Copying photos from PtoExe

[beth]

How easy is it to copy photos from a completed slide show? I'm using PtoExe to show previews of photographs to clients, so I'm hoping that it's reasonably secure. Has anyone succeeded in copying photos?

[LumenLux]

No Beth, your photos are not very secure. There are users who want the photos to be easily copied for their purposes and others who of course need to protect their work. Igor has done a nice job of accomodating both desires - BUT - it is the nature of the beast that it is quite easy, with little "research" to copy photos that were desired to be protected. Most anything that is on the screen can quite easily be copied. So the approach that some take is to try to make the photo somehow less desireable by using lower resolution or smaller pictures or watermarking etc. There is some excellent advice in the old forum messages which will probably be available soon. And maybe those who have shared their extensive experience with the issue will jump in here anyway.

[boxig]

Another small trick that sometimes help is to make the presentation at least 800x600 or Full Screen (better). But the best thing is to allow people use some of your pictures for private use after asking permission. In this case you'll get free advertisement.

[Ken Cox]

As the saying goes

locks only keep out honest people

and

when there is a will, there is a way

when Igor gets the archives up do a search for copying pictures -- this question should be one of the subtitles Igor!!!!

Charge a reasonable fee and deal with honest people -- you will save yourself lot of worry.

ken

[marian]

And, as always, from a photographic stand point of view. Imbed a transparent watermark on top of the image. Enough to prevent copying of the image.

[garrry4]

Charge a reasonable fee

"Reasonable" is in they eye of the beholder. Or checkholder as the case may be.

[garrry4]

And, as always, from a photographic stand point of view. Imbed a transparent watermark on top of the image. Enough to prevent copying of the image.

Are you talking about the DigiMark thing in Photoshop, or just an overlay with a copyright notice?

[marian]

garrry4,

We don't know what software Beth has in her computer. So, as far as putting a "watermark or transparent overlay" that would be up to her and what software, she has at her disposal.

Another thought, is to make a slideshow, with very low res images, to a point that even if they were copied somehow, they couldn't be printed out to any worth while degree!

Marian

[cici]

even imbed transparent watermark can easyly deleted and replaced with cloned parts of the picture

[marian]

CiCi,

That may be true to some extent on an image, but (for example) if you watermark a face (portrait), it will take some extensive PhotoShop, to "correctly" edit the watermark "Out" of the picture.

There is another thread started about copying images. I wish the user kept it in this thread!

Marian

[cici]

Marian,

I agree with you: some parts will be more dificult to clone.

[joedavila]

What is the lowest resolution that can be used for full screen presentation?

Thanks.

[marian]

I ran across a web site that really explains scanning. Check this page out!

http://www.scantips.com/no72dpi.html

It shows an incredible photo comparison of scanning.

You can see a photo scanned in at 7 DPI. Yes, I said 7 (SEVEN!)

That would definitely stop a customer from copying or trying to print a 7 DPI photo. (It certainly makes it hard for him!)

If someone on the board wants to do the math and give us figures, for an image for a 800x600, 1024 screen, etc, it would be appreciated!

Check it out! It may get the "brain" going!

Marian

[Guest guru]

Thanks, Marian. The page you have linked is very interesting and clear.

I hope ALL members will read this article. How many times did we read the same question on this forum (oops... in old forum!) ?

DPI are print related only, and don't affect AT ALL images on screen. Do you want a final proof? Take a little image (no more than 800 x 600), open it in Irfanview (I mention this software because I think quite all have it), and set View | Original size. Then open image | Information: you'll probably see in DPI box 150 x 150, 72 x 72, or 300 x 300.

Now in same DPI box set 10 x 10 DPI and press "Set" button, "OK". Save and exit.

If you will open again this picture and you'll look at it ("Original size" again), you'll see that image hasn't changed at all.

[beth]

Thanks to all for the great responses. Especially the article, Marian. I'll be sure to search the archives when they become available. BTW, I do have Photoshop 7...can you explain the transparent watermarked layer?

[marian]

Beth,

It would take a while to type & explain the process. Please go to

http://graphicssoft.about.com/library/uc/ucjwoods.htm which shows it exactly, step by step! (It's a downloadable Adobe PDF file.)

You can use this and/or scanning the image in at 7 DPI (or something similar) and put it in PToExe, to "secure" your images.

A lot of us "wish" that PToExe can prevent copying images, but let's help "ourselves" by doing that "extra step" and not relying on Wnsoft to "fix" the problem!

I believe that this is not an issue (my opinion) that they need to look into. They have a GREAT product for $29. How can you go wrong?

Have a great holiday!

[marian]

As an added comment to my post, I tried printing out a 7 DPI image. ( I knew what would happen!)

The image was BLOCKY, BLOCKY, BLOCKY! Only a small portion of it printed out, as it was a 56 inch file. (Try it yourself, if you want to "see" the results!)

This method, will secure your images on the slideshow slide and prevent it from being printed out!

If you are worried about the "screen capture" portion, then simply watermark the image, with YOUR LOGO and now you can sleep safely!

Have a good holiday all!

Marian

[ltdedorc]

Thanks, Marian, for the "scantips" link. Will incorporate this to all my Canon G2 based slide shows in either 1024 x 768 or 800 x 600 @ 10 dpi. I just did a small batch conversion and it went like a charm. Compared similar sizes in PS and there was no difference in the screen quality. Mahalo (just got back from Hawaii)...Harvey

[Truelight]

You can change your images to 7 dpi if you like, but it will not make a difference if the viewer uses a screen capture to snatch your image. I tried a little experiment where I took the same image, sized it as a 10 dpi image and again as a 300 dpi image and placed the two as slides in a PTE show. Simply hitting <Print Screen> on the keyboard which grabs the image into the buffer (or using PSP which then works around the disable Print Screen option of PTE) grabs a screen resolution image. Both slides then are the same.

Unless there is a way perhaps that Igor can "block the buffer" from all screen capture programs, I think putting watermarks on your images is about the only way (and of course that hurts the aesthetic qualities of the image). I'd like to think changing the dpi setting of your images will work, but my experiments show it will not. I welcome anyone who can show me where my experiment has a flaw.

[marian]

Truelight,

Go back to that SCANTIPS link (see above) and look at the actual print sizes of those 3 images:

For quick reference, from the site:

@ 7 dpi, prints a 58 x 46 inch picture

@ 72 dpi, prints a 5.7 x 4.5 inch picture

@ 720 dpi, prints a 0.57 x 0.45 inch picture

The low dpi scan will create a very huge picture size. How can you print out a 58x46 inch picture on a desktop printer? (It prints BLOCKY and only a portion of it.) The low dpi scan WILL "hinder" someone in trying to print one of the images, after he makes a screen capture.

Again, a watermark will frustrate the user from trying to edit the image to some reasonable degree. Each one of us, will have to decide at "what degree" a watermark/transparent gif is "effective" on a picture.

It would be tough for Igor to "code in" a buffer blocker when there are several dozen programs on the market to do screen captures. He's only charging $29 for the program and I (my opinion) think it's great for the low price.

No one thinks your "experiment has a flaw!"

We are all in the "same boat" and are trying to figure a "workaround" for 2 things. Screen capture and printing the image out.

I, as a photographer am concerned with both. I believe the methods mentioned above will suffice.

If there's other ways to do this, then I hope that other members can help. We "all" would like to do this without buying additional software and/or use what we have available in the computer now.

Thanks for your time!

Marian

[HaroldB]

The low dpi scan will create a very huge picture size. How can you print out a 58x46 inch picture on a desktop printer?  (It prints BLOCKY and only a portion of it.)  The low dpi scan WILL "hinder" someone in trying to print one of the images, after he makes a screen capture.

Marian,

Can't anybody who wants the 7dpi picture printed just go into Photoshop or PSP, resize it, and then print it?

Harold

[marian]

Harold!

Sure can!

BUT , you will HANG YOUR MACHINE while Photoshop or some other program is trying!! Try it yourself and try to "upscale" the 7 DPI image from that website. (I had to reboot my machine!) Program stopped responding!

We are refering to the the "normal end user" who probably will NOT go through all the trouble to "extract" an image!

[nobeefstu]

You may always be able to resize a image and do lots of other filtering enhancements ... but you can never increase the quality of a image beyond its original image information.

This means when you PRINT PICTURE from a embedded PTE SLIDE of a 7dpi image ... its image information will still be @7dpi.

If the image was originally created at 72dpi ... then your PRINT PICTURE will be @72dpi.

[marian]

nobeefstu

Correct!

But make 2 copies of the orginal images for yourself. The original scan at whatever resolution you need for YOUR output. Then make another very low res scan for Pix2Exe.

The customer can try to "play around" with a "stolen image", but in the end, it will not do them any good! They can do all the "manipulating" that they can try, but it will do them no good at all!

They need to go to YOU for the original order!

[Guest guru]

All right, Stu, but if they CAPTURE the screen picture (with Irfanview, e.g.) they'll have a 72 dpi picture...