InPublishing just wrote an exciting article about how Armani launched a campaign that uses digital watermarks. This campaign was delivered by Digimarc's partner Digital Space in the UK.

You've probably noticed that a lot of campaigns today are starting to incorporate different types of codes that enable consumers to interact with the brand or product. Digital watermarks are an imperceptible alternative; much more appealing than your typical QR code or machine readable codes. We like to say: The bridge from print to online doesn't have to be square!

We've already seen magazines like House Beautiful, Xbox 360, Photoshop User, and many more integrate digital watermarks into their publication. And we're starting to see a lot of traction and interest with digital watermarks, so we'll continue to update you as more publications hit the street using technology enabled by Digimarc Discover.

Join John Batdorff, professional photographer and author of Black and White: From Snapshots to Great Shots, as he shares with you his vision and straight forward techniques for creating compelling black and white images — protected by Digimarc for Images. Registration is free!

Check out some of John's great photos and read his blog at http://www.batdorffphotography.com.

You may have seen recent news about the Digimarc Discover solution and how it will enable print to become interactive. That was just the beginning; The Oregonian newspaper (in Oregon) launched its new mobile reader application that will deliver rich content to its users by utilizing the Digimarc Discover watermarking technology. News & Tech had a great article about it, so I wanted to say "thanks!" to the editors.

 
Please stay tuned in the coming months when I will post more information about different magazines that will also be inporporating Digimarc Discover.

I just wanted to share a letter to everyone from the Emancipated Artist community. Anyone can sign up; it's totally free... so what are you waiting for?

While hopefully most of you Digimarc blog readers have already visited and joined The Emancipated Artist, some of you may not have. The Emancipated Artist is a Digimarc for Images sponsored online community geared toward helping photographers merge their love of art with tools to market, sell and profit from their creativity.

When you visit, you’ll find:

• The Artist Spotlight where we feature a different member and/or professional photographer every other week.
• The Photo of the Week where we highlight a photo we find inspiring.
• The EA Creative Challenge where members are given a photo theme then encouraged to put their unique twist to it, and share it with the group.
• The Useful Info section where you can access information and tools on how to properly interact with clients, price your work, and build a stellar portfolio.

We love welcoming new members to our growing community, so please stop by and have a look around!

Sincerely,
Khali Lanning

If you've been wondering about how to use the Digimarc Photoshop Plugin within Lightroom, here is a great tutorial presented by Rafael Concepcion (RC). It is very simple and RC walks you through it step-by-step.

RC Concepcion is not only an Adobe certified instructor in Photoshop, Illustrator, and Lightroom, but also a professional photographer and content developer. Oh, wait! He's also the author of the recently released book "Get Your Photography on the Web," which is the perfect book for anyone ready to post their work to the web. There's a ton of information in this book and I highly recommend it for everyone. You can learn more about Rafael and even purchase that book from his website here. It's on sale too, so hurry up and get your copy now!

Thanks to everyone that participated in our "Open Beta", providing the feedback we needed to build a product that works well for our customers. If you haven't checked out the service yet, it's not too late to try as we now offer a 30-day free trial to anyone. It's simple to turn your printed content into an interactive, rich media experience. Go here to sign up or learn more on our website by clicking here.

Did you know that Digimarc for Images supports Photoshop Elements (PSE)? Also, we've just updated our plug-in to support version 9.

 What's included already with your PSE installation is the ability to read Digimarc for Images watermarks. With that you can identify copyright ownership and usage information on a Digimarc for Images watermarked image. The ability to also embed your own copyright and usage information into your images is only a simple installation away.

Once you download the file, just simply unzip the executable and run it to start up your PSE software. You will see a new "Embed Watermark" option in the Filter menu under the "Digimarc" filter.

Are you in marketing? If so, you've probably heard about QR Codes by now (especially if you've read a few of my last posts) and my guess is you either love 'em or hate 'em. Either way, you should know that a digital watermark can provide the same outcome but without the clunkiness.

I ran across this great article by Lauren Goldstein that basically says digital watermarks are QR codes, but without the clunkiness. That is so true! Her website is focused on B2B demand generation. Read the article and learn how digital watermarks can be used for B2B demand generation.

If you’re an avid reader of CNET (or just read my friend Matthew’s post), Elinor Mills wrote up a nice article on Digimarc. As with most articles on the Internet these days, the commenters added their own voices to the chat. It’s always good to get real-world feedback, and people’s candor can be refreshing.

Obviously, I'm part of the Digimarc team, but I really do believe in our technology and firmly trust it will become even more widely used in the future. That disclaimer being said, I’d like to quickly add my response to some of the points raised from this healthy discussion and compare digital watermarking to:

• Google Goggles
• RFID
• Itself!

Greetings from Mobile World Congress 2011 in Barcelona Spain. This conference is the largest gathering for anything related to mobile and yours truly was there, not only to witness the swarm of 55,000 people, but to launch the Digimarc Discover Online Services Portal (OSP). We had our own booth right in the App Planet, where many of the folks that stopped by thought we were the coolest new technology around. You can see some panaromic photos of the the entire show right here.

With the Online Services Portal you can now turn your printed content into new rich interactive experiences, and all of it can be done directly from the portal. That's right, just create a free acount, watermark your image, identify the URL that the image will link to, and select when and how long it will be active. Once your watermarked images are printed, they can be read using our free Digimarc Discover reader, downloadable from the iTunes App Store or the Android Market. No barcodes cluttering up your layout. Setting up an account is simple and during our Open Beta ( through May 31st 2011) you can turn your printed content interactive for free. So what are you waiting for? Go to www.digimarc.com/portal to get started!