Note: I have migrated away from WordPress for this website, so I am not using this plugin anymore in its published form. I plan to maintain it in case anyone wants to use it, but I may not add any more new features. I do hope to open-source what I’m currently using (which is closely based on this plugin minus the WordPress-specific bits) at some point.

This plugin provides a very lightweight, minimalist, jQuery-based lightbox for displaying full-size versions of the images from galleries on a WordPress site. It also gives some basic copy protection that should prevent relatively unmotivated image thieves by inserting a transparent overlay over the lightbox and all gallery thumbnails. This will prevent people from copying images in your galleries via right-click or drag-and-drop.

It’s not a true preventative measure, in that someone who really wants to download copies of your images will most likely find a different way, but it is a little more secure than linking directly to the full-resolution versions. Image copying is pretty much impossible to fully prevent aside from just not publishing your work in the first place; this plugin’s goal is to strike a good middle ground.

You can install this plugin from the WordPress plugin repository or dive right into the source code on GitHub!