Image Watermark

Add a Watermark to Your Images Online — Free & Private

Adding a watermark to your photos and graphics is the simplest and most effective way to protect your creative work online. Whether you are a photographer selling prints, a designer sharing portfolio work, a content creator posting on social media, or a business protecting product images — a watermark keeps your name or brand visible even when images are downloaded and shared without your permission.

Our free online image watermark tool lets you add both text and logo watermarks to any image, with full control over position, size, opacity, colour, rotation, and tiling. All processing happens entirely in your browser using the Canvas API — your images are never uploaded to any server, stored, or shared. It is completely free with no account, no watermark on your watermark, and no limits on how many images you can process.

How to Add a Watermark to a Photo — Step by Step

1. Upload your image — drag and drop your photo onto the upload area, or click to browse. JPEG, PNG, and WebP are all supported.
2. Choose watermark type — select Text to type your name, brand, or website URL, or select Logo to upload a PNG logo file with a transparent background.
3. Set your text or upload your logo — for text watermarks, type your watermark text and choose the font size. For logo watermarks, upload a PNG with transparency for the cleanest result.
4. Choose position — select from nine preset positions including bottom-right, centre, top-left, and all corners. Or enable the Tile option to repeat the watermark across the entire image for maximum protection.
5. Set opacity — drag the opacity slider to control how visible the watermark is. A setting of 40–70% is typically the best balance between visibility and aesthetics.
6. Adjust size and rotation — scale the watermark larger or smaller, and rotate it to any angle. A slight diagonal rotation is harder to remove with basic editing tools.
7. Preview and download — the preview updates live as you adjust settings. When you are happy with the result, click Download to save the watermarked image. No sign-up, no waiting.

Text Watermark vs Logo Watermark — Which Should You Use?

Both types of watermark serve the same core purpose — protecting your images and keeping your brand visible — but they work better in different situations.

Text Watermarks

• Best for photographers and creators who want to display their name or website URL.
• Quick to set up — just type your text and adjust the size.
• Works well at all image sizes, including small thumbnails.
• Easy to read even at lower opacity settings.
• Use your website URL (e.g. pixelstools.online) for passive marketing — every share becomes a backlink reminder.
• Recommended opacity: 50–70% for photos, 30–50% for product images where the subject should remain fully visible.

Logo Watermarks

• Best for brands and businesses with an established visual identity.
• More professional and visually polished than plain text.
• Use a PNG logo with a transparent background for the cleanest result — no white box around your logo.
• Works especially well at larger sizes on hero images, portfolio shots, and product photography.
• Can double as a brand stamp, making your work instantly recognisable across social media.
• Recommended opacity: 40–60% so the logo does not overpower the image.

Where Should You Place a Watermark?

Watermark placement is a balance between visibility and aesthetics. The goal is to make it hard to crop or remove while not distracting from the image itself. Here are the most common positions and when to use each:

• Bottom-right corner — the most common choice for photographers. Discreet but visible. Easy to spot without drawing attention away from the subject. Can be cropped out on landscape-oriented images, so use with caution on images you are highly protective of.
• Centre — the hardest position to remove without damaging the image. Best used at low opacity (20–40%) so it does not ruin the viewing experience. Ideal for preview images of products or artwork you want to sell.
• Bottom-centre — a good middle ground between bottom-right and centre. Harder to crop than a corner watermark, still relatively unobtrusive.
• Top-left or top-right — useful for social media posts where the bottom is often covered by platform UI elements (captions, like buttons).
• Tiled / repeat pattern — the strongest protection. The watermark is repeated across the entire image at a diagonal angle, making it impossible to remove without destroying the image. Best for high-value photos and artwork you are sharing as previews before sale.

How to Make Your Watermark Harder to Remove

A watermark placed in a corner at full opacity can be cropped out in seconds. If image protection is your priority, use these techniques to make your watermark significantly harder to remove:

• Use the Tile option — a repeating watermark pattern across the whole image cannot be removed by cropping. Even AI-based removal tools struggle with a full-tile watermark.
• Place it over important areas — position the watermark over the main subject of the photo, not just in a corner. Removing it would damage the focal point of the image.
• Add a slight rotation — a diagonal watermark (10–45 degrees) is harder to remove with content-aware fill tools than a perfectly horizontal one.
• Use moderate opacity — a watermark at 100% opacity is easy to mask over. A semi-transparent watermark at 50–60% blends with the image pixels, making AI removal much harder.
• Use a longer text string — a full URL or phrase like "© 2025 yourname.com" is harder to remove cleanly than a short two-letter logo.

Who Should Use an Image Watermark?

• Photographers — protect your work when sharing previews with clients or posting on social media. Add your studio name or website URL so every share drives traffic back to you.
• Digital artists and illustrators — watermark portfolio images before posting on Instagram, Behance, or Dribbble. Buyers can view your work clearly while the watermark prevents uncredited use.
• E-commerce and product sellers — watermark product photography with your brand name or shop URL so competitors cannot steal and reuse your images on their own listings.
• Content creators and bloggers — add your name or channel handle to infographics, tutorial images, and graphics before sharing. Every screenshot or reshare promotes your brand automatically.
• Business owners — protect marketing materials, brochure images, and presentation graphics from being reused by competitors without attribution.
• Stock photo sellers — watermark preview images before uploading to stock platforms so buyers can evaluate the image without downloading a clean copy.

Tips for the Best Watermark Results

• Use a PNG logo with transparency — a logo saved on a white background will add a white rectangle to your image. Always export your logo as a PNG with a transparent background before uploading it as a watermark.
• Match watermark colour to image tone — use a white watermark on dark or colourful images, and a dark or black watermark on light or white backgrounds. A contrasting colour ensures the watermark stays readable.
• Keep the watermark proportional — a watermark that is too large dominates the image and reduces its quality for the viewer. Aim for a watermark that occupies 10–25% of the image width.
• Include your website URL, not just your name — a URL in the watermark gives viewers somewhere to go, passively driving traffic every time the image is reshared.
• Keep your original — always watermark a copy of your image, not the original. Our tool processes a copy in your browser, so your original file is never modified.
• Test at thumbnail size — check that your watermark is still readable when the image is displayed at a small size, such as in a social media feed or search results grid.

Why Use This Free Online Watermark Tool?

• Completely free — no subscription, no credits, no hidden charges. Use it as many times as you need.
• No uploads, fully private — your images are processed in your browser using the Canvas API. Nothing is sent to a server or stored anywhere.
• Text and logo watermarks — both modes supported with full customisation of position, size, opacity, colour, and rotation.
• Tile / repeat mode — cover the entire image with a repeating watermark pattern for the strongest protection against removal.
• Live preview — every setting updates the preview in real time so you can see exactly how the watermark looks before downloading.
• No watermark on your watermark — the downloaded image is clean. We do not add our own branding to your output.
• Works on mobile — the tool runs in any modern browser on desktop, tablet, or mobile without installing any app.
• Supports JPEG, PNG, and WebP — all major image formats accepted as input and output.

Frequently Asked Questions