Protecting your art online, and what no platform can do

Start from what is true

Anything displayed on a screen can be captured. That is not a flaw in a particular website; it is how screens work. Any platform promising to prevent copying is either misunderstanding the problem or hoping you will not ask.

What is achievable is different and still worth having: make a stolen copy less useful, make theft provable, and make your objection a matter of record.

Resolution is the defence that works

A thief can only use what they can take. A preview large enough to browse but too small to print is genuinely protective, because the file they end up with cannot be sold as a print.

This is why good platforms show small previews and keep the original private. The press needs the full file; a browser does not.

Watermarks help less than people think

A visible watermark deters casual reuse and marks provenance to a human eye. It does not stop anybody who is trying, because software removes overlays like it convincingly and cheaply.

Treat a watermark as a signature rather than a lock.

Cloaking tools and their limits

Tools that add imperceptible noise to confuse AI training were a promising idea, and published research has since shown how to defeat the best-known ones. They are worth understanding but not worth relying on.

What actually helps

Keep your source files and note when each piece was made. Register or archive work you particularly care about. Choose platforms that ask AI crawlers to stay away from artist pages and that keep a fingerprint of your uploads.

A fingerprint survives cropping, rescaling and recompression, which is what makes it useful months later when you find a copy and need to show it is yours.

• Keep layered originals
• Note the date each piece was made
• Prefer platforms that keep originals private
• Record where you have published each piece

Decide what you are willing to risk

This is the honest framing. Work you would be devastated to see copied should probably not be published at full resolution anywhere, by anybody. Work you want seen has to be seen.

Most artists settle somewhere sensible: publish freely, keep the originals private, and accept that visibility carries risk because invisibility carries certainty.

Keep a record of where you published what

If you ever need to show a piece is yours, the useful evidence is boring: the source file, when you made it, and where you first posted it. A short list maintained as you go is worth more than a search through old accounts under pressure.

It also helps you notice a copy. Knowing where your work legitimately appears makes an illegitimate appearance obvious.

How to start

Everything runs through one place. Artists sign in at the artist studio, upload work, choose which products each piece suits, and see what they have earned. Customers browse the artwork, pick a design, and choose what to put it on.

Nothing about it is exclusive. You can sell the same work elsewhere at the same time, and there is no listing fee and no minimum.

• Apply with three pieces so we can see how you work
• Choose which products each design belongs on
• Get paid by bank transfer on what sells

Common questions