During this time of uncertainty, when we are still reeling from the effects of the pandemic and continue living under the dark shadows it has cast upon the world, every aspect of our lives has been affected—businesses included. Fortunately, many forward-thinking organizations were quick to move their processes online to continue operations and minimize the effects of the situation on their profits.
Many of these businesses have rediscovered the benefits of sharing some of their industry secrets to maximize exposure, engage their existing audiences, and reach out to potential customers online. However, there is a drawback. Sharing your photos online or any form of intellectual property can have disadvantages as some may try to redistribute these assets without your permission. This is where protecting your online marketing materials becomes more necessary as is watermarking them to avoid such malicious intent and keep your digital properties safe.
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What is Watermarking?
An image, logo, or text placed strategically over a digital file—whether that be an image, text document, PDF, video,etc.—is called a watermark. It would serve as a point of reference to easily identify who created it or who it belongs to. A calling card, if you may.
There are several reasons to add watermark to PDF files or any other form of document. Besides preventing unauthorized use and stealing of your intellectual property, it can also help make your brand easily recognizable. A benchmark that once customers get acquainted with, would easily identify you as the creator and owner of the design or product, whatever that may be.
History of Watermarking
A brief look in the past would reveal that watermarking is a process of imbuing paper with a shadowy imprint. It has been practiced in Italy as early as the 13th century with the primary purpose of preventing counterfeiting of government stamps, currency, and other essential documents. It was later adopted through the rest of the world, thus establishing security and discouraging unauthorized duplication of intellectual properties.
These days, there are tools that easily allow you to add a watermark to your intellectual property. These include PDFBear, an online-based service that lets you add text or image as a watermark to your PDF, among other uses.
The Benefits of Watermarking Your Intellectual Property
At a time when everything is accessible online, it would be smart to protect your digital property and establish a barrier against those who thrive from the intellectual property of others. Creating a design work is something that takes a lot of effort, hard work, and creativity that is unique to each individual. Your product is your strength and advantage against the competition. If you are an author, designer, or creator of any digital work, you want to protect your end product from theft, misuse, or unauthorized use.
1. Claim control over the use of your work
Finding the best solution to protect intellectual property is a matter of fact worth sharing with your legal counsel. It is relevant to the issue of bolstering your claim to control the use of your work or if it boils down to finding yourself involved in a lawsuit against someone who expropriates your intellectual property.
2. Help the audience recognize your work
As said above, watermarking is necessary not only to safeguard the intellectual property of the creator but to benefit the interest of the clients and customers as well. This way, they would instantly recognize whether a file is a copy or original thus protecting them from being misled into believing they are dealing with the original product.
3. Maintain ownership while engaging more audience
Watermarking also allows sharing of your work, while giving you the confidence that you will not lose ownership throughout the process. It binds the specimen to the original creator. If the authenticity of authorship of digital content is perverted, you can claim authorship or copyright by extracting and showing the digital watermark as strong evidence of ownership. Possible unintended plagiarism may also be prevented in case the fraudulent user appeals to the lack of originality of the item, which may have led to the unrelated formation of the same or comparable content.
Final Tips When Adding Watermarks
A word of caution, it should be noted that not all artistic designers share the same view when it comes to watermarking a product or creation. Some suggest that putting a watermark can compromise or dilute the potential value of one’s creation. In some cases, this might be accurate if watermarking does not follow the general guidelines.
• Identify the best location of the watermark. As a rule of thumb, the watermark should be in a visible location, where it will not be easily removed, but not to the point that it steals the focus away from the digital work itself. This much is true in terms of photos, videos, and other creative works.
• Don’t let the watermark interfere with the protected work. Be careful about the size of the watermark. The logo or the text should not be too small but at the same time not too prominent that it obstructs the view of the digital work.
• Use a watermark and use it consistently. The watermark must be created in a way that would best some tools easily allow represent your brand. It should look as good as the photo itself.
Add A Watermark With PDFBear
Besides the use of tools like PDFBear, there are other methods and software available to add a watermark to your digital product. These include Photoshop, InDesign, and several Microsoft and Apple programs. However, the advantage of using an online PDF service is that it also allows you to customize who can access, edit, and download the file.
Takeaway
A few years back, we’d probably laugh at the idea of working from home and dismiss it as something that just can’t be done. But, thanks to the Internet, you could do as many tasks in the office as you can at home.
Sure, we may be facing a challenging situation, but tools like PDFBear have made it easier for us to stay productive while working remotely. The availability of countless numbers of online converters makes it difficult to decide which one would cater to what you need. Fortunately, PDFBear provides you with the answer and solution to many of your PDF requirements. It promises to establish its name and reputation by offering a great and reliable service to any user.
