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How to protect digital works: images, photos and documents

comparison of watermarking methods and tools

Protection method Advantages Disadvantages Comments
Do not show your images nothing lost nothing gained Unfortunately, studies show that there is a direct link from the quality of your images on your site to your sales.
Reduce size of images* You can show preview of your images Preview images can be freely copied and used Making a small preview is a good idea. Quality of images will be enough for showing on web but will be not enough for printing.
Reduce quality of images You can show ugly preview of your images Preview images can be freely copied and used Reducing quality of images is not a good idea. Why put ugly photos on your site? That will not promote your business in a good light.
disable right mouse click in web browser by use javascript * You can show original images without remarks. Tells everyone it is not for keeps. Will not stop web page saving and making screenshots. Does not work on the Mac. Good a way of telling people the images are copyrighted.
Adding a transparent gif over the top of your image in a web page. You can show original images. Gives the wrong image when saving by right mouse click. Does not stop screen capture programs and saving web page. How it works: put the real image in the table background and put the transparent one in the cell over the top.
Adding visible watermarks to images * You can show original images. Everyone can read your copyright information. Big non trasparent watermarks do not allow restore original images. Small watermark can be easily cropped out . Transparent watermark can be repainted (but the work is very difficult). Often people do not care who owns the image. The most popular way to protect images. Use several big transparent watermarks for improving protection quality.
Digital watermarking (adding invisible watermarks) Hidden, thief will not know it is there. You can prove your copyright. Hidden. How do people know it is copyrighted? Nearly impossible to track down after it is gone. Finding stolen pictures is dependent on the thief actually posting the image online AND getting that page indexed at the search engines.
Making images into Flash or Shockwave objects You can show original image or part of your image as you want. No right click, no drag and drop, no web-page saving. Does not protect against screen capture. There is a tools for saving Flash objects. May be not applicable for mobile devices. Time consuming way.
Making pictures Java Applets You can show original image or part of your image as you want. No right click, no drag and drop, no print, no web-page saving. Does not stop screen capture programs. May be not applicable for mobile devices. Java is not as good as it could be. Slows the web page rendering somewhat.

* - method supported by AiS Watermark Pictures Protector


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AiS Watermark Pictures Protector
- visible watermarks for images

IceMark
- invisible watermarks for images

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- watermarks for video movies

Software for developers:

AiS Watermarker ActiveX
- visible watermarking API

AiS EXIF Info ActiveX
- read/write/change EXIF/IPTC/GPS information API

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How to protect digital works: comparison of watermarking methods and tools
 
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