Why are you seeing watermarked images?

First and foremost -- I am sorry for the confusion and inconvenience.

If you are seeing and downloading images with the logo across them, while visiting WPClipart, then your browser is not sending referer information. (Which in this case is simply what page URL is requesting to show the image.)

watermarked image
How to get the original images.

How to fix depends upon WHY your browser is not sending referer information. The solutions are listed below (most common first):

WHY use watermarks at all?

Nothing personal, really!

WPClipart server checks what page asks for the image, and if it is NOT a page on WPClipart site, then the watermarked image is shown.

The problem with un-watermarked images has come about due to changes in how image search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, etc.) show full-size images without visitors ever having to visit the sites that host those images. So I pay for the server, host the images, and no one visits the site... no ads show, no revenue...

Google in particular, starting late January of 2013, not only serves the full-sized images directly from their image search (bypassing the hosting site) -- but when a visitor is logged into Google mail, Google plus or whatever Google-de-jure thing they have going -- then the image search pulls in the image without even sending a referer.
Hence the problem some visitors have when they visit my site.
I can't send the watermarked images just to Google-direct searches, because they are effectively HIDING where they come from. The only way to watermark them is to also watermark any blank referer.

And so this inconveniences some of my visitors, especially those behind school/corporate proxies. Subsequently, it punishes me, becaue I lose plenty of visitors. But if I do not watermark, I loose even more. As of July of 2013, I had lost OVER 75% of my daily visitors since late January.

Alexa traffic stats:

watermarked image

So that's why... <end (my) rant>


Some related links:

How Google is killing image sites:
at Define Media Group


Hotlionking/theft discussion:
at SeoBloggertricks


Discussion of new Google image search at Webmasterworld


Hotlinking Protection from Google
at Pixabay

Along with a follow-up concerning problems with watermarking,
also at Pixabay

Funding

Help support WPClipart!

This site makes money with advertising, but not the kind of money to pay my monthly bills. I do PC repair and I take on as much work as I need (and can get, usually) to make ends meet. The more I make from the site, the more time I can devote to the site -- both with my time creating and editing, as well as how well I run/maintiain the server. I rent a dedicated server with auto-backups, pay for a remote DNS service and created customized software I compiled right on the server specifically tailored to the website. It's built for speed. This is an image-serving site that manages to be faster than about 85% of the web.

The images are vetted for public domain status more rigourously than any user-submitted site, I tweak/improve clips I don't create myself, especially conscious of printability. The images will always be OK for your kids to view. And if you have a question or problem -- you can email me, and I will usually be helpful :-)

That's what I offer, and my dream is to work on the site full time. So if you'd like to donate a couple bucks through PayPal, much appreciated!