Custom Watermark & Account Settings Problems :-(

Dyun

I'm having a couple of different problems and have a Pro account.

1.) I can't seem to create a small custom image watermark. I select "thumbnail" but it continues to be stretched all across the width of the image. It's driving me insane, because all I want is a small watermark that I created in the bottom right corner, and I can't accomplish this regardless of what size watermark I upload.
2.) Since I couldn't get my image watermark to appear any smaller, I tried creating a text watermark. That was alright until it stopped allowing me to change the font type. It's also very cumbersome to have to scroll through a hundred different fonts without knowing what they look like unless I select them. It would be helpful if I could select a font and then press the down-arrow to select the next one and so forth until I get through all of them. When I finally settled on a font style and size and saved it, when it was applied to my photos, it appeared a lot bigger than what I set it to. Very frustrating! It looks nothing like what I saw in the sample image. Please fix this.

3.) Every time I go into my Account to change something, SmugMug will not let me leave unless I change my damn password. Why? Every single time I go in there and I need to make an adjustment, it will not let me save my progress unless I type in a new password. Drives me nuts.

4.) Since I'm listing some problems, I find it weird that my website menu is sometimes a drop-down on mouse-over, and at other times I have to click on the menu item to bring up the drop-down menu.

Please fix these issues. SmugMug provides a great photo website, but some things just don't work very well at all. It's not exactly a cheap service.

leftquark

Hi @Dyun, I'll answer your questions inline....

@Dyun said:
1.) I can't seem to create a small custom image watermark. I select "thumbnail" but it continues to be stretched all across the width of the image. It's driving me insane, because all I want is a small watermark that I created in the bottom right corner, and I can't accomplish this regardless of what size watermark I upload.

I wish our watermark tool was a little easier to use but we haven't had a chance to revamp it. The way the watermark works is that it attempts to take whatever image you upload and stretch it across the entire image. This was designed so that it would always protect your photo and wouldn't risk it getting cutoff. For example, if you uploaded a small watermark image 10 years ago, thinking it would cover the entire photo, when photos were only 4 megapixels, we'd want to ensure that same watermark covered the entire photo on a 46 megapixel file taken today.

The way to fix this is to create a watermark file that has a ton of empty space to the side. For example, if you wanted a small watermark in the bottom left corner, then you could create a watermark file that's 3200px wide with the logo in the left side of it.

@Dyun said:
2.) Since I couldn't get my image watermark to appear any smaller, I tried creating a text watermark. That was alright until it stopped allowing me to change the font type. It's also very cumbersome to have to scroll through a hundred different fonts without knowing what they look like unless I select them. It would be helpful if I could select a font and then press the down-arrow to select the next one and so forth until I get through all of them.

Thanks for the feedback.

@Dyun said:
3.) Every time I go into my Account to change something, SmugMug will not let me leave unless I change my damn password. Why? Every single time I go in there and I need to make an adjustment, it will not let me save my progress unless I type in a new password. Drives me nuts.

The Account Settings shouldn't be asking you to change your password every time. I have a feeling your browser is trying to auto-fill your password in the Password field. Could you make sure current password and new password fields are blank before trying to change any account settings?

@Dyun said:
4.) Since I'm listing some problems, I find it weird that my website menu is sometimes a drop-down on mouse-over, and at other times I have to click on the menu item to bring up the drop-down menu.

Would you mind sharing some links to each so I can poke at it. It shouldn't be acting that way either.

Dyun

Thanks for your reply. If you look at my site here: https://www.dreamsourcestudio.com/ you'll see that now it requires I click on a menu item to bring down the drop-down menu. It used to just present the options on mouse-over. It also lists the main menu title such as "Photography Tips" as an option to visit, but when it's clicked, none of the "pages" show up so I'd rather that it was not offered as an option if you know what I mean. If that can't be fixed, it would be nice if people could preview the different pages under that link, click on them and visit them like you can do with the galleries that appear under each menu item. Let me know if my explanation is confusing and I'll do my best to clarify what I mean.

P.S. about the watermark,... Some people may want to use a smaller watermark in the corner that doesn't interfere with the subject in the photo. I understand that it's best when watermarks are stretched across the entire image to prevent theft, but here's the problem; when the watermark is made faint so that it doesn't interfere with a person's viewing experience, it's not entirely legible. If the watermark is less faint but legible, now it interferes with the viewer's experience. It's a double-edged sword. I know people are going to use the "print screen" button or take a screen shot if they want to subvert the 'right-click save image', so I'd rather have the smaller high-quality watermark in the corner that's both legible, but still tells other people who the photo belongs to. If I could custom-position the watermark on the image, that would be even better! I hope this feature gets upgraded soon. It would be super useful.

Allen

All the drops on hover work here using Firefox.
I see three links in the hover drop for "Photography Tips".
Clicking "Photography Tips", nothing shows on the folder. You need to add a "folder, galleries and pages" widget to show pages.

Typically only galleries and sub-folders show in folders. In gallery boxes on galleries show.
Add the "folder, galleries and pages" widget and they all can show.

Dyun

@Allen Thanks for the tip. That works.

leftquark

@Dyun said:
P.S. about the watermark,... Some people may want to use a smaller watermark in the corner that doesn't interfere with the subject in the photo. I understand that it's best when watermarks are stretched across the entire image to prevent theft, but here's the problem; when the watermark is made faint so that it doesn't interfere with a person's viewing experience, it's not entirely legible. If the watermark is less faint but legible, now it interferes with the viewer's experience. It's a double-edged sword. I know people are going to use the "print screen" button or take a screen shot if they want to subvert the 'right-click save image', so I'd rather have the smaller high-quality watermark in the corner that's both legible, but still tells other people who the photo belongs to. If I could custom-position the watermark on the image, that would be even better! I hope this feature gets upgraded soon. It would be super useful.

Believe me, I understand the frustration with the tool. If I'm being honest with you, there's so many other items I want to upgrade or new features we want to bring to you, that I don't see an upgraded watermark tool in the near future. But, things can always change and we could prioritize it. We're here to thrill all of you and if that's what you all tell us is important to your workflow, then we'll listen and make it happen!

Dyun

@leftquark said:

Believe me, I understand the frustration with the tool. If I'm being honest with you, there's so many other items I want to upgrade or new features we want to bring to you, that I don't see an upgraded watermark tool in the near future. But, things can always change and we could prioritize it. We're here to thrill all of you and if that's what you all tell us is important to your workflow, then we'll listen and make it happen!

Your work-around of creating a PNG watermark with plenty of empty space in front of it (to the left of it) did the trick. It's not ideal, but it works for landscape-oriented shots perfectly. The problem is that the portrait-oriented shots get a smaller watermark over them as a result (since the width of the image is much smaller and the full width of the watermark has to be crammed in there), but I guess I can live with that for now. I made the watermark a bit bigger than I wanted, to make up for it. It's on the verge of being an eye-sore on landscape-oriented shots. Oh well!

SmugMug is an awesome photography service, so we don't need you guys to beat yourselves up,... just hoping certain things get better sooner rather than later.

By the way... something I've heard a few potential clients say to me; "How do I download the photos? I didn't want a print, but I would love the original file" It seems simple enough, just press the "Buy" button and scroll down to "downloads", but having multiple people come up to me confused makes me think that maybe the "Buy download" option needs to be more clearly stated or at the top of the options? Who knows how many more wanted to do the same, just didn't think to ask me about it.

Allen

My uploaded png that I used to create a watermark is 310 x 156 and 20.29 KB. On the manage page I can select where to place it on photo.
This one is designed for lower right corner.

leftquark

@Dyun said:
SmugMug is an awesome photography service, so we don't need you guys to beat yourselves up,... just hoping certain things get better sooner rather than later.

Glad to hear that! We've survived for 15 years by beating up ourselves to make sure we're thrilling all of you. Without that passion and desire to solve your problems, we wouldn't still be here. It's in our DNA and we're going to keep pushing to deliver awesome for you over and over and over!

@Dyun said:
By the way... something I've heard a few potential clients say to me; "How do I download the photos? I didn't want a print, but I would love the original file" It seems simple enough, just press the "Buy" button and scroll down to "downloads", but having multiple people come up to me confused makes me think that maybe the "Buy download" option needs to be more clearly stated or at the top of the options? Who knows how many more wanted to do the same, just didn't think to ask me about it.

This is something we hear frequently and on our minds as we look to help all of you sell more photos.