Want to watermark photos free?
Whether you’d like to download free watermark software, or prefer to watermark online, I’ve got you covered!
Here you’ll find the Ultimate List of websites where you can watermark photos free.
You’ll also discover some graphic design tools to add watermarks, and learn how to use Canva for this purpose.
Let’s go!
Why watermark your photos?
Before we dive into some free watermark software, let’s take a moment to think about why you might want to add a watermark to photos.
The process of watermarking is a bit like an artist signing a painting, but for the digital age.
As the online world develops, photographers, in particular, wanted to make sure their work was credited to them properly.
The easiest way to do this was to ‘sign’ their digital art with a watermark.
This started to become common for lots of other places too. Bloggers would take their own photos and add watermarks so people either didn’t steal them – or at least they kept a credit.
In short, watermarks protect your images from content theft.
Is there a case against watermarking?
However, in recent times, there’s been a bit of a move against watermarking.
Not so much for photographers or digital artists, but for others who take photos and use them in their business.
The main reason for this is social media marketing.
There’s nothing that says watermarked images don’t work on social media. But if the watermark obscures the photo or impacts it by being too obvious, people might not engage with the image in the normal way.
Some people opt to add simple branding such as their website name on a Pinterest Pin. Or their logo in the corner of an Instagram post.
Like lots of things, it is trial and test to see what works for your audience.
How to Watermark Photos FREE!
Here are 15 great sites to choose from!
Each listing first specifies whether you’ll watermark online or download software, then you’ll see the website address.
Each site works a bit differently, so check out a couple. Click on each heading to visit the site.
If you try any, please give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down!
You can vote for your favorites right on the list! And Save this post to Pinterest so you can refer back for more options.
How to create a transparent watermark in Canva
Your favorite design tool or app to add text to photos will work to add a watermark as well.
A couple of my favorite easy-peasy online tools are Snappa and Stencil.
If you’re a Canva user, you can also easily create a transparent watermark to add to images there.
If you import your photo to Canva and create it into the size you require (here we show the Instagram square size), you can add an icon, logo, or even text to it.
Once you have added whatever you want to be the watermark (in this example, we used the quill and books icon), you can use the transparency setting to make it less obvious.
Adjust it until you are happy with how it looks, then download your photo for use.
You can also move the watermark as needed if it works best in different places in different photos.
Plus if you use an icon that can have colors changed, you can alter this so the watermark shows up on different backgrounds.
Easy watermark options
These free tools offer easy ways to watermark your designs and photos.
Plus you can use a graphic design tool like Canva to easily create a custom watermark or add unobtrusive branding.
That way people know an image is yours – but you still get the full benefits of using it online.
Share with your friends and followers so they can learn how to watermark photos free.
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