Watermark Tool: Add Text Watermarks to Photos
Protect your photos and creative work with a customizable text watermark. Choose any text, position (top/bottom/center corners or tiled across the image), font, color, opacity, and rotation. Tile mode repeats the watermark across the entire image so cropping cannot remove it. Runs entirely in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
Drop an image here, or click to choose
Add a text watermark. Nothing leaves your device.
About watermarking
Why watermark?
Watermarks deter casual misuse of your photos and creative work. When someone downloads a watermarked image, the watermark stays attached, making attribution visible and unauthorized commercial use harder. They are most common for portfolio photos, stock images shared as previews, and protected creative content like illustrations and digital art.
Watermark placement strategy
Bottom-right is the classic location: it does not interfere with most subject placements (which tend toward center or upper-third by composition rules) and reads naturally as a signature. Top-left and top-right work for vertical compositions. Center is hard to ignore but obstructs the image. Tile mode is the strongest protection because cropping cannot remove it.
Opacity choice
30 to 60 percent opacity is the sweet spot for most photographs. Lower than 30 percent becomes hard to see; higher than 70 percent becomes visually distracting. For sample/preview images intended to deter unauthorized use, opacity 50 to 70 percent is appropriate. For subtle attribution on personal photos, 20 to 30 percent works well.
Tile mode for stronger protection
A single watermark in a corner is easy to crop out: just cut off that corner. A tile-mode watermark repeats across the entire image, so even after cropping, watermark text remains visible in any remaining region. The trade-off is visual: tile watermarks are harder to ignore in the viewing experience.
Will it stop determined misuse?
No watermark can fully prevent determined removal. AI-based content-aware fill tools (Photoshop's Generative Fill, RunwayML, etc.) can remove most watermarks given enough effort. Watermarks act as a deterrent for casual misuse and a tool for tracking propagation, not as absolute copy protection. For high-value content, combine with DMCA takedown processes and licensing terms.
Font and color choices
Sans-serif fonts (Arial, Helvetica) read most cleanly at watermark sizes. Serif fonts (Georgia) have a classic, editorial feel. Impact gives a strong commercial-photographer signature look. White or light-gray text shows over dark backgrounds; black or dark-gray shows over light backgrounds. The tool defaults to white text which works for most photos.
Rotation for visual interest
Slight rotation (15 to 30 degrees) is harder to remove than horizontal text and adds visual interest, especially in tile mode where the repeating pattern looks more designed. Horizontal text is cleaner but more conventional. The tool supports any rotation from -45 to +45 degrees.
Output format and file size
The tool outputs PNG to preserve any transparent areas in the original. PNG is lossless but produces larger files than JPEG. If file size matters (web upload, email), pass the watermarked PNG through our image compressor to convert to JPEG with your chosen quality level.
Legal weight of a watermark
A watermark with a clear copyright notice (e.g., "© Your Name 2026") is evidence of authorship and intent to claim copyright. It does not create copyright (you have copyright automatically as the creator), but it makes the claim explicit and helps with takedown requests. For commercial work, register your copyright with the relevant authority for the strongest legal protection.
Drop an image, type your watermark text, pick a position and style, and the tool overlays the text on the image using the Canvas API. The watermarked image is rendered as a PNG you can download. Everything runs in your browser; nothing leaves your device.
Top-left, top-right, bottom-left, bottom-right, center, and tile (repeats across the entire image). Bottom-right is the most common for logo and copyright watermarks; tile gives the strongest protection against cropping.
Lower the opacity. 30 to 50 percent opacity is usually enough to be visible without overwhelming the image. White or light gray text with a darker stroke reads well over most photos.
The current tool supports text watermarks only. For a logo watermark, prepare your logo as a small PNG and use an image editor like GIMP or Photoshop to overlay it. We may add logo support in a future update.
Use the "Tile" position, which repeats the watermark across the entire image. Cropping any part still leaves visible watermark text in the remaining area. Tile watermarks are the most resistant to removal.
Determined attackers can remove most watermarks with sufficient effort using AI-based inpainting tools, clone stamp, or Photoshop's healing brush. Watermarks deter casual misuse but cannot prevent dedicated removal. For high-value content, use Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown requests and similar legal tools alongside watermarks.
For typical 1000-1500 px wide photos, 40 to 60 px font size is readable but not overwhelming. The tool auto-scales the default font size based on image width. Adjust manually with the slider for your specific case.
Yes, type whatever you want in the watermark text field. Try "© Your Name 2026" for a copyright notice, "Property of [Company]" for ownership claims, or a contact URL like "yoursite.com" for attribution.
The watermark itself is rendered cleanly. The base image goes through the Canvas API which can introduce slight re-encoding artifacts on JPEG inputs (since the output is PNG). For maximum fidelity, work with PNG source images. For smaller file size, compress the watermarked output using our image compressor.
Yes, the rotation slider runs from -45 to +45 degrees. Slight angle (around 15-30 degrees) is harder to remove than horizontal text and adds visual interest to tile watermarks.
One text watermark per image, in any chosen position (or tiled). For multiple distinct watermarks (e.g., logo plus copyright), run the tool twice on the same image with different settings each time, downloading after each pass.
Yes, slightly. The PNG output is uncompressed compared to a typical JPEG, so a watermarked PNG of a JPEG photo can be 3 to 10 times the original file size. Pass the result through our image compressor to bring it back down for web use.
Yes. The image and watermark text stay in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, no server processing happens, and we keep no log. Your watermarked images are not accessible to anyone except you.