Hopefully you've received an email from us or checked out the Digimarc for Images website and saw notices about the 4.0 upgrades; it's something we're really excited about. This upgrade to our embedding software — including the Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements plug-ins — has a new watermarking technology called "Chroma" that we think you're going to like. The account administration area has been refreshed with some nice new features.

So log into you Digimarc account if it’s been awhile, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

After downloading the new plug-ins here, don't forget to upgrade your reader plug-in for Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer while you're at it.

The Digimarc for Images "Best Practices Guide" has been updated as well to help you get the most from the new Chroma embedding. We'll have a technical brief posted on the DFI website shortly. If you don't want to wait, I've included some of the technical brief here to get you started on why we added Chroma embedding...

I'm excited to say that the new website for Digimarc for Images just went live. You can download the new Chroma plug-ins and the free Digimarc Reader for Images now. Check here to see if your software version is supported. All Digimarc for Images customers can also sign In to their accounts and explore the new account management interface and experience the features I mentioned in my previous blog entry. 

Learn more about Digimarc for Images by going here. The redesign includes simple navigation and much more information. Not a customer yet? Email me for a discount coupon at ben.bounketh@digimarc.com. And don't forget, keep coming back to our blog as we'll be releasing details about all the additional new stuff coming to Digimarc for Images very soon.

Digimarc will be offering many new features to our Digimarc for Images customers very soon. I'm pleased to announce that we're integrating a brand new watermarking technology to our product line that will greatly improve the experience you have with digital watermarking. We call this breakthrough technology "Chroma" and you can learn about it now by clicking here. 

We've also completely redesigned the account management interface for all customers, making it easier to navigate and providing additional information, such as Digimarc Search Service statistics. There are a lot of updates taking place so we will be taking down the site for a few days. Check back on Friday, January 22, as all customers will then be able to sign in and experience the new system. Also, keep checking in on our blog as we'll release more great news about what's new with Digimarc for Images.

I suspect a few of you have the same problem I have when buying gifts for the holidays. Do you end up giving yourself one or two as well? I've tried to limit this impulse to smaller ticket items, or at least to cool things that I wouldn't normally justify.

Here's a few items and sites of cool silly stuff I'm thinking of buying or doing to help stimulate the economy without breaking my budget.

The Photojojo store has some really cool toys. While the Diana lens is a little too retro for me, I'll probably blog a review of the Jelly phone filters sometime next year. Anyone crazy enough to record a video or photos while riding with the helmet digital camera mount, please please let me know! We might have to share...

If you want to impress the loved ones with your hands-on skills try out Make Magazine's blog, the crystalline Christmas ornaments will show you didn't sleep through high school chemistry after all.

Going green? Check out Lifehacker.com's cool use for those empty wine bottles. If you haven't already discovered Lifehacker, spend a couple of extra minutes exploring this really great site. Warning, it might be hours before you emerge.

FYI, I don't know anyone at these sites, receive anything from them or have any other reason to list them here except that I like them a lot.

Enjoy!

Oh, one last article to explain all this, maybe...

Are you an iPhone owner who enjoys image manipulation, is interested in fun apps, and has some time to kill? Then you may want to download ColorSplash. I recently downloaded the application and started to play around with it at a recent conference – which is what I do when the speaker is incredibly boring...

Many of you are concerned about images file sizes when posting to the web.  This is not as important as it once was thanks to user access to websites with improved connections.  For those of you who are posting large images, regardless of my point of view, or are placing a large number of images onto a single page, have to pay attention to size or risk tempting your audience to leave if it takes too long to load.

For this post I am going to assume that you have read my previous blogs about compression and focus on showing you why some image file sizes get so much larger than others when watermarked.

There is a very easy way to verify that your digital watermarks have remained with your images after you post them to the web.  Yes, your images can automatically be verified within Adobe Photoshop right after the embed process, but many times, when you upload them to a website, they get manipulated and this can, under certain conditions, destroy the watermark.  For those of you on a PC, you can download the free IE version of the Digimarc Reader for Images.  Once this is installed, all you need to do is browse your website and the browser will automatically look for Digimarc digital watermarks.  Once a digital watermark is detected, the toolbar will show a green check mark like this:

 

And if you have the Image Overlay option turned on, all digital watermarked images will show the “Circle d” in the bottom left corner of the image like this:

Now you can quickly see any images that did not retain the watermark.  Remember, the best way to ensure that your watermarks survive is to embed the watermark at the intended display resolution and as the last step in your design process.  Also, did you know you could right click on that “Circle d” and get information about the owner?  Try it!