Add Watermark to Photos Free - Text or Logo, Batch

What a watermark actually protects you from

Be realistic about it: a watermark won't stop a determined thief. AI inpainting tools can erase a corner logo in seconds. What a watermark does well is stop casual reuse, keep your name attached when an image gets reshared without credit, and make a proof or draft obviously not the final product. That covers most real cases: photographers sending client proofs, sellers listing products on Facebook Marketplace or Etsy, renters sending ID copies, and creators posting work that gets screenshotted and reposted.

The strength of a watermark comes down to two choices: where it sits and how much of the image it covers. A small logo in the corner looks professional and is easy to crop out. A tiled mark across the whole image is ugly but very hard to remove cleanly. Pick based on what you're protecting.

How to add a watermark to photos

Choose one image or a whole batch. Pick Text or Logo. For text, type your name, handle or website; a copyright line like "© 2026 Jane Doe Photography" is standard. For a logo, upload a PNG with a transparent background, since a logo on a white box looks like a sticker slapped on. Choose a position, then adjust size, opacity, margin and rotation while watching the preview. Press Watermark all images and download each file, or use Download all (your browser may ask once to allow multiple downloads).

Every size setting is a percentage of each photo's shorter side, not a pixel value. That matters for batches: a mark set to 6 percent looks the same on a 6000-pixel DSLR shot and a 1080-pixel phone screenshot, and landscape and portrait photos get matching marks. Use the Preview menu to check a few images from the batch before you run it.

Settings that work

For portfolio and social posts: bottom right, size 4 to 6 percent, opacity 50 to 70 percent, white text with the soft shadow on. The shadow keeps white text readable over bright skies and dark shadows alike, which matters when the same mark goes on a whole batch.

For client proofs you don't want used before payment: Tile across the image, opacity 20 to 30 percent, rotation around -30 degrees, spacing 100 to 150 percent. Low opacity keeps the photo viewable, while the repeating diagonal grid defeats cropping and makes clean removal tedious.

For ID documents (a driver's license or passport copy for a landlord or employer): tile a line like "For ABC Property Management rental application only, 2026-09", at low opacity so the details stay readable. If the copy leaks, it's traceable and useless for other applications. This is advice straight from identity-theft prevention guides, and it takes ten seconds.

Text or logo?

Text is faster and adapts: change the year, add a client name, done. It uses fonts on your device, so stick with the sans-serif option if you want it to look the same everywhere. A logo reads as more professional and matches your brand, but make sure it's high-resolution. A 200-pixel logo stretched across a 6000-pixel photo turns into a blurry smear. As a rule, the logo file should be at least as wide as the mark will appear in the final image.

Quality and privacy

Your photos never leave your device. The watermark is drawn on a canvas in your browser and the result is saved straight to your downloads. Nothing is uploaded, and there's no hidden mark of ours added anywhere. JPGs stay JPGs at 92 percent quality, and PNG and WebP keep their transparency. Canvas output also drops EXIF metadata, so camera serial numbers and GPS location aren't passed along with the image.

Always keep your unwatermarked originals. A watermark is burned into the pixels and can't be cleanly removed, including by you. If you post to Instagram, crop to the right shape first with the crop tool, then watermark, so the mark doesn't end up cut off by the platform's crop. And if the files are heavy after watermarking, run them through the image compressor before uploading.