Watermarking¶
A digital watermark is generally understood as a kind of marker embedded in a digital object (such as an image, text, video, or audio file), typically used to indicate ownership and/or to prevent unauthorized use. For images, the watermark is often a text layer or image identifying the owner of the digital object.
AtoM supports basic digital watermarking functionality for images and text files such as PDFs, since the preview image (aka the reference display copy) for a text file is a JPG image. The watermark does not alter or affect the master digital object. Similarly, thumbnail images, used in search and browse results, are also unaffected. Only the reference display copy, used on the view page of an archival description, will show the watermark.
See also
AtoM’s default behavior is to composite (a.k.a. “tile”) new reference images with the watermark file. For best results, we recommend using a format for your watermark that supports alpha compositing, such as a PNG image file. The watermark will work best if the background is transparent or white - AtoM will render images used as a watermark transparent, so they need not be transparent to begin with.
Important
You must have Imagemagick properly installed and configured for digital watermarking to work in AtoM. For more information, see:
Applying a watermark in AtoM¶
First you will need to choose your watermark. You can use an institution logo, or create a simple text-based image. There are also many tutorials available online on how to create watermark images using open source tools such as GIMP. Choose something that won’t be too visually busy, so the underlying photo can still be seen clearly. Try to ensure the image background is white or transparent for best results. You also need to use an image format that supports alpha compositing - we recommend using images in a PNG format for best results.
Additionally, because AtoM will tile the watermark until the entire reference image is covered, we recommend choosing an image no larger than 250 x 250px.
Save your chosen watermark file as
watermark.pngand place it in your root AtoM directory.That’s it! Now any images uploaded in the future will have the watermark applied. If you wish to stop having watermarks applied, remove the
watermark.pngfrom AtoM’s root directory.
For more information on uploading and managing digital objects in AtoM, see:
Applying a watermark to existing images¶
If you have followed the steps above, you can use the digital object derivative regeneration command-line task to regenerate your existing derivatives. As they are regenerated, AtoM will apply the watermark to any images generated for use as the reference display copy.
php symfony digitalobject:regen-derivatives
For more information on using this task, see:
Warning
When running the regen-derivatives task, all of your current
derivatives for the targeted digital objects will be deleted - meaning ALL
of them if you provide no further criteria. They will be replaced with new
derivatives after the task has finished running. If you have manually
changed the thumbnail or reference display copy of a
digital object via the user interface (see: Edit digital objects),
these two will be replaced with digital object derivatives created from
the master digital object.