Add Watermark to Image — Batch text and logo watermarking in your browser
Adding a watermark to an image means painting another, semi-transparent layer of text or artwork over the original pixels and then encoding a brand-new file. This tool does the whole job locally in your browser: images are never uploaded, no account is needed, and it keeps working offline. JPG, PNG, WebP, BMP and static GIF files are accepted, and the real format is read from the file header rather than the extension. Drop images onto the page, paste a screenshot with your keyboard shortcut, paste an image URL, or pick several files at once; portrait photos taken on a phone are straightened from their orientation tag first. A watermark can be multi-line text, a PNG logo with an alpha channel, or both merged into a single unit. That unit can be placed once, tiled as a diagonal wallpaper, repeated along a diagonal, or arranged in a single row or column. Font, size, letter spacing, rotation, outline, glow, shadow and opacity are all adjustable, and every dimension is scaled from a 1000-pixel-wide reference so small and large images look consistent. You can also switch the layer order, blend mode and output format, export PNG, JPG, WebP or BMP, pack a batch into a ZIP archive, export a spreadsheet manifest, or copy the image or its encoded text. Side-by-side and sliding split comparison, a checkerboard for transparent areas, and live redraw let you fine-tune the settings before downloading.
Import images
Watermark content
Text and image can be used separately or together. When both are on they are merged into one watermark unit, which is then repeated according to the layout below.
All dimensions use a 1000-pixel-wide image as the reference; expand Text options or Image options to adjust them. They scale with the source width, so proportions look the same on small and large images.
Watermark image
Layout
The same watermark unit is repeated according to the chosen layout, so editing the text or logo updates every instance at once.
PositionLayer and drawing
Above is the usual overlay watermark. Below paints the watermark first and then lays the original back over it semi-transparently, producing a faint background texture that works well for proofs.
Normal is the safest choice. Multiply suits dark text on light backgrounds, screen suits light text on dark ones, and overlay shifts contrast in both directions.
When on, every stamp centre is constrained inside the frame so rotated corners are not cut off. Turn it off if you want a tiled pattern to cover the entire image.
Output settings
Batch and export
Live preview
How to use
- Drop images onto the page, or click to pick several at once. You can also paste a screenshot straight from your clipboard with the keyboard shortcut, or fill in the image URL field if that is all you have. The tool reads the real format from the file header, so a wrong extension does not fool it; animated files contribute only their first frame.
- Write your text under Watermark content, or upload a PNG logo with an alpha channel; tick both and they merge into one watermark unit. Click Text options to expand the font, size, letter spacing, rotation, outline and shadow controls, and Image options to expand the logo size and opacity controls. All dimensions are scaled from a 1000-pixel-wide reference, so the proportions stay the same on small and large images.
- Under Layout choose single, tiled, diagonal, single row or single column, then tune the margins, gaps, row offset and tilt. For a subtler result, switch Layer and drawing to below the image and lower the original image opacity; blend modes such as multiply and screen help the mark sit more naturally against the background.
- Finally click Output options to expand the output settings, pick a format and quality, watch the live preview on the right, and use side-by-side or sliding split comparison to check the strength before downloading. For a batch you can override text, position and format per image, or pack everything into an archive, export a spreadsheet manifest, and copy the image or its encoded text.
Frequently asked questions
Are my watermarked images uploaded to a server?
No. Decoding, drawing and encoding all happen in local memory through the browser canvas API, and the page sends neither the originals nor the results to any server. As long as the page is already open it keeps working offline. Loading from a URL is the only exception: the browser has to fetch that address directly, which is subject to the other server's cross-origin policy. If it fails, save the image locally and drag it in instead.
Why did my uploaded logo turn into a white square?
Most likely the logo is a JPG or a PNG whose background was not properly removed, so the opaque background is painted along with the artwork. Use a transparent PNG with an alpha channel, expand Image options, and turn on the checkerboard in the preview to confirm that the area around the logo really is a grid rather than white. You can also lower the image opacity in the same section, or switch to a blend mode such as multiply or screen under Layer and drawing so the background merges with the photo more naturally.
Will a watermark stop people from stealing my images? Can it be removed?
It should not be treated as technical protection. A visible watermark states ownership, reduces the value of the file for commercial use, and leaves clues when someone crops a corner or blurs it out, but anything painted into the pixels can be removed with retouching tools or resampling. Real source tracing needs an invisible digital watermark, publication records and copyright registration. Place the mark over the subject and important details, tile it diagonally, and do not leave it only in a corner that is easy to crop away.
My transparent background turned black when I exported JPG. How do I get white instead?
Neither JPG nor BMP has an alpha channel, and the canvas composites transparent pixels against black by default. This tool fills the canvas with a background colour of your choice before drawing, pure white by default; change it under Output settings in the transparent-area fill colour. If the source itself has a transparent background, choose PNG or WebP to keep it. When a form only accepts JPG, matching the fill colour to the web page or the printing paper is the safest choice.
My phone photo came out sideways. Is the metadata still there?
It will not be sideways. Cameras often store portrait shots rotated and record the orientation only as a metadata tag; this tool straightens the pixels from that tag before drawing anything. Re-encoding produces a new file, and by default the capture time, GPS position, camera model and serial number are removed, which is safer to share. If you do need them, turn off the metadata removal option and export as JPG: the tool will try to write the original information back and reset the orientation tag so viewers do not rotate the picture a second time. Writing back is not possible for PNG, WebP or BMP outputs, and the page will say so explicitly.
What is it
A watermark is a layer of pixels sitting on top of the image, not a note stored somewhere in the file. The canvas first decodes the original into a grid of pixels, then blends the semi-transparent text or logo into it using alpha compositing, and finally re-encodes the result. A watermarked image is therefore a completely new file: the original capture time, GPS position, camera model and other metadata do not come along unless they are explicitly written back. Watermark strength is set by three things at once: opacity controls how distracting it is, colour contrast decides whether it stays readable on both light and dark backgrounds, and coverage density determines how hard it is to crop away. Lowering opacity alone often makes the mark vanish on pale backgrounds, while diagonal tiling makes it very difficult to dodge. It also helps to distinguish visible from invisible watermarks: the former discourages misuse by being seen, the latter hides data in the low bits of pixels so the eye cannot detect it but a dedicated reader can recover it. They solve different problems. Neither can actually stop someone from taking a screenshot or saving a copy, so a watermark is a way of stating ownership and tracing a source, not encryption.
Origin & history
Watermarks predate photography by more than six centuries. At the end of the thirteenth century, Italian papermakers bent wire into shapes and stitched them onto the mould used to scoop pulp. The slurry settled more thinly over the raised wire, so holding the sheet to the light revealed a translucent pattern. Fabriano is the town most often cited, while some sources date the earliest surviving example to Bologna in 1282. Paper merchants used the mark to identify the mill and banks used it against counterfeiting: the watermark is part of the paper itself, not ink printed on afterwards. The digital era rewrote being part of something as being a layer of pixels. In the 1990s, as image files became trivially easy to copy online, researchers began embedding ownership information directly in the image data. The American company Digimarc was founded in 1995 and reached Photoshop as a plug-in, becoming the best-known commercial attempt at invisible watermarking. Stock agencies took a different route at the same time: they pressed a large, faint, clearly visible mark onto preview images so unlicensed commercial use would be obvious at a glance, and that later became standard on asset sites. The split has never really changed: invisible watermarks serve evidence and tracing, visible ones serve declaration and deterrence. The web-side shift came with HTML5. The canvas API exposed global opacity, blend modes and per-pixel access, so overlaying text no longer required a server-side script, and results could be downloaded directly as PNG, JPG or WebP without handing the photo to anyone. One side effect is often missed: the canvas emits a brand-new file, and the capture records, position and orientation tag do not come along automatically. Modern tools therefore have to do two seemingly backwards things as well: honour the orientation tag while decoding, and write metadata back afterwards when asked. From a bent wire on a papermaking mould to one local redraw inside a browser, the form of the watermark has changed over seven or eight hundred years, but the purpose has stayed the same: let an image that can be copied without limit still say where it came from.
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