With the launch of Digimarc Discover, Digimarc now has two watermarking products for commercial use. While both are based on the same core technology, they address different customer requirements.

A high level way to describe the difference: Digimarc for Images is for digitally watermarking images that will always be digital (usually on the Internet) and Digimarc Discover is for images that will be printed. Now why do you need either of those services for your images?

Digimarc for Images (DFI) is intended for customers looking to identify their digital images, often for copyright infringement*. DFI embeds a personal ID (the digital watermark) throughout an image** that can be read by software to identify the image when in digital format. In other words, if someone copies a watermarked image from a website, then uses that image, or a portion of it, on a different website the watermark can still be used to identify the image owner. Supporting the DFI product is the Digimarc Search Service that is searching millions of images per year on the Internet, posting results to users accounts.

Digimarc Discover’s digital watermarking is used to connect printed material to a unique payoff via the web. This is actually a pretty big concept so I’ll explain by creating “Don’s World Wide Walking Tours” (DWWWT) which needs to print a brochure to generate sales.

1. DWWWT’s designer creates an account on the Digimarc Discover Online Services Portal.
2. Images for the brochure are watermarked using the Discover embedder and these images are linked various payoffs:
   • Videos of various walking tours and testimonials
   • A request more information form
   • Share with friends
   • A newsletter sign-up page
   • Trip registration/sign-up
   • And a weekly special coupon that customers can immediately redeem either on the website
3. The brochure is printed and mailed
4. The brochure has an educational section to inform users how to get a reader app for their smartphone and the special teaser coupons.
5. The smartphone readers can quickly go to the web pages that interest them and the interactions that they want.
6. DWWWT is able use the Online Services Portal to get reports that show them how many users (new and repeats) tried which pages along with other data.
7. DWWWT sees in the reports that their 2 for 1 coupons gets twice as much traffic and can change the image links to promote more of these coupons.

The product pages have even greater detail, hopefully this helps you start right.

*DFI can identify your images, but you must follow your local copyright laws. 
**Though not technically correct, watermarking can be thought of as embedding an invisible barcode repeatedly throughout an image.