Watermark on images when downloaded

[letsgofishing]

A client (photographer) has asked me if it's possible to apply a watermark to pics on his site that show up when someone downloads them (right click - image - save as) or prints them, but NOT visible when the site is viewed in a browser. Told him I didn't hold out much hope....

I've seen on a few photo graphic sites that when you right click and image - save as is not an option. Is there a way to do this instead?
Many thanks,
LGF

[Acorn]

A client (photographer) has asked me if it's possible to apply a watermark to pics on his site that show up when someone downloads them (right click - image - save as) or prints them, but NOT visible when the site is viewed in a browser. Told him I didn't hold out much hope....

I've seen on a few photo graphic sites that when you right click and image - save as is not an option. Is there a way to do this instead?
Many thanks,
LGF

Go the opposite direction - slap a copyright watermark right across the images. Anything you do otherwise can be lifted (stolen) without attribution.
If they are of value, protect them.

Equally, a right-click can be by-passed, just press browser F12 and Sources provided all they need.

Acorn

[gwpriester]

There used to be a way to add a digital watermark that would appear in Photoshop. I think the process was called Digi-Mark. Ah, OK here's a link https://www.digimarc.com/solutions/photography

If an image appears on the web it can be tracked with digimark. Mind this is not cheap, but it is a way of tracking images used online.

A cheaper but more time consuming method is TinEye.com. Upload the image to TinEye and it scans the web and reports back on the appearance of that image and links to where the image is being used. It is free.

[handrawn]

and unfortunately the watermark will need to be a meaningful one - ie too much trouble to 'photoshop' out

tineye is not infallible - there is just too much stuff out there - but it should check the common places

[letsgofishing]

Thanks for the replies guys, but the client doesn't want any watermark on the images when viewed on his site - only if someone downloads it/prints it.
I'll let him know about Tin Eye.

[jaydear]

Google steganography (hidden data in images). It can be used to secretly and invisibly mark images with copyright info. The process is not straightforward, but very hard to detect and crack.

[handrawn]

would protect the original I guess... but would it protect a copy... ?

[jaydear]

The thing with digital data is that there is no difference between the original and a copy

[Egg Bramhill]

The thing with digital data is that there is no difference between the original and a copy

Is that true if you do a screengrab and make a copy. For example you may have raw data attached to an image, but if you screengrab it (or Arrange / Create bitmap copy in Xara) is that data retained? I don't know.

[Acorn]

A screen-grab is still the thing that will defeat even this:

CSS3 - Copyrighting an Image.xar

Acorn