Add Watermark to Photos

A watermark is a visible name, logo or message placed over a photo to show who made it and to discourage people from reusing it without permission. Our free tool lets you watermark photos in bulk with text or your own logo, placed in any of nine positions or repeated as a tiled pattern across the whole image. You control the opacity, the size relative to each photo, the margin from the edge, the rotation and, for text, the font and colour. A live preview shows exactly how the first photo will look, and every photo is processed in your browser, so originals never leave your device.

How to use the Watermark photos

1. 1 Add your photosDrop up to 50 JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, BMP or AVIF images onto the tool, or choose them from your device. A preview of the first photo appears.
2. 2 Choose text or logoType your watermark text, such as your name or studio, and pick a font and colour. Or switch to Logo and choose a PNG with a transparent background.
3. 3 Place the watermarkClick one of the nine squares to put the watermark in a corner, along an edge or in the centre, or choose Tiled pattern to repeat it across the photo.
4. 4 Adjust size, opacity and marginSet the size as a percentage of the photo width, the opacity, the distance from the edge and the angle. The preview updates as you go.
5. 5 Watermark and downloadChoose the output format and press Watermark. Download each photo or the whole batch as a ZIP file.

What a watermark can and cannot do

A watermark is a deterrent and a signature, not a lock. It makes it obvious who took or owns a photo, it means shared copies still carry your name, and it discourages casual copying for adverts, listings and social posts. For photographers, estate agents, makers and anyone sending proofs to clients, that is often enough to stop most misuse.

It cannot make an image impossible to copy. A small corner watermark can be cropped out in seconds, and determined people can retouch even larger marks. The stronger the protection, the more the watermark gets in the way of the picture, so the right choice depends on the job. A discreet corner mark suits finished work you are happy to have shared with credit. A bold, tiled watermark suits proofs and previews that a client should not use until they have paid.

In the UK, copyright in a photo belongs to its creator automatically, usually the photographer or their employer, whether or not it carries a watermark. Removing a watermark or other rights information to hide an infringement can itself be unlawful. A watermark simply makes your ownership visible and gives people a name to contact for permission.

Text or logo watermark

A text watermark is quick to set up and easy to read. A copyright symbol with your name and year, such as © Jane Smith Photography 2026, or your website address works well. Keep it short: long text has to be drawn smaller to fit, which makes it harder to read and easier to ignore.

A logo watermark looks more polished and reinforces your brand. Use a PNG or WebP file with a transparent background, otherwise a white or coloured rectangle will appear around it. A simple, single-colour version of your logo, in white or black, usually works better than a full-colour version on top of busy photographs. SVG logos can also be used, as long as the file has a width and height set.

Choosing position, size and opacity

All size and margin settings are relative to each photo, so the watermark looks the same on a small landscape image as on a large portrait one. Size is a percentage of the photo's width, and the margin is a percentage of its shorter side. That makes it safe to process a batch with mixed dimensions and orientations in one go.

• Bottom right at 20 to 30 percent size and 50 to 70 percent opacity is a common, unobtrusive signature for finished work.
• Centre at 50 to 80 percent size and 20 to 35 percent opacity covers the subject, making the photo hard to reuse while staying viewable. This suits client proofs.
• A tiled pattern at around 15 to 25 percent size, -30 degrees and low opacity is the hardest to remove and is often used for stock-style previews and sensitive documents.
• White text with a soft shadow stays readable on both light and dark areas of a photo. Pure black or pure white without a shadow can disappear against similar backgrounds.
• Keep a margin of at least 2 to 3 percent so the watermark is not trimmed off by platforms that crop the edges of images.

Fonts that work on every device

The font list uses web-safe families that are installed on almost every computer and phone: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Tahoma, Trebuchet MS, Georgia, Times New Roman, Palatino, Courier New and Impact. Because the watermark is drawn by your browser, it uses the fonts on your device. If a font is missing, the browser falls back to the next one in the list, which is why the preview is worth checking before you process a large batch.

Clean sans-serif fonts such as Arial and Verdana stay readable at small sizes and low opacity. Serif fonts such as Georgia and Palatino suit a classic or premium look, while Impact is very bold and works well for tiled proof marks. Turning on Bold makes thin fonts easier to see on detailed photos.

Colour matters as much as the font. White text suits most photos, especially with the soft shadow turned on, because it reads clearly over skies, faces and darker scenery. Black or a dark brand colour can work on bright, airy images such as product shots on a white background. If a batch mixes very light and very dark photos, check the preview against both kinds, or split the batch and use a different colour for each group.

Output format and quality

By default each photo is saved in its original format, so JPGs stay JPGs and PNGs stay PNGs. You can also convert the whole batch to JPG, PNG or WebP. JPG at a quality of 85 to 92 suits photographs for websites, email and social media. PNG is lossless and keeps transparency but creates large files for photos. WebP gives smaller files than JPG at similar quality and is accepted by most modern websites.

Watermarked files are redrawn by the browser, so EXIF metadata such as camera settings and GPS location is not carried over. That is usually helpful when publishing photos online, but keep your unwatermarked originals safe, both as your master copies and as evidence of ownership if you ever need to show that a photo is yours.

Private, fast and free

Many online watermark services ask you to upload your photos, which means trusting a third party with unpublished work, client images or pictures of people. This tool works differently: photos and your logo are opened, marked and saved entirely in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, stored or added to any account.

Speed depends on your device and the size of the photos. A batch of phone photos usually takes a few seconds; dozens of very high-resolution camera files take longer and use more memory. On older phones, process large shoots in smaller batches. There is no daily limit and no watermark of ours added to your images.

Examples you can copy

Signature (finished work)
  Text, bottom right, size 25%, opacity 60%, margin 3%, white + shadow

Client proof
  Logo or text, centre, size 60%, opacity 30%, angle -30

Preview / stock style
  Text, tiled, size 18%, opacity 20%, spacing 60%, angle -30

© Jane Smith Photography 2026
janesmithphoto.co.uk
PROOF - not for use
@yourhandle

Common mistakes to avoid

Frequently asked questions