Watermark images

A watermark does two jobs: it tells people whose picture it is, and it makes the picture less useful to anyone who would pass it off as their own. Which matters more decides the settings. For credit on a portfolio or social post, a small name or web address in a corner is enough. For proofs sent to a client, or previews of images you sell, a mark tiled across the whole picture is much harder to remove.

Size is measured against each photo's average side, so the default of 4% has the same weight on a small phone photo as on a large camera file. Opacity starts at 70%, and around 30 to 50% is usually enough for a tiled mark to show without drowning the picture. Light text colours, like the default white, get a faint shadow so they stay readable on bright skies, and a corner mark sits a small margin in from the edge.

Tiling repeats the mark diagonally across the image in staggered rows, like brickwork, so there's no clean strip to crop around. A logo sits to the left of your text, a little taller than the text, or larger when used on its own. Use a PNG or SVG with a transparent background, as a JPG logo brings its white box with it. The colour setting changes only the text, while opacity applies to the logo too.

No visible watermark is impossible to remove, and one large mark in the centre can spoil the photo for the people you want to see it, so aim for a mark that's clear without being the first thing anyone notices. Keep unwatermarked originals, as the mark becomes part of the pixels once saved. To also record your name and licence inside the file, use the image credits tool afterwards, because watermarking saves a fresh copy without the original metadata.