Add a Text Watermark to a Photo or Document Copy
Stamp words like SAMPLE or FOR KYC ONLY on an image, in a corner, the centre or tiled across it
Drop an image here
JPG, PNG or WebP
About this tool
When you hand over a scanned copy of your Aadhaar, PAN or marksheet for a job application, a rental agreement or a SIM card, writing the purpose and the date across it is the digital version of what people have long done with a pen on a photocopy. It makes the copy awkward to reuse for anything else.
This tool stamps text onto an image. Type the words, choose a corner, the centre or a repeated diagonal pattern, decide how strong the text should look with the opacity slider, click Apply watermark and download. The text is drawn in bold white with a thin dark outline, so it stays readable on a light document scan and on a dark photograph alike, and its size follows the picture's width.
The stamping happens in your browser. The document is never uploaded.
How to add a watermark
- Click or drop the image. JPG, PNG and WebP open.
- Type the text. SAMPLE is prefilled; short text such as FOR ADDRESS PROOF ONLY 12/10/2026 reads best.
- Pick the position: Center, Top left, Top right, Bottom left, Bottom right, or Repeated (tiled).
- Set the opacity between 10% and 100%. It starts at 40%.
- Click Apply watermark. Change any setting and click again to replace the result.
- Download the file, which is named with -watermarked before the extension.
Positions and how the text is drawn
The font size is the image width divided by 18, with a floor of 16 px. A 1240 px wide A4 scan gets 69 px text; a 413 px wide photo gets 23 px. The fill is white at the opacity you set, and the outline is black at half that opacity with a 2 px stroke, which is why the text is legible on both light and dark areas.
In the tiled pattern the horizontal gap between repeats grows with the length of the text and the vertical gap is four font heights, so a long phrase gives a sparser pattern than a single word. SAMPLE at 40% is the preselected combination.
| Position | Where the text sits | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Center | Middle of the picture, centred on the text | One clear stamp on a document copy |
| Top left, Top right | One font height in from the corner, along the top edge | Marking a photo without covering the subject |
| Bottom left, Bottom right | One font height in from the corner, along the bottom edge | Product shots and portfolio images |
| Repeated (tiled) | Rows of the text across the whole image, turned 30 degrees anticlockwise | Document copies where no part should be left unmarked |
Marking document copies for KYC and applications
Write what the copy is for, who it is for and the date, for example FOR SIM VERIFICATION ONLY, XYZ TELECOM, 12/10/2026. Use Repeated (tiled) so the text crosses the whole page and a cropped corner still carries it. An opacity of 30% to 50% keeps the document readable underneath; a tiled stamp at 100% over an Aadhaar number can make the number itself unreadable for the person verifying it.
A watermark only discourages reuse. Someone with an image editor can paint over it. It also does not hide the Aadhaar number; if that is the goal, download the masked Aadhaar from UIDAI, which shows only the last four digits, and watermark that copy.
Do not watermark the photograph or signature you upload to an exam or job application form. Those are meant to be the plain image, and verification staff compare them with the original at the exam centre or during document verification.
Output and limits
A JPG source is saved as JPG at 92% quality. A PNG source stays PNG, transparency included, with the text drawn over the transparent areas as well. A WebP source is saved as JPG. The pixel size of the output is the same as the original, so a 2480 × 3508 px scan comes back at 2480 × 3508 px.
There is no live preview. Apply the watermark and download to see the result, then adjust and apply again if needed. The font, the white fill and the dark outline are fixed; there is no colour picker, no size slider, no free rotation apart from the 30 degree tilt in the tiled pattern, and no option to use a logo image instead of text.
Very long text placed in a corner or the centre can run past the opposite edge on a narrow image, because the size is tied to width and the text is not wrapped. Shorten the phrase or switch to Repeated (tiled).
Frequently asked questions
›How do I watermark an Aadhaar card copy before sending it?
Scan or photograph the card, open the file here, type the purpose, the recipient and the date, pick Repeated (tiled) and an opacity around 40%, apply and download. Send the watermarked file and keep the original scan to yourself. For a copy where the number should also be hidden, use the masked Aadhaar PDF from UIDAI as the starting image instead of the full card.
›Can I change the watermark colour or font?
No. The text is always bold sans-serif, white with a thin black outline, sized at one eighteenth of the image width. That combination stays visible on nearly any background, which is why it is fixed. What you control is the words, the position and the opacity.
›What opacity should I use?
For a document copy that someone has to read, 30% to 50% marks it clearly while the printed details stay legible. For a photo you want to share without it being reused, 60% to 80% in a corner is strong without ruining the picture. Full 100% is for a SAMPLE stamp on a template where nothing underneath needs to be read.
›Why is the watermark text so small on my scan?
The font size is one eighteenth of the image width, so it scales with the picture rather than with your screen. On a wide, high-resolution scan the text can look modest when the page is zoomed out, but it is large in absolute terms, around 69 px on a 1240 px wide page. Switch to Repeated (tiled) if one stamp feels too easy to miss.
›Will the tiled watermark cover the whole image?
Yes. Repeated (tiled) lays the text in rows across the entire picture, rotated 30 degrees anticlockwise, and the rows run past the edges so every region including the corners carries part of the text. The spacing depends on how long your text is, so a single word gives a denser pattern than a sentence.
›Can I remove a watermark with this tool?
No. It only adds text, and it has no erase or restore function. Removing someone else's watermark from an image you do not own is also usually a copyright problem. If you watermarked your own file and want it back, use the original you kept, since the tool never changes the file you opened.
›Does it work on a PNG signature with a transparent background?
It does, and the output stays PNG with the transparency intact. The text is painted over the transparent region too, so the stamp appears wherever the image is later placed. This is useful for sharing a sample signature for a layout, but never send a watermarked signature as the one for an application form.