Watermarking offers users an option for high-end security protection on your video, images, PDF, and MS Office assets. When this feature is enabled and the user views or downloads the asset, Frame.io completes a real-time and on-demand transcode with personal identifying information onto each frame.
We offer two versions of Watermarking: Static Watermark is available to all Enterprise, Team, and Pro plans as part of the standard plan package and Session-based Watermark is available to Enterprise customers as an add-on purchase. With Session-based Watermark, display the viewer's name, email, IP address, date, and more to ensure your content is traceable back to the original viewer.
Note: Contact your Account Manager for more information on Session-based Watermark if you're interested in using this feature.
Session-Based Watermark
Session-based Watermarking is supported for Enterprise Prime accounts only. Reach out to your Sales or Customer Success rep if you're interested in utilizing this feature.
Editing your Watermark Template
While we offer standard templates, you have the option to create unlimited watermarks for sharing and internal playback.
To customize, select Add Template from the edit screen to open the template editor. Drag and drop the text fields anywhere on the frame and stylize it with text size, color, opacity, rotation, and more. Click Create to save your custom template. Account Owner and Content Admins are the only user types who can create templates.
Applying Watermark
There are controls for watermarking found in account settings, Workspace settings, and Share settings. The order of priority will first be the account level, followed by Workspace level and then Share level. Overrides can only be performed by Owner and Content Admin roles.
Content Security
Apply a watermark to assets for Internal Assets and Downloads or on Shares. The first option applies to all assets viewed within your Workspace, while the second option applies to all assets viewed in a Share link. For both settings, you can set a default watermark template to appear on assets from this account. There will also be an additional role assignment option for each of these settings.
When Internal Assets and Downloads is enabled, select Roles that Watermarking applies to and choose the role(s) that Watermarking will affect playback for internally, or select Everyone to cover all users in your account. Multiple roles will be displayed if more than one role are selected. All member roles excluding Admins and Owners (listed as Multiple roles) is the default setting.
When Shares is enabled, select Roles that can disable Watermarking within Share settings and choose the role(s) that will be able to turn off Watermarking externally, or select Everyone to cover all users who can share in your account. Multiple roles will be displayed if more than one role are selected. Admins and Owners is the default setting.
Note: If your role is Owner, Content Admin, or Full Access Member, your permissions will override the internal assets setting. This means you won't see the watermark on any asset viewed nor on any downloads internally. It will only be applied to members below Full Access.
Workspace
The same settings can be applied directly to a Workspace within the Workspace settings, including the role assignments for each option. Click the three-dot menu for a Workspace and apply the watermark settings to just that individual Workspace, then click Save.
Watermark settings can be overridden by the Owner or Admin of a Workspace when the Watermark setting here is toggled off. This will show an expanded menu for Require on Internal Assets and Require on Shares options to be toggled on or off and to what template they want to use just for this Workspace.
The status of watermarking in your Workspace can be seen and also adjusted within the Workspaces page in your Account Settings.
Shares
To apply watermarking to your Shares, make sure to enable it in your Security section of your Share creation. You can choose the template of your choice from here as well.
Users who have the ability to edit an external Share can optionally apply a watermark to it. However, if Require on Shares Playback & Downloads is enabled in Content Security settings by an Owner or Content Admin, the Share will be required to use a watermark.
Note: Regardless of what role you have internally, asset playback and downloading will follow the external Share’s watermarking settings. Meaning if you are an Owner, Admin, or Full Access Member and the Share settings enforce watermark to be seen by all users, they will be enforced as well.
Static Watermark
Static Watermarking is supported for Enterprise Select and Prime accounts only. Reach out to your Sales or Customer Success rep if you're interested in utilizing this feature.
Static Watermark is available to all Enterprise, Team, and Pro plans as part of the standard plan package. While the layout looks similar to Session-based Watermark features, Static Watermark is a much more limited feature experience. The features available to all Static Watermark users are:
One custom text block
Adjust position
Opacity slider
Rotation slider
Size
Color
Scroll
Shadow
Unlimited templates will be available for Enterprise plans, while Team and Pro plans will only have one template available at a time. This template can be swapped in and out as many times as needed, but only a single template can be active at a time in these plans. Templates can still be applied and saved to the Account, Workspace, or Share level and Static can still be overridden by any users who have share abilities.
All other watermark features are add-ons that are apart of the Session-based Watermark functionality. If you have any interest in any of the add-on features that are not available on Static Watermark, reach out to your Account Manager for more information.
FAQ
Q: How come I made templates with name and email text fields, but it isn’t populating in my share?
A: If a user is logged in while viewing a Public or Secure Share, they will see their name and email if those fields are enabled on the watermark template. If a user is not logged in while viewing a Public Share, they will instead see the Share name and Share creator in place of name and email when enabled on a watermark template.
Q: Will the layered text be burned into the downloaded video as well?
A: Watermarking will be burned into the video stream. You will not have the option to download a clean copy of this content if it is enabled unless you are an Owner, Content Admin or Full Access Member.
Q: Will my templates from Legacy (V3) work in V4?
A: Yes. All existing session-based templates will move over from Legacy to V4.
Q: Will my templates from Session-based work in Static if I downgrade?
A: Yes, if you decide to downgrade from Session-based to Static, all Session-based templates (including all add-on features that are blocked on Static) will port over exactly as they are for use in your Static templates.
Q: Can role(s) be customized for who can or cannot see watermarks?
A: No. There are not adjustable permissions at this time, but since they are broader than in Legacy, we recommend selecting the permission level that fits your user best.
Q: Is there security to my assets outside of the player page with watermarking?
A: Yes. All scrub assets will have protection applied for enhanced security via obfuscation. This includes hover scrub in asset grid, timeline thumbnail scrub on videos, proxy seen in viewer when scrubbing, and thumbnails in print comments. Only newly uploaded assets will have this protection.
Q: Will Members be able to adjust watermark off if enabled?
A: No. If watermark is ever enforced by a Owner or Content admin role, the Member will not be able to disable the override.