Prevent Images From Being Copied

[Cleo]

Hi everyone,

I'm building my first website which sells individual art designs (downloadable)so my site has a LOT of images that I don't want visitors to copy/steal. Although I've "disabled right click" on the product's thumbnail pic and order page, I can't figure out how to prevent the pics from printing when someone uses their browser's print function. I know that it can be done because when I visited sites selling similar products, not only was I not able to "right click", but when I used my browser print function, the page printed with all the text but NO images??

Does anyone know how this is done?

Thanks in advance for your response.

:confused: Cleo

[Aronya1]

Hi Cleo,
Welcome to the forums. You won't find many fans of the disabled right-click here. Mostly because it really doesn't work. If the user can view your image, it is already on their computer & can be printed at will. Your best bet is to use lower quality images on the site, or add some text across the image (ie, "Sample Image"). You also want to be sure to put up a legal notice that all images are copyrighted to you, etc.

Someone else may have other suggestions.

[gianna]

Aronya1 is right. no-right-clicking scripts aren't very effective. It's easy enough to view the source and find where the image is being called from, type that path into your browser and be able to save the image that way.

Are you familiar with CSS and stylesheets? CSS allows you to specify a unique stylesheet that is only applied when a web page is printed out. That way, you can show your images when the page is displayed on a monitor, but if someone tries to print it out you can specify "display: none;". This article (http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/articles/webrev/200001.html) explains it better.

Another idea is DigiMarc (http://www.digimarc.com/products/mypicturemarc/default.asp). They offer a subscription service for $49/year that lets you digitally watermark your images. I used them a long time ago; if memory serves, depending on the strength of the imprint you apply, it will be "visible" even if someone prints your images out and then scans them back in. But just because they're copyrighted doesn't mean that your thief will respect that - but it might give you better legal standing.

Good luck,
-g

[The Cheat]

If you had searched (http://www.webdeveloper.com/forum/search.php?s=) the forums you would have found loads of topics on this subject in a matter of seconds.

Please remember to search the boards before asking a question.

Thanks.

[Cleo]

Gianna - Tks so much. Your reply was the info I was looking for.

The cheat - Tks for your feedback. I did use "search" prior to posting, but couldn't find anything on "how to prevent an image from being printed when someone uses the browser print function". Maybe I wasn't using the right search words/phrases??

To All Repondents - Tks for taking the time to respond.

:) Cleo