What is the ideal size for a watermark?

chavalo · January 25th, 2006, 01:05 PM

I have been playing with watermark/logo as of late. I have changed it a few times but not sure what size it should be. For some reason the one I am temp using now is showing up twice:

http://www.flashsf.com/showphoto.php...5/limit/recent

I have made another image/png file that I would like to use but not sure what size to make it.

Also the watermark/logo does not show up during the slide show is this normal?

THanks

maxiscoot · February 11th, 2006, 03:58 AM

I'm also looking for the watermark documentation.
I found nothing about Watermark size!
In the forum you can read:
Use PNG for GDLib and GIF for ImageMagick - but what size??

I also have some pics in the gallery with double watermarks!!!

Chuck S · February 11th, 2006, 07:26 AM

If you permanently watermark a photo and then turn on on the fly watermarks you will see two watermarks. The permanent one and the one overlaying the original photos.

There is no suggestions on size it is user taste. Basically when you design a watermark for your pictures you look at how big you are allowing the photos and design a watermark that will size correctly on these photos.

globalinsites · November 9th, 2006, 04:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuck S

There is no suggestions on size it is user taste. Basically when you design a watermark for your pictures you look at how big you are allowing the photos and design a watermark that will size correctly on these photos.

I have a question about that. I use a semi-transparant .png watermark file of 2500x25 pixels, with 'mydomain.com' centered in the watermark file, and in the Watermark Options I set the position to South. It all looks good if a user doesn't upload a photo that is either 'too small' or 'too big'.

Appearantly the size of a watermark (the size in which it will end up on the image), depends on how large the image is that the user is uploading. For example, if a user uploads a photo of let's say 2048x1536 pixels then the watermark will appear very very small on both the thumbnail and the supersize image. I think that means that the watermark is added to the image before it's being resized.

I have set 'Maximium size for a supersized image' to 500 pixels. I tried setting 'If product upload width or height exceeds maximums' to yes and no but it doesn't seem to make any difference at all when I try to upload a 2048x1536 pixels image. 'Maximum PHP file upload size' is set to 2048. I'm not sure what that option does exactly.

Is there any way to work around this? A way so that the watermark will be the same size, regardless of the size of the image that a user is uploading?

Or is there a way to set a minimum and maximum allowed image size (in pixels) for user uploads so that I'll at least know that the watermark will be added in 'reasonable proportions'?

Chuck S · November 9th, 2006, 06:20 PM

Your watermark can not be larger than your maximum file dimensions.

Try doing a 500x25 pixel and see how that works. I dont use watermarks nearly the gigantic size your using

globalinsites · November 9th, 2006, 07:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuck S

Your watermark can not be larger than your maximum file dimensions.

Try doing a 500x25 pixel and see how that works. I dont use watermarks nearly the gigantic size your using

I just tried a 500x25 pixel watermark but when I upload a large image it just makes the watermark very small. See the attachment. It looks to me like the watermark is being added before the file is being resized. I wish it was vice versa. Any suggestion on how to have a watermark that has the same size on all images?

Chuck S · November 9th, 2006, 07:09 PM

You will need to experiment on size

globalinsites · November 9th, 2006, 09:16 PM

I did that. But a user seems to be able to upload any file size (in pixels), and because the watermark is being added before the image is resized the watermark will always be resized along with the image. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Unless there is a way (that I don't know about) to set restrictions to the minimum and maximum width/height of an image that a user can upload, I don't see how I can do this properly. There's always a chance that the watermark will be too big or too small.

I don't understand this option in the Upload Ads Options: 'If product upload width or height exceeds maximums, resize upload down to max dimensions?'. Isn't 'Maximium size for a supersized image?' doing the exact same thing? Can you please tell me the difference between the two?

globalinsites · November 9th, 2006, 09:20 PM

In PhotoPost there are these options that are useful in several ways: Max allowable image width in pixels, Max allowable image height in pixels, Min allowable image width in pixels, and Min allowable image height in pixels, but if I'm not mistaken in PP Classifieds there's no way to set restrictions at all.

Chuck S · November 10th, 2006, 09:51 AM

Photopost and classifieds has the same options they are

Max allowable height/width in pixels

Min allowable height/width in pixels

globalinsites · November 10th, 2006, 10:44 AM

I cannot find these options in PP Classifieds. All I see in Upload Ads Options is:

Thumbnail image max width and height in pixels
Maximium width of preview image on showpoduct page
Maximium height of preview image on showpoduct page
Maximium size for a supersized image? (Larger images will be resized down)
Quality setting for resizing/thumbnails?
If product upload width or height exceeds maximums, resize upload down to max dimensions?
Maximum PHP file upload size?

I don't think there's an option in one of the above that can set the Min allowable height/width in pixels?

Should I look somewhere else for the options you mentioned?

Chuck S · November 10th, 2006, 04:07 PM

Thumbnail image max width and height in pixels

Maximium width of displayed image on showpoduct

Maximium height of displayed image on showpoduct

Maximium side for a supersized image? (Larger images will be resized down)

Same similar settings as Photopost matching up the max height width in photopost to the display image settings and we have one more setting in classifieds the supersize image which in essense lets you save the original

globalinsites · November 10th, 2006, 04:32 PM

Okay but where is the Min allowable height/width in pixels?

Chuck S · November 10th, 2006, 04:35 PM

No such thing thats a feature specific to do with Photopost and really has nothing to do with watermarking persay

globalinsites · November 10th, 2006, 05:01 PM

I do think that not having an option to set a minimum height/width effects watermarking. As long as I don't have any control over the minimum allowable and maximum allowable upload size (which is not the same as max allowable display size) I have no idea how to set up watermarking properly.

I can't think of a way how to set up watermarking so that the watermark will appear in an acceptable size in most cases. I don't know if a user is uploading a 200x150 pix pic or a 2000x1500 pix pic. I cannot set restrictions to the size of an image a user is uploading. So all I can do is use a small watermark so that I'll know/hope it won't be too big for users who upload small pics, but that small watermark will of course be very very small (almost invisible) on large pics. So, I'm kind of stuck here with having this great watermark feature of which I don't know how to use it properly.

Perhaps I am using the wrong type and/or wrong location of the watermark. I'm not sure. Any suggestions about what's best when I want the watermark to look acceptable on most image sizes?

Chuck S · November 10th, 2006, 05:13 PM

http://www.reeftalk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=191

I had to experiment with mine just as everyone does here is what I use in Photopost for example

http://www.reeftalk.com/gallery/data/watermark.png

Its 380x80

I also use ON THE FLY so it does not destroy the original

globalinsites · November 10th, 2006, 06:22 PM

Cheers. I cannot access the http://www.reeftalk.com/gallery/data/watermark.png url. Can you post it as an attachment here or something?

ON THE FLY only works with GD right? I was considering wether to use ON THE FLY or not but from what I understand ImageMagick is better for processing images than GD.

Chuck S · November 10th, 2006, 06:25 PM

You can use Imagemagick for image processing. Image processor does not need to be set to gd2 to use on the fly watermarking you just need to have it installed as part of php

Dont worry about my actual watermark or seeing it cause 380x80 should give you an idea of a size I found that works in most cases

Try using on the fly watermarks and see if this works better for you.

globalinsites · November 10th, 2006, 06:30 PM

Ok. For ON THE FLY it says in the admin: 'you must edit the file watermark.php'. What should I add or remove?

globalinsites · November 10th, 2006, 07:48 PM

ON THE FLY seems to be working. I haven't edited watermark.php. There is one problem: the watermark also appears on the thumb but just as large as on the supersize pic. I used a 380x80pix file by the way. I attached the thumb so you'll know what I mean.

Is there something I can do to either let the thumb(s) have a fitting watermark, or to not watermark the thumbs at all?