How to add a watermark to a photo
A watermark tells people who made a photo, and doing it well takes a few minutes. This guide covers the whole job, from choosing the words to saving a copy that keeps its quality, with steps you can follow in your browser as you read.
Updated · 5 min read
Decide what the watermark is for
Before you open anything, decide what you want the mark to do. The answer changes where it goes and how strong it should be.
- Credit: people should know who made the photo. A small name or logo in a corner does this.
- Deterrence: people should think twice before reusing it. The mark needs to be larger and closer to the subject.
- Proofing: the photo shouldn't be usable until it's paid for. A strong mark repeated across the image does this.
Most photographers want credit on portfolio and social images and proofing on client previews. Pick one goal per set of photos rather than per photo, so the set looks consistent.
Be realistic about what any watermark can do. It won't make a photo impossible to copy, but it makes credit more likely and reuse less tempting, which is what most people need.
Step 1: Open your photo
Open Watermark Ready in a current browser on a computer, tablet or phone, and use Choose photos to pick your photo. JPG, PNG, WebP, AVIF and iPhone HEIC files all open, and portrait photos stay upright.
Your photo is processed in your browser and never uploaded, and the original file is never changed. You're working on a copy, so you can try things and export again if you change your mind.
If you'll mark several photos with the same design, choose them all now. The design applies to every photo in the export, up to 10 at a time on the free plan.
Step 2: Add your text or logo
Use Add text for a name, a website or a © notice, or Add logo for a logo file. Keep text short, ideally one line, because short text can be set larger and clearer, as in © 2026 Alex Morgan, Alex Morgan Photography or alexmorgan.com. For a head start, the Copyright, Social handle and Logo corner templates set up the most common designs.
For a logo, a PNG with a transparent background is best. A JPG on white works as well, because the white is removed automatically. The free plan allows two layers, so you can use a logo and a line of text together.
Step 3: Place it where it works
Use the Position grid to snap the mark to one of nine spots (four corners, four edges or the center), then drag to fine-tune. The margin keeps it a set distance from the edges, so a slight crop or a rounded frame doesn't clip it.
For credit, a bottom corner is the convention. For deterrence, move it toward the subject, where cropping it out would cut into the photo. Keep it off faces, eyes and the main detail, because a mark there spoils the image for everyone, you included.
Set Size so the mark reads on a phone screen without competing with the subject. Size is measured from the photo's shorter edge, so the same setting looks the same on a portrait or a landscape shot. Rotation is there for diagonal marks, but most corner marks look best level.
Step 4: Get the strength right
Opacity sets how much of the photo shows through the mark. For a corner name or logo, start around 60% to 80%. For a larger mark over the middle, 30% to 50% is often enough, because the size does some of the work.
Then make sure it reads against the photo behind it. In the Style panel, a Shadow lifts white text off mixed backgrounds, an Outline keeps letters sharp over busy detail, and a Label puts a soft rounded background behind the words. If you're marking a set, check the brightest and darkest photos in it.
When in doubt, go slightly stronger on images that will be shared widely and slightly lighter on images in your own portfolio. People browsing your portfolio already know whose work it is.
Step 5: Export and check the copy
Select Export and choose the output settings. Keeping the original format is a safe default; choose JPEG for small files to post or send, or PNG if the image has transparent areas. For JPEG and WebP, keep the quality high, around 85% to 92%, for a sensible balance of detail and file size.
Leave the size at Original for print and for clients. For the web, capping the longer edge at 2048 pixels gives a smaller file that still looks sharp on screens and gives copiers less to work with. A single photo downloads on its own; for several, Download ZIP saves them as one file, with names like IMG_1234_watermarked.jpg.
Open the copy and look at it at full size and at phone size. If the mark is hard to read, or too loud, adjust and export again, since your original is untouched. When you're happy, save the design as a preset so the next photo gets the same mark: the free plan keeps three presets, and Pro saves them to your account.
Mistakes to avoid
- A mark so faint or small that it disappears once a social app shrinks the photo.
- A mark so big and solid that it's all anyone sees.
- Plain white text with no effect on a bright photo, where it vanishes.
- Text pressed against the edge, where feed crops and frames cut it off.
- A low-resolution logo stretched until its edges go soft.
- A different design on every photo. One consistent mark is what makes your work recognizable.
- Marking your only copy in an app that overwrites the original. Always keep the clean file.