Challenging Project: Please Help

[ForgeInt]

Ok, well, if you like challenges, I've got one for you:

Hello, this is my first post here but I've been a CF developer for about 5 years now. However, I've never tried to tackle something like this. Here's the scenario:
In my free time (when I have some), I've been working on a CCG (Collectible Card Game) and I've decided to launch this as a web-based card game. You can probably see the difficulties already. Users log in to get the cards which they then print out on their own printer and use to play the game off-line. This is what I want to have happen:

User logs into the site to recieve their next "packet" of cards. (they can only get cards once a week)
They get a "packet" of randomly chosen cards.
They then can choose to print these cards.

Simple, right? Here's the catch. The users can only print the cards ONCE and they can only print 1 copy. After they've printed the card, they can't print the file again.

That's the problem. I don't think there is any way I can do this. I can't stop a user from putting 50 in the "copies" field of their print window. Also, I need them to print out at exactly the right size and for some reason, when I use jpg images, they print out too small.

So, I know this may not be a stricly CF related problem but any suggestions any of you have on how you would approch this problem would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Kronin555]

Impossible. There are ways, if you sent the cards as a pdf file, to restrict printing. However, there are hacks around that as well.

Additionally, there's absolutely no way to disable the Print Screen capability, or screen capture software, which would enable users to capture an image of the card and print out that image.

[Mr_Black]

Agreed. Even Federal Reserve people have a problem with printing restrictions...

[ForgeInt]

That's what I was afraid of. I guess if users are going to be that resourceful, I might not try to restrict them. Hhmmm....I'll have to explore other options.

Thanks.

[MikerRoo]

You cam make it very, very hard (but not impossible) to print cards more than once by delivering the images in a custom encrypted format that is used only by a custom program that you will have to write and force the users to download.

This is one step beyond the PDF solution that was already mentioned.

That said, you would have to have EXTREMELY compelling content for your users to put up with such a scheme.

[milkMan21]

Why don't just have these cards in their virtual box or something?

[BKBK]

I know this may not be a stricly CF related problem but any suggestions any of you have on how you would approch this problem would be greatly appreciated.

Use the procedure "User logs into the site to recieve their next "packet" of cards. (they can only get cards once a week). They get a "packet" of randomly chosen cards." to remove any attraction that multiple printing might have. Style sheets could help in setting the right size for printing.