It has become increasingly common to find images that have been “stolen” and reposted online without either paying for the licensing rights or attributing its creator. It seems highly unlikely that this is a problem that could ever truly go away. However, watermarking your images is one of the ways that you can actually use to combat the problem, and here’s how you can go about doing that.
There are, of course, many ways to watermark your images, such as through image or photo editing programs. However, if you’d rather not spend money on a program just for watermarking purposes, the steps below will show you several free methods that might be worth checking out.
How To Watermark Your Photos On Windows
For those using Windows and would like a free tool that can watermark your images, FastStone’s Photo Resizer is worth a mention and can be downloaded via the company’s website. To watermark your images using FastStone Photo Resizer:
- Launch the FastStone Photo Resizer app
- Ensure that the Use Advanced Options setting is checked
- Click the Advanced Options button
- Under the watermark tab, select the destination of your watermark file
- You can then make adjustments, such as the opacity of your watermark and its position. Click the OK button when you’re done
- Select the images you want to watermark and click Add
- Click Convert and the watermark should be applied
One of the upsides to using the FastStone Photo Resizer is that not only does this add watermarks to images, but you can also compress and resize images so that they can load faster. This is especially useful for websites where loading time is very important. The app also allows users to batch rename and resize files.
The only downside is that because the watermarking feature is buried in the Advanced Options menu, you might from time to time forget that it is there and might accidentally watermark images you did not intend to. A quick way to disable this would be to uncheck the Use Advanced Options feature.
How To Watermark Your Photos On Mac
Unfortunately, the bulk of watermarking apps on Mac are paid-for apps. As we said, if you’d rather not pay for a watermarking app because you don’t think you’ll use it often enough to justify the cost, not to worry because the Preview app on macOS will actually be able to get the job done, although it will be a very basic form of watermarking.
- Launch the Preview app (press Cmd + Space and type Preview)
- Open the image that you want to watermark
- Click the Show Markup Toolbar to bring up the editing tools
- Click the Text button and a textbox will appear
- Type in your watermark (like your name, brand, or website)
- Click the Text Style button if you’d like to change the font or color
- Drag it around to reposition it according to your liking
- Go to File > Save and you’re done
As we said, this is a very, very basic form of watermarking and admittedly it doesn’t necessarily look the best, but it is a quick and easy way to watermark images on your computer.
How To Watermark Your Photos Using Online Tools
If the methods or apps above aren’t enough to get the job done, there are online tools that you can consider. We will be using Water Marquee as an example in this case, where the online tool has a free version and a Pro version if you don’t mind paying to unlock additional features and functionality.
To watermark your photos using Water Marquee:
- Go to Water Marquee’s website
- Click Select Photos to Watermark
- Choose the photo that you want to watermark and wait for it to be uploaded
- At the editor screen, you can choose to add a text-based watermark or a logo watermark which you will need to upload
- Click Save when you’re done
- Repeat the process above if you have multiple photos that you’d like to watermark
- Once you’re done, click Save to ZIP file and it will download all the watermarked images in a ZIP file to your computer
The version we are using is the free version of Water Marquee. The developer also has a Pro version of its online tool. The main difference is that the Pro version will allow users to upload unlimited photos and there is also no limit on the file size. For photographers working with larger resolutions, this might be a particularly important feature to consider.
The Pro version also gives users access to premium templates if you want something a bit more fancy, and also access to a larger library of fonts. The Pro version costs a one-time fee of $12. The downside to using online tools is that you will need to upload and download photos which can be a bit troublesome, but the fact that it is online means that you will be able to access it anywhere.
Filed in . Read more about Apps, macOS, Windows and Windows 10.