A watermark is a small mark placed on a photo to show who made it. It is usually a name, a brand, or a website address, written in a corner or across the middle of the image. Its job is simple: when someone sees your photo somewhere else, they can still tell it is yours. Without a mark, a good photo can be copied, reposted, and passed around until nobody remembers the original creator. A watermark does not stop copying completely, but it makes casual theft much less useful, because the copied image still carries your name.
This tool adds a text watermark to any photo in your browser. You choose the photo, type your text, and pick where the mark goes, how big it is, what colour it has, and how transparent it is. The preview updates as you change the settings, and when you are happy, you download the finished image as a PNG file. Nothing is uploaded to a server, so your original photo stays private. That matters for photographers, artists, and small sellers who work with images they do not want to hand to a stranger online.
Position is the first decision, and it is a trade-off. A corner mark is polite: it stays out of the way and keeps the photo looking clean, but it is easy to crop out. A centre mark is much harder to remove, because cropping it out would destroy the photo itself, but it also distracts from the image. For portfolio previews and social media posts, a centre mark at low opacity is a good middle ground. For finished work you sell or deliver to a paying client, use a small corner mark instead, because the client paid for a clean image.
Opacity and size work together. A mark at full opacity in a huge font protects the image strongly, but it also ruins the viewing experience, and viewers will simply scroll past. A mark at around fifty to sixty percent opacity in a medium size is visible enough to read, yet light enough that the photo still shines through. White text works well on dark photos, while black or dark grey text works better on bright photos. If your photo has both dark and bright areas, a white mark with a soft dark shadow reads well almost everywhere.
Think about what text to use. Your name alone proves authorship, but a website address also sends viewers back to you, which is better for business. A short brand name plus a domain, such as a studio name and its website, fits in one line and survives cropping better than a long sentence. Avoid adding phone numbers or email addresses to a public watermark: those invite spam and unwanted contact. Keep the text short, readable, and the same on every photo, so people start to recognise your work at a glance.
Watermarks have honest limits, and you should know them before relying on one. A determined person with editing software can remove almost any watermark, especially a small corner mark, by cloning nearby pixels or cropping the edge. A watermark is a deterrent and a credit line, not a lock. For real legal protection, keep your original files, keep records of when you created the work, and register your copyright where your country offers that option. The watermark supports those steps, but it does not replace them.
A sensible routine is to watermark everything you post publicly, and keep clean originals private. Post watermarked previews on social media and portfolio sites, and deliver clean files only to paying clients or trusted collaborators. Use the same text, position, and opacity every time, so your style becomes part of your brand. That consistency also helps: when a photo appears without permission, a familiar watermark makes the theft obvious to anyone who sees it, and it gives you clear evidence of ownership.