Protecting images from copying with watermarks. As a conclusion. Some helpful tips

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A watermark on a photo is a means to protect copyrights on a photo. Often this is a translucent lettering or emblem.

Why do I need a watermark on a photo

Let's say you are a photographer. Take cool pictures, upload them to. Some people will want to embed a photo in their content. You worked hard and looked for the right angle, spent a lot of effort. And you do not want your material to be used by third-party people for no reason. So that they don't just take and download the photo, the photo bank can add your unique logo to the photo. And the person will either have to pay for a photo without a watermark, or be content with an image, on top of which your name is superimposed.

The name of the watermark is not accidental, it contains the very essence of the phenomenon. By default, according to generally accepted standards, it should be translucent, barely visible, like circles on water. The sign itself should not attract heightened attention, because the image itself is important, and not its authorship. A properly executed watermark is a subtle and subtle but distinct attribution icon.

Who needs watermarks

• These tags are specially designed to protect the image from theft. Even if the author does not bother too much with protection, but simply sets the name of his site in the corner, then this can stop those who put the copy-paste process on the stream.
• On the other hand, all users who still download and put photos and pictures on their own resources, in fact, will make the author free advertising. Thus, many photographers of recent years have been promoted and become famous.
• Branding plays an important role, that is, the distribution of a certain brand through her logo in the images. Many consider this to be the biggest advantage of watermarks, as it is much more useful than protection against theft. Pictures with a logo, especially if they are different, originality, unusualness or special style and beauty, quickly go online, popularizing your brand (company, company, name, etc.).

In addition, business people do not have to worry about increasing sales, since when copying, the personal brand will automatically be promoted and popularized. No one can just upload your drawing or photo and use it for their own purposes, for example, to create collages, prints or advertisements.

Cons of applying Watermark

We will describe below how to apply a watermark on a photo, but now it is worth discussing the question of why many refuse to use it. There are special reasons for this, which it would not hurt to consider in advance.

• Many people believe that the fundamental and main disadvantage of watermarks is that the image is not perceived as whole and harmoniously, since the mark distracts all the user's attention to itself. In many cases, it also gives the picture the look of consumer goods, but here it all depends on the author's sense of style and taste. There are many examples of the fact that the correct application of Watermark only adorned photographic materials.
• The protective functions of such signs are rather vague and cannot be called a real "weapon" in the fight against content thieves. It is worth agreeing that the name of the site in the corner will in no way stop those who decided to acquire just your picture. Yes, an attacker will have to spend time removing the stamp, or maybe just cropping the photo, but this will take no more than a few minutes.
• Watermarks applied to images do not and cannot bear any legal protection, since it is quite possible to find hundreds of thousands of "clean" images on the Internet and mark them with your own watermarks. Of course, in the case of an author's photography, justice can be achieved, but you will have to provide more weighty evidence than the captions on the pictures.
• One of the factors that prompts people to abandon watermarking is a significant deterioration in sharing, that is, the use of images in third-party publications, but with backlinks to the source.

And users social networks, for example, the notorious Pinterest or Instagram are less willing to share photos that have watermarks. This means a decrease in the popularity of a page or blog, for a business - a decrease in gross sales and the like, unpleasant things.

Ways to apply watermarks

Watermark

The English-language site is quite descriptive and also intuitively easy to use. To use the resource, you do not need to sit down to study foreign languages, it will not be difficult to figure it out.

• Upload the image to the page.
• Download watermark.
• Align both images.

The logo can be edited, for example, change the transparency of the image, its size, position and even color. In one click, the sign is applied to the image, and then the image is saved to your device. It should be remembered that you need to download the photo right away, because the period of its storage on the resource is only a week.

Adobe photoshop

Great software for watermarking photos, it's everyone's favorite Adobe photoshop, which at times, like fire, are afraid of beginners. In fact, it is not at all necessary to be able to use all the functions in order to equip an image with Watermark, basic knowledge and skills is enough.

• Install the dedicated Adobe Watermark panel application.
• Choose the watermark you like best for all images.
• Adjust the available settings as you see fit (size, transparency, number and position of characters, and so on).
• Select the quality for saving (web, jpeg, png).

Moreover, the program has the ability to view previews, as well as put signs on a large number of pictures at a time.

From all of the above, we can confidently conclude that the issue of applying or rejecting watermarks is far from unambiguous. Basically, the decision will directly depend on the goals pursued, as well as the site where all this will be located. For example, if we talk about online stores or other type of trading sites on the network, then one cannot do without the use of watermarks. After all, having spent a lot of time and effort on creating unique photos, I want them to be seen exclusively on your website.

If we talk about the sites of professional designers, photographers or stylists, then such "dyeing" in the form of a logo or name can spoil the whole impression of a photo, picture, spoil the correct perception of the atmosphere of the image. Many suggest placing analogs of low quality and small size on such resources so that competitors cannot also use them.

Many of you have already come across the presence of a watermark on the image. Initially, the signature on the photo was made only for reasons of the author's fame, but nowadays, when it became possible to widely use other people's images without any notification and mention of the author, another practice began to appear - to leave a watermark instead of a signature, and preferably on all images. If they are already borrowing, then let the users at least know where.

Since it is not always convenient to use a full-fledged computer with the appropriate software on vacation or on a trip, in this article I will offer you a service that will allow you to create an image with a watermark even from a mobile or tablet!

Watermarking an Image in Three Steps

1. Load the image (Manage Photo (s))

Formats allowed jpg, jpeg, png, gif, bmp, tif, tiff to make the photo smaller 500Kb... Multiple files can be uploaded.

2. Create a watermark (Add Watermark)

And then the expanse! You can either upload your own image - the loading conditions are the same as with the main, background part (the same formats, less than 500 Kb), or text, which is remarkable - there are many options for formatting it: text input, about 60 fonts to choose from, size, color, slant, transparency.

The result can always be seen in the block to the right. The update takes 1-2 seconds.

3. Save your image! (Process Photo)

Everything about everything, as a rule, takes less than a minute of time. Then choose how to download the image (the watermark is available separately).

Service link

www.watermark.ws- service for applying watermarks to images on-line.

Thank you for the attention! And I wish your site only conscientious visitors!)

Hello friends, today I want to talk to you about creating a watermark for pictures. There are often times when it is necessary to watermark an image in the form of text or company / brand logo. First of all, this is necessary for greater recognition of your name, such a hidden advertising, and secondly, a small copyright. The process of applying a watermark, which we will be discussing with you, is actually very simple. It is necessary to select several images and a watermark option - text or graphic.

Well, let's talk about everything in order:

Picmarkr.com - service for creating watermarks

To apply the watermark, we will use the on-line service picmarkr.com, and although it is completely in English, the application process is completely clear. So, go to link and in the window that opens, by clicking the Browse button, select the required picture for applying the sign.

The service allows you to simultaneously upload 5 pictures, which is convenient when there is a large amount of images (working with screenshots, for example). Under the form for uploading images, there is an option to select the required output size. You can choose the one that suits you.

After we have selected the images, press the Ok button! Go to Step2 and move on to the next step. In the window that appears, there will be 3 options for applying a watermark. In the first window - Text watermark can be applied text mark indicating color and location. Enter in the Text to display field - the required text, in the Presets line - select the fill color (you can do without it), the text itself and in the Watermark align area select the place in the picture for your sign.

In the second window Image watermark, you can make an online watermark using the logo. To do this, select the logo of your choice with the Browse button and upload it by clicking the Upload button. After that, we select the location of the logo in the picture.

In the third window, Tiled watermark, you can apply a mark completely over the whole picture in rows. This can be done both for the text version and for the graphic one. For the text version, in the text line, write the text of the sign, for the graphic version, select picture and load the logo of your choice.

After you have decided on the required type of sign, uploaded a picture and chose the option of how to make a watermark, click the Continue button (at the bottom right under the picture) and then the Download images to computer button. That's it, the work is done, this is how, for example, a picture with a logo applied to the entire picture looks like.

Here is such a wonderful service that fully answers the question - how to make a watermark online, we have disassembled today. If you know such services, write to

Online stores, whose product photos are unique, sometimes face the question of how to protect themselves from theft of photos by competitors. After all, a lot of time is spent on photographing and processing photos, for those goods for which you will not find a decent photo on the Internet during the day with fire. And it’s a shame if, after a while, a competitor simply takes your photo and posts it on his website. Of course, you can fight the villains and the legal method, but usually, the game is not worth the trouble. Spend more time, money, energy and nerves if the competitor is arrogant and stubborn. One way to protect your photos is to overlay your own caption or image on top of it. Simply put, a watermark, or it is also called a copyright for an image. This is what we'll talk about today.

There are several ways to watermark an image. The easiest one is in any graphics editor to apply over the image, your company name or logo. It's ideal if you don't have a lot of items to protect. By the way, for image processing it is not at all necessary to use bulky, well-known graphic editors, such as Adobe Photoshop.

Much simpler analogs may be suitable for these purposes. Up to online editors that don't even need to be installed on a computer. For example, I sometimes use the free online Pixlr Editor.

The second way is to use specialized services and applications for applying a watermark to the image. As an example, I will give only a few of these programs. These include free online service"Watermark.rf" or application software "WaterMark Hameleon". The latter knows how to do batch processing when you need, for example, to apply a watermark on 100 or more photos at once.

Both of these methods are manual and have several disadvantages. One of which is the time you spend working with programs. The second is not so obvious. This is the lack of the ability to quickly redo all the images if you suddenly decide to make a more transparent inscription, change the location, change the font, or even update your site logo.

The third method is very convenient if you do not want to manually process photos, but want to do it on the fly using the site's tools. There are two options for this. The easiest one is to use a ready-made solution for your CMS (plugins, modules).

Solutions can be both free and paid, and with different functionality that allows you to flexibly customize the application of inscriptions or logos for yourself. Simple modules may also not be able to, in which case, put a new logo on the photo, instead of the old one. Because in order to save space on your hosting, apply a watermark to the original image. And in the future, you will have to either apply over the existing one, or re-upload the photos to the site from your computer. To avoid this, the module must provide the ability to store the original you upload separately on the hosting. Then, roughly speaking, with the press of one button, you can quickly change the logos on all the photos of the site.

The fourth option, also software, but already individually written for you by a programmer. Here the functionality can only be limited by your imagination and budget. Of course, the programmer will have to sweat a little over the technical specification, but usually this option is the fastest (in terms of photo processing speed) and is ideal for your online store.

1. Don't make the watermark too large or too small. A large one will be an eyesore and interfere with viewing a photograph. And small ones, in a number of photos, can be removed with the help of graphic editors.
2. Try not to place the sign in the corners of the photo. Sometimes it is also easy to get rid of such a sign, by means of editors or simply by cutting out a part of the photo with your logo. Place the mark in the center or in such a place that it overlaps at least part of the main product image in the photo.
3. Make the watermark transparent to the extent that it does not interfere with viewing the photo, but is readable. Remember, your job is to prevent theft of your images, not to show off your logo.

And finally, I would like to remind you that it is worth saving the originals of your photos (files from the camera in high resolution) somewhere separate from the site. So that, if you decide to prove your authorship through the court, you yourself can prove that the photos were taken by you, and not by anyone else.

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