Computers > Web Design
Protecting Images on Your Website with a Watermark
What's to stop people from right clicking and saving your copyright protected images from your site ? There are several third party solutions that claim to protect images on your website but these are far from foolproof and cost money. It's my position that nothing beats old-fashioned watermark techniques to protect your images.
Right click protection using JavaScript DOES NOT work for copy protection.
Right click protection of images is not a solution for the following reasons:
1. It does not prevent users that have manually disabled JavaScript in their browsers.
2. Even if the right click function was disabled using JavaScript what's to stop someone from saving the entire page, e.g. Internet Explorer - Page > Save As (this saves all code and images)
3. This does not prevent click and drag which is the simplest method for saving images on Windows XP
4. And if those methods failed for a user, they could resort to the simple Print Screen.
The best solution is to create a watermark on all images you wish to protect.
You can use a program like Photoshop to create a template file for your desired watermark. Watermarks should provide just enough distortion to make the image unusable but with enough clarity to properly represent your images to prospective clients. Some watermakes will say things like "Sample" or "Copy Protected" so that your visitors know the purpose of this intentional distortion.
Protecting Images on Your Website
Protecting Images on Your Website with a Watermark
What's to stop people from right clicking and saving your copyright protected images from your site ? There are several third party solutions that claim to protect images on your website but these are far from foolproof and cost money. It's my position that nothing beats old-fashioned watermark techniques to protect your images.
 Example of a watermark created in Photoshop to protect medical related icons or clipart. |
Right click protection of images is not a solution for the following reasons:
1. It does not prevent users that have manually disabled JavaScript in their browsers.
2. Even if the right click function was disabled using JavaScript what's to stop someone from saving the entire page, e.g. Internet Explorer - Page > Save As (this saves all code and images)
3. This does not prevent click and drag which is the simplest method for saving images on Windows XP
4. And if those methods failed for a user, they could resort to the simple Print Screen.
The best solution is to create a watermark on all images you wish to protect.
You can use a program like Photoshop to create a template file for your desired watermark. Watermarks should provide just enough distortion to make the image unusable but with enough clarity to properly represent your images to prospective clients. Some watermakes will say things like "Sample" or "Copy Protected" so that your visitors know the purpose of this intentional distortion.