Quick answer
To add a watermark to a photo, type short text, place it where it overlaps part of the subject or sits in a clean corner, size it to 3–6% of the image’s shorter side, and set opacity to about 40–70%. A visible watermark discourages casual reuse and credits you, but it can be cropped or edited out.
A watermark does two jobs. It tells anyone who sees the image where it came from, and it makes taking the image without credit a little less convenient. Getting both right is mostly about small decisions: what the text says, where it sits, how big it is, and how see-through it is.
This guide walks through each of those decisions and explains the trade-offs. The examples use the Add text watermark tool, which runs in your browser, so your photos stay on your device.
What a visible watermark does, and what it doesn’t
Be clear about the goal before you start. A visible watermark is a deterrent and a label. It is not a lock.
| A watermark helps with | A watermark can’t prevent |
|---|---|
| Crediting you when an image is shared without context | Someone cropping the corner off the image |
| Making casual copy-and-paste reuse less appealing | Retouching or content-aware tools painting over the text |
| Marking proofs or drafts as not final | Screenshots, which copy the watermark along with everything else |
| Pointing viewers to your site or handle | Determined reuse by someone willing to spend time editing |
So a watermark is not DRM, and it doesn’t technically stop anyone from doing anything. What it changes is effort. A small, faint mark in a corner takes seconds to crop away. A larger mark across the subject takes real work to remove, but also gets in the way of people enjoying the photo. Every watermark sits somewhere on that line, and the right spot depends on why you’re sharing the image.
What should a copyright watermark say?
Shorter is better. Text watermarks are drawn on a single line, so every extra word makes the mark wider and harder to place without covering something important.
- © Your Name is the classic copyright watermark. It credits you and is easy to read at small sizes.
- © 2026 Your Name adds a year. Useful for archives; less useful for images you’ll reuse across several years.
- yourdomain.com or @yourhandle works as a credit and a pointer to where people can find more of your work.
- PROOF or DRAFT marks client previews as not for final use. Here a large, central placement is the point.
The © symbol is part of the text, so you can type or paste it like any other character. The tool’s default watermark text is © Your name, ready to edit. Text can be up to 120 characters, but most good watermarks are under 25.
Where to place a watermark on a photo
Image Edtr offers five positions: top-left, top-right, center, bottom-left, and bottom-right. Corner positions keep a margin from the edges equal to 60% of the text height, so the mark never touches the border.
| Position | Good for | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Bottom-right | Portfolios, social posts, blog images | The most expected spot, and the easiest to crop away |
| Bottom-left / top-left / top-right | Images whose bottom-right corner is busy or important | Equally easy to crop; pick the corner with the plainest background |
| Center | Proofs, previews, stock-style samples | Hard to remove cleanly, but distracts from the photo |
A useful trick for corners: frame or crop the photo so that the subject comes close to the corner you’ve chosen. Then cropping the watermark off also cuts into the subject, which removes the easy option. The crop guide covers composing with a little extra room so you can do this.
How big should a watermark be?
Size in Image Edtr is a percentage of the image’s shorter side, from 2% to 25%. Measuring against the shorter side means a 5% watermark looks proportionally the same on a portrait, a landscape, or a square image.
| Image size | Size 3% | Size 5% | Size 10% |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1080 × 1080 (square post) | 32 px text, 19 px margin | 54 px text, 32 px margin | 108 px text, 65 px margin |
| 1920 × 1080 (landscape) | 32 px text, 19 px margin | 54 px text, 32 px margin | 108 px text, 65 px margin |
| 4000 × 3000 (camera photo) | 90 px text, 54 px margin | 150 px text, 90 px margin | 300 px text, 180 px margin |
For a credit in a corner, 3% to 6% is usually enough to read on a phone without dominating the photo. For a proof watermark in the center, 10% to 20% makes it clearly unmissable. The text never renders smaller than 8 px, so on very small images the lowest settings look the same.
Size the watermark for the image you’ll actually publish. If you plan to shrink a 4000 px photo to 1200 px for the web, a 3% mark becomes about 27 px tall, which is still legible. But if you watermark first and then resize drastically, very thin text can get soft. The cleanest order is resize first, then watermark.
Watermark opacity and color: staying legible
Opacity runs from 5% to 100%. It controls how much of the photo shows through the letters. Lower opacity looks more refined; higher opacity is easier to read and harder to remove.
- 20–40%: subtle. Fine on plain backgrounds, but can vanish on detailed areas.
- 50–70%: a common middle ground for corner credits. The default is 70%.
- 80–100%: solid text. Use for proofs, or when the background is busy.
Legibility depends on contrast between the text and whatever is directly behind it, not on the photo as a whole. The watermark is plain text with no outline or shadow, so color choice matters. White text works over dark or mid-tone areas like foliage, water, or shadow. Over a bright sky or a white wall, white text disappears; switch to a dark color, or move the mark to a darker corner.
Busy texture is harder than any solid color. Gravel, leaves, and crowds break up letter shapes. If your chosen corner is busy, either raise opacity or pick another position. Check the preview at the size people will actually see, which for social media usually means phone-sized.
How to add a watermark to a photo with Image Edtr
Choose an image
Open Add text watermark and select a JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF (first frame), BMP, or AVIF if your browser can decode it.
Enter your text
Replace
© Your namewith your own text. Keep it short so it fits on one line without squeezing.Set position, size, opacity, and color
Pick one of the five positions, then adjust Size, Opacity, and Color. The preview shows the watermark as it will render.
Apply, check, and download
Select Apply watermark, look over the result, choose JPEG, PNG, or WebP, and download.
The watermark is text only. There’s no option to place a logo image, and each photo is processed one at a time.
Common watermark mistakes to avoid
Most watermarks that fail do so for one of a handful of reasons. Each one is quick to check in the preview before you apply.
- Too faint for the background. A 25% white mark that looks fine on a dark test photo can disappear entirely on a bright one. Check every image, not just the first.
- Too big for a credit. A corner mark at 15% competes with the subject and makes the photo feel like an advertisement. Save large sizes for proofs.
- Too much text. A full sentence or a long URL gets squeezed on narrow images and is hard to read at any size. Use a name, handle, or short domain.
- Covering the one important detail. A center mark on a product photo hides exactly what a buyer wants to see. If you need a center mark, raise transparency so the detail still shows through.
- Watermarking the only copy. The tool saves a new file, but it’s easy to lose track. Keep the unmarked original in a separate folder.
- Low-quality export. Heavy JPEG compression blurs small text first. If the letters look smudged, export at a higher quality or as PNG.
A quick final check: view the result on a phone, at the size it will actually appear. If you can read the mark in a second without hunting for it, and it doesn’t pull your eye away from the subject, it’s doing its job.
Can you protect photos online beyond a watermark?
No single step fully protects a photo once it’s public. If people can see an image in their browser, they can save or screenshot it. What you can do is combine a few habits that make careless reuse less attractive and keep the valuable version to yourself.
- Publish smaller versions. A 1200 px image looks good on screen but is far less useful for printing than your full-resolution original.
- Keep the originals private. Share full-size files only with people who have permission to use them.
- Be aware of metadata. Saving through Image Edtr re-encodes the image, which drops the original metadata such as camera details and location. That helps privacy, but it also removes any copyright fields your camera or software added.
- Watermark consistently, so your images are recognizable as yours even when shared out of context.
Because the tool runs locally, watermarking an image online here doesn’t mean sending the unmarked original to a server first. You can read more on the privacy page.
Which format should you save a watermarked photo in?
For photos, JPEG or WebP is usually right: they keep files small for the web. Text edges are sharp, high-contrast detail, so very low JPEG quality can make letters look fuzzy or ringed; keep quality moderate if the watermark is small. PNG keeps the text perfectly crisp and supports transparency, but makes photo files much larger. The compression guide explains how to find a good balance.
Frequently asked questions
Can someone remove my watermark?
Yes, with enough effort. A corner watermark can be cropped off in seconds, and editing tools can paint over text, especially on simple backgrounds. A larger, semi-transparent mark across the subject is much harder to remove cleanly. Treat a watermark as a deterrent and a credit, not as protection that can’t be undone.
What opacity should a watermark be?
For a corner credit, 50–70% is a practical starting point: readable without being heavy. On busy or bright backgrounds you may need 80% or more, or a different color. For proofs, use a higher opacity so the mark can’t be ignored. Always judge it at the size viewers will see.
Do I need a © symbol for my photos to be protected?
In many countries copyright exists automatically when the photo is created, without any notice. A © symbol and your name make ownership obvious to viewers, which is useful even if it isn’t required. Laws vary, so check the rules that apply to you or consult a professional for legal questions.
Can I add a logo as a watermark?
Not with this tool. It places text only, in the system font at a semibold weight. If your brand is mostly a name, typing it as text works well. You can use characters such as ©, ®, or ™, and pick your brand color with the color control.
Why does my watermark text look squashed?
The text is wider than the image allows, so the tool compresses it horizontally to keep it on one line inside the margins. Shorten the text, reduce the size setting, or use a wider image. Squashing happens most often with long phrases on narrow portrait photos.
Can I watermark many photos at once?
The watermark tool works on one image at a time. To keep a set consistent, reuse the same text, position, size, opacity, and color for each photo. If you also need to resize or compress the set, the batch tools can handle those steps before or after watermarking.
Should I resize before or after adding a watermark?
Resize first, then watermark. Since size is measured as a percentage of the shorter side, the watermark will be proportioned correctly for the final image, and the text edges stay sharp. Shrinking a watermarked image a lot can blur thin lettering.
