Thread: Cheap way to help protect your images.

1. Create a text box & delete all the text.
2. Place 1 full stop in the text box & colour the full stop to the background of the image or page.
3. Hit the return key a few times to open the text box to the size you want & pull the blue tags to widen the box to the size of your image.
4. Place over the top of the image.
5. Now Publish.

NOTE: Do not do this if you have a link in the image. It will stop the link working.
This certainly isn’t any way full proof, but will make it just a little harder for some.

Chris,
I believe that also stops the alt tag - but am not sure - can you let us know that? Cuz you really need the images to all have alt tags.

You can also put a slightly larger "clear" .gif over the image. Give the image an Alt tag and give the .gif the same Alt Tag.
You can use the clear .gif for a link
That does not stop a screen capture, however.

A transparent rectangle can be used for the same purpose. I'm afraid that all of these will stop the Alt Text. and NONE will prevent from either Printscreen or view the source and download the image directly.

You can assign an Alt Tag to a transparent .gif

Yes, true, to a transparent rectangle also. But i think we are making our work harder with no practical effect. I beleive that whoever wants to steal a picture, also has the knowledge to printscreen or view the source code. The only practiacl way to protect your pictures, is to watermark them, if they are of some value.

Thanks, Naval, I totally agree.

about the transparent idea... i ran with it and I came up with an interesting result.

I placed an image(800x600) with it's center (aprox. 440x370) transparent.
--this image made in photoshop: simply made the image a layer instead of background, and cleared away the center and saved as .gif

Behind the image's transparent area, i put an IFRAME named frame2 with it's url set to another page which ALSO includes an IFRAME named frame1..its url set to......

***the source url for the content displayed in this frame is hidden from source code when viewing, but can easily be obtained by navigating to the source url of IFRAME(frame2) which is part of te main page by typing it into the addressbar***
I wanna try to eliminate this with some php or something.

Anyways, I set up some content I was also using to test out some bookmark linking on a page(the url that frame1 is set to). this page is much larger than frame2 and frame 1's dimensions. I disabled all scrollbars and borders.

Now, when you first load the main page, with the transparent area and the IFRAME behind it, the IFRAME loads it's IFRAME(with the content or pics you want to see). You can't immediately see the source of this content, nor can you right-click or save "picture as" because the "frontground" image is in the way.

The weird thing though is how you I was able to scroll that content(maybe someone can clue me in as I was unaware of any default behaviors in this manner)...

here is the page I came up with:

http://www.graphxntrix.com/test/content.html

I would love some feedback and possibly any direction to the right forum or threads to discuss applying php to this idea.

thanks

The DezynerDude

Forgive me but i don't understand all the above. A person that wants to steal your pictures, is NOT am amauter. He can view source code, he can go backwards inside the frames, he - the moste simple - can just capture the picture from the screen.

As for php: i use pictures stored in a database, and create pages dynamically for my clients. The images are retreived directly from the database, so there is no image file to be downloaded. I can even watermark the image dynamically (i don't watermark the image, i just place the watermark OVER the image dynamically using php. Well, NONE of these has any effect (watermark apart) simply because there are so many ways to copy the image directly from the screen.

And, ofcourse, using a double layer inclusion like the one posted in the "Single Menu page with BV and PHP" you can (maybe) even hide the source code of the included page. But what's the use if they can still simply caprure the picture from the screen ?

If you don't want your (valuable) pics to be stolen, don't place them on the internet.

I have heard of 'right click protecting' your images. Is this viable and easy to do?

Yes, easy with one of the many scripts you can find on the net. I find disabling rig***lick is annoying, and will NOT protect you. It would be enough to disable javascript on the browser to disable also the non rig***lick script. And, as already said, NOTHING can prevent capturing the images directly from the screen.

Thanks Naval!
Imbedded watermarks it is!

Dori,
Just so you know - a professional can even remove watermarks - but it's still the best way to go if you really want to protect the images - and, unfortunately, if you want them harder to be removed - the watermark needs to be over a core part of the image. Which means it takes away from the image itself for all viewers.

Now, if you really need to do something to protect the images, I agree a watermark is the best way to go - but I'm of the school that says if you really don't want it stolen - keep it completely, 100% off the internet. Do not email it to a friend; do not put it on a website, etc.

Originally Posted by Robert

about the transparent idea... i ran with it and I came up with an interesting result.

I placed an image(800x600) with it's center (aprox. 440x370) transparent.
--this image made in photoshop: simply made the image a layer instead of background, and cleared away the center and saved as .gif

Behind the image's transparent area, i put an IFRAME named frame2 with it's url set to another page which ALSO includes an IFRAME named frame1..its url set to......

***the source url for the content displayed in this frame is hidden from source code when viewing, but can easily be obtained by navigating to the source url of IFRAME(frame2) which is part of te main page by typing it into the addressbar***
I wanna try to eliminate this with some php or something.

Anyways, I set up some content I was also using to test out some bookmark linking on a page(the url that frame1 is set to). this page is much larger than frame2 and frame 1's dimensions. I disabled all scrollbars and borders.

Now, when you first load the main page, with the transparent area and the IFRAME behind it, the IFRAME loads it's IFRAME(with the content or pics you want to see). You can't immediately see the source of this content, nor can you right-click or save "picture as" because the "frontground" image is in the way.

The weird thing though is how you I was able to scroll that content(maybe someone can clue me in as I was unaware of any default behaviors in this manner)...

here is the page I came up with:

http://www.graphxntrix.com/test/content.html

I would love some feedback and possibly any direction to the right forum or threads to discuss applying php to this idea.

thanks

The DezynerDude

Prezzy for you!

http://www.graphxntrix.com/test/gui-temp2.html