How to Add a Watermark to Your Photos. A watermark is an identifying image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light (or when viewed by reflected light, atop a dark background), caused by thickness or density variations in the paper. Watermarks have been used on postage stamps, currency, and other government documents to discourage counterfeiting. There are two main ways of producing watermarks in paper; the dandy roll process, and the more complex cylinder mould process.
Watermarks vary greatly in their visibility; while some are obvious on casual inspection, others require some study to pick out. Various aids have been developed, such as watermark fluid that wets the paper without damaging it.
A watermark is very useful in the examination of paper because it can be used for dating documents and artworks, identifying sizes, mill trademarks and locations, and determining the quality of a sheet of paper.
The word is also used for digital practices that share similarities with physical watermarks. In one case, overprint on computer-printed output may be used to identify output from an unlicensed trial version of a program. In another instance, identifying codes can be encoded as a digital watermark for a music, video, picture, or other file.
The origin of the water part of a watermark can be found back when a watermark was something that only existed in paper. At that time the watermark was created by changing the thickness of the paper and thereby creating a shadow/lightness in the watermarked paper. This was done while the paper was still wet/watery and therefore the mark created by this process is called a watermark.
Watermarks were first introduced in Fabriano, Italy, in 1282.
What Is a Watermark?
A watermark is either text or an image that appears as a transparent marker on your photos. This gives the viewer more information about your photo, but doesn’t distract from the actual image.
An example of a watermark is when you add your name to a photo that you’ve captured on your device. This tells people that this photo belongs to you.
How to Add a Watermark to Your Photos on Windows
There are multiple apps to add a watermark to your photos on Windows. WaterMark is one of these apps, and you can use it to add text and image watermarks to your photos.
You can use this app as follows to watermark your photos on Windows:
- Download and launch the WaterMark app on your Windows PC.
- Click Import Images to add your photo to the app.
- On the right, click the dropdown menu under Configuration, and select the type of watermark you want to add. Select either the text or image option.
- If you choose Text, you can specify your custom text, as well as the formatting options.
- If you choose Image, you can add a custom image as a watermark to your photos. In this case, click the Choose Watermark button to select your watermark image.
- Adjust the Scale and Opacity levels for the watermark.
- Select a position for the watermark.
- Click Output Folder, and choose a folder to save your watermarked photo.
- Finally, hit Render to add the watermark to your photo.
Your watermarked image should be available in your selected folder.
How to Add a Watermark to Your Photos on macOS
Depending on what kind of watermark you want to add, you need to use either a built-in app or a third-party app to add a watermark to your photo on a Mac.
Adding a text watermark is easy, and you can do it using a built-in app. However, if you want to add an image watermark, you need to use a free app from the App Store.
Here, we’ll outline both methods.
Add a Text Watermark to Your Photos on macOS
- Open your photo with Preview on your Mac.
- Click the View > Show Markup Toolbar option.
- Click the T icon to add text to your photo.
- Type the text that you want to add as a watermark.
- Use the A icon menu at the top to change the formatting of your text watermark.
- Move and place the watermark wherever you want it to appear on your photo.
- Click File > Save to save your watermarked photo.
Add an Image Watermark to Your Photos on macOS
- Download and open the free Resize Master app on your Mac.
- Select Do not resize from the Resize dropdown menu.
- Tick the Copy metadata option.
- Choose the position of the watermark from the Watermark dropdown menu.
- Click the three dots next to the Watermark dropdown, and select the image you want to use for your watermark.
- Select the output format for your photo from the Format menu.
- Drag your photo that you want to add the watermark to onto the app window.
- Navigate to where you want to save the watermarked photo, and hit Start processing.
How to Add a Watermark to Your Photos on iOS
iOS users enjoy several apps to add a watermark to their photos. While some of these apps come with in-app purchases, most of them offer the watermark feature for free.
Here’s how you use one of these apps to watermark photos on an iPhone or iPad:
- Install the eZy Watermark Photos Lite (free, in-app purchases available) app on your device.
- Open the app and tap Single Image.
- Select the source of your photo, and then choose the actual photo you want to watermark.
- Tap the option where your watermark is located. You have multiple watermark sources to choose from.
- Adjust the watermark on your photo.
- Tap the checkmark icon in the bottom-right, and then tap Library on the following screen.
- Your watermarked photo is saved in the Photos app.
How to Add a Watermark to Your Photos on Android
Android also has many apps to let you add a watermark to your photos. Many of these apps might demand an in-app purchase, but that’s usually to unlock other features in the app and not to add a watermark.
Here we show how you use one of these free apps to watermark photos on Android:
- Install the Add Watermark on Photos (free, in-app purchases available) app from the Play Store.
- Launch the app, and tap Apply on Images.
- Select the photo you want to add a watermark to and tap Done.
- Tap Create Watermark to add a text watermark, or tap Select from Gallery to add an image as a watermark. We’ll select the text option.
- Type the text you want to use as a watermark.
- Drag the watermark and place it where you want it to be.
- Tap the Checkmark icon followed by the Save icon.
Your watermarked photo should now be saved in your Gallery app.
How to Add a Watermark to Your Photos Online
If you don’t want to install an app, or you’re only looking to watermark one or a few photos, you can use one of the many available websites to watermark your photos.
These sites don’t require you to install anything on your computer; they just run off of your web browsers.
Here’s how you use one of these sites for watermarking photos:
- Head to the Watermark.ws website using your browser.
- Click Get Started to start using this online tool.
- Select a source for your photo, and upload the photo to the website.
- Hover over your photo on the site and click Edit.
- On the editing screen, click Watermark at the bottom, and choose either Text or Logo.
- Add the watermark to your photo and then click Finish.
- Download the finished file to your computer.