Well, I suppose it would all depend on how you were selling the image.. I've seen plenty of artists sell images with anti-reproduction clauses. I.E., I can purchase the image, be the sole owner, show it to anyone I want, but not take it, generate a thousand copies, and sell those (or attempt to pass them off as mine) Taking a screenshot of a digitally watermarked image would include the watermark. (depending on the strength of the watermark of course) As I mentioned, many (including certain versions of digimarc (but not the one included in photoshop)) can even survive being printed out, and rescanned. I hope you haven't taken offense to my posts. My intention wasn't to contradict you, it was to simply explain digital watermarking the best I could. It is a technology that fascinates me. I'll be the first to admit that it certainly isn't appropriate for every situation, especially images that have large blocks of solid color or when you are doing work for hire. But of all the current technologies, it is probably the most versatile, and the great thing, is that if someone does steal your work, I seriously doubt they are going to check for a watermark, which means, you've got 'em nailed to the wall when it comes time to present evidence.

Oh, and that javascript crap is worth less than no security at all.. since it gives a "false" sense of security. One could simply make a screenshot, or dig the files out of their browser cache.

Well, if you want to track theft of images, a digital watermark is the way to go. The MarcSpider service searches for digital watermarks, and logs them. The digital marks will survive most image conversions (bmp to jpeg for example) and at certain settings will even survive being printed out and rescanned. An optical one would only be useful for "demo" images, as once you sell someone an image, you certainly can't have an optical watermark on it. But a digital one won't interfere with the image itself.

Urm... digimarc is completely free for up to 99 uses per year (it's the honor system) The version in PS 6.0 is NOT a demo. it is the full blown filter. The only costs that come into play are if you choose the marc spider service, ($79/yr) which is basically a search engine that roams the web looking for your images on sites, or if you mark more than 99 images per year.. At which point the price becomes $149 for up to 999 images (that's like 15 cents per image) While the above mentioned free subscription is only valid for one year, each year they send you a reminder to reactivate the subscription (I've used them for almost 5 years now, and have never paid a dime (then again I only create perhaps a dozen images a year) So, I dunno where the previous posters got these wild ideas about hefty prices, or somehow being limited in choices (did you guys even do a little research?) Btw, the watermark IS invisible. It's a digital watermark, not an optical one. If you want an optical one, just create your watermark image as a new layer, and set the transparency to like 30% or something (as was mentioned above) P.S. if you are some sort of rendering maniac who creates up to 4,999 images / year. The price rises to $529, but the cost per unit drops to a dime ($0.10US)

Pretty sweet image. I dig it

Glad to be of help =) (Don't feel bad. I never even realized that one could change the color of the drop shadow. I only investigated because of your question. I knew about the options and stuff, but had never even noticed the option to change the color. I can think of a dozen things this is going to come in handy for!!)

That screenshot is from Photoshop 6. (Well.. 6.01 if you wanna be technical) Have you actually clicked on the words "Drop Shadow"? Not just put a check in the checkbox, but actually clicked on the words themselves? (Hence my arrow and instructions) =) Can I assume that you are using a PC? (That's what the screenshot is from. A PC running Adobe Photoshop 6.01) If you have a MacIntosh (ugh) your mileage may vary

i have just got ps6 and i have not got a clue how use it any advice anyone please!! Photoshop is a program that takes years to truly master. It's not something that can be taught in a forum thread. Your best bet is to buy a couple of books on it, and then just practice, practice, practice. Some community colleges offer courses on Photoshop. You may want to consider enrolling in one of the classes.

AFAIK, you cannot remove it permanently. Adobe likes to pull that stunt with all their products. I have an entry for Photoshop and THREE for Pagemaker! I think the programs are hardcoded to check for, and add those darn entries. I've used TweakUI to remove them, I've even directly edited the registry, and they keep coming back. Really torques me off.

CGI = Common Gateway Interface.