So we all know that stolen patterns are a huge issue. I’m in the process of updating all of my patterns because of various fixes and I decided I should probably watermark everything since I’m already going through the process, but that’s like 30 patterns and turns out over 120 images
Well I figured I would share a site I found that someone put together that watermarks your images in huge batches. Of course the more images, the longer it takes. But you can select the position you want your image or text (I’ve found it works best on desktop because you need to drag and drop the image to the place you want it and my phone wouldn’t let me do that), the size, and the opacity. It applies it across the board. So best to do it in batches of where you want the watermark so you can apply it all at once. I did have some issues with ones where the placement was awful cause the difference in image sizes was too great, but overall went way faster than doing it one by one.
It’s honestly SUCH a process. I’m worn out from updating all the notions on my patterns to be more thorough, adding my IG tag to the end so people can tag me in their makes, and now updating photos. I haven’t gotten to even pick up a hook in 24 hours between this and work lol. I think I’m just going to focus on my bigger patterns for now and update the others as I have the want or as things need fixed.
I’m just adding watermarks to the pictures. I know they can still crop them out but honestly most of them don’t even seem to care if they include the watermarks and post them anyways. I just don’t have the time to get super in depth since my job is priority and this is just a hobby :/
i’ve started watermarking all of my photos, but i do it myself on canva. what i like to do is make the watermark of my username kind of grainy/have more texture, since i’ve heard that helps slow down people trying to remove it (idk if that’s true but hey, i’ll try anything to prevent stuff from being stolen). i end up watermarking over the entire image (i’ll provide examples below) for my own patterns, but if it’s an image im providing for a pattern im testing, i crank down the opacity a lot more but hide my username in multiple places. who knows if it ends up helping, but again, i’ll try anything.
here’s an image that i watermarked. i know i put the opacity higher on the background, and then lower over the actual plushie so the plushie is easier to see.
for this pattern test i did, the watermark is still there over the entire image (only really visible if you zoom in really close), just with a much lighter opacity.
One I’ve been using recently was “Watermark Image” and Ive really liked it! I tried the one you linked but it wasn’t working for me . But yea, watermarking photos is important!
i recommend everyone watermarks their pictures, even in their journals if you show a final product. ive seen etsy scammers use people’s journal entry photos too
Really? That’s low… Etsy has a huge scammer issue, I wish they did more about it. :/ Watermarking journals is a good idea, thanks for the tip. I just want to add: make sure to watermark it in such a way that people won’t assume you’re the pattern designer if you post on other socials. I’ve seen a few insta posts that were very confusing, it took me a minute to figure out the person was just showing a make, not their original pattern
. But yea, watermarking photos is important!
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