To Printmark or not to Printmark?

deiviejr

Howdy! New to SmugMug and trying to decide if I should use printmarks. I'm not sure if this is something my customers would enjoy or just find distracting and be disappointed.

Looking for opinions.

Thanks!

denisegoldberg

What is your purpose for using printmarks? Are you charging for your photos? What is your business model?

If I buy a print with a plan to hang it on the wall I would be quite unhappy if it came with a printmark. I would probably return the item for a refund. Of course that is just a personal preference; because that's how I feel about printmarks I do not use them.

deiviejr

The purpose is name recognition and yes I do charge for my photos. No business model, I just have a decent following on social media where I'm constantly being asked about buying prints, so I setup my site to give my followers the opportunity to do so. Of course more exposure that leads to more sales would be nice too,

I've seen opinions that go both ways on this in what little googling I've done so far. Thanks for yours. I have the same concern. Duly noted!

Hikin' Mike

I'm with @denisegoldberg. If I bought a print and it had a watermark, I would return it and I might be inclined to use social media to spread my displeasure. That's just me.

Now there is nothing wrong with signing a print (by hand) but it would be costly to do so using SmugMug.

deiviejr

Thanks Mike!

Allen

Aren't printmarks on the back of photos?
It's watermarks that should probably not be on front of photos for sell.

denisegoldberg

@Allen said:
Aren't printmarks on the back of photos?
It's watermarks that should probably not be on front of photos for sell.

Watermark is online only.

A printmark is on the front of the photo.

Different than watermarks, printmarks will actually show up on the final delivered product and are designed to a specific size of 1% of the image surface.

Hikin' Mike

@Allen said:
Aren't printmarks on the back of photos?
It's watermarks that should probably not be on front of photos for sell.

I had to check. Printmark is for the front and Backprinting is for the back of the photo.

Juano

I like the idea of backprinting. I thoroughly dislike watermarks on screen, I wouldn't buy a print with one ever.

deiviejr

Lot's of confusion here about Watermarks. I never mentioned Watermarks, which are displayed over an image online to prevent someone from just taking a screen shot of your work and calling it a day.

I'm talking about what SmugMug calls "Printmarks" which can be a small logo and/or signature in (for example) the lower right corner of your prints that can be applied automatically at print time.

Hope this clarifies the topic.

Thanks!