How to Add a Watermark to Photos and PDFs (and What a Watermark Can't Do)

A watermark is a mark laid over an image or document. People use it for different reasons, and the reason decides how it should look.

The two main choices are where the mark goes and how loud it is. A single position, such as the bottom-right corner, looks tidy but is easy to crop. A tiled pattern repeats the mark in a staggered grid over the whole image, which is much harder to cut out or paint over.

• Opacity: tiled marks around 15 to 25% protect an image without ruining it. Document stamps often sit around 40%.
• Color: white or light text reads best on dark photos, and dark text on bright ones.
• Logos: use a PNG with a transparent background, because a logo on a solid white box looks stuck on.
• Size: big enough to read, small enough that the picture still looks good. Preview at full opacity first, then lower it.
• Angle: a straight mark suits branding. A diagonal angle reads better for status stamps.

The Image Watermark tool handles one photo or a whole batch.

• Open the Image Watermark tool and add your photos.
• Choose a text watermark or upload a logo.
• Pick a position on the 3 by 3 grid, or switch on tiled mode to repeat the mark across the image.
• Set opacity, rotation, size and color while watching the live preview.
• Download the result. Several photos come as one ZIP, and your settings are remembered on this device for next time.

The PDF Watermark tool stamps a mark on every page, or only the pages you choose.

• Open the PDF Watermark tool and drop in your PDF.
• Type your text, for example CONFIDENTIAL, or upload a logo. The default is a diagonal mark at 40% opacity, the classic stamp look.
• Choose the position, and set rotation to 0 for a straight logo if you prefer.
• Switch from All pages to Page range if only some pages need the stamp.
• Download the new PDF. It has the same pages and page size as the original, and it works on scanned PDFs too.

This is the part most guides skip. A watermark is a deterrent and a label. It is not a lock.

Anyone with editing software can try to cover or remove a mark, and tools for that exist. A tiled low-opacity pattern makes it a lot more effort, but it does not make it impossible. A watermark also does not create your copyright. You own the rights to your work whether it is marked or not.

For documents, the same applies. A CONFIDENTIAL stamp tells readers how to treat the file, but it does not stop anyone from copying it. If a document must stay private, control who receives it, protect it with a password and share it through a channel you trust.

For photos, a few sensible habits help alongside the watermark: share a smaller version for previews, keep the original files safe, and keep records of when you created them.

Removing someone else's watermark is not a harmless clean-up. In the United States, section 1202 of the copyright law bars removing or changing copyright management information, which can include the information that identifies a work's owner, when it is done knowing it will help conceal an infringement. Whether a particular mark counts is a question courts decide case by case, and other countries have their own rules. This is general information, not legal advice.

The simple rule is to ask permission or buy a license. If you need an image without a watermark, the owner can send you a clean copy.

These are the ones we see most.

• A mark so big or bold that it hides the photo.
• A mark so faint it does nothing.
• A blocky logo, which means the original logo file is too small. Upload a larger one.
• Long text at a large size that runs off the edge of the page in a corner position.
• Light text on a light photo, or dark text on a dark one.
• Stamping over key numbers in a document so the reader cannot read them.
• Forgetting to switch from All pages to Page range, and stamping pages that did not need it.