Feedback on watermarks

A couple of days ago April pointed out that someone could get around the download credit system by right clicking on an image and selecting "save image as."

Now for most of the images on DigitalScrapbook.com that's not really much of an issue, because the full-size images you get when downloading are much, much larger / higher resolution than the large thumbnail you get when you look at the item on the site; the large thumbnail isn't really worth a whole lot. But still, the large thumbnails are large enough that some people might think of using them for things like embellishments, instead of actually downloading the full-resolution images.

To mitigate this, we've implemented watermarks on some of the images, like this one:

The watermarks might solve this problem, but they're also rather ugly. We don't want to punish everyone with ugly thumbnail images, just because a few people might abuse the system... so we're thinking of getting rid of the watermarks.

Any thoughts?

watermarking is always a great idea... personally I don't think it's THAT bad. it could always be tweaked by adding a cute logo. Also if someone ever wanted to "pin" or share the image, you'd have credit back to the site. I say keep it, but maybe modify it a little bit. You guys work too hard to have your work stolen

yeah i think it's a great idé too smiley

I agree. I was the one who commented about the loophole and I agree that a watermark is an easy way to keep people from 'stealing' your work. I also agree with Jaclyn that you could add a cute logo or something to (or in lieu of) the site name.

I agree. Watermarking the image protects what you have worked so hard on, why let others ruin what you've created. I don't think it takes away our ability to see the image and decide if we like it. Maybe making it more transparent (without the shadow but keep the bevel) or even lighten the shadow a bit. I only suggest this because if this were placed over an element, it may hide some of the details on the element. Either way, you've got to protect your hard work from the many pirates out there. I know that wouldn't stop them but it hinders their ability to just snag and go.

I noticed the watermark and liked it too smiley It will for sure make people prefer to use the DC system, cause ediiting will be harder than registering (and waiting)

I think the watermark is a great idea. If you decide to go with a logo instead, you could always have your site address in small letters under it.

I think that the watermark is a good idea as well and ditto the idea that it could be jazzed up with a logo.

I agree. The watermark makes anyone using the DC system. smiley

I download the watermarked image to use as a "thumbnail image" when one isn't provided.
On some of the images it is a bit overpowering eg ribbons but I still think it's great to have it there.

What do you use the thumbnail image for? Is that something I should be providing in the zip folder?

I don't install my PSD files until I need to use them and then I uninstal them when finished.
This is supposed to make the program run faster.
Having a thumbnail image lets me know what that file is about.
It would be handy to have it included in the zip.

I agree with everyone here. It doesn't matter if it's a button or a psd file - I think everything should have a watermark on it. After all you have put the work in and I don't see why anyone should be able to right click on an image even if it is poorer quality. In fact - that is a good reason to watermark as you don't want inferior images going around with your name on.

I like the thumbnails, too, Liz & Marisa. Helps me organize templates. Let me explain why...

At one point I became overwhelmed, as I was learning PSP & how to use templates at the same time... My digiscrapping supplies were not organized in any fashion, and I had not come up with a system for doing that yet. I had downloaded a bunch of templates, and the zip files were sitting in a Digiscrap Template folder I created... I joined a "slow scrap," even though it was out of my comfort zone, to help me become more confident in making layouts & using templates (before this, all I knew how to use were quickpages). Only problem with this is none of the files were unzipped, so at someone's suggestion I downloaded Extract Now & unzipped them all. Very few of the zip files had thumbnails, so now I had a problem - how can I find a template quickly, that contained the number of photos I needed, to do this slow scrap? It took what felt like forever to sift through each folder to find a template with the right number of photos. I almost didn't make the deadline. After that I decided I better come up with a plan/organization system for my template folder so I could find the right template quickly in the future. I ended up deciding to create sub-folders, off the Template folder, based on the number of photos (going all the way up to 9+) in each template, and then began opening each template folder & moving the files into these new sub-folders. And for templates that didn't incorporate the creators name, I edited the filenames to add the creator's name so I could give credit where credit was due in the future (the only ones I was not able to do this for were ones that didn't enclose a "Terms of Use" in the zip file, so I had no idea who made the templates).

Anyhow, the reason for telling you all this is it would have made things so much simpler & easier (not to mention less time consuming) to organize everything had a thumbnail been included in each zip file (this way I wouldn't need to open each & every template folder after I unzipped the zip files). So it would be great if you could add that if you aren't already...

It is a common practice to watermark to protect ones product. Even though your design products are protected by copyright laws in the US. This may not be the case in other countries. Have you given thought to using smaller watermarks on smaller items?

We're in the process of testing the watermarks to give us a better idea of their usefulness. Everyone here seems to be in favor of them, but Jordan and I really hate them, so you'll notice that the watermark appears only sometimes. After a period of time we'll be able to see if the watermark is inhibiting bad behavior, or if it's just being ugly.