README.md

Copy Image Clipboard

Created with ❤️ by Luan Eduardo da Costa | Follow me on Linkedin

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📃 About

This library allows you to copy JPG and PNG images (only) to clipboard easily. Can be used with React, Vue, Angular and other web frameworks.

It uses the new browser Clipboard API and has no external dependencies.

👉 CLICK HERE to see the demo project in your browser.

✅ Installation

Using yarn

yarn add copy-image-clipboard

Using npm

npm i copy-image-clipboard

Downloading The Source Code

1. Download dist/index.browser.js or other file from the dist folder.
2. Put wherever you want 😄.

Abou the dist folder:

• The index.browser.js file is minified to use in browsers and exposes everything from this library in a variable called CopyImageClipboard. Ex: CopyImageClipboard.copyImageToClipboard('...').
• The index.js file uses the ES Modules module format and is not minified.
• The index.common.js file uses the CommonJs module format and is not minified.
• The index.d.ts file contains TypeScript types.

Using From CDN Providers

jsDelivr

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/copy-image-clipboard/dist/index.browser.js"></script>

⚡ Usage

Copy using the image source

👉 <img src="...">

This approach downloads the image using window.fetch, transform to PNG if is JPEG and then copy to clipboard using the image original dimensions.

// Import the copy function
import { copyImageToClipboard } from 'copy-image-clipboard'

// Pass the image src attribute here
copyImageToClipboard('assets/image.png')
  .then(() => {
    console.log('Image Copied')
  })
  .catch((e) => {
    console.log('Error: ', e.message)
  })

// Can be an URL too, but be careful because this may cause CORS errors
copyImageToClipboard(
  'https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81BES%2BtsVvL.png',
)
  .then(() => {
    console.log('Image Copied')
  })
  .catch((e) => {
    console.log('Error: ', e.message)
  })

Copy image rendered in the document

With this approach no HTTP request is necessary, but the image is copied with the image element dimensions in the document. If the image is 1000x1000 but is shown as 300x300, the copied image will be 300x300. Use copyImageToClipboard function to copy the image with its original dimensions.

import {
  getBlobFromImageElement,
  copyBlobToClipboard,
} from 'copy-image-clipboard'

const imageElement = document.getElementById('image')

getBlobFromImageElement(imageElement)
  .then((blob) => {
    return copyBlobToClipboard(blob)
  })
  .then(() => {
    console.log('Blob Copied')
  })
  .catch((e) => {
    console.log('Error: ', e.message)
  })

Check if can copy images to clipboard

Use this function to synchronously check at runtime whether you can copy images to the clipboard. It checks if it can use the Fetch API and the Clipboard API.

import { canCopyImagesToClipboard } from 'copy-image-clipboard'

const canCopy = canCopyImagesToClipboard()

console.log('Can Copy Images To Clipboard:', canCopy)

Check if the permission to write data on clipboard was granted

Warnings:

• Permission to write data to the clipboard is automatically granted to pages when they are in the active tab, so generally you don't need to use this function.
• If the browser has not implemented the Permissions API yet, this function will return false. Check the browser compatibility here: Permissions API Browser Compatibility.

import { requestClipboardWritePermission } from 'copy-image-clipboard'

requestClipboardWritePermission().then((hasPermission) => {
  console.log('Has Permission:', hasPermission)
})

⭐ Demos

• React + TypeScript | View Code - View in Your Browser

🌐 Compatibility

This project uses the asynchronous Clipboard API and Fetch API. Most browsers already support natively these two APIs, but for the old ones like Internet Explorer this library doesn't work and there's nothing you can do about it.

Use the links below to see the browser compatibility:

• Clipboard API - MDN
• Clipboard API - Can I Use
• Fetch - MDN
• Fetch - Can I Use

Enable Clipboard API Features in Firefox

From Version 87: You need to set dom.events.asyncClipboard.clipboardItem preference to true. To change preferences in Firefox, visit about:config.

🛑 Known Limitations

For now you can copy only JPG and PNG images

Other image types are not supported. If you try to copy other type an error will be thrown.

This library only works in pages with HTTPS

This limitation was defined by the browsers due to security risks involved when dealing with the user's clipboard.

You can only copy an image in the user's active tab/document

If the user is navigating in another tab and the copy function is called, an error will be thrown.

🤝 Contribution

Every kind of help is appreciated and this project can be better with your help.

What you can do:

• Take a look at the Projects Tab on GitHub to see some tasks that need to be done.
• Create an issue to suggest an improvement or to describe a bug.
• Read the Contribution Guide to see how to contribute with code.

📘 License

This project is under the MIT LICENSE.