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Special 10% Discount!

Digital Essentials at special price of $27.00 to anywhere in the continental US!! (excluding media rate shipping)

For those living outside of the US, please click here. (please be sure to note the 10% discount in the comment box, and I will deduct the 10% from the fee on your PayPal invoice)

Free Chapter!

Image Protection — Can it Be Done?
How can I protect my images to prevent someone from downloading them from my Web site?

In short, you can't. There is nothing you can do to absolutely protect against internet image theft. Once something is published on a Web site, it is fair game. If someone really wants an image, they will find a way to get it. But I'll suggest some ways to protect your images.

Click here to display or download a PDF of the complete Image Protection chapter.

Preparing Digital Entries

In the Quilters Newsletter November 2008 issue, I exlain how to use Adobe Photoshop Elements or Adobe Photoshop to get digital photos of your quilts ready to submit to quilt shows. In this PDF article, which is a web extra, I explain how to prepare digital entries with Corel Paint Shop Pro. Click here to display or download a PDF of the Preparing Digital Entries article from Quilter's Newsletter Magazine.

Question from participant:

What about color? I am trying to sell hand dyed fabrics. My potential customers are worried that the colors won't be the same when they receive the fabric. I was thinking of adding a swatch of white to each photo?

Answer:

It won't hurt, and it may give a point of reference knowing that the swatch should read white. Thus if the white fabric reads darker than it should, chance are the hand-dyed fabric would also be darker.

The main question is can you match what your customer sees on his/her monitor to the actual fabric they receive. The answer is you generally cannot guarantee what your customer sees. Why? There are several factors that are outside of your control. They include:

how the person's monitor is calibrated (if it's even calibrated);
what the age of the monitor is;
where the person views the monitor -- is it in direct sunlight? shade? a room with brightly colored wall? and so on;
is there is a busy, colorful background pattern surrounding the displayed website;
even the person's vision and color perception will come into play.

To alert your customers, consider including a statement on your fabric page that the color being displayed may vary from the actual color of the fabric. If color is critical, the person should contact you for more information. Something like ..

"I have made every effort to photographically represent that fabric as best as possible. However, because of the wide variations in monitor quality and color settings, I cannot guarantee that what you see on your monitor will exactly match the actual fabric color. If color is critical and you have any questions about the fabric, please contact me and I will be happy to help."

Trial versions of software:

Free trial version of Corel's Paint Shop Pro. This is a PC-only program. The program sells for under $100 and offers an excellent array of tools for photo-editing.
Free trial of Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 for the Mac
This program sells for under a $100 and is often considered a baby Photoshop. However, most users will not need anything more than Elements.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 for the PC
There will be a new version of Elements released for the PC within the coming months. As a result, there curerntly is not a free trial but rather a "notify me" button when the program is available. This program will also sell for under $100.
Adobe Photoshop CS4
PC and Mac trials are available.