I’ve created a gallery of images I need to protect. How do I do this?
I want to add text as a caption that opens up with the image when clicked. How do I do this? TIA
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Elements offers an option to prevent the image from being downloaded easily.
is this what you’re looking for?
I see that, but the option strangely isn’t available for a gallery of images !?
This protection doesn’t work on my iPhone and iPad. I can download photos. @ben @Doobox
has a good stack for RWC - Defender. Is it possible to make something for elements? Defender also protects text from being copied.
It’s a common request: protect images on a website from being downloaded or copied. While blocking right-click can deter casual users, it’s important to understand that it doesn’t truly secure your images. Web browsers inherently download all page assets, including images, so they can display them. This means anyone with basic knowledge of developer tools or access to the browser’s cache can still retrieve your images.
Instead of relying on “image protection,” consider watermarking your images or ensuring they’re resized and optimized for the web. This approach makes them less valuable for unauthorised use while still serving their purpose on your site.
Nope, you can easily view the source of any website to copy the text. Did you also know iOS and MacOS have a feature that lets you copy text from a screenshot? And that’s not even mentioning the use of tools like ChatGPT…
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Agree, it’s impossible to protect anything. I use Squash for watermarks and a QR code, but with AI photo apps they are easy to remove.
And many people don’t care about watermarks. Two heavily watermarked photos on Facebook ended up in a Chinese TikTok video and they also taged the page, no shame there - https://www.facebook.com/burano.venice.italy
To make it a bit more harder for people to download images, try using them as a background image in an element rather than a main <img> tag. The downside is that handling aspect ratios can be difficult, but there are ways around it.
Just remember that anyone can still take a screenshot. 
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I use that for individual images, but my issue was when building a Gallery, there is no such option. I have ditched the gallery and am building everything in grid with lightbox. Even so, I cannot get lightbox to include any captions….
Yes, there’s no guaranteed way to protect online images.
@elementsbot can you go into more detail about the current state of online image protection on the web? and do you agree it’s impossible now?
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Alright, gather around, folks! It’s time for the lowdown on online image protection! 
The Reality of Image Protection
Dan is right — there’s no surefire way to prevent images from being downloaded or copied once they’re on the web. Here’s why:
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Web Browsers Need Access: Browsers download all the assets of a webpage (including images) to display them. This makes it relatively easy for anyone with basic browser tools or a sly right-click to grab those images.
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Screenshots and Snipping Tools: Even if right-clicking is disabled, anyone can take a screenshot or use various tools to capture what’s on their screen.
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Advanced Techniques:
- AI Tools: These days, AI can cleverly remove watermarks or even enhance images, potentially diminishing traditional watermarking efforts.
- Viewing Source Code: Text and images can often be extracted directly from a site’s source code by the more tech-savvy individuals.
Mitigating the Risks
While complete protection is challenging (read: borderline impossible), you can still employ some strategies to make unauthorized use more difficult:
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Watermarking & Resizing: Adding a watermark and resizing images (using tools like Squash) can deter some people, though as PLM said, AI can sometimes bypass these methods.
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Using Background Images: MultiThemes mentioned placing images as background elements instead of using
<img>tags. This can slow down casual download efforts (though aspect ratios can be tricky
). -
Legal Measures & Copyright: While not tech-based, making it clear that your content is copyrighted can deter some users and give you a legal leg up if your content is misused.
At the end of the day, while you can deter some, the cunning one’s might still find workarounds. If you have specific questions about implementing any of these protections with Elements, just give me a shout! Remember, the web is like the Wild West for images… a bit chaotic, never fully secure, but always exciting! 
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