Add Watermark to Image

Why add a watermark

A watermark does two jobs. It tells people who made or owns a photo, and it makes it less attractive for someone to reuse that photo as their own. Which job matters more depends on what the photo is for.

• Portfolio and event photos: a photographer posting wedding or event previews on Facebook or Instagram wants the name visible when the photo is shared, without spoiling the picture. A small signature in a corner is usually enough.
• Product photos for online shops: sellers on Facebook Marketplace, Instagram shops and Daraz-style listings often find their product photos copied by other sellers. A logo or shop name, plus a phone number if you like, makes copied photos send buyers back to you.
• Real estate and rental photos: agents and owners watermark room and land photos so that the same listing cannot easily be reposted by someone else with a different phone number.
• Copies of documents: a scan of a citizenship certificate, passport, PAN card or license sent for KYC or verification can be misused if it leaks. A clear note across it, such as "Only for bank KYC - 2026-10-02", limits what the copy can be used for.

Text, logo or both

Text is the quickest choice and always readable: your name, studio name, shop name or website. Start it with the copyright sign (the Add (c) link inserts it) if you want to show that you claim the rights to the image. Keep it short. "Ramesh Photography" reads better at a small size than a full sentence with a phone number.

A logo looks more professional and is recognized at a glance, but only if the file is suitable. Use a PNG with a transparent background; a JPG logo carries its white or colored rectangle onto every photo. If your logo is a single color, the White and Black options under Logo color turn it into a clean one-color mark that works on any photo. SVG files are also accepted and stay sharp at any size.

Logo + text places the logo on the left and your text beside it, which suits shops that want both the brand mark and a name, page handle or website.

Choosing a placement

The Position tab offers three layouts. Single places one watermark at one of nine points with a margin from the edge. Tiled repeats it across the whole photo in staggered rows at an angle. Diagonal draws one large mark across the center, following the diagonal of each photo, whatever its orientation.

You can also drag the watermark on the preview to move it a little, for example away from a face or a product label. Select the preview and use the arrow keys for small steps, and hold Shift for larger ones. Reset position brings it back to the chosen point.

Size and opacity that work

Size is measured as a percentage of the photo width, so the same setting looks the same on a 1200 pixel phone photo and a 6000 pixel camera photo, and on portrait and landscape shots. For a diagonal watermark the size is a percentage of the diagonal instead.

• Corner text or logo: 15 to 25 percent of the width, opacity 60 to 85 percent.
• Center stamp or diagonal: 40 to 70 percent, opacity 20 to 45 percent. Lower opacity keeps the photo usable while the mark is still obvious.
• Tiled pattern: 15 to 30 percent with an opacity of 15 to 30 percent. Higher values quickly make the photo hard to look at.
• Document copies: 30 to 40 percent, opacity 25 to 35 percent, in a dark or red color so the text survives printing and photocopying.

White text disappears on a white wall or sky, and black text on dark clothing. Turn on Soft shadow or Outline, or add a Box background, and the watermark stays readable on any part of the photo.

Watermarking many photos at once

Add all photos from a shoot or a product range in one go. The same watermark is applied to each one and scaled to its size, so you only set it up once. Before downloading, select each thumbnail in the strip above the preview and check that the mark does not cover something important. Since the position is shared by all photos, choose a corner or a layout that suits the whole set, or download a difficult photo separately after moving the mark.

Download all as ZIP processes the photos one after another at full resolution and collects them in one ZIP file. This keeps memory use low, so a phone can handle a batch of large photos, although it takes longer than on a computer. Your watermark settings, including the text and a small copy of your logo, are remembered in this browser for next time.

Watermarking ID card and document copies safely

Banks, telecom companies, schools and employers regularly ask for copies of citizenship certificates, passports, licenses or PAN cards. A plain copy can be reused for another application or a fake account. A watermark that names the purpose makes misuse much harder.

1. Scan or photograph the document flat and in good light.
2. Type the purpose and the date, for example "Only for bank account KYC - 2026-10-02" or "For job application at ABC Pvt. Ltd. only". The Add date link inserts today's date.
3. Choose the ID copy (repeat) preset. It repeats the text in red across the whole document.
4. Check that the photo, name and number on the document are still readable. The receiving office still needs to verify them.
5. Save as JPG and send only this copy.

Do not cover the whole document so heavily that it becomes unreadable. A copy that cannot be verified is usually rejected, and you will be asked to send a clean one.

File format and quality

Same as original keeps JPG photos as JPG and PNG images as PNG, which is usually right. JPG is the best choice for photos and is accepted everywhere. PNG keeps every pixel and transparent areas, but photo files become several times larger. WEBP is much smaller than JPG at similar quality and suits websites, but some upload forms do not accept it yet.

The default quality of 92 looks the same as the original. Lower it to 80 or 85 if you need smaller files for a website or for sending many photos over messaging apps. The width and height of each photo are never changed.

Saving creates a new image file, so camera details such as the date, phone model and GPS location (EXIF data) are not included. That is usually a benefit when posting photos publicly, but keep your originals if you need that information later.

What a watermark cannot do

No watermark is foolproof. A corner mark can be cropped off in seconds, and editing apps with object removal can erase small or simple watermarks. A tiled or diagonal watermark over the important part of the image is far harder to remove cleanly, which is why it is used for previews and document copies.

A watermark also does not stop anyone from taking a screenshot or photographing the screen. For truly valuable images, share only small, watermarked previews and send the full-resolution files directly to the client after payment.

Common mistakes

• Watermarking the only copy of a photo. Always keep the original files; the watermark cannot be removed from the saved image later.
• Using a JPG logo with a white background, which shows as a white rectangle on every photo.
• Making the watermark so large or strong that buyers or clients cannot see the product or the photo clearly.
• Placing a small mark in the same corner where the photo is likely to be cropped for a square social media post.
• Including a phone number that you later change. A page name or website lasts longer.
• Saving a photo as PNG when it is going to be posted online, which creates a much larger file with no visible benefit.