Watermark Studio
Drop text or logos with adaptive opacity, smart tiling, and precise spacing controls.
Branding batch...
Drop photos or ZIPs you need to secure
HEIC, AVIF, RAW, DDS, ICO/CUR, and massive ZIP folders stay local until you start processing.
Watermark queue
- Add assets to preview how your watermark covers each shot before exporting.
Watermark controls
Drop files to see live previews.
Original uploads never leave the temporary queue once branded copies are generated.
Branded files appear here with placement notes and download buttons.
The image watermark tool overlays text on an image to mark ownership, brand it, or prevent casual reuse. Type your watermark text, pick a position (corner, center, or diagonal tile pattern), set the opacity and color, and the tool composites it onto your image. Up to 50 files per batch, 40 MB per file. Source format, color profile, EXIF metadata, and animation timing all pass through unchanged.
What the Watermark Tool Does
Text is rasterized at your chosen font size and color, then composited onto every frame of the source image at the position you specify. The opacity slider controls how visible the watermark is: at 1.0 it is fully opaque, at 0.3 it is a subtle overlay. Color accepts any standard hex value, so you can match a brand color or pick a contrasting white or black that reads well against the photo. The watermark is part of the pixel data of the output file - there is no way to extract or remove it without re-creating the original.
Position Options
- Bottom-right (default for photo credit): the standard photographer position. Visible enough to attribute, easy to ignore when looking at the subject.
- Bottom-left, top-left, top-right: alternatives when the bottom-right corner contains important subject matter or when the layout calls for the watermark on a different side.
- Center: the watermark sits over the middle of the image, typically used for preview/proof images where you want the watermark to be impossible to crop out without cutting up the subject.
- Tiled diagonally: the watermark text repeats across the entire image in a diagonal pattern. The hardest position to remove because there is no clean corner crop that gets rid of the marks. Use this for high-value images where casual cropping should not be enough to strip the watermark.
Margins control the distance from the edge for corner positions; useful for matching the safe-zone of social platforms that may overlay UI elements (Stories, Reels) on the corners.
Opacity, Size, and Color
Three sliders that determine how the watermark looks against the source:
- Opacity (0.05 to 1.0, default 0.45): lower values are more subtle, higher values more aggressive. 0.3 to 0.5 is the sweet spot for portfolio and social images where you want attribution without overwhelming the photo. 0.7 to 1.0 is for proof images and demo files where the watermark is meant to be unmistakable.
- Font size (18 to 160 pixels): at small sizes the watermark reads as a discreet signature; at large sizes it dominates the composition. Match the font size to the image dimensions: 36 to 48 px on a 1200-pixel image, 72 to 96 px on a 3000-pixel image.
- Color: any hex color. White (#ffffff) reads well on most photos; black (#000000) reads well on bright or pastel backgrounds. Brand colors are useful when the watermark doubles as a logo.
When to Watermark
- Portfolio shots on the web: social media posts, blog images, and gallery thumbnails. A subtle bottom-right text watermark provides attribution without dominating the photo.
- Client proofs and previews: before payment, send watermarked versions with the watermark across the center or tiled so the proof cannot be used as the final deliverable. Send the clean version once payment clears.
- Stock photography and marketplace listings: Watermarked previews protect against download-and-use without licensing.
- Product photography for e-commerce: light watermarks discourage competitors from scraping and reusing your shots. Most marketplaces accept a small corner watermark; some (like Amazon) prohibit them, so check the platform rules first.
- Event photography for sharing previews: watermarked previews let event guests pick the shots they want to buy.
What Watermarking Does Not Replace
A watermark deters casual misuse but does not legally enforce copyright on its own. Anyone determined enough can crop, paint over, or rebuild the watermarked area to remove a corner watermark, and modern AI inpainting tools can erase even diagonal tiles with some effort. Real copyright protection comes from registering your work, keeping unwatermarked originals as proof, and being able to demonstrate creation date. Treat the visible watermark as the first line of friction, not the last line of defense.
Pairing With Other Tools
Watermarking is typically the last step in a workflow before publishing. Before applying the watermark, the image resizer brings the image to its final dimensions (so the watermark size makes sense), the image cropper trims to the final composition (so the watermark position relates to the visible subject), and the image converter sets the right format. After watermarking, the image compressor shrinks the file for upload without affecting the visible watermark.
Batch Watermarking and Privacy
Each watermarking operation runs in memory on the server. Files stream to the watermark endpoint, decode into a buffer, get composited with the rendered text overlay, and return as base64 inside the JSON response. Nothing is written to disk, indexed, logged, or cached. The buffer is released as soon as the response is sent. Up to 50 files per batch, 40 MB per file. ZIP archives are unpacked server-side and each entry counts against the same 50-file limit. The same watermark text, position, opacity, size, and color apply to every file in a batch, which is exactly what you want when watermarking a folder of portfolio shots or a set of product photos with consistent branding. Animated GIFs and WEBPs are watermarked frame-by-frame with original timing preserved.
FAQ
For straightforward attribution on social posts and portfolio shots, bottom-right is the standard - visible enough to credit you, easy to ignore when looking at the subject. For client proofs and previews where the watermark must be impossible to crop out, use center or tiled diagonally. Tile is the hardest to remove because there is no clean corner crop that strips all the marks. Use corner positions for everyday use and reserve tile for high-value proofs.
0.3 to 0.5 is the sweet spot for portfolio and social images: the watermark reads as a subtle signature without overpowering the photo. Below 0.3 it can disappear against busy backgrounds; above 0.6 it starts feeling aggressive. For client proofs where you want the watermark to be unmistakable, 0.7 to 1.0 is appropriate. The default value of 0.45 works well as a starting point for most photographic content.
Match the font size to the image dimensions. On a 1200-pixel-wide image, 36 to 48 px reads cleanly as a discreet signature. On a 3000-pixel image, 72 to 96 px is the equivalent. For diagonal tile mode, smaller font sizes (30 to 50 px) work better because the repeated text becomes a pattern rather than competing for attention. The slider accepts 18 to 160 px.
White (#ffffff) is the safe default and reads well on most photographic content, especially when paired with mid-range opacity. Black (#000000) reads better on bright, pastel, or beach-style images where white would disappear into the sky. For brand consistency, use your brand hex color; the watermark doubles as a logo placement. If a single color does not read well across a mixed-content batch, consider adding a thin shadow effect by running two watermark passes (one slightly offset in dark color, one in light) - or just pick the color that reads acceptably on the majority of images.
It will stop casual copying and lazy reuse: anyone who right-clicks and saves your image gets the watermark with it. It does not stop determined removal. A corner watermark can be cropped out, a center watermark can be painted over in Photoshop, and modern AI inpainting tools can erase even diagonal tile patterns with some effort. Watermarking is friction, not a lock. Real copyright protection comes from registering your work and keeping unwatermarked originals as proof of creation date.
Yes. Every frame of the animated GIF (or animated WEBP) is watermarked identically, and the original frame timing and loop count are preserved. The output is an animated GIF or animated WEBP with the watermark visible across the entire loop. This is the typical setup for protecting tutorial GIFs and reaction images.
The watermark tool currently supports text only, not logo image uploads. The text watermark accepts custom color and font size so you can match brand styling, and for many brands the wordmark renders effectively as text. For a real logo-image watermark, the typical workaround is to compose your image in any editor that supports layers, place the logo PNG on top, flatten, and export.
Yes. Up to 50 files per batch, 40 MB per file. The same watermark text, position, opacity, font size, and color apply to every file in the batch, which is exactly what you want for portfolio batches, product photography sets, or client-proof exports. ZIP archives are unpacked server-side and each entry counts against the same 50-file limit. Outputs are returned individually or repackaged into a single download ZIP.
No. Files stream to the watermark endpoint, decode into a memory buffer, get composited with the watermark overlay, and return in the response. Nothing is written to disk, indexed, logged, or cached. The buffer is released as soon as the response is sent. The tool requires no registration and does not track which images you have watermarked.
Free with no registration. No rate limits, no watermarks added to outputs (other than the one you are placing), no premium tier with extra features held back. The same applies to all imgdeal tools, including cropping, resizing, format conversion, and compression.