Watermarks | The What, Why and How For Content Protection

Aug 22, 2025

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in Content Creation Help, Creator Basics

This resource is going to break down everything a new Creator needs to know about watermarking. We’re covering what they are, why you must use them, best practices when creating them, and we’re even going to cover how to apply them using programs and tools you might already have!

Watermarking Basics

What is a watermark?

A watermark is a text or graphic logo that is overlaid on all of your photos or videos. They are used to show that you are the original creator. Think of it as a digital signature on every piece of your content.

Why are watermarks so important?

Y’all have all heard me, and every single one of our team members scream about how important watermarks are to have on every single piece of content you ever put out ever. Here is why every content creator should be using a watermark from day one:

Content theft prevention:
- Content theft is real and rampant. If someone screen records or downloads or scrapes your work, and then they repost it, your watermark makes it harder for them to claim it as theirs. It helps reduce the chances of someone saying oh no this is my work. Because it has your literal signature on it.
Brand protection:
- Your watermark is going to help people know who made the content, even if it gets stolen and shared off the platform you put it on. Let’s say somebody scrapes your image and posts it on a scraper site. If someone were to see that image and there is no watermark, they have no idea of where to go or who to find to get more of that content. This is a method of making sure that no matter how far your content is spread without your consent, your name is still the one on it.
DMCA and legal backup:
- If unfortunately you need to file a DMCA takedown notice having visible watermarks helps show proof of ownership. It helps take the situation into more fact of the matter and evidence-based, rather than your word against theirs.
Professionalism and brand recognition:
- Even subtly tying in your branding to your watermark can give you a more polished and serious feel. It tells your fans and your subscribers and your buyers that you value your work, and you know the steps that you should be taking to protect and claim it. Helping show that you are more knowledgeable in the field that you are trying to break into.

Guidelines for Watermark Creation

What to Include

There are specific things your watermark must include to effectively do its job:

Brand name/handle
- The entire point of the watermark is to be able to tell people who created it and where to go to find more. Adding your entire URL is tacky and ineffective, and in many spaces such as many many subreddits, it is unallowed or at minimum frowned upon. That being said you should make sure your stage name, brand name, or handle is absolutely put on that watermark. Give people the direction they need to be able to find you in a subtle way.
Logo/ brand specific graphics:
- Let’s start very clearly by saying this is optional. If all you want is a piece of text that shows your username or brand name or handle, then you’re done! You do not have to go the next step.
- If you do want to further personalize and brand your watermark to help increase that brand recognition, you could absolutely include things like your logo, or a simple graphic that helps represent you and your branding.

Example

The below watermark is one that I have used and do use still quite often. Let’s look at it for a quick example and see if it ticks those few boxes.

As you can see it clearly states my name, which is my brand name my business name and my stage name wrapped into one. Behind that is a small graphic that does help increase the contrast of the writing which is a tied rope. My name ending in the word rope just makes adding that graphic make sense. It is simple, it is on brand, and it’s not overwhelmingly detailed. Speaking of not making it overwhelmingly detailed, let’s look at some of the best practices for designing your watermark.

Design Best Practices

When designing your watermark there are some things that are important to keep in mind. It is important to remember that this is meant to be relatively unobtrusive. It is also important for it to be very clearly visible against all kinds of backgrounds as your images are always going to be a bit different. Here are some best practices to make sure your watermark is always able to be recognized seen and understood no matter what content you are slapping her on:

Keep it simple:
- Overly complex logos or very long handles can be hard to read, fit awkwardly on your image, or just clutter your image and destroy the vibe you were already projecting.
  - Stick with your stage name or your platform handle. If you are using a logo be sure to use a clean and minimal version.
Make it legible at all sizes:
- Most watermarks are often very small once placed on an image and often semi-transparent or in some way spliced over the image or video. Overtly elegant fonts and tiny details will often be lost in the final use of the watermark.
- When creating your watermark test it at all sizes. When you zoom out by a softball field distance can you still see it? If you throw something behind it such as an image or a busy background or something along those lines can you still read it clearly? Test those before relying on your watermark.
Use high contrast:
- Your watermark will be pointless if it just disappears into the background of your image. The best colors for your text are going to be either:
  - White with a black shadow or
  - Black with a white glow outline or shadow.
- If you are placing your text over a logo or a graphic, make so certain that it is clearly visible even through that graphic behind it. If it is just disappearing in then you might want to consider changing the logo or the graphic to better fit, or trying placing a semi-transparent background box behind your text with about 40 to 60% opacity to better increase that contrast.
Keep it simple, but hard to remove:
- A lot of this can absolutely be mitigated and dependent on how you place your watermark, but having a watermark that has multiple different contrasting shades or colors or tones can really help prevent easy removal from your image.
- The entire reason the Rope was added into the watermark above was to make it harder to remove than just the white text.

How to Create a Watermark

Its all in the export!

When you are creating your watermark, regardless of the platform you used to create it, there are certain steps to follow to ensure the watermark is usable.

Initially create the design on a one by one square canvas.
- This just helps me make sure that upon your export there won’t be giant spaces on either side of the watermark, and it will help you ensure that you center it appropriately within the canvas so the export comes out straight.
Speaking of export, you must absolutely make sure you export it with the following:
- Highest available quality
- As a PNG
- With a transparent background.

How to create & export watermark using Canva

I personally created all of my watermarks since the beginning of my business using canva pro. I love canva she is far too much of a large part of my life. With everything creators spicy tea in combination with all the graphics for my content creation business, I know her like the back of my hand so it only made sense to use her to create my watermark. I used the following steps to make it.

Open a 1×1 new design
Set up your watermark exactly how you want it within the canvas.
1. Make sure the watermark is within the correct margin of the canvas so none gets cut off on export.
If you are using any images or graphics, you must make sure you remove the background from them first. The below video will go through how to do that and export.
When exporting make sure you hit those two key points as stated above. A PNG with that transparent background. Watch the video below to get an idea of how to do that.
Once exported it is a good idea to test what you have against multiple different photo and videos with multiple different color and Lighting to get an idea of if this Watermark will work on everything you need it to.

How to Utilize Your New Watermark

Having a new watermark is all fine and dandy and incredibly important. But if you are not overlaying it onto your content, it is just a useless graphic that will sit in your filing system. Here is how to overlay your watermark over top of videos and pictures using multiple different programs.

Watermarkly

This is my go-to for bulk water marking a shitload of photos at once. I hugely suggest this app if you deal with a lot of photo type content. She’s cheap, she’s reliable, and she is lightning fast!

Lightroom

In the case you are already editing using lightroom, might as well stick with it and use it inbuilt watermark feature. It’s a little bit hard to find, but it’s there and it is worth using!

CapCut

If you are already using cap cut to edit your videos, again might as well stick with it. The overlay feature in cap cut is a fantastic tool to watermark your content.

Placing a Watermark Best Practices

Unobtrusive, but hard to get rid of

It is very important when you are creating and placing your watermark you are doing so in ways that makes it genuinely difficult for someone to remove that watermark. Just your watermark on a blank white background is too easy to get rid of. Here are some do’s and don’ts!

DO:
- Place the watermark in a position that will be hard to crop out from the image. Try and get it somewhere mid-frame, or at least near enough and intermingled enough with the focus of the image that cropping that area out would ruin the image.
- Be sure the watermark is overlaid on top of different colors and patterns at the same time. For example, in a place where there is a straight line where two textures or two walls or what have you meet, place it there. That way any attempts at AI removal of the mark will be either thwarted, or very very apparent that it was done.
- Consider having a portion of the watermark over your body. But remember, unobtrusive.
DON’T
- The bottom right corner or the bottom left corner or any corner of the image seems to be the easiest place to put a watermark in most cases. But that’s so easy to crop out. The easiest way to remove a watermark is to just crop it out. So make sure you’re removing that as an option.
- I know you might think placing it against a blank wall or a blank portion of the image or video is a good idea since it will stick out more. But AI removal will be incredibly easy just a quick brush stroke or mouse stroke over the watermark and it’s removed with your most basic editing tools. Make sure the background is broken up behind it and is variable. That way AI removal will be so obvious or even ruin the image entirely.
- Having a portion of the watermark on your body is a good idea because it is incredibly difficult to get rid of it at that point. But remember we can’t have it be this big obnoxious thing that is completely detracting from the images touch your leg or overlap your foot etc, is not that big of a deal and is a good idea.

Final Thoughts

Yes watermarking absolutely feels like just another extra step to take just to get your content posted. But that extra step is an extra layer of protection for you, your brand, and your business. It is a simple process once you know the basic steps and will absolutely turn into just muscle memory and just another part of the process you get used to. Watermarking is beyond essential. Do it for your business and for your own damn self. Don’t make it easier for others to steal your content, profit off your work, or harm others using your image. Watermark your shit. All of it