Netflix-grade protection, in your store.
On iPhone, iPad, Android and Mac, and on Windows with Chrome or Edge, the enlarged proof is offered through the same protected circuit as streaming films. On iPhone, iPad, Android and Mac, and on Windows with Chrome, we verified that a screenshot keeps only a black rectangle, and on iPhone a screen recording too. The protection is on for every MaplePhoto store, and it keeps the watermark already drawn into your previews: keep one on, it remains essential.
- ✓ Black screenshot verified on iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac and Windows
- ✓ Nothing for parents to install
- ✓ Works with your watermark
Emma T. · 2A
- 1Your watermark, still in the image
- 2The streaming platforms’ circuit
- 3Screenshot, recording: a black rectangle
Published October 16, 2026 · 7 min read
1The protection streaming films use, in your store
No web page can prevent a screenshot. Devices, however, know how to protect a film: that is the circuit we serve the enlarged proof through. Offered on iPhone, iPad, Android and Mac, and on Windows with Chrome or Edge, with the black screenshot verified on iPhone, iPad, Android and Mac, and on Windows with Chrome, and screen-recording protection verified on iPhone; on for every MaplePhoto store.
The principle is used by major streaming platforms (Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+): on supported devices, protected playback can keep the film’s video out of a screen recording. We do the same with your proofs. When a parent enlarges an eligible photo in your store on a supported device and protected playback is available, the preview is displayed through that circuit as an encrypted video showing one still image, with any watermark already drawn into it. On screen, the photo shows normally, sharp. In our tests on iPhone, a screenshot or a screen recording, zoomed in or full screen, kept only a black rectangle in place of the photo; on iPad, Android and Mac, and on Windows with Chrome, a screenshot did too.
For the parent, nothing changes: nothing to install, no app, no permission to grant. The blurred thumbnail shows first, then the protected photo takes its place as soon as it plays. The protected image is made from the preview, never the original; when an eligible preview changes (a new watermark, for example), its protected copy is made again in the background, while the store is open. When protected playback is unavailable or fails, the parent receives the ordinary preview, capped at 1200 px, with any watermark or grid already drawn into it.
iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac and Windows
The content protection built into the device, the one streaming films use. On iPhone, we verified that a screenshot, a screen recording, zoom and full screen keep only a black rectangle; on iPad, on Android and on a Mac (Safari, Chrome or Edge), a screenshot. On Windows, protected playback is offered with Chrome or Edge; we verified black screenshots with Chrome.
The limits
A second phone can photograph the screen. Thumbnails, the gallery grid and the preview of a photo placed on a background stay ordinary images. Other browsers on a computer receive the ordinary preview, with any watermark or grid already drawn into it. On Windows, some browser settings can leave the photo visible in a screenshot or screen recording even when protected playback succeeds. That is why a visible watermark remains essential.
2Why it matters to your studio
A proof is there to help a family choose. On iPhone, iPad, Android and Mac, and on Windows with Chrome, where we verified it, a screenshot of the enlarged proof keeps a black rectangle instead of your photo.
For a studio, that changes what a shared screenshot carries: sent to a relative or posted, it shows the black rectangle, not your photo, and on iPhone, where we tested it, the same goes for a screen recording. We built this protection for your stores: included in every MaplePhoto plan, on for every MaplePhoto store, nothing for you to configure.
The aim is to discourage keeping an unpurchased copy. Protected playback can keep the photo out of a screenshot or screen recording; on Windows, the result also depends on the browser’s settings. Your photo remains your work, to order.
Nothing to configure
The protection is included in every MaplePhoto plan and on for every MaplePhoto store. You configure nothing; your parents install nothing.
Produced and served in Canada
For eligible photos in open stores, protected copies are produced and served from our servers in Canada, in Beauharnois, where your photos are stored.
Stated with its limits
A second phone can still photograph the screen, and not every device has this circuit. We say so to studios, and we keep the watermark.
3The watermark remains essential
Protected playback is offered for eligible views such as the enlarged proof on iPhone, iPad and Android, on a Mac with Safari, Chrome or Edge, and on Windows with Chrome or Edge. Everywhere else, and even there, your watermark is what defends the photo. Never remove it.
The protected photo is a copy of the preview, with any watermark already drawn into it; a second phone photographing the screen captures what it shows: that same preview, with any visible watermark or grid, including a grid displayed over the image in the store. The gallery’s thumbnails and grid, and the preview of a photo placed on a background, stay ordinary images, which only a visible watermark protects. Devices without the circuit and other browsers receive the ordinary preview, capped at 1200 px, with any watermark or grid already drawn into it. And a determined parent will always find a way to keep a mediocre image: the watermark’s job is to make that image say whose photo it is, and make a copy kept without buying it less useful.
The two defences complement each other and never replace one another. Protected playback can keep the photo out of a screenshot; the watermark discourages the reuse of copies that remain visible, including when Windows browser settings remove capture protection. A studio that removed its watermark because “the screenshot is black” would expose its thumbnails, the devices without the circuit and every photographed screen. The sections that follow show what the MaplePhoto watermark can do: keep it.
A second phone
It can photograph the screen, protected or not. That photograph also captures any visible watermark or grid, including a grid displayed over the image in the store.
Thumbnails and the grid
Protected playback is offered for eligible enlarged previews and for the front photo of the welcome page’s fan. The gallery’s thumbnails and grid remain ordinary images, as do previews of photos placed on a background. Ordinary photo thumbnails are capped at 800 px and are watermarked when protection is enabled; background-composited previews retain a separate grid and can reach 1200 px even when shown as thumbnails.
Devices without the circuit
An Android device that cannot play it and other browsers on a computer: they receive the ordinary preview, capped at 1200 px, with any watermark or grid already drawn into it.
4A watermark designed against AI
The AI protection grid protects, by default, the previews that carry no studio watermark, and sits over yours if you ask for it. The Prism style, optional and still experimental, adds colour, varies by photo and places ribbons across the area where the face usually sits in a school portrait; it also adds a rights notice to studio-owned previews large enough to display it.
The AI protection grid (the “Classic grid” style) is on by default on the previews that carry no studio watermark, at the intensity you choose (8% to 30%, 18% recommended); you can also lay it over your logo or text watermark. The Prism style, optional and still experimental, adds a soft field of colour and opaque dashed ribbons across the area where the face usually sits, with a pattern that varies by photo. On studio-owned images whose shorter side measures at least 160 px, it also adds a rights notice woven into the pattern and a copyright band along the bottom of the image. The band is in French and English when no student-information line is drawn; when that line is present, it replaces the English notice and the copyright text remains in French. Rights information is written into the metadata of studio-owned Prism previews and thumbnails; parent uploads receive neither the studio’s notice nor its rights metadata. We say it as it is: no visible watermark stops someone determined. Prism aims to make removal slower, costlier and visibly worse; where its notice is displayed, it can name the rights holder you enter. Its real effect is still to be measured.
Where to find it: Settings → Watermarks
5Your logo, as text or as a mosaic
A text watermark in your words, or your logo repeated over the photo, including as a mosaic around a clear area you configure.
You build a library of watermarks: a text (its wording, size and rotation) or a PNG or WebP image, centred or repeated. The mosaic layout, included in every plan and turned on by our team when you ask, repeats small logos around a clear area you configure and adds a larger main logo; the face stays clear if that layout suits the photo. A default watermark covers your sessions; a session can pick another one.
Where to find it: Settings → Watermarks
6The child’s name, in the proof
A proof that travels can carry the name of the child it was made for: with AI protection active, you choose the fields and we draw them into the pixels of eligible proofs. If you use a studio watermark, also turn on the AI protection layer over it.
Field by field, you decide what appears: first name, last name, group, grade, student number, contract name (session); the home address and the phone ask for one more confirmation. The AI protection layer draws the line into previews and thumbnails, never into the file’s metadata, and only on eligible photos linked to exactly one student. Group photos, parent uploads, shared-code galleries and cut-outs paired with another photo are excluded; an eligible standalone transparent photo can carry the line.
Where to find it: Settings → Watermarks → Student information in the watermark
7Applied to your proofs, kept up to date
When visible protection is enabled, galleries, the cart and eligible e-mail thumbnails use watermarked previews. Change your watermark, and “Apply to all photos” brings your photos up to date.
Ordinary photo previews are capped at 1200 px and their thumbnails at 800 px; when visible protection is enabled, newly generated files carry the selected watermark or grid. Background-composited previews retain a separate platform grid and can be used at up to 1200 px even in thumbnail displays. These visible marks aim to discourage reuse without purchase. In each session, “Apply to all photos” redraws only the children’s photos whose watermark is out of date, with an estimate of the time left while it runs (group photos and derived renders follow their own rules); an automatic repair can catch, as later processing runs, any that were missed, and a stopped update or a failed repair may require another manual attempt. If regeneration changes the watermark or the student information drawn into it, our server stops serving the old e-mail thumbnail link; an image already cached by an e-mail service may still appear. Removing visible watermark protection requires an explicit confirmation, recorded in the audit log. Purchased digital files and prints use the files prepared for the order, without the preview watermark or grid; depending on the product, they may be resized, retouched, cropped or composited with a background.
Where to find it: Session → Store → Watermark
8Signed links that expire, visits that are logged
Gallery preview links signed by our server expire after five minutes, and those issued by the enlarged-preview gateway after sixty seconds; cached previews go through a separate address that checks the parent’s session on every request. Gallery access is recorded in your audit log.
Gallery links are issued after access-code checks and rate limiting; the enlarged-preview gateway also requires the parent’s session and checks access to the photo. A signed image URL can be used without that session until it expires. Edge-cache requests check the parent’s session each time. Group photos bypass that cache, which serves previews and thumbnails, never an original; those copies carry your watermark when protection is enabled. In the store, right-click on a photo, dragging and the phone’s long-press menu are blocked (a brake, not a wall), and the parent reads: “Preview images are watermarked and access is logged.”
Where to find it: Settings → Audit log
9Before you choose a platform, ask these questions
Print the list and tick what your current platform already offers. Here are our answers.
| The question | MaplePhoto | Your current platform |
|---|---|---|
| Do screenshots of the enlarged preview come out black? | Yes: black screenshots verified on iPhone, iPad, Android and Mac (Safari, Chrome or Edge); on iPhone, screen recording, zoom and full screen too. On Windows, protected playback is offered with Chrome or Edge; we verified black screenshots with Chrome. On for every MaplePhoto store. Everywhere, the watermark remains the defence. | |
| Do previews carry a watermark designed against AI tools? | Yes: the AI protection grid is on by default when no studio watermark is selected. You can enable it over your logo and optionally choose the experimental Prism style, whose pattern varies by photo. | |
| Your logo, as text or image, repeated over the photo? | Yes: text or image, centred or repeated; the mosaic too, included and turned on by our team when you ask. | |
| Can the child’s name be drawn into the proof? | Yes, field by field, in the pixels only, on eligible photos linked to one child, when the AI protection layer is active. | |
| Are previews limited in size? | Yes: ordinary photo previews are capped at 1200 px and their thumbnails at 800 px, watermarked when protection is enabled. Background-composited previews retain a separate grid and can reach 1200 px even when shown as thumbnails. | |
| Do preview links expire? | Yes: gallery links signed by our server, five minutes; links from the enlarged-preview gateway, sixty seconds. Cached previews go through an address that checks the parent’s session on every request. | |
| Is gallery access logged? | Yes, and the parent is told so. | |
| Does changing the watermark update existing photos? | Yes: “Apply to all photos” redraws the eligible photos that are out of date. Automatic repair can catch missed updates during later processing; a stopped update or a failed repair may require another manual attempt. Protected copies are made again separately, for the eligible photos of open stores. | |
| Not offered yet | Screenshot detection, blurring when the parent switches tabs. | |
10Answers before you begin
Does it really prevent screenshots?
In our tests on iPhone, iPad, Android and Mac, and on Windows with Chrome, screenshots of the protected enlarged proof kept only a black rectangle; on iPhone, screen recordings did too. Protected playback is also offered with Edge on Windows; it is on for every MaplePhoto store. It does not stop a second phone from photographing the screen, and thumbnails stay images: the watermark remains essential.
Why keep the watermark if the screenshot is black?
Because protected playback covers only eligible views on supported devices, including enlarged previews and the front photo of the welcome page’s fan. Thumbnails, devices without the circuit, other browsers, a Windows browser whose settings remove the capture protection and a screen photographed by a second phone are defended by a visible watermark alone. The protected photo is, in fact, a copy of the preview itself, with any watermark already drawn into it.
Does the parent have to install anything?
No. Nothing to install, no app, no permission: the protected photo shows in the browser, after the blurred thumbnail. When protected playback is unavailable or fails, the parent receives the ordinary preview, capped at 1200 px, with any watermark or grid already drawn into it.
Will it be turned on for my studio?
Yes: it is included in every plan and on for every MaplePhoto store, with nothing for you to configure. Protected copies are prepared for the eligible photos of your store while it is open.
Is the watermark on purchased files?
No. Purchased digital files and prints use the files prepared for the order, without the preview watermark or grid; depending on the product, they may be resized, retouched, cropped or composited with a background. Only previews and thumbnails are protected.
If I change my watermark, do my photos already online follow?
Yes. “Apply to all photos” redraws the eligible photos that are out of date, with an estimate of the time left while it runs. An automatic repair can catch, as later processing runs, any that were missed; a stopped update or a failed repair may require another manual attempt. Protected copies are made again separately, for the eligible photos of open stores. If regeneration changes the watermark or the student information drawn into it, our server stops serving the old e-mail thumbnail link; an image already cached by an e-mail service may still appear.
Can I turn off visible watermark protection on ordinary photo previews?
Yes, after an explicit confirmation; the action is recorded in your studio’s audit log. Existing previews must be regenerated to remove the marks already drawn into them. Previews composited with a background retain a separate platform grid. This does not switch off protected playback, which our team manages separately. We recommend keeping a watermark because protected playback covers only eligible views on supported devices.
Add protection to your proofs.
Join the waitlist. When your account opens, choose your watermark and keep the AI protection grid on: your previews are protected before your first session. Protected playback is included in every MaplePhoto plan and on for every MaplePhoto store, with nothing to configure: it can keep eligible previews out of screenshots on supported devices; on Windows, the result also depends on the browser’s settings.