At Drop Print, we’ve been listening intently to our clients, particularly those in the gallery and fine art sectors. A recurring theme, a significant hurdle, emerged from these conversations: the understandable reluctance to upload high-resolution, often priceless, print-ready image files directly to a standard website server. Security concerns are paramount, and frankly, traditional upload methods often fall short of the assurances needed when dealing with valuable digital assets.
Galleries asked us, “How can we guarantee the security of our artists’ work when preparing it for giclée printing via a web interface?” They pointed out that simply uploading a file to a public-facing website, even with standard protections, felt inadequate. It was a problem without a readily available solution that met their exacting standards.
So, we invented one.
Drop Print’s Revolutionary Encrypted Workflow: Security First
We’re incredibly proud to introduce a workflow within the Drop Print plugin that prioritises security above all else. We knew we needed something robust, something that provided absolute peace of mind. Our goal was to implement security that felt, for want of a better term, beyond military-grade in its approach to protecting your uploaded files.
How did we achieve this? We developed a unique, customised encryption process. When you upload your print-ready file via the Drop Print plugin on your WordPress site:
Immediate Encryption: The file doesn’t just sit on your server waiting. It’s immediately processed using a unique combination of a custom security wrapper and public key encryption. This happens directly on yourserver, using keys specifically linked to your Drop Print account.
Unreadable Locally: The result is an encrypted file container (our .afp format). This file is stored on your web server, but here’s the crucial part: it is completely unreadable and unusable by your own web server. Even if someone were to gain unauthorised access to your website’s file system, even if they copied your encryption key, the print file would be meaningless data.
Decryption Only at Point-of-Print: The only place this file can be decrypted is on the secure, dedicated Drop Print print server. Using the corresponding private key, the file is decoded only moments before it enters the print queue. It is never stored in a decrypted state anywhere else.
A World First, Driven by Client Needs
This secure, end-to-end encrypted workflow wasn’t something we found elsewhere. Our clients told us this level of integrated, automated security for print files within a WordPress/WooCommerce environment simply didn’t exist. Their need became our challenge, and we believe the solution we engineered is a genuine first for managing giclée print-ready files.
We built this because galleries shouldn’t have to compromise between the convenience of online print preparation and the absolute security their valuable artwork demands. With Drop Print, you upload your files safe in the knowledge that they are protected by a unique, robust encryption process from the moment they leave your system until the second they are ready to be printed.
It’s a totally unique, amazingly secure workflow, delivered by the forthcoming Drop Print Plugin. We believe it sets a new standard for handling high-value print files online.