Digimarc Discover Online Services Portal Comprehensive Implementation Guide
Pricing Sheet for the Digimarc Discover Online Services Portal

How to add digital watermarks to images and create tints behind text.

What is the Digimarc Discover™ Embedder?

The Digimarc Discover Embedder allows users to embed imperceptible digital watermarks into images and create digitally watermarked tints for placing behind text. The Digimarc Discover Embedder will launch directly from the Digimarc Discover Online Services Portal (OSP), so no additional software is required.

The instructions on this page are for the online embedding service. An available Digimarc Discover plug-in for Adobe® Photoshop® is available upon request.

Launching the Embedder

Select the “Process Image” button on the Services List page to launch the Digimarc Discover Embedder. Java is required to run this application. The embedder will detect if you do not have the necessary Java installation and a pop-up dialog will be displayed with instructions and a link to download the required Java software.

Please choose "Run" or "Open" when prompted by your web browser:

The quick start guide for using the online embedding tool

  1. After creating a new service in a project folder, you are ready to embed a digital watermark into your image. Click the "Process Image" button to begin.
  2. Click this button only once! The first time you run the Java based embedder application, it needs to download. Depending on your system settings and Internet connection, this could take only a few seconds or as long as a minute. The embedder will load much faster the second time.
  3. The open button allows you to browse for the image you want to watermark; they can be JPEG or TIFF files.
  4. For the best image quality your image should be CMYK, but RGB and grayscale images will also work.
  5. For the watermark to be read by your smartphone, it must be embedded into your image at the same size as intended for print. If needed you can select "Change Print Size" to quickly resize your image to its final print size.
  6. The "Watermark Settings" column allows the embedder to optimize the watermark for the end product. First time users should start with the "4C Color Press >133ls" preset, including those printing to inkjets.
    • You can fine tune your watermark settings for your printer using the other presets or the slider.
  7. After applying the watermark click "Save and Close" to save the new image to your local drive. Print this image and read it with your smartphone! Your watermark will go to the URL link listed within the service after the service is purchased. Note: You'll not be able to use the embedder once the "Start Date" for a purchased service is reached.

Image requirements

Characteristic Requirement
Resolution Newsprint: between 120 and 750dpi
Commercial: between 150 and 750dpi
Colorspace CMYK preferred, RGB, Grayscale supported*
Bit Depth 8 Bits per Channel
File Format JPEG, TIFF**
Size Minimum of 0.5" x 0.5"
Ink Density A maximum of 300%
As CMYK ink coverage increases — especially above 300% — most printers have trouble reproducing the details of the digital watermark accurately.

* Watermarking RGB images can produce unexpected results when printed.
** TIFF and LZW compressed TIFF supported. Layered TIFFs are not supported.

Creating a tint for placement behind text

Digital watermarks aren't just for images! Placing a subtle and often imperceptible tint behind a text block creates an area able to hold a digital watermark; this enables the content of a paragraph to link to related, interactive experiences.

If you have a sidebar column in a newspaper you could create a colored tint to place behind the sidebar column text that includes a digital watermark. For this scenario, the user simply creates a colored tint the same size of the text column in an image editing program; 3" x 3" at 300dpi and made up of 10% cyan, 20% magenta and 50% yellow. They then save it as a TIFF or JPEG and watermark the tint within the Online Services Portal, using the "More" setting.

Creating multiple watermarks within a layout

To take full advantage of the Online Services Portal's new interactions, you may want to consider embedding multiple watermarks in one layout. This technique details "Selective Watermarking." An image editing application and knowledge of using layer masks are required.

In the following example, the OSP user is a clothing manufacturer, and they have a catalog photo of a couple walking on the beach. The desired effect is to have two watermarks, one for the man and one for the woman. The user's customers would be taken to either the men's or women's collection of clothing on the company's website – depending which portion of the photo is detected. 

  1. Finish all image editing, color correction, etc.
  2. Save file as a TIFF.
  3. Create two services within the OSP, one for the men's clothing URL and one for the woman's clothing URL.
  4. Click the "Process Image" button for the men's clothing service.
  5. Apply the digital watermark and save with a file name to identify it as the men's watermarked image.
  6. Repeat the process with the woman's clothing service.
  7. In your image editing application, combine the watermarked files in a document as layers. Apply layer masks so you can isolate the areas to be active in the final printed image.

This technique could be used to merge the same image with two different watermark strength settings. Effective usage of an image with multiple digital watermarks would be a full-page spread or large format ad, providing the users with enough physical space to easily detect each watermark with their mobile device.

  • Download a brochure featuring an image on page 3 with multiple unique watermarks (aka hotspots).