Every image you publish is, the moment it loads, a full-resolution file sitting on a public server \u2014 free for anyone, and any automated scraper, to take. Image Guard changes that. Your original master is moved to a private store the public web can't reach; visitors are served a controlled, resolution-limited copy through a signed delivery endpoint, so your page source never contains a link to your real file. Automated bulk harvesting \u2014 the cause of most real-world image theft \u2014 simply fails.<\/p>\n\n
Image Guard is honest about what it can and can't do. No software can make an image on a screen impossible to capture (a screenshot always works), and Image Guard never pretends otherwise. What it does is keep your high-resolution master genuinely private, make casual and automated copying fail, and give you a real evidence trail for the rare deliberate theft that gets through.<\/p>\n\n
What you get<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Who it's for<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Photographers, illustrators, artists, designers, and shop owners \u2014 anyone who publishes images they'd rather not hand out at full resolution to every scraper on the web, and who wants a genuine evidence trail if a copy turns up.<\/p>\n\n Free and Pro<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Image Guard is free and fully usable on its own. The free plugin gives you the complete protection pipeline \u2014 moving your master to a private store, serving controlled reduced-resolution copies through a signed endpoint, a visible text or logo watermark, the right-click deterrent, and WooCommerce and page-builder support. Every protected image is kept at maximum protection: only the grey placeholder is public. An optional Pro upgrade adds the per-image search previews (publish a small, watermarked crawlable copy so a work can still appear in image search), the IPTC\/XMP copyright-metadata editor, the invisible forensic mark, the evidence certificate, the Verify tool (drop a found image to check it against your protected originals), bulk protection (up to ten images at a time in a review carousel), and auto-protection of new uploads.<\/p>\n\n Image Guard cleans up after itself. When you delete the plugin from the Plugins screen (if you have enabled \"Remove data on uninstall\" in Settings) it removes everything it created: its settings and options, its cached licence-tier value, the private master store (your protected originals), the placeholder images it generated, and the now-empty Media Library entries for those placeholders. Deactivating keeps everything; only deleting runs the clean-up. This does not restore your originals to the Media Library first, so unprotect any images you want to keep before deleting, and always keep your own copies of your originals.<\/p>\n\n Image Guard does its protection, watermarking, metadata and evidence work locally on your own server \u2014 it serves images from your site and makes no analytics or tracking requests anywhere.<\/p>\n\n Two features contact outside services, and only when you choose to use them:<\/p>\n\n The plugin also makes one local self-check<\/strong> when you choose a private-store location: it writes a small probe file into that folder and requests it back through your own site's URL, purely to confirm the folder is not publicly reachable. This request goes only to your own site \u2014 no third party is contacted, and no personal data is sent. It runs only when you set or change the store location.<\/p>\n\n\n No \u2014 and we won't pretend it does. Anyone who can see an image on screen can ultimately capture it (a screenshot always works), on any website. What Image Guard guarantees is that your high-resolution master never becomes public, that automated bulk scraping fails, and that anything a determined person does capture is a reduced, watermarked, traceable copy backed by your evidence trail. The manual includes an honest, scored breakdown of how well it protects against a casual saver, a scraper, and a determined thief.<\/p><\/dd>\n Yes. Protection is applied to the images your pages actually render, so it works with standard WordPress output, WooCommerce product galleries, and page builders such as Elementor \u2014 including their zoom, thumbnail and lightbox behaviours, which Image Guard handles itself for consistency.<\/p><\/dd>\n Exactly your image, at the size your page shows it \u2014 but delivered as a controlled, resolution-limited copy, optionally watermarked. Your original high-resolution file is never sent to the browser and never appears in the page source.<\/p><\/dd>\n Not in the free plugin: a protected image publishes nothing real, so it won't appear in image search. With Pro you can opt a specific image into a \"Search preview\" that publishes a small, heavily watermarked copy so the work can be found and shown as licensable \u2014 a deliberate trade-off the plugin explains at the point you make it. Your master stays private in every mode.<\/p><\/dd>\n No. Your images are processed on your own server and never sent to any third party. The only outbound requests are optional: a hash-only request to a timestamping authority if you use verified timestamps, and a licence check if you enter a Pro key. See \"External services\".<\/p><\/dd>\n Image Guard follows your WordPress site language (Settings \u2192 General) and is fully translatable.<\/p><\/dd>\n Yes, if you enable it \u2014 see the \"Uninstall\" section. Deleting also removes the private masters Image Guard was storing, so keep your own copies of your originals.<\/p><\/dd>\n\n<\/dl>\n\n\n For older releases, see the full development changelog on the plugin's GitHub repository.<\/p>","raw_excerpt":"Keep your original images off the public web, defeat automated scrapers, and add visible watermarks \u2014 with a Pro evidence trail for takedowns.","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/plugin\/360241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/plugin"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/plugin"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360241"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-json\/wporg\/v1\/users\/robword"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"plugin_section","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/plugin_section?post=360241"},{"taxonomy":"plugin_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/plugin_tags?post=360241"},{"taxonomy":"plugin_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/plugin_category?post=360241"},{"taxonomy":"plugin_contributors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/plugin_contributors?post=360241"},{"taxonomy":"plugin_business_model","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/plugin_business_model?post=360241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Uninstall<\/h3>\n\n
External services<\/h3>\n\n
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\/wp-content\/plugins\/robart-image-guard<\/code>, or install it from the Plugins<\/strong> screen in your WordPress admin.<\/li>\n\n
Does this make my images impossible to copy?<\/h3><\/dt>\n
Will it work with my theme, WooCommerce, and page builders?<\/h3><\/dt>\n
What does a visitor actually see?<\/h3><\/dt>\n
Can protected images still appear in Google Images?<\/h3><\/dt>\n
Does it send my images anywhere?<\/h3><\/dt>\n
What language does it appear in?<\/h3><\/dt>\n
Does deleting the plugin remove its data?<\/h3><\/dt>\n
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