Downloading full-size media from DeviantArt

a.md

For direct image URL, the image quality is much lower than the original upload (the resolution and size of the original upload can be found in the right sidebar). This is not the case few years ago when the original image was accessible through right click, but on 2017, Wix acquired DeviantArt, and has been migrating the images to their own image hosting system from the original DeviantArt system. They linked most of the direct images to a stripped-down version of the original images; hence the bad image quality. Below are the three different formats of direct image URLs I found:

• URL with /v1/fill inside: this means that the image went through Wix's encoding system and is modified to a specific size and quality. In this case, you remove ?token= and its values, add /intermediary in front of /f/ in the URL, and change the image settings right after /v1/fill/ to w_5100,h_5100,bl,q_100. The definitions of the values can be found in Wix's Image Service, but basically, w_5100,h_5100 requests the width and height of the image to be 5100x5100 pixels, bl requires the baseline JPEG version, and q_100 sets the quality to 100% of the original. The reasons to have this dimension are: (1) 5100 pixels is the limit of the system; anything above it will result in 400 Bad Request. (2) according to the Wix's API:

  In case the required image is larger than the original, upscale should be enabled (lg_1) in order for a proportional upscale to be applied. If upscale is not enabled, the returned image will maintain the original size.

  Example: original URL vs modified URL. The original url has a file size of 153 KB and 1024x1280 resolution, while the modified URL has a file size of 2.03 MB and 2190x2738 resolution. The result is still not as good as the original upload (4.2 MB and 2700×3375 resolution), but this is the closest I can get

  UPDATE: for new uploads, this trick no longer works. However, the image quality can still be changed. To do this, you keep everything in the image URL the same and change the part q_\d+,strp to q_100

• URL with /f/ but no /v1/fill inside: this is the original image, so just download it

• URL with https://img\d{2} or https://pre\d{2}: this means that the image went through DeviantArt's system and is modified to a specific size. I could not figure out how to get the original image from these types of links, i.e. find https://orig\d{2} from them, so I just download the image as is

I was gonna request anyone to just create an extension that has the download button enabled as always (even if some artists disabled it for security purposes), but I found this outdated extension from Chrome Strats.
Source: https://chrome-stats.com/d/kdcokocnkphjbaelobcehjokdleflnmj/download
Archive: https://www.4shared.com/folder/IhZnDOdu/DeviantArt_Downloader_OUTDATED.html

If you decode the token from the URL query parameters as a JWT you'll see that wix puts limits on the width and height of the image that you can request there. Here is an example, I used jwt.io to decode...

Sadly if one tries to change the payload (remove the dimensions restrictions for instance) they encounter token validation failed, because the token contains a HMACSHA256 hash of the payload. Their system hashes the supplied payload with their private key and checks whether the hash supplied by the user equals the payload hash. Without knowing the private key, it's infeasible to come up with a valid hash for a modified payload.

Can anyone test if this still works? Curious to know if it's still applicable.

I tested all methods mentioned in the thread for a 2018 deviantart image but nothing worked. As a workaround, you could check if the artist posts their work elsewhere where the image quality is not filtered down. Not at all code related, but figured most people would be interested.

Work

URL with /f/ but no /v1/fill inside: this is the original image, so just download it

It says Unauthorized

It worked. Just Downloaded a 4k Background. Thanks mate!

I dont understand any of this

does not work for newer images ... does work for older images ...

It seems it works for posts made before 2019. For posts after 2019, it says something akin to "storage: object does not exist"

But still, a huge thank you for this. It definitely helped with some of my favorite posts there.

This does still work for older images, but has anyone discovered a way to obtain the original res?

tested on 2018 image and it worked tho my image had /v1/fit instead of /v1/fill in the url but it still worked

https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/d67a4b6d-1f62-4037-bcd8-b135552a7e09/ddb4bvs-bdcc7a72-581d-4813-9289-7144fcff0e8b.jpg/v1/fit/w_1280,h_1058,q_75,strp/com__picnic_and_a_sunset_by_hopelessromantic721-ddb4bvs.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.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.pi5ZRC5db-RY_2QFLqYSRewRhT0O8JMPoQZpyIufobo

Trying to unlock this link to get into a picture.

If anybody knows how to do it, let me know ASAP. Thank you.