Social media is a great place for designers and illustrators to share their work. But it’s also a breeding ground for art theft. So how do you stop it? How do you protect your work when you post it online?
One way is to watermark your stuff. While it’s not 100% effective, it does help to establish ownership.
But, here’s the truth: I don’t watermark my designs. Why? Because, like a locked car, if a thief wants it badly enough, they’ll just “break in” and steal it. In this case, they’ll just remove the watermark. So is it worth it? Well, maybe…
Lately, I keep seeing more posts and discussions from other artists and designers who’ve had their work stolen. In fact, I recently had a conversation with Brian Allen at Flyland Designs after reading a Facebook post he made about his work being stolen.
Here’s what he had to say:
“I’m lucky enough to have a lot of my illustrations shared on social media and picked up in Google image searches. That kind of exposure is really helpful in the way new clients find me. Unfortunately, that means that my work is easier to steal. I typically find out about another company or even an another artist stealing my artwork every couple weeks. Artist friends, clients, and potential clients usually recognize my work and alert me – who knows how many I’m not aware of.”
So I asked him if he used watermarks. And, sure enough, he does:
“I place a watermark with my name, website, and copyright info on all my images. I’m not brave enough to put it over the whole image (I hate the way it looks), so instead, I overlap the image a little in the bottom corners. This is usually effective, but not always. Most of these guys can airbrush out a logo, even if it’s over the whole image. If they want it bad enough, they’ll find a way.
But the watermark serves the purpose of alerting people that this belongs to someone. Remember that a lot of “art thieves” are truly unwitting. They believe that if they found it on Google, it’s fair game (which we all know is false, of course, but it’s not common knowledge). So adding the watermark is very important for that reason alone, because I get calls from t-shirt shops all the time because their clients tried to print my design thinking they could.”
What he said got me thinking: maybe it’s time I start “locking my doors”. Like my mother says, “Locking your doors only keeps the honest people, honest.” And in this game, that might be a good place to start.
There are a number of ways in which you can create a watermark in Photoshop (you can use watermark software too). I’ll show you three different ways, and then you can decide what works best for you.
One of the quickest and most versatile ways of making a watermark in Photoshop is by using the Text Tool. With the text tool, you’re able to make changes on the fly and apply different styles depending on what you’re looking to accomplish. You’re also able to resize the text to suit your needs.
To create watermarks using the Text Tool, do the following:
At this point, your watermark is going to look a little strange. That’s OK. You’ll fix it in the next step.
Another way to add a watermark is to create a custom brush and use that. I won’t go into the details of how to create a custom brush in Photoshop.
Once you have your custom brush created, you can add it as a new layer in your design. Remember to set the Layer Opacity and brush size. The placement is up to you!
There are many benefits to using a custom brush. The biggest one is that you can use an image as your watermark.
Finally, you can use a custom pattern as your watermark.
The process of creating a custom pattern is similar to creating a custom brush. The only difference is instead of saving the image using Define Brush Preset…, you’ll use Define Pattern….
With the pattern created and saved, you can now apply it to your design. This process is a bit more involved than just using a brush:
Your watermark looks a little odd right now, but you’ll fix that next!
And there you have it! Three different ways to make a watermark in Photoshop.
Of course, you can also combine all three of these methods to make one watermark to rule them all.
About the Author
Tammy Coron is an independent creative professional and the host of Roundabout: Creative Chaos. She’s also the co-founder of Day Of The Indie, the organizer behind Indie DevStock, and the founder of Just Write Code. Find out more at TammyCoron.com.
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