PDFs: Why are people anti-watermark?

[Treebore]

Excessive ink usage when you print the PDFs instead of just having your computer next to where you game so you can stop game play to pull up the file(s) your wanting to reference.

The Paizo watermarking uses so little ink as to be a non-issue, IMO. I have no problem with watermarked, and the only reason I had an issue with DRM is I could NEVER, despite tons of troubleshooting, get it to work on my computers.

Same with drivethru.rpg watermarking. So small as to be a non-issue, plus I normally don't even notice the watermarking until I look for it. IE it blends into the background so well my mind quickly edits it out until I conciously want to see it.

 

[Lorgrom]

The Paizo watermarking uses so little ink as to be a non-issue, IMO. I have no problem with watermarked, and the only reason I had an issue with DRM is I could NEVER, despite tons of troubleshooting, get it to work on my computers.

Same with drivethru.rpg watermarking. So small as to be a non-issue, plus I normally don't even notice the watermarking until I look for it. IE it blends into the background so well my mind quickly edits it out until I conciously want to see it.

So what is the whole point of watermarks if not as a way to prevent people from copying/printing something for sale? If the watermarks are not visable unless you are looking for them, then they might as well not even have them in the product.

When watermarks and other such protective filters are properly in place. Then the product becomes very difficult to use. When just added so people have to look for them. Then it serves nothing more then additional file size and ink usage (no matter how small of additional usage). So what is the real use of them?

 

[Treebore]

They are visible, but in such small print it becomes easy to ignore them. Its not like they do big fancy borders with secret codes hidden in them for every page.

They simply have my name and the date of purchase centered in the border areas, in small/tiny print. Plus the name of the company from which I bought it.


tiny

About the size of the word "tiny" above this.

 

[Glyfair]

So what is the whole point of watermarks if not as a way to prevent people from copying/printing something for sale?

To prevent them from putting them on file sharing networks. If they do (and don't have the technical acumen or tools to remove the watermarks) and its discovered floating around, it can be tracked to the person who did it.

 

[Vigilance]

So what is the whole point of watermarks if not as a way to prevent people from copying/printing something for sale?

It's to prevent folks from putting the PDF on limewire or a bittorrent, not to prevent them from printing.

Adobe software has a security setting where the producer can lock printing.

In other words, watermarking is not an anti-printing measure, there's a seperate setting to prevent printing if someone wanted to do that.

 

[Jim Hague]

So what is the whole point of watermarks if not as a way to prevent people from copying/printing something for sale? If the watermarks are not visable unless you are looking for them, then they might as well not even have them in the product.

While my own products don't use watermarks, I agree with the folks that state they're the best current solution available, if a publisher chooses to go that route. It's a deterrent, simple as that, because, despite what some folks think, there's a booming filesharing movement, and some unscrupulous people choose to exploit that, to the publisher's detriment. As a deterrent, every watermark extant in the RPG PDF market is very, very low-key - a smallline of text at the bottom of each page. Hardly some terrible onus on your ink usage, and even less so with a laser printer.

When watermarks and other such protective filters are properly in place. Then the product becomes very difficult to use. When just added so people have to look for them. Then it serves nothing more then additional file size and ink usage (no matter how small of additional usage). So what is the real use of them?

I'm just going to call BS on this - difficult to use how, exactly? Likewise filesize and ink usage; a single line of text affects neither substantially. Your point is unsupported, I'm afraid, beyond the aesthetic argument, which I can understand. I personally don't use watermarks in the products I produce, but I can understand why it's done by others.

 

[jaerdaph]

It's also interesting to note that the programs that remove these features like watermarks and passwords are produced and distributed by the very same file sharing pirates they were designed to protect against. SECOND COMMENT DELETED.

Edit: In retrospect, I made a comment that wasn't fair, so I've deleted it.

Anyhow, I'm still not seeing any good, strong reason to be against watermarking to the point where you wouldn't buy the product. I think it is a fair compromise, and so miniscule and unnoticeable that it is unreasonable to object to its presence. Naturally, people are entitled to their own opinion to the contrary.

 

[Jim Hague]

It's also interesting to note that the programs that remove these features like watermarks and passwords are produced and distributed by the very same file sharing pirates they were designed to protect against. One has to wonder what else people who acquire them are doing on and downloading from those sites...

Is this really a question? Only in a very, very few cases are these people using the aforementioned programs to make things more convienient for them, I think...unless you consider that they're using them to make it more convenient for them to fileshare. Like a great many other items that can be acquired, there's almost no legitimate use for such things.

 

[philreed]

So what is the whole point of watermarks . . .

So that publishers that worry the files will be shared across the web will have their hands held and be assured that everything will be okay.

Watermarking means nothing and does nothing. Stripping the watermark from a PDF is simple for just about anyone that investigates the entire process.

 

[jaerdaph]

Is this really a question? Only in a very, very few cases are these people using the aforementioned programs to make things more convienient for them, I think...unless you consider that they're using them to make it more convenient for them to fileshare. Like a great many other items that can be acquired, there's almost no legitimate use for such things.

Agreed. But I am willing to extend the benefit of the doubt to members of the EN World community.