For magazine readers who find those little black-and-white pixelated boxes, called QR codes, annoying or just unsightly, a new visual cue is on the way.

For its February issue, House Beautiful has placed digital watermarks on its ads for Glidden paint. Instead of using the black-and-white quick-response code, the ads will feature an orange circle with an image of a mobile phone inside. House Beautiful had begun using the watermark technology, provided by a company called Digimarc, on its editorial pages last summer, and for the first time has expanded the codes to its ad pages.

The ads are also the first time the Glidden brand, owned by AkzoNobel, has used the Digimarc icons.

“In a design magazine, you don’t want a QR code on the page, because it absolutely takes away from the photography,” said Kate Kelly Smith, the publishing director for House Beautiful, which is owned by Hearst. Users who download the Digimarc Discover app to their iPhone or Android mobile phones will be able to scan entire pages of content and ads in the February issue.

Glidden will redirect readers to a Web site called My Colortopia, where they can learn about how to choose and combine paint colors. House Beautiful readers who scan editorial content, identified by smaller blue icons instead of orange ones, will be redirected to videos about the content, with Glidden ads at the beginning and end.

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