How to add a watermark to a photo, from ID copies to product shots
Putting the right words in the right place on an ID copy or a sales photo
A letting agent, a courier service or a new employer has asked for a photo of your passport or driving licence. You have taken it with your phone and are about to send it. Once that picture leaves your hands, you have no idea whose folder or inbox it will sit in. Writing on the copy who it is for and why is the simplest way to make it harder to reuse for anything else. Text stamped across a photo like this is called a watermark.
People who sell handmade goods online use the same trick for a different reason: they do not want their photos turning up in someone else's listing. The two situations call for different settings. Below we take them one at a time, and say plainly what a watermark actually stops and what it cannot.
What is a watermark?
The word comes from papermaking. Hold a banknote up to the light and the faint picture that appears is a watermark, pressed into the paper as it is made. On a digital photo, the equivalent is semi-transparent text printed over the image. In other words, you can still see the picture underneath, but the text is now part of the photo.
That last point matters. A watermark stamped onto a photo is not a separate layer; the colours under the letters are changed for good. Whoever opens the file, in whatever program, sees the text. Your original photo stays on your device without it: the watermarked version is a new copy, with -filigranli added to the end of its name.
What to write on a copy of your ID
A watermark draws its strength from detail, not from a general warning. An ID photo marked only COPY can still be passed off in another application. One marked "For ABC Lettings tenancy check only – 12 Oct 2026" is awkward to present anywhere else: whoever tries is doing something the text itself contradicts, and the person checking it notices.
Detail has a side benefit too. If your copy ever surfaces somewhere you did not expect, the name and date on it tell you who you sent it to, so the source of the leak is plain. France's public employment service, France Travail, advises jobseekers to mark their documents with the recipient's name and the date of sending for exactly this reason. A good watermark therefore says three things:
- Who: the name of the organisation or person
- What for: the application or transaction
- When: the date you sent it
France Travail's advice on marking documents (in French) →
The right settings for an ID
In the Add a Watermark tool, choose Pattern as the position. Pattern repeats your text in slanted rows across the whole photo. A single line in the corner can be removed by anyone who trims a little off the edge of the card; text spread over the entire surface cannot be separated from any part of it. Frame the card closely when you photograph it, or cut away the table around it with Crop Image before sending, so that all of the text lands on the card.
The text is printed as one line, and its size is worked out as a share of the photo's width. With a sentence of forty to fifty characters, Medium will run off the edges in the corner or centre positions; choose Small for the text size. In Pattern, length is no problem, as the rows are spaced to fit the text.
The organisation still needs to read the card. The text is printed in white with a thin dark shadow, and white can look faint on the pale background of most ID cards. The Opacity slider sets how strongly the text shows: the higher the number, the bolder it gets. After saving, open the file and check that the document number, your name and your photo are still legible. If the text makes them unreadable, the copy may be turned down.
If they want a PDF: watermark the photo or the PDF?
When an organisation wants your ID as a PDF there are two routes, and one is weaker than it looks. Tools that watermark a PDF lay the text over the page as an object of its own; the ID image on that page stays untouched underneath. Any program that extracts images from a PDF can pull that picture out without the watermark. A watermark stamped into the photo itself has no such hidden layer.
The safe order is: watermark the photo first, then turn the watermarked photo into a document with JPG to PDF. If you already have a scanned PDF, add the text with the PDF watermark tool and then run the file through the Rasterize a PDF tool as well. It turns every page into one flat image, so the text and the ID beneath it can no longer be pulled apart.
| Watermark on the photo | Watermark on the PDF | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the text sits | Baked into the photo's colours | Laid over the page as its own text object |
| Placement | Corner, centre or a pattern over the whole surface | One line across the middle of the page: diagonal, flat or vertical |
| Colour | White with a thin dark shadow | Grey, red, blue or black |
| Text length | No limit; long text needs Small | Up to 60 characters |
| How many files | Several photos at once | Every page of one document |
If you sell products from photos
On a sales photo the goal is different: the buyer must see the item clearly, yet if the picture is lifted into another listing, it should still show where it came from. A pattern is too much here; it hides the texture and colour of the product and puts buyers off. Your shop name or handle in a corner is usually enough.
The weakness of a corner mark is shown in the diagram below: trim a little off the edge and the text is gone. The way to make that harder is to place the text where cropping it out would also cut into the product; in the tool, that is the Centre position. A middle road: corner on the main photo, centre on the detail shots.
You can stamp the same text on every photo in your shop in one go; the tool processes all the files you select with the same settings. Before listing, also read the photo rules of the platform you sell on: some marketplaces do not accept text or watermarks on the main product image.
What a watermark protects, and what it does not
A watermark is a label, not a lock. Knowing where it helps and where it falls short keeps your expectations right.
- Protects: shows everyone who the copy was given to and why, and makes it harder to use in another application
- Protects: points to the source of a leak, because each recipient got their own wording
- Protects: makes misuse more work; most people do not think it worth the effort
- Does not: hide anything; the name, number and face under the text remain readable
- Does not: stop a determined person; today's editing tools remove a corner mark easily and a pattern with more effort, but they can
- Does not: prevent the file from being opened, printed or forwarded
Frequently asked questions
What is a watermark used for?
It prints semi-transparent text over a photo to show who it belongs to or what it was handed over for. On an ID copy it makes misuse harder; on a product photo it shows the source. It does not hide the picture and it is not a lock like a password.
How do I add a watermark to a photo on my phone?
Open the Add a Watermark page in your phone's browser, tap the box and pick the photo from your gallery, type your text and press the button. The watermarked copy goes to Downloads; there is nothing to install and the photo never leaves your phone.
Will an organisation accept a watermarked ID copy?
As long as the details are readable, it usually causes no trouble. If the text makes the number, name or photo unreadable, the copy may be rejected. Open the file and check it once before sending.
Can I remove the watermark later?
You cannot cleanly undo it on the watermarked copy, because the text is part of the photo's colours. Your original is still on your device without it; make a fresh copy from that for each new recipient.
Does the watermarked photo keep my location data?
No. The tool draws the photo onto a new canvas and saves that, so the location and camera record inside the original does not carry over. To be sure, open the copy in the EXIF viewer and look.
Last updated: October 12, 2026