How to watermark your photos before sharing them online

Photographers, artists, sellers and estate agents watermark images for the same reason: a picture shared online travels, and a name or web address on it shows where it came from. A good watermark does that without spoiling the picture.

What to write

• Your name or business name.
• Your website or social handle, so people who like the picture can find you.
• A copyright line such as “© 2026 Your Name”.
• For listings and proofs, a word such as SAMPLE or PROOF.

Short wording reads best; a full sentence across a photo is distracting.

Watermark a photo step by step

1. Add the picture to Add Watermark to Image.
2. Type the wording.
3. Choose a position — a corner, the centre, or tiled across the whole picture.
4. Set the size and opacity, then download the marked copy. Your original file is untouched.

The text is sized in proportion to the picture's width, so the same settings look right on a small web image and a full-size camera file. A soft shadow behind the text keeps white lettering readable over pale skies and walls. The photo is marked in your browser and is not uploaded.

Choosing a position

• Corner: unobtrusive and professional, but anyone can crop it off in seconds. Good for portfolios where the aim is credit rather than protection.
• Centre: harder to remove, more visible.
• Tiled: repeated across the whole picture. Far harder to crop or paint out, and also hardest to look past — right for proofs and samples you do not want used as they are.

Opacity and colour

Keep the mark faint enough that the picture is still enjoyable. White with the built-in shadow works on most photographs; black suits very pale, bright images. Check the result at the size people will see it — a mark that looks bold on a large screen can vanish on a phone.

What a watermark cannot do

A watermark discourages casual reuse and identifies the source. It is not protection: with an editor and some patience, anyone determined can paint it out, especially a corner mark. If an image must not be used without permission, a visible tiled mark plus a lower-resolution copy is a stronger deterrent than any single mark.

Share a smaller copy

A full-resolution original is the most valuable version of your photo. Online, share a smaller copy — 1,600 to 2,000 pixels on the long side is plenty for screens — made with Compress Image. It loads faster and is much less useful to anyone who wants to print it without asking.

Check the hidden data too

Photos can carry the camera's location, date and serial number. Before posting, check and strip that with the EXIF Viewer and Remover. Many photographers like to keep their copyright details in the file while removing the location; the tool shows exactly what each photo holds so you can decide.