Image watermark: add text or a logo to photos

What this tool does

It writes your name, a copyright line or a logo onto pictures. Add one picture or up to 50, choose how the mark looks, check the preview, and download the result. One picture comes back as a single file in the same format it went in. Several pictures come back together as one ZIP, so you do not have to save them one at a time.

Everything runs in your browser. The pictures are read and drawn on your device and are never uploaded, so unpublished work, client photos and product shots stay with you.

How to use it

1. Choose pictures, drop them on the page, or paste a copied image. The first one is previewed; click another name to preview it instead.
2. Type the text. Pick the colour, then set the size, opacity and rotation. A shadow helps white text stay readable on bright skies.
3. Choose Repeated to cover the whole picture, or One mark and pick one of nine positions with a distance from the edge.
4. Optionally add a logo. It is placed in front of the text on the same line, and has its own size slider.
5. Press Download. A single picture is saved directly; several are packed into one ZIP.

Repeated or one mark

A single mark in a corner looks tidy, but it is also the easiest to remove: a crop of the corner takes it away. A repeated, rotated mark across the whole picture is much harder to crop out and to paint over, which is why stock photo sites use it. The cost is that it covers the picture, so keep the opacity at 25 to 50 percent. Use a single mark for portfolios and credits, and the repeated one for previews you are sending to a client before they pay.

Size is set as a share of the picture's shorter side, not in pixels. Six percent is about the height of one line of text in a thumbnail, and it is six percent on a phone photo and on a poster alike, so one setting suits a mixed batch. The preview uses the same maths as the saved file.

Formats, quality and metadata

• Same format out. A JPG stays a JPG, a PNG stays a PNG and a WebP stays a WebP. GIF, AVIF and BMP cannot be written by the browser's canvas, so they are saved as PNG. An animated GIF keeps only its first frame.
• JPG and WebP are encoded again at quality 92, which is close to visually lossless but not identical. Keep your originals and use the results for sharing.
• Metadata is removed. The picture is redrawn, so EXIF data such as camera model and GPS position is not carried over, and the orientation is already applied. See the image toolkit if you only want to strip metadata, or to resize and compress first.
• Limits. Up to 50 pictures at once, 40 MB each, and about 50 megapixels per picture. A very large batch takes a while because each picture is decoded, drawn and encoded in turn.

Tips for a watermark that works

• Choose a colour with contrast against most of the picture. White with a shadow suits photographs; dark grey suits pale pictures and documents.
• Rotate repeated marks by about 30 degrees. Straight rows look like a table, and tilted ones look like a stamp.
• Put a logo with a transparent background (PNG) next to your name. A logo on a white box looks pasted on.
• A visible watermark deters casual copying, but it does not prevent it; anyone determined can retouch it out. For proof of ownership, keep your originals with their dates.
• Make the picture smaller before you mark it if it is going on the web: the image crop tool trims and turns pictures first.