Watermarking Knife Pictures? Why Bother?
Makers about Marketing—these are posts where makers share about their marketing ideas, strategies or approaches. These posts often but not always represent our views—and that’s the point. We want to give room to a wide range of ideas so YOU can choose from what fits your needs.
This post was written by @made_by_jon, a Canadian knife maker. We edited it for formatting, typos, and legibility.
Watermarking photos—What’s the point? Why would I bother?
It’s really quite simple, any time you put a knife photo of yours out in the wide universe there is always a chance it will get stolen and used by others for their own purposes, possibly to promote their own products.
Watermarks are not fool proof and can often be removed or edited out—however most of the time they are enough to keep the lazy thieves from snatching your photo.
Of course, protecting your property is not the only reason.
Brand recognition is a powerful thing. Making sure your logo is consistently attached to your best work helps reinforce your product and brand. People will begin to recognize your work instantly and it will stand out among the many options they may be faced with online.
People will begin to recognize your work instantly
Adding a watermark is easier now than it ever has been
There are several online services, apps, and programs that can be used to add one without breaking the bank to get Photoshop.
Make it all a bit easier for yourself by ensuring your logo for the watermark is in a .png file format.
Framing your knife well together with good cropping can help keep thieves from simply cropping your watermark out.
Most of us have a bit of software on our computers already that can add in watermarks: PowerPoint. A quick search will take you right to Microsoft’s support page with step by step instructions. [IndieKnives: Here is the support article.]
Online services
There are of course several online services that can help you add a text or image watermark. However, use these at your own risk. “Free” online services are rarely truly free and you may be making some compromises to get it done.
If you’re adding a watermark, why not do a little bit of lite editing and color correction?
Photoshop Express
Photoshop Express is a lite photo editor built by Adobe and is available as both a free app and a desktop program.
Simply complete your editing then hit “next” to progress to the export page. This is where the watermark can be configured and location set.