Proof Options

Techman1

Hello all! I have a couple of questions regarding "proofing".

(1) Are there still options in the works to make it where we will be able to change the word "PROOF" to something else? (I'm really into this new customization thing)!

(2) Is there (or will there be) a way to not have the word "PROOF" show up on the thumbs, but only on the larger images? Yes, I want my cake and eat it too!!!

Thanks in advance.

Fred

Techman1

Watermarking Photos
I've changed the title on this to read Watermark Options in case that makes more sense here. If anyone has any ideas on this or if something is in the mill being worked on, that's great. I would just like to know prior to turning my site up to clients.

Thanks in advance.

Fred

Mike Lane

Watermarking is on the to do list for the smugmug team. I don't know when or how it will be implemented, but rest assured they are working on it.

Techman1

Thanks Mike, I appreciate the info. Hopefully this is fairly high up on the list.

Again thanks!

Fred

Cindy

Techman1 wrote:

Thanks Mike, I appreciate the info. Hopefully this is fairly high up on the list.

Again thanks!

Fred

Hopefully this is VERY, VERY soon. PLEASE, pretty please consider moving this UP the priority list. My 13 y/o daughter just told me a couple nights ago that the kids at school figured out the print screen option they hit cntl+print screen, copy it to e-mail or whatever, and then have their friends who know photoshop tweak it as much as possilble for printing.
I havn't been using the PROOF because it litterally blocks viewing important parts of the photo... now what

Thanks,
Cindy

jfriend

See what Google does for watermarking

Cindy wrote:

Hopefully this is VERY, VERY soon. PLEASE, pretty please consider moving this UP the priority list. My 13 y/o daughter just told me a couple nights ago that the kids at school figured out the print screen option they hit cntl+print screen, copy it to e-mail or whatever, and then have their friends who know photoshop tweak it as much as possilble for printing.
I havn't been using the PROOF because it litterally blocks viewing important parts of the photo... now what

Thanks,
Cindy

In case anyone from smugmug is looking for ideas on how to make a proof mark that isn't as obtrusive as the current one, but still accomplishes it's goal, look at what Google does for Google maps. It seems to work quite effectively. Nobody could print one of their maps and not know it was Google and their watermarks don't seem to get in the way. Here's an example which looks even better at full size:

DodgeV83

Cindy wrote:

Hopefully this is VERY, VERY soon. PLEASE, pretty please consider moving this UP the priority list. My 13 y/o daughter just told me a couple nights ago that the kids at school figured out the print screen option they hit cntl+print screen, copy it to e-mail or whatever, and then have their friends who know photoshop tweak it as much as possilble for printing.
I havn't been using the PROOF because it litterally blocks viewing important parts of the photo... now what

Thanks,
Cindy

When dealing with those types of people, unless the PROOF is large AND IN THE WAY, they will print it out anyway...I wouldn't be surprised if they'd even print it with the current PROOF just the way it is. If they won't print it, they'd definately keep the digital file anyway.

Mike Lane

DodgeV83 wrote:

When dealing with those types of people, unless the PROOF is large AND IN THE WAY, they will print it out anyway...I wouldn't be surprised if they'd even print it with the current PROOF just the way it is. If they won't print it, they'd definately keep the digital file anyway.

I guarantee you this happens right now.

DodgeV83

Mike Lane wrote:

I guarantee you this happens right now.

Instead of PROOF, I'd like to be able to put a bunch of horizonal lines across the picture, maybe even a grid...would it be hard to have the user put in a number to decide how many lines are in the grid for each picture?

Hmm, a grid might be easy to photoshop out...i dunno.

Mike Lane

DodgeV83 wrote:

Instead of PROOF, I'd like to be able to put a bunch of horizonal lines across the picture, maybe even a grid...would it be hard to have the user put in a number to decide how many lines are in the grid for each picture?

Hmm, a grid might be easy to photoshop out...i dunno.

This is just me talking, and I should say that I certainly don't make a killing on sales. In fact, I've made WAY more on webdesign in the past 2 weeks than in 6 months of selling photos...sigh. Annnnyyyyhow, watermarking to me seems kind of fadish but generally unnecessary. My thought is that if a person wants a print bad enough he's going to be able to get it. Also if that person doesn't care if that print looks ridiculous when it's printed because the file he's using is a smugmug medium or even large size, then I bet you he or she won't care if there is a "PROOF" right in the middle or a grid. There have been people in this very forum that have said they have actually seen their pictures printed out with a big "PROOF" on them. There's no way to stop that kind of thing unless you print out all your pictures and them sell them in a shop on main street. There just isn't.

What you can do is to prevent people from having any access to the Original sized photos and even the Large sized ones if you're super worried about it (and you may be and that's your perrogative). That way you can rest assured that nobody is going to be getting any prints that are particularly worthwhile from your site.

But that's just one guy's opinion, nothing more.

luke_church

DodgeV83 wrote:

Hmm, a grid might be easy to photoshop out...i dunno.

You would be amazed what can be done to copyright marking systems.

If you're really interested, then a guy called Markus Kuhn at the Computing Lab in Cambridge has done some really neat stuff attacking copyright marking systems:

Workshop paper: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~fapp2/publications/ih98-attacks.pdf

Journal: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~fapp2/publications/ieee99-infohiding.pdf

Well worth the read :

Luke

Techman1

Watermarking Images
It's really just an added deterrent. I know that people can download the image if they want and if they really want to print it out with a watermark on it...I say go for it, but if they show someone my image, I would like for that watermark to have my name so maybe the next person will actually buy the print from me.
:soapbox

Also, I would really like to see the watermark not show up on the thumbnail or on the category photo, but on the enlarged image itself. I would hope that they "SMUGMUG" could implement this fairly easily and then give us the option of what we want the watermark to say. PROOF is fine, but again I would prefer to see my website name or something else.

Thanks and I too hope this gets up on the list for release soon.
Fred